Wessex Scene Freshers Issue 2016

WessexScene.co.uk

University of Southampton’s Student Magazine

Freshers’ 2016

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Your University Bedroom Essentials Page 19

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Making The most of halls 06 Top tips on how to gain the most out of your halls experience.

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Agony Aunt 21

Have a question but you’re not sure who to ask? Agony Alex is here to help!

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What’s on soton? 26

A guide to all the best food spots and activities in Southampton.

Welcome

ALICE HEARING Editor

WESSEX SCENE TEAM Want to write for us?

Get in touch with a section editor.

Editor ALICE HEARING

editor@soton.ac.uk

Deputy Editor NUALA MCBRIDE

deputy-editor@wessexscene.co.uk

Head of Design MACKENZIE BROWN design@wessexscene.co.uk

HEAD OF IMAGERY BETHANY WESTALL image@wessexscene.co.uk

Features NATáLIA JOPLING TANSER features@wessexscene.co.uk

Features ELLEN JENNE

features@wessexscene.co.uk

Science & Environment SEBASTIAN STEELE science@wessexscene.co.uk

Politics KIERAN HYLAND

politics@wessexscene.co.uk

Opinion CARLY MAY-KAVANAGH

opinion@wessexscene.co.uk

Travel FREYA MILLARD

travel@wessexscene.co.uk

Lifestyle TALLULAH LYONS

lifestyle@wessexscene.co.uk

International CAMERON RIDGWAY

international@wessexscene.co.uk

Sport JAMES MOSELEY

Welcome freshers and welcome back returning students!

In this special edition of our magazine, we are bringing you all the advice you could ever need for this new academic year. From Bingo sheets to your bedroom essentials, we have it all covered.

The coming year is set to be a very special one. It is an honour to be Editor of the multi-award winning Wessex Scene at the end of our 80th year as a publication, and the 81st year is also set to be an excellent one. We have a brand new special Mental Health issue coming out in collaboration with The Edge and we have also recently introduced Article of the Week on our website which will showcase the best work from our writers and give them the credit they really deserve.

Wessex Scene is written by students for students, and we have a fantastic team of budding writers, designers and illustrators. Being part of our team is not just for aspiring journalists; we encourage all students to use Wessex Scene as a platform to write about what you care about.

Are you passionate about politics? Are you crazy for cookery? Maybe you’re fanatical about football. You can write about all this and more.

If you would like a writer’s account, email me at editor@soton.ac.uk and join our Facebook group (Wessex Scene Writers 2016/17) to get all the updates on the latest opportunities.

Please do say hello if you see us in our red hoodies around campus!

I wish you all a fantastic Freshers’ and an excellent start to the new academic year.

Alice

sports@wessexscene.co.uk

Sport TOM MORGAN

sports@wessexscene.co.uk

News ZéLIE SEDDON

news@wessexscene.co.uk

News SAMUEL TYLER

news@wessexscene.co.uk

INVESTIGATIONS HARRIET MARTIN news@wessexscene.co.uk

Pause TOM RANDALL

pause@wessexscene.co.uk

MARKETING MOLLY EVANS

publicity@wessexscene.co.uk

VP DCI Cameron meldrum vpdci@susu.org

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FRONT COVER IMAGE BY BETHANY WESTALL WELCOME

FEATURES 06 What’s On Soton? by Charlotte Holmes. Image by Tara Shore.

FReSHERS’ 2016

FEATURES

LIFESTYLE

Fresh but not yet wise

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WHAT If...I Don’t like my course?

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MAKING THE MOST OF HALLS

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OPINION

YOUR UNIVERSITY BEDROOM ESSENTIALS

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the most common student illnesses and how to avoid them

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AGONY AUNT

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STUDENT SAVVY GROCERY SHOPPING

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You don’t have to drink during freshers to have a good time

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THE BEST...FRESHERS RECIPES

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INTERNATIONAL

THE BEST...CRISP SANDWICH

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GO FURTHER: EXPERIENCING OTHER CULTURES IN SOUTHAMPTON

POLITICS

post brexit blues

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Your guide to southampton city council

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TRAVEL

WHAT’S ON SOTON?

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FURTHER AFIELD

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SPORT

SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT

science at southampton: five things to brag about

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the shadows of rio

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SPort at southampton: a guide

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PAUSE

wessexscene.co.uk @wessexscene

FRESHERS BINGO

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Your ultimate guide to hartley library

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fb.com/wscene WELCOME

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Features FRESHER DO’S AND DON’TS

• “Don’t arrange to live with your newfound girlfriend or boyfriend in second year.” - Alice Hearing • “Don’t burn yourself out in first year.” – Samuel Tyler • “Don’t get with a flatmate - rarely ends well.” - Tallulah Lyons • “DO record lectures using a laptop or something else is a great way to make sure you don’t miss any vital information!”

– Alice Hearing • “DO aim for more than 40%. While that’s the pass rate, people applying for a work placement, or year in industry will only have those results when they apply, so make sure they’re actually good enough.”

And with hindsight…

Fresh, but not yet WISE WORDS BY NATÁLIA JOPLING TANSER IMAGE BY LOWENA HOSKINS

Welcome to the fresher life! You’ve come to the University feeling fabulously fresh and are looking forward to experiencing all that Southampton has to offer. But freshers are notorious for their naivety, so here’s how to achieve the almost impossible feat of being fresh AND wise!

People come to uni with different ideas about what it’ll be like. You imagine battling your way through the bun-fight (it’s nothing to do with bread), constantly clubbing and having an all-round unforgettable time. But then freshers week is over; and it’s time to wise up.

Things many students wished they knew from the beginning varied from note-taking methods to disastrous living arrangements, so take a long look at these tips, and remember them.

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• “I wish I hadn’t bought any books for my course! In semester two all of my reading was from the library and online resources, and I just kept renewing them.” – Carly-May Kavanagh • “I wish I hadn’t over packed for uni and brought so much stuff because then you hardly use any of it. Be more selective, it gives you more room for actual living space.” – Mackenzie Brown • “So many people I know wished they’d joined a society in the first few weeks. It’s a great way to meet new people and widen your circle of friends; it makes you more confident as a person!” – Octavia Woodward One thing on this list comes up a lot - many 2nd and 3rd year students will tell you that they wish they’d got involved with more societies in their first year! The importance of this cannot be overstated. You meet people outside your course and halls and get to try something new. So make sure you follow up on things that you thought sounded interesting at the Bunfight, because before you know where you are it’ll be the end of the term and you’ll be wishing you’d started something earlier! And if you’re not very confident, don’t worry about it, everyone else is in the same boat as you, all looking to try something new and meet some people. So, although it’s easier said than done, put yourself out there, the first step is always the hardest one to take!

Remember, this list isn’t exhaustive; some things you just have to learn for yourself, it’s part of the university learning curve. Everyone’s fresher year experience will be different, but overall it should be a time you can look back at with fond memories, and yes, this even goes for your first night at Jesters! How your first year goes is really all down to you, but do keep these tips in mind, they’ll stand you in good stead for the year! So good luck freshers, try not to make the same mistakes those before you have, or if you do, don’t make all of them.

FEATURES

Features

What If... I Don’t Like My Course?

WORDS BY NATÁLIA JOPLING TANSER

IMAGE BY BETHANY WESTALL

Perhaps you’ve come in through clearing and aren’t happy with the course you’re now studying, or you’ve got past the first few weeks of lectures and realise the subject you were once excited about doing isn’t for you. Well, there’s always a solution.

Having doubts about the course you’re studying isn’t easy.

You’ve invested time in the subject. You will have spent time on your UCAS application, had the build up to results day, and of course will have been asked on countless occasions what you’re going to study and where.

The first thing is that if you’re worried about your course, get it off your chest. They say a problem shared is a problem halved, and that’s because it is. An outsider’s view, whether it’s the view of a parent, sibling, friend or flatmate, is invaluable. After talking to someone else you may realise that in fact your stress was something small, which can be easily rectified.

Secondly, persevere. Don’t give up straight away! It’s important to feel you’ve given your course a proper go.

However, if you’re having doubts, try and identify why. It may be that instead of single honours, you want more variety, in which case you can look at adding in a minor or choosing different optional modules each term.

Before making any drastic decisions, make sure you explore as many other options as possible in a variety of ways. Have a look several different courses online, speak to people you know doing them, whether they’re a 1st or 3rd year, go and see the faculty yore thinking of switching to, and if you can, sit in on some lectures just to see what it’s like. It’s really important FEATURES

you make an informed decision! After all this, it may be that you decide you actually prefer the one you’re on. And talk to people who have had experience with the same situation, they may be able to offer some real gems of advice!

But if you’re absolutely sure you’ve chosen a degree that’s totally wrong for you, then it might be time to switch. In this case, after doing all your research about other degrees, your first official port of call is your Personal Academic Tutor, who will talk you through the process. You’ll need to make sure you A-Level grades and subjects are approved by the faculty to which you want to switch, and often you’ll have to write another personal statement, but don’t let this deter you!

Here, it’s important to remember that your Tutor won’t be disappointed with you coming to them about not liking your course, you aren’t the first person who’s had this problem and you certainly won’t be the last, so don’t be shy about going to see them, it’s their job to help you after all!

People switch courses much more often than people realise, so don’t consider yourself a failure if you feel you’ve made a mistake, it happens a lot and there’s always a solution! Finally, please remember that if you switch degrees, your time spent doing the first course won’t have been wasted, all skills are transferable!

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Features

MAking the most of halls WORDS BY ELLEN JENNE IMAGE BY BETHANY WESTALL

So you didn’t get into your first choice of halls. Whether that’s the infamous Glen Eyre, known to be the central hub of all first year life. Or Mayflower, the newly built but slightly distant halls, slapped bang in the centre of the city. You find yourself filled with excitement and nerves at the prospect of moving away from home for the first time, but also find yourself disappointed about being located in a small hall, that you’ve never heard of and it’s already tainted your view of your university experience.

But honestly, forget Glen Eyre. Lose all preconceptions of what you think, or what you have been led believe are the ‘best’ halls to be in for first year. Because I’ll let you in on a little secret...

Your halls don’t matter.

When you get to Southampton, you’ll soon realise that actually, the reputation of the halls don’t come from their facilities; whether that’s Glen’s rolling lawn, Monte’s maze of blocks, or Mayflower’s gym. It’s from those living inside its very walls. When my year joined the Southampton cohort, Glen Eyre Halls were sold to us as the place to be. Everyone I ended up meeting in halls applied there, yet only a fraction of those who apply get in. We found that none of us had applied to the halls we eventually ended up in. And most of us had never even heard of Archers Road. Being located half way between the uni and the city centre was prime for first year!

With both a Sainsbury’s local and a Co-Op just down the road, we were never going to be short of mixer...or the occasional two litre bottle of Lambrini.

With the overwhelming potential to not enjoy your halls experience, it’s key to find some like-minded people to hang around with, and you’ll be guaranteed to have a great time, no matter where you might live. It’s a given that you won’t get along with all your flatmates, but they’re not the only people you can spend your time with.

In my friends’ and my experience, we all knew that we had scraped the bottom of the barrel with our halls. But we weren’t 6

going to let our position stop us from experiencing university to the full. Archers Road were tiny halls in comparison to the likes of Glen, Monte and Mayflower, but somehow, it’s smaller size made the first year experience just that little bit better. The walk between flats were less than a minute long.

The intimacy was overwhelming, but at the same time, a great ploy to get you to spend time with better, and not cooped up in your bedroom alone.

We understand that some of you may not like drinking, going on nights out or just the general laddish behaviour. But people are quite understanding if you’re honest with them about it.

Showing your face at pre-drinks and listening to some Year 9 tunes is a great way to get yourself integrated, without having to spend your night regretting your drunken actions. Nights out are a given during freshers, and although you may not find yourself going out every night, you’ll find yourself spending time with those you drank with the previous night. Your night friends become your day friends, and ultimately they just become your friends altogether. You’ll live, drink, and breathe each other until the time comes to leave university for summer.

It’s key to make sure that, even though you may be disappointed that you don’t have an en-suite bathroom, a large kitchen, or a certain number of people living in your flat, you are happy with where you are living. That might mean you have to find friends who live in a different flat, or block, or even on your course, meaning that they are more than likely to be spread out all across the city than you’d like. But you make the effort, because otherwise, you may lead a very isolated experience.

FEATURES

Features

And after all, university is about stepping outside your comfort zone, being friends with people you probably would never have met if you hadn’t come to university, and sometimes, making decisions you usually wouldn’t.

A good way to cement friends, I hate to say it...is to have a TV in your room. Having a luxury such a Netflix, or even an Xbox, will bring people together like a horse drawn to water.

Offering to cook dinner together, or chipping in for a late night Dominoes after a heavy night of boozing are just the kind of things that bring people closer, without you actually realising it. You’ll get to learn their weird habits, learn to love them or hate them, or just tolerate them.

time! Everyone’s buzzing to be at university, and they all just want to have as much fun as you. So join them. Make your way through the hundreds of people than will line the corridor of your flat, crowd your kitchen to the point where you lose the 5 people you actually know, and find those people you’ll just click with. Whether they’re drinking cider out of a Jerry Can around the table playing ‘Never Have I Ever...’ or having a cigarette outside, meeting people they’ll probably never see again.

No matter where you live for the next year, remember, it’s not the end of the world. And that your halls won’t be the best, but that doesn’t matter.

Making sure you’re happy in your home for the next year is honestly, so unbelievably important that I can’t emphasise it enough. Even if that means you find yourself changing flats, or even halls, in the November or January moving period. You are bound to find some people you can enjoy the company of, even if it takes a while. Your comfort and happiness is the most important thing for you to thrive in an environment you’ve been thrown into.

Branch out, meet new people during freshers, it’s the perfect FEATURES

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Opinion

You Don’t Have to Drink During FRESHERS to Have a Good Time WORDS BY KAY PEARSON IMAGES BY BETHANY WESTALL

It’s Freshers week. You’ve just moved into a brand new place, surrounded by brand new people. Once you’ve finished unpacking and saying your final goodbyes, getting to know the people you’ll be living with for the next year is on everyone’s mind.

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omeone will undoubtedly suggest that drinks and perhaps a night of clubbing is the perfect way to make new friends.

You’ve got your freshers events timetable and its chock-full of alcohol related events. This is all good and well, and is what many would coin the ‘Real Freshers Experience’, but is this all it’s really about?

games nights and film showings. Just because you aren’t drinking, doesn’t mean you have to choose to stay in entirely.

If you don’t drink, it may seem like there aren’t any opportunities for you during Freshers week. Thankfully, the truth is on the contrary. The Uni offer some brilliant day time activities, such as the Bunfight, and some essential events such as your introductory lectures, the Union and Halls also run evening activities such as

Enjoy your first year, Fresher!

It is also possible to go and enjoy a night of clubbing without getting drunk. Learning your limits doesn’t have to be done the hard way. A great way to keep yourself from going past the point of no return, is to alternate your drinks between your alcohol of During my Freshers week, I went out with my flatmates almost choice, and a glass of water. You can also give yourself a cut-off every single night. Not only did I blow an enormous hole in my time, at which point you stop drinking. Many people will only bank account, I also look back on it now with less than fond drink while they’re still in their flats, and not whilst there out, memories. Don’t get me wrong, it was which also saves you money! These A year on, I’ve learned how great getting to know the people I would techniques should keep you in the happy I can have a great time without live with for the next year and making medium point and prevent you from getting drunk, or even new friends in the club’s toilet queue, drinking too much. drinking at all. and not something I would entirely change. However, I know for a fact that Of course there is nothing wrong with on days I spent curled in bed trying to ignore the throbbing in my going out with friends to a club without drinking at all. If you’re head and the nausea I felt whenever I moved, I definitely missed comfortable and confident, it will show. You don’t have to drink some experiences that are just as essential to the ‘Real Freshers to have a good time, just make it clear that you being sober doesn’t Experience’. A year on, I’ve learned how I can have a great time mean you get lumped with the responsibility of looking after your without getting drunk, or even drinking at all. drunken friends.

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Please drink responsibly.

OPINION

Opinion

THE BEST... FRESHERS RECIPES For most of us, university is the first time we’ve had to cook for ourselves every day.

I asked our editors and writers what they found to be the best thing to cook when they went to university. All of these recipes can easily be adapted, by using Quorn or substituting ingredients!

Chicken and pesto Alice Hearing

Get a chicken breast or 2, cover it in pesto, put a couple slices of tomato on top and grate some cheese and ta da! Oh and obviously cook it in the oven for half an hour.

Roast vegetable pasta Carly-May Kavanagh

Chop up any vegetables (I normally go for cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers and onions), drizzle olive oil over them, crack in some black pepper and tear in some basil. Roast at around 200 degrees for forty minutes, and in the last ten minutes cook your pasta. Combine. Eat! You can half the roasting time, add a tomato sauce and some cheese (I like using Violife) and turn it into a pasta bake too. Tasty, lasts for days.

Stir fry Bethany Westall

Fry some chopped vegetables until cooked, then add the noodles and cook until soft (if using rice then boil some beforehand). Add in the rice, chicken or prawns. Add soy sauce and stir until everything is coated - then serve and enjoy!

One pot cheesy pasta Emma Perry

Boil some pasta until it’s your preferred consistency, then take it off the burner and drain. Add enough milk to cover the bottom of the pan and then a splash more. Then add your grated cheese - I’ve only tested it with ready grated mozzarella but I’m sure you can experiment. Add as much cheese as you think you can handle, plus mixed herbs and pepper (salt too, if you’re into that). Put it back on the heat and stir until the sauce looks pretty sticky. The cheese might clump together at first but have faith and just keep stirring! Eventually you’ll have a perfect one pot pasta dish, though I recommend you do the washing up asap (or at least leave the pot to soak) as the cheese can get (deliciously) sticky.

Salmon en croute Robert Pratley

Salmon En Croute with mustard mash and steamed broccoli, with a white chocolate lemon mousse. Cheap fish that is going out of date, potatoes and broccoli are commonplace and mousse is easy (melted chocolate, egg yolks and sugar).

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Risotto Anneka Honeyball

Risotto using what I could find in the kitchen. Ham, peas, onion... and cupboard stuff!

Quick chilli Natasha Dennington

Fry one onion in olive oil, add 500g of mince and cook, add a tin of chopped tomatoes and a tin of kidney beans. Cook for twenty minutes and serve with rice and grated cheese.

Hummus and vegetable wrap

Carly-May Kavanagh (made first by Kay Pearson) Spread some hummus on a tortilla wrap, add in some lettuce, peppers, carrots really any vegetables you have - wrap it up, and go!

Smoked salmon stir fry salad

Farihah Choudhury Chuck together tenderstem (or any stem) broccoli, mushrooms of your choice, cherry or plum tomatoes halved and spinach or kale in a pan after spraying it lightly with oil. Sprinkle paprika and pepper pus any herbs or spices you want to use on the ingredients. Cut down on oil by cooking it all in the juices produced by the food. Meanwhile, cut up your smoked salmon. Once the mushrooms and broccoli are tender, let it cool and then combine with smoked salmon. Delicious both fresh and hot or cold!

And here’s what we recommend NOT doing...

My flatmate consistently ate duck, drank wine and shopped at Waitrose whilst I ate raw carrots and drank warm tap water. I also tried to grate cheese with a colander, set my hand on fire making a toastie, had a breakdown over chicken breasts and had to Skype my mum while using the microwave.” -Ashleigh Millman I sliced the top of my little finger completely open, like it was hanging off, cutting an onion. Becca Louise Hellard had to rush me to A&E!” -James Barker OPINION

Opinion

THE BEST... BRAND OF CRISPS FOR SANDWICHES WORDS BY ROBERT PRATLEY The crisp sandwich is one of life’s simple pleasures - it is likely to be akin with a student budget, and add to the fact the variety of flavours which you can have for crisps, and you quickly find your range is far wider than that of conventional fillings (with an added crunch as well for that alternate texture).

In my biscuit dunking experiment I had different categories to weigh up against, this time I have merely eaten the different crisps in sandwiches on different days and then marked them out of ten. All were prepared in the same location, with the same bread (Hovis White) and butter, and consumed with a glass of tap water, but all crisps were different flavours - I recognise this may add bias.

First up was Ready Salted. I say Ready Salted, but in truth they tasted of potato only, and slightly burnt at that. The crisps were flat and large enough to make a sandwich, and little did spill out, but really it just tasted like buttered bread. A disappointing start if I am honest.

Next, McCoys Salt and Vinegar. I’ve always liked McCoys crisps purely because they have shiny packaging, although the crinkle-cut style did come back to haunt me when consuming the sandwich. The broken crisp crinkles were more like arrowheads stabbing into my tongue than tickling my tastebuds. Although the flavour did compensate somewhat in between the throbbing.

Being a Southerner, I couldn’t help but include M&S in the mix. I chose the pork, sage and onion and scrumpy-cider flavour, which sounds more like a MasterChef production than student cuisine and the price certainly did reflect this!

The flavour was strong, but the pork was lost to the cider which wasn’t very complementary to buttered bread.

Next came my childhood favourite Skips; I could feel my youth returning to me. Upon consuming the sandwich however, I OPINION

was reminded why I stopped eating Skips. Upon contact with anything remotely wet, they dissolve as if touched by acid, and the flavour bleeds out. Prawn cocktail crisp snacks might be nice, but prawn cocktail bread and butter is certainly not a winner.

Then tangy cheese Doritos. The first difficulty here comes with making the sandwich, giving you cheesy fingers. The flavour did spill somewhat onto the bread, but cheese bread is a more natural complement to one another than some of the other concoctions and tasted quite nice. The triangular shaped crisps broke far too easily when trying to fit them in the sandwich, and shards went everywhere. Also unwelcome was the powdery mix at the bottom of the bag, I want to eat the crisps, not snort it.

Up next, Walkers Roast Chicken - always a popular one, it had a good taste, and the flat crisps were easy to assemble a la Tetris in the bread. The main issue again is the bag not being full enough- sort it out Gary!

Finally, the pre-drinks/party staple - Pringles. Smoky Bacon is a rare flavour to find, and they’re arguably one of the best tasting ones. You can definitely taste the flavour in the crisps, but you need a lot to fill a sandwich. The curled shape doesn’t help; shards were breaking off everywhere, only to get stuck in the butter and then stab my mouth.

In truth, I was very disappointed overall.

Joint fifth: Pringles and Skips.

Fourth: M&S. Third: Doritos.

Second: McCoys and Ready Salted First: Walkers (best value, variety assemble)

of flavours and easy to

Crisp companies take note, you need to step up your game!

Disclaimer: This is all my opinion!

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Politics

POST BREXIT BLUES WORDS BY TOM BROWN As a new year at university begins, it is my duty to welcome you to the quagmire that is British Politics by recapping a turbulent few months. Since the events of June 23rd, British politics has been turned completely upside down.

Firstly the Conservative Party, who are still in power, have a new Leader. Theresa May becomes the second female Prime Minister, and entered Downing Street proclaiming the Tories’ pro-unionist message and a desire to stay together, while also claiming that Brexit means Brexit and a desire to fight social injustice. But what does all this mean for them going forward? Well, it is an awkward position. May has previously been critical of Gordon Brown not having a mandate from voters, yet is now in the same boat herself with rivals calling for a General Election. However, the party is currently unified and has no real right-wing rivals, so don’t expect the Tories to go away any time soon. In the meanwhile, May has the result of the EU referendum to contend with and when to invoke Article 50, while also wanting to make her own mark as PM. Labour has not coped well since Brexit. Jeremy Corbyn’s lacklustre campaigning before the EU referendum has brought him under intense scrutiny, and has caused a huge wave of resignations in the shadow cabinet. Many loyal MPs in the makeshift shadow cabinet now hold multiple roles in a party that has over 100 MPs. These resignations, coupled with a vote of no confidence in Corbyn, have sparked an ongoing leadership race between Corbyn and Owen Smith. Yet the Labour ruling committee has controversially decreed that newer party members could not vote in the contest, many of whom are believed to favour Corbyn. The future looks bleak POLITICS

IMAGE BY BETHANY WESTALL for Labour. Under Corbyn the party could split, making it impossible to win a General Election. Conversely, a Smith win could see the Labour Party electable but considerably out of touch with its grass roots, making it a difficult balancing act between Westminster and the rest of the party.

The Liberal Democrats have enjoyed a relatively good summer. They have won more seats in local council elections than any other party, and their membership is reaching precoalition levels which suggests a party resurgence. But like their colleagues, they have not escaped the Brexit blues. Two frontbench peers have resigned over the party’s decision to remain pro-EU and be the voice of the 48% by blocking Brexit if elected. This looks like a clever political move by appealing to a potentially large electorate, but so far that has not translated into any movement in the polls still sitting at 8-10%. However, the future can still be very bright, as they have been very loud on issues that Labour’s infighting has prevented them from doing. Furthermore, they can provide a national alternative to Labour and the Tories, as aren’t location based like the SNP. UKIP’s recent fortunes have been mixed. They achieved their primary goal of a Brexit result, the materialisation of over 20 years of protest against the European Union. However, Nigel Farage has now left, this time permanently, and the favourite to succeed him, Steven Woolfe, failed to even make the leadership ballot. UKIP are consequently left with unknown leadership contenders and infighting in every corner of their party. UKIP are now undoubtedly a party on decline, albeit in the aftermath of their highly significant victory for UK Independence.

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Politics

Your guide to

Southampton city council The traditional image of politics in the UK is of Westminster and the House of Commons, where the political elite of the day spend their time discussing matters of regional, national and international significance. Although the events of this summer have particularly emphasised the importance of centralised Government, where the ramifications of the Brexit Vote have heavily impacted both the national and international arena, local Government provides an undervalued democratic safeguard for parochial concerns.

WORDS BY KIERAN HYLAND IMAGE BY BETHANY WESTALL

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POLITICS

Key Players SIMON LETTS Council Leader

Local Politics in Southampton has a relatively short history.

Southampton City Council was only established as a unitary authority in April 1997, in one of several sweeping reforms suggested in the 1992 Local Government Act. The reforms in increasing growing towns aimed to fix problems related to under-representation of local citizens. Prior to this, Southampton, like Portsmouth, served as a district within Hampshire County Council, which still exists today and resides in Winchester. Today, Southampton City Council is divided into 16 wards, with each ward represented by three councillors elected by thirds on a four year fixed term.

Following this year’s election cycle in May, the Labour Party has retained a slim majority in Southampton City Council with 25 councillors, ahead of the Conservative Party’s 19 councillors, the Councillor’s Against Cuts 3 councillors, and a single Independent councillor.

HOW ARE DECISIONS REACHED?

Following an election, the first task of the reshaped City Council is to select a leader. In accordance with this year’s election results and the overall composition of the Council, a Labour Council Leader was re selected as Cllr Simon Letts.

Letts’ first official job as Leader is to appoint other councillors into ministerial roles in the City Council Cabinet, which is currently dominated by Labour Party councillors. Once appointed, each cabinet member has the power to propose any legislative changes that fall within the budget or policy framework without raising the proposals into meetings of the full City Council.

Yet, this is not to suggest that City councillors outside of the Cabinet are redundant. In addition to providing an essential connection between members of the local community and the political power centres in Southampton, the full council meets six times a year to set the budget each year and select which policies should be pursued. Similarly, councillors must approve any cabinet proposals not established within the budgetary or policy plan, which embodies a check against excessive power by cabinet members.

Simon Letts was first elected as a Labour councillor for Bitterne Ward in 2006. A former University of Southampton graduate in Chemistry, Cllr Letts served as Ward Councillor for Millbrook from 1991, and has since been involved in a number of panels and committees, most recently the Chair, Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee for Environment and Transport.

However despite this experience Letts only became Leader of Southampton City Council in 2013, a role he has held ever since.

JACQUI RAYMENT Deputy Leader

First elected for Labour in 1997, Councillor Jacqui Rayment has represented Bevois Ward in Southampton City Council since 2002. While Cllr Rayment has only served as Deputy Leader since this year’s election, she has previous experience within the Cabinet, holding the post of Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport since 2013. Cllr Rayment briefly held the position of Leader for an interim period following the resignation of controversial former Leader Mark Williams, before Simon Letts was selected in an emergency general meeting to steady the ship just three weeks later.

MARK CHALONER Cabinet Member for Finance

Councillor Mark Chaloner has represented Shirley Ward as a Labour Councillor since 2012. Cllr Chaloner has occupied the role of Member for Finance since 2015, and previously held the position of Cabinet Member for Children’s Safeguarding. In 2015 Chaloner unsuccessfully ran for Parliament as the Labour Party’s candidate for Winchester, coming third behind Conservative incumbent Steve Brine and Liberal Democrat Jackie Porter.

SATVIR KAUR

Cabinet Member for Communities, Culture, and Leisure

Another Labour Councillor for Shirley Ward, Satvir Kaur has represented the interests of constituents in Shirley since 2011.

Cllr Kaur attended both Southampton Universities, studying a History and Politics undergraduate at the University of Southampton before studying law at Solent. Cllr Kaur has held her current cabinet role since 2015, but is also notable for her involvement in Southampton’s Street CRED initiative, which attempted to promote pride in neighbourhoods across the city.

DR. DARREN PAFFEY Cabinet Member for Education and Skills

POLITICS

Dr Darren Paffey has represented Labour in Southampton City Council since 2011, representing Peartree Ward until 2015, and following an unsuccessful Parliamentary Campaign in Romsey and Southampton North, now represents Bargate Ward at the City Council. Having previously studied both at undergraduate and postgraduate level at Southampton University, Cllr Paffey also works as a Spanish lecturer at the University.

Science & Environment

Science at Southampton: 5 Things to Brag About WORDS BY SEBASTIAN STEELE IMAGE BY MACKENZIE BROWN

For all those new to University, and even those already studying, it can be interesting to learn what pioneering scientific research is being carried out here. Here’s a – by no means exhaustive - list of some of our University’s most exciting projects. To any researchers whose projects I haven’t mentioned, complaints can be sent to [redacted].

Cancer Immunology Centre

The University is aiming to raise £25m to open a state-of-the-art Centre for Cancer Immunology in 2017. Cancer immunology trains the body’s own immune system to recognise and kill cancerous cells, in a similar way to that of vaccines. One of the breakthroughs leading to the discovery of cancer immunology was the approach of using a specially engineered virus to attack cancer cells. In a surprise result, researchers found that the act of marking the cells with the viruses prompted the immune system itself to attack the cancer, killing it more effectively than the viruses were able to.

Used in conjunction with chemotherapy, the treatment promises to be highly successful too: According to Professor Martin Glennie, Head of Cancer Sciences and Southampton, “more than ninety percent of patients treated with immunotherapy who have survived more than two years remain cancer free.” More broadly, around half of patients with difficult-to-treat cancers were found to show significant improvements, with twenty percent becoming completely cancer-free. These remarkable results will only improve, and experts predict that cancer vaccines could become widely available within the next fifteen years.

Protecting Coral Reefs

According to the WWF, coral reefs provide close to $30Bn each year in goods and services, as well as supporting enormous biodiversity. Despite the benefits and importance of reefs, increases in temperature and light have led to coral bleaching 16

– the loss of algae from the coral’s tissue, resulting in the coral turning white. Corals cannot survive without the symbiotic relationship with algae which provide sugars and lipids to the coral, as well as dissolved nitrogen and phosphorous. Corals tend to die relatively quickly after losing their symbionts, so coral mortality is usually very high after a mass bleaching event – causing a knock-on impact to the entire ecosystem.

Professor Jörg Wiedenmann is at the helm of efforts to change the attitudes of people and the way they interact with coral reefs. They are also researching how some species of coral can survive in hostile environments such as the Persian/Arabian Gulf, where high salinity and summer temperatures of around 35°C would kill other similar coral species. The research carried out by his team is crucial for understanding how biodiversity can be maintained in oceans around the world in the face of threats such as climate change and other human activity.

µ-VIS X-Ray Imaging Centre

The £3m state-of-the-art research facility opened in 2011 draws upon the expertise of over forty academic staff to deliver high resolution X-Ray computer tomography (CT).

CT imaging (like that used in a CAT scan) makes use of X-Ray images taken at different angles to build up cross-sectional images of different samples. The µ-VIS centre allows for 3D models to be generated from the images taken at microscopelevels of detail. As a result, researchers have been able to peer into the microstructures of materials to trace crack growth; SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT

Science & Environment

scan biopsied lung samples with pulmonary fibrosis to reveal the extent of scarring and archaeologists have been able to view the internal contents of precious and fragile artefacts – all with technology initially designed for analysing jet engine blades.

of the most important archaeological sites in the world. The work uncovered Portus in stunning detail, revealing quays, shipyards, a large Roman palace and, incredibly, even the biological profile of people who worked in and passed through the port.

Olympians in the RJ Mitchell Wind Tunnel

The discoveries at Portus have reached a global audience – between a BBC1 documentary and an online University course, more than forty million people have learned about Portus – something which could not have happened without the developments made by the project. The use of CGI visualisations, in particular, has been useful for educational purposes, as well as for informing policy makers about the importance of the site.

Southampton University has established an international reputation for excellence in the field of performance sports engineering over four decades, with wind tunnel engineers contributing to the successes of British cycling athletes, competitive sailors, Formula 1 teams and more.

Involvement has concentrated on sports involving high speeds, where the potential gains through aerodynamic and hydrodynamic optimisation are greatest. In particular, significant research into bike aerodynamics has been carried out, as well streamlining athletes’ helmets and riding positions.

The result of all this investment is that the British cycling team is now one of the dominant teams in the world, receiving twelve medals in total at the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro – twice the number of the next highest ranking country, the Netherlands.

The team’s excavation of Portus has led to a £2.1m grant from the European Research Council to examine thirty-one other Roman ports across nine different countries to learn how they functioned within the vast Roman trading network.

The Wolfson Unit at Southampton was awarded the status of Innovation Partner with UK Sport in 2007.

Making the past a virtual reality

Researchers are using cutting-edge technologies such as satellite and X-Ray imaging, geophysical analysis, photogrammetry and computer simulations to bring ancient sites to life. A major example is the exploration of the important Roman harbour city of Portus, 30 km west of Rome and one SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT

Wessex Scene’s science group is always looking for new writers.

Whether you’re interested in psychology or astrophysics or tech fanboyism, anyone and everyone is welcome. Drop me a line at science@wessexscene.co.uk 17

18

PAUSE

Lifestyle

Your university bedro om essentials WORDS BY ALICE HEARING IMAGE BY SOPHIE WILLIAMS

Packing for university can be a struggle. It’s so hard to think of everything you might possibly need. However, Wessex Scene are here to help with a list of university bedroom essentials to make your flat feel like a home.

A Blow Up Mattress

Fairylights

Keep this under your bed and you’ll automatically have a comfy place for all your friends from home to come for a sleepover.

Or, you might need it if you or someone else manages to vomit on your bed.

A Rug

And make it sturdy for those heavy halls doors. Propping your door open in halls will be a saviour for your social life. Keeping an open door means others are more likely to feel like they can come in and talk to you, offer you a cup of tea as they walk down the corridor or invite you on a night out.

Putting up some pretty lights automatically adds to the homeliness of a room and make you feel all cosy. It turns a drab student room into an awesome little den where you can watch Stranger Things and chill the f*ck out.

This might seem obvious but it’s something that freshers will often forget. Any kind of size rug adds character to a room and stops it looking a bit bare. Ikea have some pretty cheap and kicking rugs in stock.

Photos and Posters

Once you’ve moved away, you’re going to want something to remind you of home and who you are. Buy yourself a hanging photo display or some pegs, some blu-tac and you’re set to go. They’ll look awesome above your bed or all over your wardrobe. Go crazy!

A Plant

Something as small as a little cactus can give you an enormous sense of pride and watering it every few months will still make you feel productive and like a capable person. Cacti don’t need much attention so you don’t need to worry about taking much care of them. Plus it adds to the #aesthetic. Another alternative is an orchid. They’re also fairly easy to maintain and look very pretty on a desk.

LIFESTYLE

A Doorstop

A Hand Hoover

Buying yourself a hoover is probably something you never had to think about before university. Now you’re out of your parents house, you’ve got to clean your own room. You’d be surprised how much muck can accumulate on your bedroom floor over freshers week and it doesn’t look very nice for guests. If you eat your meals in your room, you’ll definitely need a hoover.

A Laundry Hamper

Or something that you can throw all your dirty clothes into rather than throwing them all over the floor or dedicating a drawer. There are lots of nice cheap ones available and you can just shove it discreetly under your desk or your bed.

Bluetooth Speakers

You’ll be hailed a God/Goddess at pre-drinks and maybe even given free reign over music. Plus, speakers are a great way to drown out the sound of your flatmate next door after they’ve brought someone home after a night out.

19

Lifestyle

The Most Common Student Illnesses & How to Avoid Them WORDS BY NATÁLIA JOPLING TANSER IMAGE BY JENNY EASTON You’re really looking forward to starting university, you’ll be in a new place with new people. With all the excitement, getting ill isn’t often something you think about, but unfortunately universities are the perfect breeding ground for all kinds of germs. Especially during freshers week.

So if you don’t want to spend your freshers in bed with the flu, it’s a wise idea to keep yourself clued up on which illnesses and diseases to look out for, so you can try your best to avoid them and stay in top condition.

FRESHERS FLU

Now, THIS, is every student’s worst nightmare.

Freshers flu can be the bane of many students university experience; it spreads like wildfire and doesn’t just target freshers like the name might suggest. Mr. Freshers Flu over here does not discriminate. If you catch this, you’ll be the unpopular flatmate for about two weeks as you infect your new-found friends with your germs.

Lack of sleep, a terrible diet and stress will make you more vulnerable to this, so for your sake try to keep relaxed, eat well (pot noodles are not part of your five a day) and get some rest, even though you’ll be pretty busy.

If you do get Freshers flu, don’t fret, drink lots of water, stock up on cold-related medicine, preferably those with paracetamol in and take it easy. Lots of new seasons of shows on Netflix are coming out in September, so don’t feel sorry for yourself, think of it as getting ahead of everyone else.

It’s not a great idea to frequent the clubs and pubs Southampton has to offer when you’ve got the dreaded Freshers flu. This isn’t just because you’ll give it to other people, but because it’ll make you a lot, lot worse, and that’ll stop you from going out for a few weeks after, and you don’t want that, do you?

You’d hate to miss out on Jesters Mondays, Sobar Tuesdays, Oceana Wednesdays...

MENINGITIS

You’re probably a little shocked as this is the scariest illness on the list and there is a good reason for this. There are two different types of meningitis, viral and bacterial, the latter being the most serious.

It’s important to note that symptoms for this include a very severe headache, sudden dislike of bright lights, vomiting, stiff neck muscles and high temperature. Another tell-tale sign is a rash that appears to look like little pinpricks, which will not fade if you apply pressure to it. It is vital to go to the doctor if you experience any of these symptoms. However, lots of surgeries offer vaccinations against meningitis for those about to head off to uni, so if you haven’t already, enquire about this.

CYSTITIS

Finishing with one that’s uncomfortable to talk about cystitis, a form of a urinary tract infection (UTI). Most women will experience cystitis at one point in their life and during university is one of the most common times to get it. It can be caused by a bacterial infection which is often facilitated by sex and/or using tampons.

If you do get cystitis it will pass in a few days, but cranberry juice extract is incredibly useful to lessen your symptoms and help show the infection the door. Pharmacies also sell a course of sachets you can mix with water to help get you fighting fit again.

So there you have it, 3 of the most common student illnesses and how you can fortify your body to ward off those germs that will inevitably be coming your way! Have a great freshers everyone...

20

LIFESTYLE

Lifestyle Can I have fun without going clubbing?

Agony Aunt

The hard work is done, the wait for results is finally over and you’ve been accepted into university. Introducing Wessex Scene’s very own Agony Aunt, Agony Alex is here to quell your pre-fresher nerves, and answer any questions you have about your impending move to university.

Are there ‘fun’ sports societies for people who aren’t that sporty but want to join something?

Every halls has their own sports teams for rugby, football and netball. These teams are a great way to meet people who are living in the same accommodation as you, whilst having some fun in a relaxed environment. These teams also run lots of socials to meet more people on opposing teams too!

If clubbing isn’t for you, there’s so much other stuff available - there are plenty of music and comedy bars and venues (for those who like casual drinks and those who prefer a good glass of coke) and try throwing yourself into some societies - that way you’ll have lots of fun things to do in the evenings without the pressure of having to attend pre-drinks and heading to a club you hate. Basically just do your own thing and make sure you’re having fun and being safe however you fancy!

How do I make more friends in halls?

Over freshers, there will be tons going on including halls specific activities and nights out. Everyone is in the same boat, so everyone will be looking to make friends. Halls nights out are some of the best ways of making friends. Pre-drinks or flat parties are often advertised on the halls Facebook groups. You can also join a halls sports team or simply go around knocking on flats on the same level as you and introducing yourself.

Within your flat or corridor, invest in a door stop so you can literally become an open book.

How can I combat homesickness?

The best solution is to throw yourself into uni life and join a few societies, when you’re busy meeting people, often you won’t even have time to miss home! Another great way is to decorate your room at uni so it feels cosy and homely. Pictures of your friends and family are great to have up, as well as bits from your old room to make it look a bit more familiar.

If I’m in private rented accommodation how can I make friends?

The best way to make friends in private rented is to join societies. Go to the bunfight in Freshers week to see what societies look right for you, and try to join your degree discipline society as well as this is a great way to make course friends! Making friends with your housemates will be great, but trying to involve yourself in other uni activities will help you widen your friendship group even further.

How do I cope with pressure to drink?

It’s definitely daunting heading into Freshers if you don’t drink, because that’s what everyone hears about before they go to uni. But remember these two things - uni isn’t all about alcohol, and you definitely aren’t the only one. If you still enjoy going out but just don’t fancy messing up your liver and waking up hungover then just do you! Drinking games are really fun even when sober so remember that you know you can have fun without it, and just enjoy being able to make fun of all the embarrassing things your friends do whilst inebriated.

Published every month, Alex is here to help solve your troubles and pass on wise words of wisdom.

Contact agonyalex@wessexscene.co.uk with your problem or question, and it will be answered anonymously in our monthly column.

IMAGE BY BETHANY WESTALL LIFESTYLE

21

Lifestyle

Student Savvy Grocery Shopping When you start first year, one of the principal considerations you will have to make as a new (hopefully) functioning adult, is where to buy your food. Countless consumption crimes include a friend who relied on Pot Noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as a comrade who confidently spent £100 at Asda every single week in her first year. These are just a couple of horror stories from those who failed to plan ahead when put in charge of their own stomach. Here are a few suggestions for buying food on the cheap as well as tailoring to different diets and ethical considerations. Luckily, you are not short of supermarkets in Southampton. In this list I will run you through some hidden gems that may save you quite the cash.

ASDA

Everyone knows ASDA is a fiercely budget supermarket.

However, if you’re not clever you will end up spending way too much there, like my £100 a pop friend. Their basics are dirt cheap and branded things like cereal, crisps, bleach, paracetamol and toilet roll have an elevated price, solely for the label, although they function and taste largely the same as supermarket-own items. If you have a car, ASDA in Chandler’s Ford (towards Eastleigh) is a 24 hour gem, or failing that, there is one in town. They are both around the same distance away from Highfield.

Aldi

WORDS BY FARIHAH CHOUDHURY IMAGE BY SELINA HAMILTON

International

A grocery shop near Sprinkles in Portswood that offers many interesting spices, grains and the like if you want to wow your new flatmates with an exotic-sounding dinner. It perhaps, also houses home comforts that are quite niche and unavailable (or expensive) in chain supermarkets such as Waitrose.

Monday market

If you want authentic, fresh groceries then head to the university’s very own Monday morning market from 9am 4pm every week excluding holiday periods. It is very handy for those in halls closer to the uni than anywhere else and offers a wide range of cheeses, fruits, vegetables and freshly baked breads.

Other

Hailed by countless first years as the cheapest dark horse of Southampton’s supermarket game and neighbour to Jesters, Aldi offers jaw-droppingly low prices and brand alternatives which are on the whole deceptively good. You can honestly do an entire week’s shop for £10 if you have a good browse.

Other good food and drink outlets include: several Tescos dotted around the city, the student favourite Sainsbury’s in the heart of Portswood, Waitrose to cover your middle-class needs at the other end of Portswood highstreet, a wholefood organic store in town near Debenhams, and Charlie’s Bargain Booze to cover all of the essential alcohol bases.

Happy shopping!

22

LIFESTYLE

International

Go Further

Experiencing Other Cultures in Southampton WORDS BY CAMERON RIDGWAY IMAGE BY BETH GARRETT

Home to both an International University and a diverse, multicultural population, Southampton is a great place to experience and learn about cultures from all over the world. In this article, we suggest a few ways to take advantage of this and enrich your immersion in other cultures during your time here.

1

Join an International Society

From France to Mexico to even further afield, many of the university’s clubs and societies are dedicated to other cultures and organize regular events and trips offering you the perfect opportunity to experience the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of other cultures around and on university campuses.

Events such as MexSoc’s annual Day of the Dead celebration or the Holi festival are often free or cost very little to get involved with and can be great fun. The annual International Cultural night event organised by Union Southampton acts as an annual showcase for all of these societies and features performances and exhibitions from all corners of the globe.

These societies can also bring the university community together in times of need. For example, in the midst of the tragic terror attacks in France earlier this year vigils and a book of condolence were organised by the French Society, while the Nepalese Society organised fundraisers to support those affected by the recent earthquakes in Nepal.

2

Immerse yourself in Southampton’s history

As a port city that played a key role in the Second World War and has grown massively in recent decades, Southampton has 24

been shaped by various waves of migration as well as playing a key role in several major international events in recent years.

Museums such as the Seacity Museum (which showcases the history of the Titanic), showcase both Southampton’s history within the UK and the role it has played globally. The Solent Sky Museum in the city centre offers an insight into the city’s key role in the development of the Spitfire and its contribution to the war effort during the 1940s.

3

Learn a language

Studying at university is the perfect time to pick up a new skill and learn a foreign language. The University offers a number of free basic language classes including French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic among others through the Southampton Language Opportunity programme, full availability of courses and the dates are sent out in emails to all students and can be found on the Southampton Language opportunity website at http://www.southampton.ac.uk/ml/language_opportunity. page Some societies, such as the Japanese Society, also offer language courses which you can enrol on – giving you the opportunity to get a basic grasp of a language which may not be offered by the University. You can practice your newfound language skills at the weekly Southampton Language INTERNATIONAL

International

Exchange, held either on campus or in the city centre, which allows you to meet and speak with native speakers from several different countries and make friends at the same time.

Some societies, such as the French, Spanish and Portuguese societies, regularly organise language cafés to facilitate further practice in the target language, which are free to attend. The best way to get information about these events is to sign up to each society at the bunfight.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can also organise your own language exchanges – the language exchange board located in Avenue Campus and the Southampton Language Tandem website both allow you to find a native speaker and organise regular practice sessions in English and the language you want to learn.

4

Get into the foreign arts scene

Southampton is home to huge array of foreign cinema. The Avenue Campus film collection can be accessed by any student and is home to films in several different languages and the Phoenix World Cinema group regularly organises showings of films from across the world in the Union Films cinema on campus, with reduced price admission for University students.

Be sure to check both the Phoenix and Union Films schedules published at the start of each semester for full info.

Even if you don’t speak a Foreign Language, many of the films INTERNATIONAL

come with English subtitles and offer a great insight into art and culture in other countries that you may not experience otherwise. International film screenings are also often organised by societies at the University and many of these are free to enter.

Foreign theatre and dance are also set to become more prominent in Southampton in coming years. Comedian Eddie Izzard recently performed at the Nuffield Theatre on campus in French and German, while the forthcoming opening of a large new Arts Centre in the middle of the city means that Southampton is likely to attract more and more touring theatre companies from across the globe.

5

Enjoy international Cuisine

Sounds like an excuse to go and eat lots of food (maybe it is), but Southampton is home to a huge range of eateries and restaurants with cuisine from across the world.

Although expensive, Ennio’s has been rated the best Italian restaurant in Hampshire, whilst other recent openings have focused on dishes from as far afield as Malaysia. Many establishments offer deals for large groups or some form of student discount, meaning that eating out every once in a while is not as prohibitively expensive as you would think.

25

Travel

What’s On Soton?

WORDS BY CHARLOTTE HOLMES IMAGE BY TARA SHORE

F

irst things first, there’s not a beach here. I’m sorry.

However, if you do fancy a trip to the seaside, Bournemouth is lovely and only about £10 for a return on the train. But what Southampton does have to offer you is an array of alternatives, who needs sand between their toes when this magical city is right under their nose?

Southampton isn’t a huge place, you can easily get around by foot or hop on your bike. Freshers – make the most of your free bus pass – but also go for a wander, the city has a lot of pretty places jotted around. For a smaller city, Southampton has a lot to offer, it has heart. Whether you find that heart in the cholesterol-filled, waffle-y wonder that is Sprinkles; the fresher fields of The Common or that mystery known as the Jesticle (I’m into third year and still not 100% what is in those).

It is uncertain, but there’s no doubt that it’s there, you’ll feel it – postponed till the morning for that last one. After all that hyping up, here’s how to break things down;

26

Food:

For the sweet-toothed...

Nothing beats a good pudding. I don’t know if it is a curse or a blessing but my teeth are incredibly sweet. I could easily fill this entire article discussing the dilemma of a chocolate or custard-based dessert, but I won’t waffle on.

There are three Sprinkles in Southampton providing all sorts of sugary goodness until midnight. You can go gossip over gelato with friends, or for the romantics out there it’s undeniable that sweet food is the way to any heart. Scoops, is an alternative to Sprinkles and can be found just down the road on Portswood. And then there’s Mundy’s, at the bottom of Bedford place which is also worthy competition. Mundy’s takes the lead for entertainment since it has facilities of retro video games to play whilst munching down on your waffles and ice-cream. Which is best? Well I may have a photogenic memory of the Gregg’s confectionery section, but that doesn’t give me the right to decide for you. Guess you will have to try them all for yourselves!

TRAVEL

Travel The Palace of Dreams = eventful nights that you probably will not remember. Maybe for the best. But, if you get invited to Jesters, go.

Even if it’s for the one-off experience, I wouldn’t recommend anything more highly. Keep your expectations low and your standards lower.

Grab a Juicy Lucy and dance to some full-on cheesy music. Purchase ‘Jesters shoes’ - their demise is inevitable (Primark in town - £3).

For the all-you-can-eaters...

Tiger Lily, Bedford Place, was a nice little find. Tucked in by Buddha Lounge; the restaurant also gives its customers free entry into the neighbouring club.

In town, Ocean Dragon, right next to Boots, is a Chinese allyou-can-eat buffet. It has a good student deal which proves a real bargain.

Finally Global Buffet, in Marlands shopping centre. It only recently opened and is a tad pricier than the rest at £15 a pop but water is free and that’s your whole night set. Who cares if you purse is a little empty when your tummy’s full, be waddling home with absolutely no regrets.

Night-life:

The Palace of Dreams = eventful nights that you probably will not remember. Maybe for the best. But, if you get invited to Jesters, go. Even if it’s for the one-off experience, I wouldn’t recommend anything more highly. Keep your expectations low and your standards lower. Grab a Juicy Lucy and dance to some full-on cheesy music. Purchase ‘Jesters shoes’ - their demise is inevitable (Primark in town - £3).

The Edge is often journeyed to instinctively after Jesters since it’s open till 6am, or can be sought out as just a good night in itself. Manzils is probably still open for the trek back so you could also pop in for an early morning curry on your way home.

Switch and Oceana are probably the classiest clubs in the city.

The heels can come out of hibernation, and the shirts have to stay on (unfortunately Baywatch hasn’t caught on with places outside of Jesters yet). You may need to get a taxi, but it can still be done on the cheap. Don’t worry. Again, definitely worth a visit, even only once.

TRAVEL

So much room for activities:

Snow Sports Yes, you read right. No beach, but you can ski. Alpine Snowsports Centre is a dry slope very nearby to the uni that is reasonably priced. If you know how to use a T-bar lift and have a gym membership with the University, you can even use the facilities for free!

Mini-golf There’s an 18-hole course on East Park (just before the town centre). There is no windmill obstacle – I know, again with the disappointment, but for £2.50 per person it is well worth a go. There’s a tennis court right next to it and a nice little Mediterranean café, where you may be served by yours truly.

Bowling Ten-pin Southampton is a short bus ride away, so if the mood strikes you, take advantage of that free bus pass and head over.

Trust Google more than me for the directions.

Cinema There is an Odeon down in West Quay. Alternatively, Union Films offers the latest titles shown on campus for £3 or £4.

Art Gallery Southampton City Art Gallery can be found just before the town centre, right next to Solent – don’t let that put you off.

The exhibitions are usually very interesting to potter around.

Also, the City Library is in the same building and quite often there are public speakers or events to get involved with here, and they tend to be free or very little cost. The place is quiet, like a library should be and unlike Hartley at certain times of the year. Possibly this quietness is because of the proximity to Solent but either way it’s an alternative option for study sessions.

So, yeah, overall there’s quite a lot on in Southampton.

27

Travel

Further Afield WORDS BY FREYA MILLARD IMAGE BY MACKENZIE BROWN

In case you are looking for a little adventure outside of Britain, the university does offer some really great opportunities and events you can sign up to during your first year that will ignite that travelling spark.

SKIING AND SNOWBOARDING TRIPS If snow sports are your passion than the University does of course have its very own SUSSC (skiing and snowboarding) society which like all societies here will welcome you with open arms. They offer tones of fun filled social events, like pub golf on the Isle of Wight and trips to Southampton dry slopes.

But as they say, there’s nothing quite like the real thing so the University also offers two skiing trips abroad in Europe. Once at the end of semester one during the Christmas holidays and the other during the Easter holidays. You just can’t beat the experience of skiing on fresh snow in the heights of towering mountains whilst soaking up European culture.

FRESHERDAMS Every year each halls and some different societies will offer out the chance for you to go on an almost notorious and incredibly memorable trip to Amsterdam. The trip tends to happen in Semester two offering you plenty of time to make those lasting University friendship bonds beforehand and then decide on a probably drunken night out that the only way to better your fresher’s experience is if you buddied up and all went to Amsterdam. The drive by coach is long, you will have to face two twelve hour journeys back and forth but hey, being on the road with your friends is sometimes one of the best parts about travelling. The trip in itself doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, although of course spending money is not included so you’ll need to budget some cash for those late night drinks TRAVEL

and other sources of intoxication you may desire to legally use in Amsterdam. All in all Fresherdams can be whatever you make of it, It’s nothing like the Southampton city experience and you basically get to go on a massive a group holiday with your friends and hundreds of other first year students, all ready to have an awesome time in the Dutch Capital.

JAILBREAK Now this is an event close to my heart and that I cannot stress enough was one of the best things I’ve ever been a part of at University and just in general. Moving away from home to go to University and live alone is an incredibly daunting experience, it’ll test you and challenge you to adapt to new circumstances preparing you for bigger things to come in life. For me taking part in Jailbreak at university was a massive step in the process of growing up, it was a moment of real transition from being a teenager still reliant on others to a young adult testing my own waters in the world.

So what is jailbreak?

Jailbreak is a charity fundraising event run by the university’s RAG society every year. The overall premise is that teams of two or three people will have a limited time frame of 36 hours to get as far away from Southampton as possible without spending any money on transport. It’s an insane weekend to be a part of and has endless possible outcomes depending on how you rise to the challenge. You won’t want to miss this, jailbreak will forever remain a solid highlight of your time here at Southampton University.

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Sport

The Shadows of rio WORDS BY XAVIER VOIGT-HILL IMAGE BY CHARLOTTE MIELL

The night after Usain Bolt brought relief to a world united by his majesty and a shared disdain for twice-banned doper Justin Gatlin, tickets couldn’t even be given away. Action in the sparsely-populated Olympic Stadium was briefly suspended as torrential rain was deemed sufficient for a complete restart of the men’s 110 metre hurdles heats and pole vault final, and the women’s 400 metre final ended with a Bahamian stumble into a full-stretch lunge to seal gold. For Brazil’s Thiago Braz da Silva, the hosts’ best hope of a track-and-field medal, conditions were mildly biblical and aspirations mildly comical, having come just 19th in the 2015 World Championships.

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is pole vault final was merely a contest to claim silver behind Renaud Lavillenie – defending champion, Olympic and world record holder, worldwide season leader, and flawless through his first four vaults despite only entering at a height that had eliminated 26 of the 32 competitors. Breaking his own Olympic record by vaulting 5.98 metres appeared so devilishly casual that da Silva did the only rational thing: skip that lifetime best-eclipsing height, forcing Lavillenie to vault again immediately to buy himself time to pick through his own bag to see if he even had a pole long or flexible enough. On the first attempt, the Brazilian couldn’t even get high enough to hit the bar. As Lavillenie clattered it three times, the opportunity was seized.

Thus, Brazil’s Olympic idyll was complete: an unfancied athlete powered by roars from the home crowd chewed up expectations into an infectious smile by reaching the pinnacle of a sport that few ever acknowledge beyond quadrennial blasts of gleefully devouring everything with a flag. Perhaps the most glamorous destination to have ever hosted the “Summer” games in one of its own winter months, Rio de Janeiro largely defied the precautionary cries of “Zika,” “political corruption and scandal on levels that would make even sporting administrators ashamed,” and “the buildings aren’t finished.” Aside from the sofa that may have capsized a canoe and the accidental pollution of the diving pool with 160 litres of hydrogen peroxide to gift Tom Daley and his Daily Mail-ignored company a deeply verdant tinge to their artful splashes, even the water brought a drought to the pessimists, and the threat of violent crime only became a sticking point when twelve-time medallist Ryan Lochte lied to media and police before fleeing the country because he was too embarrassed to tell his mother the truth about a drunken skirmish at a petrol station.

One shadow, though, refused to yield. The World AntiDoping Agency’s McLaren report, commissioned to unveil the breadth of Russia’s state-sponsored doping programs, led to faint suspicion lingering over almost anything that drew breath. Punishments for drug offences are already horrendously slack, hence the likes of Gatlin continue to race despite being relentless offenders, yet by permitting 271 of Russia’s intended 389 athletes to compete and not granting an opening for Yuliya Stepanova, the athlete who blew the door off the racket and completed her outstanding sentence, the International Olympic Committee displayed a shameful lack of conviction and determination to utilise athletes’ support to clean their events. Instead, they left their Paralympic counterparts to show some backbone for their tournament, stripped-down due to atrocious ticket sales and funding shortfalls.

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Certainly, the blanket bans afforded to Russians by the IPC and governing bodies for athletics and weightlifting will have prohibited clean competitors from taking part, but in such a context any flippancy regarding cleanliness must be acted harshly upon. If it is even worth persisting with the charade of depicting profession sport as an arena for celebrating the pure and innocent power of human capability and endeavour, and as fans we must not tolerate Lizzie Armitstead’s repeated missed tests or Mo Farah’s connections to coaches of drug cheats regardless of their own presumed regimes and successes.

Where situations were perhaps at their murkiest was in the swimming pool, where allegations of sheer incompetence with qualification timings was overshadowed by Russia’s Yulia Efimova and China’s Sun Yang each adding two medals to their London hauls despite observing suspensions for failed tests in the meantime. Sun’s suspension was only announced once served and Efimova’s use of meldonium this spring, a recently-banned substance most notable for bringing down Maria Sharapova, came barely a year after a 16-month disqualification. With colleagues openly bemoaning their participation and Great Britain’s head coach declaring that doping cost his team four medals, this floundering governance is all the more disappointing given the superb events that took place.

Pool action didn’t properly start until 2am for British viewers thanks to NBC’s arm-bending for a primetime Michael Phelps Show, however those who did lose sleep alongside Helen Skelton’s affable and appropriately-clad crew witnessed incredible feats. Phelps himself returned from post-2012 retirement to bring his career tally to 23 gold medals, though a pure and spritely set of pretenders to his throne captured the limelight. With your flawless Adam Peatys and Katie Ledeckys, the blend of advancements in technology and technique presents an exuberant spectacle that is both enchanting and, we hope to Cristo Redentor, wholly natural.

That Phelps’ final solo race ended in a tie with longtime rivals Chad le Clos and László Cseh almost a second behind Joseph Schooling – a 21-year-old who saw Phelps as a childhood hero and claimed Singapore’s first ever gold medal – was particularly apt. In a fortnight of incredible drama both on and off the clock, the athletes yielded the passion lacked (unsurprisingly) by many locals to forge heroes, immortalise legends, and realise potential. Where the impact and integrity of the games itself is concerned, only time will tell.

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Sport

Sport at Southampton: A Guide WORDS BY XAVIER VOIGT-HILL

IMAGE BY CHARLOTTE MIELL

Buy a gym membership Twelve lethargic months since I arrived in Southampton with bags of ambition and a penchant for cricket (and its tea breaks), I’m as physically slovenly as ever. Instead of locating the gym, I found the pen, leading me to somehow getting charged with guiding you towards the plethora of opportunities to be active. Use my errors as a cautionary tale and you may well flourish.

Tackle the bunfight Now you’ve made it to the university with a union that has more societies than any other in the country, the Bunfight is the best way to embrace them. Its seven-hour duration may encourage you to grab a lie-in and only turn up for the last five minutes, if at all. But, it may well be the most important day of your first week in the city – and not just because you’ll join the Wessex Scene.

There will be queues all over, though a trip around the temporarily labyrinthine Jubilee Sports Hall is worth every second. Over 100 sporting groups will be there waving their equipment and absorbing your email address to bring you into their ranks, with many of them offering activities you’ve never heard of or imagined – think along the lines of TriVolle, tchoukball, Kendo, and the new-for-2016 zorb football and dog sledding societies.

Use the taster sessions Most groups you sign up for may never be seen outside your email inbox, but many offer completely free taster sessions over the first weekend of October. Hop on a U1A bus towards Wide Lane, the university’s 22-pitch complex near the airport, and you’ll find yourself in a world of literal fun and games. Don’t worry if you miss out, though – head to the Union Southampton website at any point throughout the year and you can find out who to contact if you’d like to take part.

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For many societies and intramural competition, you’ll almost certainly need to have a valid Sport & Wellbeing membership, and for those whose active time is best spent in the gym it’s a splendid asset. 12 months will set you back £165 – a perfect way to break into your first student loan payment – although this does also give you unlimited usage of the various swimming pools and gyms, including the flagship 150-station gym on Highfield Campus and the on-site facilities at Glen Eyre, Connaught, and Mayflower halls.

Gear up for Varsity Varsity, our annual Olympics-in-a-day, gives you your finest excuse to don the maroon and yellow. 2016’s encounters across 38 disciplines saw a record 254-96 victory for Southampton over Solent rivals Portsmouth, and strong participation and support on 2017’s away leg will be vital to ensure more of the same. If you’re not involved, Wessex Scene will have you covered with liveblogs throughout the day, and there are plenty of other competitive fixtures thanks to the university’s presence in 79 BUCS leagues with higher education facilities across the nation.

Support the locals Fierce sporting rivalries aren’t exclusively the domain of Varsity down here, with a smattering of professional sides based around the city and the local area. Take a trip to St. Mary’s Stadium, located just a short walk east from the city centre, and you can catch Southampton FC and their ever-rotating cast of plucky players destined for bigger clubs like Liverpool and Arsenal.

Weather and buses permitting, you can even travel further afield into West End to watch Hampshire’s cricket team at the Ageas Bowl, with well-priced student tickets and a great atmosphere for Friday night Twenty20 alongside an 18-hole golf course that opens next year and a hotel that hosted 2016’s Athletic Union Ball.

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FRESHERS BINGO Smoke coming out the microwave o Swivel-chair racing in the corridor o Fresher’s reps who are passed out before 11pm o Unexplained halls rivalries o That one who keeps talking about their Gap Yah o The one who has partner from home visit every weekend o Making skittles vodka o Baywatch in Jester’s o Missing your welcome lecture o Fresher’s flu o Playing Never Have I Ever o The North/South Rivalry o

WORDS BY TOM RANDALL IMAGE BY HEATHER RANKINE

o The kid who wants to try drugs and gets ripped off by a dealer o Trying to cook baked beans and somehow getting it wrong o That one who goes to waitrose o Destroying your JCR shirt o Having a chunder chart on the fridge o Joining an obscure society o Starting a new sport o Not going into the Hartley until November o Already getting leaflets from lettings agents o Unimaginative halls songs o Fire alarm at 3am o‘Wars’ with flat on floor above or below

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Hartley Library

YOUR ULTIMATE GUIDE TO

WORDS BY TOM RANDALL IMAGE BY BETHANY DAVIDSON

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o, it’s about November and you have decided that you might perhaps darken the doors of the Hartley Library, the field of screams. After all, first year doesn’t count and the guy in the flat with a grad job virtually in the bag already is a tosser anyway. You enter the doors and through the turnstiles, eager to get down to work. But the building would make the labyrinth of Knossos look simple and easily laid out, so where should you work? Which floor is best?

The first floor, actually downstairs from where you enter just to increase disorientation, is the casual floor. If you’re here, you’re not really there to get work done. You’re there to tell yourself you did five hours in the library and so you can spend what remains of your loan on quad vods. Loud groups talking on the round tables, by the stairs and an utter dearth of plug sockets make this the floor for the student not particularly bothered about having a productive session. Which is probably ok if you’re an English student.

The second floor, by the entrance, is perhaps the worst floor.

Not very many seats, but worst of all, you can look out the windows to the civilised world outside. Much like the prisoner with a cell overlooking freedom, the psychological trauma is simply too much for many and work may not actually happen.

Also, virtually none of the books are kept here, ensuring long walks if you actually still use paper books for the nostalgia feel.

The third floor is a more promising bet on the outside, but is perhaps the purgatory floor. It has the optimum ratio of books and work spaces, and a few decent plug sockets to boot. However, everybody else has the same idea. You’ll have to show up at about 5am to get a desk during the exam season, and good luck finding one at any other time.

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The fourth floor is fairly quiet but, mostly given over to quiet space where computers are not allowed. This is excellent if you are a time-traveller from 1988. However, the reading rooms given over to this are probably the closest our beloved campus comes to classic interior design, with tasteful bookcases and paintings accompanying the wooden desks and staircase up to the fifth floor. One for the atmospherics, although you won’t be able to enact your intellectual fantasies with a brandy and cigar up here.

The fifth floor might be the quietest, but this is for a good reason. There are strange things on the browsing histories up here. If you thought porn was the worst thing you could browse in a public place, you need some imagination. Unironic 4chan posting and watching children’s’ cartoons such as My Little Pony go up here, as does seemingly sleeping on the desks all the time. There is a film resource room which is quiet and rarely more than half full, but only humanities students get a card for this. Make friends if you are not a member of the seven contact hours club to gain entry.

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