The Eyeball

After a hectic couple of weeks with practical exams and resits (resit passed, fingers crossed on the other practicals) it was time for Cardiff to let its hair down with the annual Eyeball. Other universities may hold them but Cardiff is the biggest and the best. This year it was held at the National museum. As people turned up they were greeted by fire breathers and jugglers.

After a drinks reception, where I didn't get a drink, we headed out onto the balcony to see the tables all set up below with a carnival theme, so we walked down past a coconut shy, test of strength and picked up some popcorn and candy floss to keep us going until food arrived.

Food was a lovely leek and potato soup followed by a stuffed chicken breast and then a chocolate cheesecake which was very nice, I could easily have eaten another portion (or two or three) of that.

After that it was time for the raffle, I didn't win anything but it did raise lots of money for charity, the awards - some funny and some serious before it was time to reveal who had won the elections and would be the faces of OPSOC for the next year. I was lucky enough to be re-elected as treasurer so will be in charge of the purse strings for another year. Well done to everyone else who was elected and commiserations to those that weren't.

After that it was time to party the night away first at the museum and then onto the after party at Tiger Tiger. At half two it was time to go home to bed, and I was glad I had booked the following day off work.

Open day fun

Today was a university wide open day so I was helping out by taking prospective students round the building, showing them where Doctor Who and Sherlock were filmed (see here for Dr Who); answering questions; using a slit lamp and demonstrating simulation spectacles which simulate the wearer having various optical conditions like glaucoma or cataracts.

Optometry tends to be a lesser known subject and because we are little away from the main campus we don't get a massive number of people but it does mean that the ones we do get are generally interested in the subject or at the very least thinking about it. Prospective student open days are a little different from offer open days in that you need to convince the student that optometry is the career and course for them rather than convincing them that Cardiff is the best place to study the subject. This requires a slightly different approach but the main similarity is to just be friendly and talk to everyone. If you can't do that then optometry possibly the subject for you anyway.

I always enjoy helping out with open days as I know I didn't know what I wanted to do the first time I went to university. Having a look at different options and seeing what people think of the course and whether you could see yourself in their shoes is a great help in my opinion.