A Year In Review
It's been a while since our last blog post... I'm not sure if you noticed. I can only put this down to the fact that our very own Boater Burgess was far too busy shredding gnar and "send(ing) it" to have time spare to record anything. As it would be a great shame to have no record whatsoever of what has surely been another incredible year of boating and beatering in GUCC I will do my best to give you all a wee snapshot.
September
Reunion Weekend 2018 @Grandtully
The year started with a bit of a bang. Demand for club membership was high with over 250 freshers lured in at the Freshers Fayre with promises of £1 pizza and the notion of a relaxing paddle over a loch. This was closely followed by a flood of 150 freshers to Pinkston for the taster session leaving our poor commodore trembling in fear of a possible hundred or so people rocking up at her flat.
Scavenger Hunt, as always, was a massive success. Hugh did an incredible job organising it and the cat in the hat team knocked it out the park.
October
The first big club social I attended was the white t-shirt night. The aftermath of 3 hours of polo against Stirling and Strathy and drinks afterwards in Bank Street culminated in a wild night in Sanctuary not to be forgotten. Or, in my case, to be forgotten almost completely.
(Looking good lads, ahahahaha.)
Freshers weekend followed shortly after. I think it'd be fair to say that it had its highs and lows and certainly isn't a weekend any of us will be forgetting anytime soon. That being said I'd like to think that the first weekend trip of the year was a great opportunity for group bonding and for some of the older members to teach the freshers how not to drink.
November
Rubik's cube night. The idea was to have every piece of clothing a different colour at the start of the night and end the night in just one colour. I have vague recollections of Cameron and Rothwell (?) switching shirts around at the start of the night though I have now been lead to believe that this is fairly commonplace and unlikely due to the theme of the night. For most of us the less said about this night the better. Ignoring what everyone else was doing (trust me, for the best) we'll just focus on my account of a lovely evening with my soon to be pals. Hugh tipping half a bottle of sourz down my throat, my first chat with John who I insist to this day kicked me out of Starbucks and a relaxed stroll down Dumbarton Road before fragmented memories in Sanctuary.
(I couldn't find a group picture, but that's probably for the best with many of us still questioning whether we love Wednesdays.)
Mach. Absolutely couldn't look back on the year and gloss over one of the biggest events in our calendar. This year was far less wavy than we would have liked and clashed a little with exam revision but was nonetheless a weekend to remember. To this day we are all still reliving the fun times at Mach through G'day Sheila, a drinking game that Iona can't remember the rules to but still insists we all play (thanks Paddy.)
December
December saw our annual club Christmas dinner and secret santa. In true GUCC fashion everyone rocked up fashionably late and either hungover or still slightly tipsy from the night before. This actually ended up working to our advantage as most folk were more keen for a wee scoff and a catch up before Christmas break than a wild, out of control, Cameron-esque sesh.
January
Semester 2 kicked off for most of us at our Burns night supper. Another great example of our social sec's organisational prowess, we all enjoyed some haggis, neeps and tatties and a cheeky dram whilst Ruari and Iona treated us to some speeches. Personal highlight was undoubtedly Hugh's address to the largest wad of raw haggis I've ever seen.
January also saw us step up our polo playing a notch. The first div 3 matches of the year were very well played by Kim, Cameron, Eoghan, Stefan and Jonny Bell securing 3/4 wins when playing against DUCC, AUCC and Strathy.
February
Whilst still on the polo theme and now leading into February we saw Jade play in her first div 3 games at the Olympia alongside Kim, Cameron, Eoghan and Jonny Bell where they managed to clock up another 4 wins on our behalf. Absolute legends.
Flat Crawl. A messy night for the best of us. I would love to give you all a detailed account of this but I am once again struck with a case of alcohol related amnesia. What I do remember: Iona had a strop; Cameron is not good at navigating, swear it took us days to get from Fi's to Maia's and rage cage with GUCC is dangerous. Also, if you're on a night out with me you'd best believe we'll be ending it in 727 or barbeque kings or else Emily will be most displeased.
To round off February we were able to enjoy a night out with SUCC during their film fest. They may say we were overdressed but I'd argue we can't help scrubbing up so well.
Gameface
March
The annual water sports ceilidh, this year organised by sailing, was a great night and fun opportunity to socialise with some other adventurous folk. My first taste of a ceilidh, because the first night of my freshers week was many things, but a ceilidh? I think not. Eoghan showed great perseverance in that he still hadn't given up on my dancing ability at the end of the night when his feet were surely beyond crushed, for which I am grateful. Wasn't too chuffed when Cameron decided to hit me with a jump scare from behind but I guess you can't have it all.
Disclaimer now actually, March is a busy one so strap yourselves in. Soon after the ceilidh was our intermediate weekend. This was undoubtedly a little chillier than everyone had planned but I am nonetheless under the impression that everyone had a great time. Especially John, Jonny Byers and Sid who are said to have kept the sesh running throughout the night; something I'm sure delighted everyone else. Also, special shout out to Matt, joining as a fresher in semester 2 and truly repping on the weekend showing some of the older members how it's done.
That leads us nicely on to subcrawl. A tradition amongst many societies and clubs across Glasgow and one which Hugh successfully revived for us all. Once more, blurry times. And sorry about your jeans Nick. Turns out tipsy Emily isn't the best port of call for a late night piggyback race.
SUS was without a doubt one of the biggest and most enjoyable weekends of the year and we are all extremely grateful to Kim for having organised it so well. We all played host to AUCC, DUCC, EUCC, HWUCC and our old pals SUCC for a polo filled weekend. Friday night was spent in Sanctuary making our guests feel welcome (a little too welcome in some cases, you know who you are.) Saturday was freezing. Quite literally. So much respect for everyone who got out and played because I was finding it struggle enough to keep score through the chill. The GUCC boys played really well and the girls absolutely smashed it and won it for us. This is particularly impressive considering that one of them *cough* Cinnamon *cough* is thought to have rocked up, highly flammable from excess alcohol consumption, fresh from Sanctuary. The Saturday was rounded off with a ceilidh in the evening in GUU. Life hack: if you don't want the biggest bruises you ever did see on your arms the next day make sure to patch the Edinburgh boys in strip the willow. The next day saw a hungover Bank Street brunch and the end of another amazing weekend.
To round March off, I did warn you it was a long one, we had our AGM. Despite every effort to make this as fast and painless as possible it was still 3 hours before we trundled down to Beer Bar. That being said the thought and effort put in by Maia at the start with the prizes was massively appreciated and almost everyone made it through unscathed, Lewis and Sid being the exceptions. It was later in the night that the mystic chimes of the beer bar bells were heard. Whispers of free drinks and looks of disbelief were briefly exchanged before charging to the bar. If only we'd been able to show more restraint our new commodore may have been spared a near kidnapping by me dressed as a deer in an uber. Explanations; I'm afraid I don't have.
April
After last months extravaganza you may be surprised to hear that I actually don't have anything to say here. One word: exams. Sad reacts only.
May
Still celebrating the end of our month long stint in the library many of us were ill prepared for Etive weekend. By many of us I mean 2 of us but I won't elaborate further. If you know you know. Highlights include the carnage wheel down the Garry as Strathy looked on. Lessons learnt: smidge is most effective when not sprayed directly into your eyes; don't try to take Emily's vodka away from her- the potential consequences are too steep; the first priority on any night out should be to make sure that Matt makes it to bed okay; Steve and Hamish look extra hench in drysuits; don't trust Jonny Bell to tell you if you have salsa on your face and never leave SUCC alone with GUSA7.
We round May off on Wallaby Island, or Inchconnachan if you prefer. We made it in decent time, not thanks to my directions, and were quick to speculate who would beater on the way over. Whilst the older members were quick to suggest it'd be one of us freshers it was in fact Cinny who decided to treat us all to an attempted hand roll turned T-rescue. Ruari, initially making fun of us all on his open top, was soon eating his own words as he found himself taking on water. Unfortunately we didn't spot any wallabies on our travels, save for Iona. We did however enjoy a variety of games around the campfire and a late night dip in the loch so I'd count it a success overall.
June
I'll round off this post by touching on some of the tales I've heard circulating from this years trip to the French Alps. Shout out to Maia for organising an amazing 2 week boating holiday for everyone. Having not been there I can't go into too much depth, maybe for the best considering how much I've already waffled. What I do know: of the few times they chose to post to the clubs social media whilst they were away one of the few updates we received was Steve eating grapefruit. Why? I still couldn't tell you. John and Jonny Byers were able to successfully cook the best and worst meal of the alps trip. Whilst on the subject of cooking, Jonny Byers, a now qualified doctor, can't tell a horseradish from a parsnip (we're praying for you Aberdeen.) Kirsty and Iona aren't the ones to be trusted in recovering a fish carcass for the French police. EUCC now want to be our pals and Jonny Bell is quite possibly still pacing that campsite looking for Cameron.
It goes without saying that this past year has also been filled with many day trips; Pinkston sessions and fun socials that I haven't included. Thanks once more to the outgoing committee and thank you GUCC for such an amazing year, I can't wait to see what the next one brings!
-Emily
