Hustings Question Time went pretty well tonight. Some interesting questions, a pretty good turn out relative to Tuesday, and some good debates made for a really interesting 3 1/2 hours. The Comms questioning lasted for a bit over an hour, and I think it went pretty well. I recieved so many compliments afterwards - that meant a lot to me.

I can't believe we only have a week left of the elections - I really don't want it all to end. This is so different to anything I have experienced before at University, and I know that after next Friday, I'll never have it back again. I am going to no lectures, getting no sleep, but it is worth every second of it. I have some amazing people around me, and I'm really really grateful for everything.

And now, for the first time in several weeks, I am going to try to get some sleep. I've been getting to bed pretty consistently at bout 4am recently, so I think it's time for a few more hours' kip now, before a busy day of doing laundry, elections stuff, shopping and.... DRAG AND FETISH NIGHT! :)

Today was good fun, on the whole. We were all up pretty early this morning (relative to the time sleep arrived) to have coffee with the Vice Chancellor at 10.30am, after the candidates' photo was taken, albeit with only 9 of us. Coffee was good fun, but it's pretty daunting to think that in 2 weeks the 10 of us will be down to only 5 at the VC's dinner for elected sabbatical officers. Only time will tell who those 5 will be. Despite the few minor blibs I have had, I am loving life at the moment. This is the reason I am here at University, and I wouldn't change it for the world.

I went out tonight, surprise surprise, and it was another good night. I have spent loads of time with Chris W recently, and he's given me a lot of support. It was John's birthday so he was also out, and I spent most of the night with those two, who seemed to get on really well too. I also danced on stage with my self confessed 'biggest fan' Nathan, who is really cool. I have met so many new people through elections, and have become good friends with a few... I wouldn't be missing this experience for the world... :)

Tonight was Question Time for the candidates for VP Societies & Culture (Chris) and VP Sports (Chops, Nat & Stack) as well as a debate on the pros and cons of reaffiliating to NUS. It really interesting, I asked a couple of questions and it was good to see how the whole thing is working this year, before mine on Thursday. The majority of the sabb candidates were there to support their colleagues, which was good. On the whole the group are getting on pretty well, with only a few unfortunate blips.

More and more posters are appearing around campus, and I'm still waiting for my opposition to come up with some original ideas when it comes to postering locations! Ah well, I suppose imitation is the best form of flattery...

Tomorrow morning all the candidates are having a coffee morning with the Vice Chancellor, which should be quite fun. I'm really loving spending so much time with a pretty cool group of people. This is the fifth year I have seen the elections happening (I visited during elections week in 1999) and I sometimes can't quite believe I am actually here doing it. I have wanted to stand in the sabbatical elections, ever since my first year, and here I am, actually doing it. It's an amazing feeling, and much as these 2 weeks are proving tiring and stressful, I really don't want it to end.

Last night out at the Union was amazing. Pete and I went out dressed up in school uniform to promote the elections and our campaigns and I think we looked really groovy... well, different, at least! It was £9 all you can drink and I was steadily getting through metz bottles with Chris (literature editor of barefacts) whilst dancing with him, Pete, Mental, Chops, Scott and loads of others. I met several of Chris' friends and they were all really great. There was one guy called Simon who told me he'd do anything for me over the next few weeks, which was really sweet of him. I won't be forgetting that offer! :)

Today has been spent replying to questions on the BB, putting posters up in the union, confirming my belief that originality is one of the most important things when campaigning, and going to student council. It's question time tonight for sports and societies, and i'm really looking forward to that. It's mine on Thursday evening, which should be exciting.

Anyhow, I'm a busy bunny, so going to get back to some good clean campaigning! :D There's a few of my photos up HERE from the poster/banner race on saturday morning if you want to see them. They'll all be up on www.icklesarah.co.uk soon.

Campus now looks like a kind of funny rainbow... one that has a bit more blue than anything else! Pete, Paul, Chops & Nat have all chosen blue for most of their posters so there's a lot of it around! Manifestos were handed in this morning at 10am, so there was a kind of impromptu meeting of most of the candidates in the activities centre, all busily beavering away trying to answer questions on the BB. I've got some barefacts articles to write this afternoon, then the editorial meeting, Union exec and societies standing - no rest for the wicked. Lectures really are taking a backseat at the moment, but I think that i to be expected with most of the candidates.

But overall.... it's good fun! Today is the start of what will probably be the craziest 2 weeks of my 4 years at Surrey...

And so it all begins. 8am this morning saw the start of campaigning for the University of Surrey Students' Union sabbatical elections 2003, and I am standing for VP Communications and Marketing (if you hadn't already guessed from the slight change to my homepage)! This morning was amazing - up at 7am, and postering and bannering around campus by 8am on the dot. I was really chuffed at the number of people who turned up at some unearthly hour to help me: Adam, Neil, Ian, Pete, Dan, Mark & Helen - you were amazing!

Campus is looking really quite groovy and colourful, with posters in almost every conceivable spot. It was quite impressive to see some of the locations the candidates had reached. At one point Adam and Neil tried to 'borrow' a ladder we found on the Hall roof, but thought better of it when security came round the corner! We had a tiring, though really fun morning, and things are only just beginning.

But overall, it's quite a relief to be able to say VOTE SARAH BUTTERWORTH FOR COMMS AND MARKETING in public now - here's to the best 2 weeks of the year!

I arrived home from the MaD Soc drama review in the Union this evening to find a notice on our front door informing us that the water supply for the whole of Battersea Court has been found to be infected with the Legionella Virus, which can cause some rather nasty illnesses.

Subsequently, they are flushing the entire plumbing system with chlorine tomorrow at 8am, but we won't be able to have a shower for THREE DAYS! We've lived with ants everywhere since September, and now this! Should we ask for a rent reimbursement, for the lack of showers and stink in the corridors? It's a really horrible state to live in...

Life's going crazy. I can barely keep up with everything that is going on around me right now, and I am starting to feel really quite tired out by it all. But... this is what University is all about, and however much I moan about being knackered and rushed off my feet, I wouldn't be anywhere else. A lot of people have been really great to me over the last couple of weeks, and filled me with a lot of confidence - thanks everyone, you're amazing!

Right, off to work.... or maybe to watch another Friends episode...!

Pure comedy - apparently someone found my website after this search in google! :)

http://www.google.com/search?q=sarah%20fetish&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=30&sa=N

I had a really fun time at OFU this evening (oscar film unit) - we were filming a trailer to be shown in Arts and Culture week (next week) where Ras and I were gangsters and Paul and Scoot were robbers, and it was really quite groovy. It's my first time properly working with cameras, (kinda) acting etc, and I love it. OFU's really great.

I've decided not to go out to the Union tonight (shock horror!) as I'm still not quite recovered, and need to stay in and think things through. I have a crazy three weeks ahead of me, and any rest I can snatch will be welcome.

That and the fact i have to get up a wee bit earlier than normal tomorrow to get some more violin done...

We've had a flood! Morgan (barefacts' esteemed lifestyle editor) decided to take a bath up on Rawson 3, and suddenly.... Rawson 2's bathroom was full of water, rapidly moving into the corridor. Quite exciting stuff really - well, it got Chris, Jeremy, Michelle, Neil and me out of our rooms, so that's very exciting by Rawson 2 standards.

I'm still ill. Bloody stomach bug's come at totally the wrong time (although is there ever a right time to be ill at uni?) - just when I need to do work, practice, compose and sort out a million and one other things... I can't! I hate feeling like this. I've lost quite a bit of weight since Friday due to lack of eating (or inclination to eat) which isn't good either. Seems at least 15 musos and tonnies are down with this thing. Not good at all.

Ah well, i've got loads of stuff to do this week, and an exciting day on Friday, so i've got to be back to my normal self soon... go go sarah....

I'm ill :( Went to the music department annual ball/party on Friday and have spent all weekend laid up in bed (or the toilet) feeling iller than I have in a long time. And coincidentally at least 15 other members of the music department are also ill - i feel a complaint to the holiday inn coming on. It's pretty bad timing - was planning on spending the weekend completing (and starting) my prog rock coursework, since I have very little time this week.

I think I might go back to bed. I'm taking the barefacts editorial meeting this afternoon at 4, then have another meeting at 6, but right now, all I want to do is... nothing. Being ill is poo. :(

It's a bizarre thing, being involved with barefacts - as Rich said today, your brain gets really confused as to which week of semester it is, because we're always looking to the next week's issue, and beyond. It's only week 3, yet here we are planning what's going in the week 4 paper, which is actually about a lot of events in week 5. Confuddling. It's the end of another week - and tonight is the music department not the christmas party at the Holiday Inn in Guildford. I'm looking forward to it a little more now, since i've thought about how many of my friends are going to be there. It should be good. Neil and I are going with our respective other halves, both non musos, so I hope thy're not too overwhelmed by it all!

I need to get some work done. This crazy thing called the final year is quite a scary thing. I am involved with so many other things that my degree is in a way falling into the background... i've got to get 2 essays done in the next couple of weeks and I don't have the first clue where to start with them. Oh the joys of studying music.

Wednesday night out was crazy - it's RAG week here now, and I was involved with the waxing of Chops' chops on stage in the Union. I had to put the wax on, then other people pulled the strips off - it was painful for me to see that pain being inflicted on Chops, but as he says, it's all for a good cause. Beforehand Pete and I were more worried than him (we were in charge of waxing, and wiping off wax/soothing him) but it all turned out alright in the end. I'm missing the waxing of the other chop tonight - only the 2nd union night i've missed since the start of semester - i'm crazy.

Anyhow, off to consider being a weeny bit girlie and getting ready for tonight - and it's only 3.15pm! :)

Time is going so quickly... that seems to be theme of my life at the moment. The days are shooting by, and it's kinda hard to comprehend that I only have 7 weeks left of lectures for my degree EVER. It's really quite scary, and brings you back to earth a bit.

I've just tidied my room. John's coming over for lunch and I texted him saying "I'm warning you, my room looks like a building site" to which he replied "as opposed to normal??? ;op" so i've decided to prove him wrong and tidy it up! Granted, it's not perfect... I still have quite a few random bits of paper ext in a pile under my keyboard, but it's faaar better than it was before. I'm hungry. Come on John!

This afternoon I might venture back to drama workshops. It's a long and complicated story as to why i didn't go last term, but I'm going to see whether I can sort things out and return this week. We shall have to see. After that i have to do some violin practice, go to OFU and then i'm meeting up with some friends for a drink and then on to the Union. And somewhere in the next few days I am going to have to fit in doing my prog rock coursework. God knows when... cos I certainly don't.

Phew.... another Union night done and dusted, as well as a busy day today at a Radio Academy masterclass and then hanging around and GU2 and chatting to Jay whilst he was doing his show. Last night I went on the J Team pub crawl with the others and it was pretty groovy, though I wasn't drinking so not quite as much participating in crazy antics for me. The funniest part was when Pete and Mental ran into a launderette and started doing a formation dance in the window. There was absolutely noone else in there, apart from the attendant, who was looking a little worried! We went to about 6 pubs (leaving lots of free 2nd hand books in the Hog's Head... don't ask...

Afterwards we headed to the Union where N-Trance were playing (and Pete and I enjoyed our first taste of getting into the Union free as exec members). I sat, wandered and danced mainly with Pete, Mental, BobGod, Scoot, Jay, Chops and others.... although Chops still won't dance - we have promised that one day we will make him! It's fun, honest! ;) Again, I had a great night out.... roll on Monday (and i'll just try not to think about all that work I should be doing....)

Today I went to a group of talks at a radio masterclass with the GU2 gang, which was pretty interesting, and then we all went back to the GU2 studios and I sat around chatting to Jay for quite a while whilst he did his show. It was really interesting... and Ian won a competition! Him and Adam have been trying for ages... Adam's now won 3 and Ian 2. The GU2 people are groovy - I've had some great days and nights out with them over the past couple of weeks. And I am now an official best mate.... nice!

Anyway, after succumbing to the evils (or pleasures) of pizzaman I really should get on with some work now. I have a busy few weeks coming up and I really have got to get some work done now...