How to lose a Hangover

Follow these helpful tips to rid yourself of those annoying hangovers - By Hannah Brown

Nobody enjoys having a hangover, unfortunately it can be an inevitable consequence of a good night out, but it doesn’t have to be. There is no one cure for a hangover (sorry about that) there are however many things that you can do to help  prevent and lose a hangover.

Prevention

1. Don’t drink alcohol on an empty stomach. Food helps slow down the rate your body absorbs alcohol, so make sure you’ve had a meal before you go out drinking.
2. Drink plenty of water or soft drinks in between the alcoholic drinks to avoid dehydration.
3. Have a spoon of olive oil before you go out. This may sound disgusting, but the fat in the olive oil will limit your body’s absorption of alcohol.
4. Be sensible when drinking. It may sound obvious, but by being careful and watching what you drink, you can avoid a hangover altogether.

Treating the Symptoms

1. Drink plenty of water to rehydrate.
2. Eat bananas and kiwis, as they are a good source of potassium (a mineral you lose when you drink).
3. Drink some fresh juice to give yourself a vitamin boost.
4. Take a shower, this will help rehydration and help to wake you up.
5. Make sure you have plenty of rest, sleeping is best, as your body needs time to recover.
6. Have some wheatgrass, as it is high in concentration of antioxidants, which will make your hangover less severe, but be warned if you’re not accustomed to the taste, because it may aggravate the nausea that usually accompanies a hangover, so it’s a risky one.
7. Do some exercise! I know when you’ve got a hangover, exercise is the last thing you will want to do, but a gentle workout will make a big difference. Just remember to keep drinking a lot of water, to prevent your dehydration from worsening.

That Awkward Moment: Embarrassing Dates at College

Ever been on that date where its all gone horribly wrong? Well some of our own students have told me about their humiliating hook ups below, anonymously of course!

Some these dates will make you cringe and some are so sweet you want to cry, but all of them are totally and utterly mortifying!

Anonymous:  I was asked out on a date by a guy who’d I’d been pretty flirty with for a while and really dressed up for the occasion. I was getting the train all the way from Chelmsford to Colchester and had paid the hefty train ticket so I was ready to have a good time. But when I arrived he had stood me up, to sleep with his ex-girlfriend!  So instead I went into Prezzo’s where we would have gone for a romantic meal and spent the voucher on my own.

Anonymous: I was going to my date’s house in the summer and I was wearing a cute summer top and white shorts. I was having a great time sitting in his garden eating strawberries with him and his family. Then when, his family went into the kitchen to get lunch ready I looked down and to my horror I saw a dark red stain at my crotch! I had come on my period in my white shorts! But by the time the parents got back we were both covered in red as my date had decided to have a strawberry fight to hide the stain for me. I borrowed a pair of his sister’s shorts and they never found out. It may have been a disastrous date, but it was saved by a brilliant plan!

kitchen to get lunch ready I looked down and to my horror I saw a dark red stain at my crotch! I had come on my period in my white shorts! But by the time the parents got back we were both covered in red as my date had decided to have a strawberry fight to hide the stain for me. I borrowed a pair of his sister’s shorts and they never found out. It may have been a disastrous date, but it was saved by a brilliant plan!

Anonymous: I was on my first ever date and we went on the classic trip to the cinema. It was all going well until when we got up to leave and my date tripped over, falling down about three stairs to land on his backside! I was so embarrassed. It got even worse when he went to kiss me when we left and I misunderstood and ended up shaking his hand. Needless to say we didn’t go on a second date.

After reading about all these shameful and sticky situations  I’m sure even some readers will have other embarrassing experiences to compare them to. The Independent released statistics about the most common date malfunctions on their blog recently. Have a look below to see if you’ve had the bad luck of any of these happening to you. 

 1. Got food stuck in teeth – 17%

2. Bumped into an ex -15%

3. Spilled a drink on date – 14%

4. Said something inappropriate/ offensive – 12%

5. Was stood up – 9%

6. Called date by the wrong name – 8%

7. Walked out of the toilet with flies down/dress tucked into underwear- 7%

8. Wardrobe malfunction – 4%

9. Saw parents whilst on the date- 3%

10. Fell asleep whilst on the date – 2%.

I can only hope that you may have better luck!

‘Fallen in Love’ performance review

Reviewer Lucy Neill swaps her usual music scene for a theatre performance of ‘Fallen in Love’.

A man dressed in tights and sprawled out across a bed in the centre of a room isn't exactly what I was expecting to see, but then again, it was a performance set in Tudor times. It was the Red Rose Chain's 'Fallen In Love' show at Gippeswyk Hall in Ipswich about the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn, starting Emma Connell as Anne, and Scott Ellis as her brother, George - it was one of their first performances when I came bundling in with my notepad and pen.

The audience of about three dozen sat down in a small square room with the four-post bed in the middle, and chairs around the outside. The bed was covered in red velvet sheets, and the man was writing a letter of sorts. Mumbles of the crowd died down, the lights focused in on the middle and the music became muffled; the audience instantly became engaged with the scene, which started with George attempting (and, woefully, failing) to sing, before his stage partner Anne leapt into the staging area. The brother and sister enjoyed gossiping, their performance, even in the beginning of the play, was strong and powerful, and they moved about as much as possible around the small pathway surrounding the edges of the bed.

As they playfully quarrel about marriage, and the vices and virtues that come with it, Anne and George discuss how 'the King has noticed her'. The sibling connection was portrayed strongly through their acting, and through the following scenes, not a line was stuttered or shaken, the emotions stood strong on their faces - humour, agony, sadness and joy were all shown with such passion.

Progressing through the performance, set over a fifteen-year period, what was once an idea which they lightly mocked, the character Anne gradually began to show feelings of love towards King Henry. Happiness and love from the two characters soon turned to despair and hatred, and as Anne's confidence crumbled, George became desperate to find contentment and to look after his sister; she became more and more engulfed in a Queen's life, and their relationship slowly fell apart as they grappled on to what was left of their family life before Anne's marriage. 

 Anne's affairs focused more on King Henry rather than her brother, and there was a lot of heartbreak shown throughout the play, mixed with sorrow and short-lived episodes of joy. The way they went from one extreme emotion to another was most extraordinary - Emma Connell's and Scott Ellis' talent never failed to seep through into the performance, and it was thoroughly entertaining. Their soliloquies of acceptance of death and sin at the end, which were aimed at the audience, were hauntingly and remarkably exuberant, as was the whole of the performance. An exciting and must-see show for fringe theatre enthusiasts. 

More info—http://www.redrosechain.com/page/falleninlove

Why school sports aren’t working

Freya Turner has a plod through the fast paced world that is school sport, and why schools should slow down and focus on enjoyment. 

Having a nostalgic chat about school sports with some friends recently got me thinking: sports education and promotion for tweens and teens is crap.

In my opinion, I’ve always been outraged by the amount of compulsory hours per week of P.E. I had to do at Secondary school. Three hours of sport a week is irrelevant to the majority of pupils’ career aspirations and does not promote sports in their best light. Excessive compulsory hours of sport, (often in the rain with school bullies dominating) would no doubt put plenty of people off the whole sports shenanigans. 

 

I think this is a shame. In light of the Olympics legacy, so far I haven't seen much in the way of promoting sports, except for Boris Johnson’s controversial outburst that school kids should do “2 compulsory hours a day” of P.E. Also the occasional BBC news reports on funding sports clubs. This is what we need more of– sports clubs! It generally makes sport feel more enjoyable than compulsory as you are choosing to take part in sports you like. 

Although I did go to a “sports college” and there were quite a few after school clubs, I think considering this sports status, they definitely made an effort to ignore some sports, especially racket sports—my favourite. And this also applies to lessons; dominated by football, netball, and hockey. Considering we had 2 squash courts and I didn’t have a single squash lesson, this, in my opinion was very poor. 

Sport should be about increasing confidence and I don’t think that can happen unless schools are more accepting of different sports. Making sport feel more about enjoyment rather than obligation would also make a huge difference to the way we view sports and most importantly, our bodies.

What can get you motivated to get coursework done?

Harriet Stevenson explores how to get motivated.

Motivation. It’s as sought after as ‘how to lose weight’. Yet in many ways it’s harder to achieve. When losing weight there’s always going to be some sort of diet to follow, but with ‘achieving’ motivation it’s much more difficult.

Too often I found myself working until 3 in the morning on the due day of an essay set over a week ago. This habit then started to stretch towards coursework as well, a very dangerous path to take as with coursework there are no second chances.

That’s why for my English Coursework, I made it my goal to explore how to get motivated or, at the very least, how to get it done earlier than the night before or early hours of the morning!

I discovered that you can’t sit in a mess, well I can’t any way – if you have piles of work surrounding you for many different subjects then it will distract you and cause unnecessary stress for other work.  However with an empty desk or table the distractions are greatly decreased.

Mess isn’t the only distraction though – mobile phones!! Helpful though a phone is for quickly looking up facts it is also the biggest distraction technique, whether it be ‘twitter’, ‘facebook’, ‘tumblr’, ‘instagram’, and hours of precious work is wasted. Even with turning off wifi or 3G there’s still plenty of games to waste hours on. So solution is, hide it/put it in another room.

Hopefully now you should be sitting in a virtually empty room, phone hidden and on ‘do not disturb’ and other work filed away. Next step for me is to find something to listen to, but putting my iTunes on shuffle never seems to work.

That’s why I found out that film soundtracks work the best, preferably those without lyrics so you don’t find yourself singing along! Some of my favorites, are ‘Arthur Christmas’ (especially in winter) or ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ to help achieve motivation and also speed up the process of that long essay or tedious coursework.

Another idea is to buy a relatively large bar of chocolate (ideally one you won’t eat all of in pure desperation!) and hide it just behind your computer or laptop screen. Then you know it’s there but not noticeable enough to distract you. Think of it as a treat, when you’ve written a really good paragraph break off a piece and savor it.

Hopefully by this time you’re set to write that essay, or work on your coursework. It’s also important to remember that once it’s done you don’t have to do it again. The pain of work is only temporary! Also enjoy it, sounds stupid but, you’ve chosen to do these subjects so you must have enjoyed them at one point – find your passion for them and let that ultimately be your motivation!

Good Luck :)

Links:

Arthur Christmas Soundtrack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuUKrT_4KEI&list=PLE56C85C77867252B

Pirates of the Caribbean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npWSI9iu2i0

Album Review: Kate Nash ‘Girl Talk’

Music reviewer Lucy Neill talks about British indie-pop/rock princess Kate Nash and her album Girl Talk, and Nash’s different styles expressed in the songs.

It's hard to try and predict what Kate Nash's next new song will be like; every song is as different from the last as it could be, and every song shows off Nash's attitude, whether it be about boys or friends, love or hate, every song wants people to get up and jump about.

Emerging from the ashes of 2012 where, though Nash had a quiet year, behind the scenes were as busy as ever. Her last tour, 'Faster Pussycats Run Run', left fans wanting more, and my gosh did they get it! The 25-year-old's third studio album, 'Girl Talk', released with Have 10p Records, became available in the UK on March 4th, taking the fans by storm.

The fifteen-track album, with very interesting track names, started off with a slower song entitled 'Part Heart', relaxing and inviting at first, yet as the song progressed, Kate touched on her punk side. And that's not the only time she shows off her punk flair in the album! Most, if not all of her songs, are enriched in the edgy genre which suits her style perfectly. A more indie song followed, repetitive in lyrics, but that's what works for the second song 'Fri-end?'. As the title says, we all have that one person who we think is our friend, but turns out to be a huge waste of time, and Nash is never afraid to take all her feelings and thoughts out on the lyrics of her songs. 

The tracks 'Fri-end?' and the next one, 'Death Proof', were no strangers to fans, as they were released on a five-track E.P in November 19th of 2012. The shortest track on the album boasts hypnotic rock'n'roll sounds, and shows the singer's slightly darker side in the verse. Kate doesn't have any time to die just yet, as up next is 'Are You There Sweetheart?'. The more melodic, helplessly-in-love love song with cute songs and pop sounds shows more of Nash's variety of genres. 

'Sister' is the one track which has got fans raving. The sombre beginning leads you to believe the song to be a slow-paced album gem, but like Part Heart, builds up into an explosive track of anger in a typical Kate Nash style, exclaiming feelings in an outburst of emotion and frustration, gaining waves of volume until the slowed, worn-out ending after a great performance of a song.

Anger was swapped for feelings of missing someone in the next track, 'OMYGOD!'. Given the name of the title, you'd expect it to be just as outrageous as the last track, if not more, however it's more of a dreamy and quaint tune. It's a sweet song about longing for a loved one, with calm and swayable verses and an upbeat yet fun chorus.

Skipping along a few tracks into the album comes '3AM', which was released in February with a music video. It's a very catchy song, touching on previous tracks such as the singer's 2007 hit 'Foundations'. The lyrics talk of a fight in a relationship which makes you want to just be with the person, and this feeling is shown in the music video. It's quite a playful song, as even though the verses show post-argument sadness, the chorus portray all the good things in the relationship.

'Rap for Rejection' is a strong, feminist track from the outspoken artist, which is followed by 'Cherry Pickin' - a loud, messy, playful, sassy and carefree song, with spiky verses and smooth chorus', which completely and utterly sums up Kate Nash's style. 'Labyrinth', number thirteen on Girl Talk, is a slow and peaceful song, similar to how 'Part Heart' started, though this one sticks with the same theme all the way through. The gentle melody sings soft words of things falling apart and becoming 'trapped in the labyrinth', though it's probably my favourite track on the album; it shows, once again, Nash's versatile performance and show of talents (but if I had to pick a favourite fast-paced song, it'd be Death Proof, without a doubt).

The last song on the album, 'Lullaby For An Insomniac' is a very hauntingly good unaccompanied song, which focuses solely on Nash's sleek, soothing and unshaken vocals. The eerie yet tranquil and iridescent lyrics about the lack of sleep and the need for human comfort, a feeling I'm sure we've all experienced. You can hear the sheer passion in Kate's clear and prestigious voice, and, at the end of her singing, an unexpected and graceful yet dramatic orchestral piece is played, marking the end of a truly brilliant album.

Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/katenash 

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