Summer Ball 2013

The Summer Ball is an annual event hosted by our Student Union. It was the biggest student event in Wales this year and not only did the website have a kick-ass video, the Ball itself was full of fairground rides and awesome music acts.

The Ball was one of the best days I've ever had in University. It was one big happy blur of laughing, drinking and being with my friends in the sun.

Our day began pretty slowly, with fried breakfasts in PJs and slow walks to the shop. There was some debate over when to be ready for but we eventually decided on 2pm and went off to shower and get ready for the day.

Music and movement filled the corridors as we all dressed up, suited up and started drinking together for the last time this semester. We all piled in to the kitchen (something that hasn't been attempted properly since Freshers) and the drinking began.

I have to say, I don't think shots of absinthe at 3pm sounds like a good idea to anyone other than students. The stuff not only smells vile but the 7 of us that did the shot had the wonderful experience of having our mouths on fire after it. The only idea that was worse than that is when the boys decided to play a game of catch with an egg. We have it on video and all you can hear is laughing, nervous shouts and "my dress! my dress!" from me before the egg flew past McPake's hands and hit the wall. I kind of feel nervous about what our house will look like next year....

As we were walking down to the Ball, we stopped on the grass outside of Fulton House and had a few photos taken. By "had a few photos taken", what I really mean is we had about 3 photos before the boys all decided to photo-bomb everyone in sight. Poor McPake ended up having a pint of beer tipped over him!

The rest of the day/evening is all mixed up in my mind (I blame Benj for convincing me wine was a good idea). We sat under the Red Bull tent for a while, shading ourselves from the sun and taking in everything around us. There was a glorious moment when I bought myself a burger and found it was the most delicious thing in the world. Really, there is nothing better than a fairground burger. Nothing.

There was one wonderful moment when we were stood listening to someone play guitar&sing when McPake grabbed Meryn and began dancing with her in the space between the stage and the crowd. Laughing, the rest of us joined in; swinging each other around to pretty music in the sunshine.

We ended up going back and forth to the flat. Once for sunglasses and a few times to predrink a bit more. It turns out that the bars were not only limited to Jaeger, cider, vodka, lager and rubbish VK flavours but they were tear-inducingly expensive as well. £3.50 for a VK was enough to ensure we bought nothing else for the rest of the night.

One of the fairground rides was the Dodgems. If I could only give you one piece of advice it would be to always, always go on Dodgems when you are drunk. There is nothing funnier than driving a hilariously small car into other people when none of you have any real idea what's going on. Between high-fiving Ainsley when McPake was driving me around to continually going around in backwards circles when I figured out how to reverse but couldn't work out how to go back to driving forward, I have never laughed so much.

There was an area near the main stage called "Junkyard" which we discovered had a silent disco inside it. Tom, McPake and I queued up, not expecting much but wow, it was brilliant. We had to leave at one point but we came back with Anna and Dan, not even caring that the queue was too long or it was closing at 10. We had so much fun jumping around with headphones on and messing around in the photobooth. There's a video of me, Tom and McPake on Tom's phone and it's the weirdest thing in the world. We're all jumping around and singing but you can't hear the song that's playing. It's great to watch it back, even with all the out-of-tune singing and bad dancing!

The Ball ended with me and Meryn dancing to Tidal Wave by Sub Focus at the back of the mass of students. We had lost everyone gradually throughout the day and it ended up being us, McPake and Anna standing at the edge of everything, watching it all happen while we rested our feet and waited for the last song. As it began, Meryn and I rushed forward, wanting to be a part of everything just for this one last song. We danced and sang and laughed and I was sad when the song ended and we began walking back to the flat.

Everyone was together in the flat and it was just like a normal night out. People were slowly walking from room to room, finding new people to tell just-happened stories to. McPake and I ate our pizza's while Tom cooked in the kitchen, everyone winding down and getting ready to retire to their rooms.

My Summer Ball ended with me staying up in McPake's room, talking about serious things and not-so-serious things. There was a lull in the conversation and I had time to think over the fact that this was the last time we would all be going out together as first years. That night marked the end of our first year in University. The next couple of weeks would involve a lot of packing and gradually, floor 5 would empty as we all left to go back home.

As sad as I am that this means first year is over, I am so glad that this was the way it ended. Summer Ball showed me just how much I love every single one of my friends and just how important they have all become. It was just magical.