Well, as you can see from the image opposite, it's that time of year again - Elections 2004 are upon us! It's a bit of a strange thought.... in fact it's very strange to think that in little over a month there will be a new VP Comms Elect. But it's pretty exciting. I'm trying to encourage as many people as possible to stand for my job - it's blatantly the most interesting of all the sabb roles! ;) (actually, I'm serious). We've got a new elections site up here which gives you all the info, and you can download a nomination pack or pick one up from the Union right now. It's an amazing opportunity, something you'll never have the chance to do again in your life, so why not think about it?

And if you fancy being the next VP Communications then just pop into the Media Centre for a chat - i'm here to answer all your questions! Good Luck!

I ordered a couple of albums on play.com the other day - the soundtrack to The Last Samurai and Delta Goodrem's album, Innocent Eyes. I'm listening to that at the moment at work, and it's really good. The title song is very very catchy - I just couldn't get it out of my head when I was trying to fall asleep last night.

Only a couple of days left until the students return. I'm going to try really hard this semester to get barefacts done before the middle of the night every Tuesday. We should be doing a magazine to come out after Easter so if that plan goes through there will only be 9 more issues of barefacts for me EVER. Maybe we'll do one right at the end of the year in May, but it's all up in the air at the moment.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about next year, jobs, houses etc. Ben and I are planning on buying a house together, sooner rather than later - the deposit on a £100k house would be about £5k, less than we'd pay for a year's rent, so it really does make sense to get on the property ladder asap as opposed to lining someone elses pocket for a few years. However, house prices in Guildford are so horifically expensive, so I really don't think we can afford to stay around here. One option we've thought about is moving to the Isle of Wight, where it's relatively cheap as well as being a very nice place to live. I'm coming round to the idea more and more....

Only a few days until the students return now. It's a strange feeling, being in the Union with no students and quite a few members of staff missing (Chris and Chops are away skiing and Claire, lucky thing, is in New York)! It's hard to motivate yourself when there's very few people around, but i'm trying my best.

Last Thursday everyone in the Union, plus partners, went on a trip to London for a yummy meal in a posh restaurant, and to see We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre. It was really good fun, and taking me to a show is always a good plan - I loved it. There wasn't a huge storyline, but it was more of a spectacle, with amazing dancing and huge screens displaying all sorts of things throughout the show. Pretty damn cool - I recommend it.

Ben and I are really starting to think about next year at the moment. We need to both find jobs as well as somewhere to live by the end of July.... not a huge amount of time! I really wish I could get something sorted now, but as I don't want to work for some huge company, I can only really go applying in May sort of time. I'm not exactly sure what sort of thing I want to do, but I would like to stay within the education sector, working in either a Students' Union, or University. I'd love to stay in Guildford, at least for a few years, so I'm scouring the University 'job opportunities' pages every so often. It's either Academic stuff (which unfortunately a BMus (Hons) doesn't quite qualify me for) or manual type stuff paying £10K, which I definitely couldn't live off, and probably couldn't do! Ah well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something interesting comes up.... in May!!

I thought i'd take a quick break from my first day back at work after Christmas to update my weblog, since I noticed yesterday the last entry is aaaaages ago.

Christmas was lovely - as soon as term ended, after a great Xmas FNO, Ben and I took the train down to Salisbury to spend a few days with his family. After the Berryman family Christmas we went up to mine on Christmas Eve, and stayed there for 4 days. T'was good to see all my family, and it was wonderful having Ben there too. On the 29th we headed down to Guildford and spent a couple of days at Ben's house there, watching films and eating nice pasta, then back down to Salisbury on the 31st for New Year. We came back to Guildford on Tuesday (6th), went up to the Lord of the Rings Exhibition on London yesterday, and here I am, back at work!

It's all go at the Union now - barefacts, GU2 fm, new website, not to mention elections. Yes, boys and gals, by job is up for grabs in only a few weeks time! Fancy a year of running all the USSU media, getting to represent students at a very high level, living on campus and being paid £12K, not to mention adding something amazing to your CV? Well, nomination forms will be out from the first day of term, so.... what're you waiting for? It's an absolutely amazing job.... stressful and tiring at times, but ultimately extremely satisfying, and you get to work with some wonderful people here at USSU.

So.... go for it, and who knows, you could be Vice President Communications 2004-5! :D