New Batch of Year 13 parents this way!

Congratulations doi

yay!

DS has received his first offer...from his first choice So relieved!

DS1 worked a full day (9-5) at his part-time job (tea shop). He has only ever done half days before, so a couple of his friends turned up in the afternoon to buy tea & cake and give him some moral support.

Personal statement not yet started.

I stopped in bed until it was light yesterday, I managed it this morning and I'm planning on repeating it again tomorrow.

Ursula, I think that starting is the hardest part. Once they've got something down they can add to it, edit it and tweak it - they have something to work with.

Dd has produced her first draft PS today and sent it to her tutor.

Relief all round.

We are away in Europe for a few days - planned especially so DD takes 3 and a half days break. We have BF with us. She felt nervous about leaving the work. New tasks set by teachers so oxbridge group have something fresh - if that goes to plan. My DD also has other school responsibilities.to be honest I'm scared of stress to come and just try to reassure.
Hope mums are having a little break too!

Ursula that sounds amazing. I'm definitely not bored or envious!

Oybbk- I've taken some time off this week and the dc were told we are having family time. Yesterday we played monopoly and game of life, today so far has been cards and yahtzee. Ds1 &2 have now taken themselves off to watch Thor- I think to escape.
This seems to have given him space to relax a little and put the work to one side.
Tomorrow they can all start back with the schoolwork.

Sorry your dd is struggling. Can't she take a break?

Porcupines! I saw 3 porcupines!!!

More Lion than you could shake a stick, hyena cubs running all over the place, Elephants round every corner plus 3 swimming in a dam, 9 Rhino but those sightings cannot be reported due to poaching . Only dd big 5d as she saw a leopard deep in the bush whilst I was driving.

Oh and a cheetah chasing wildebeest who then turned the tables and chased it up a tree.

Oh and a young elephant playing with a stick, then spitting into its trunk and squirting itself to cool down.

Am I boring you yet ?

I'm still here, just more urban.

I keep forgetting that dd is an 'adult'. Doesn't seem right somehow.

She has just washed the hire car to free it from the Kruger Park dust. Any excuse to not get down to her personal statement.

I hope you had a lovely holiday Ursula. My tio is empty too, but mine is not due to an amazing foreign holiday :(

Dd is now officially an adult. We've had a lovely couple of days in London celebrating her birthday. Now she's 18 I'm finished with parenting right? I've successfully raised a child to adulthood without messing up too badly so now it's all on her.

Place marking as no threads in my TIO as hadn't posted whilst in the Kruger. shows off

I get DS to check the equivalent of track (it's not a uni application) on Wednesday and Sunday. He's happy to wait for an email but I know what he's like for checking email and he would sit and wait forever for the email that was in the spam trap. His courses interview so it's the dates I'm after.

I hope you get away catslife.
Ds1 has now completed everything he needs for most of his choices he's now waiting to hear if he's going to get an interview. Is anyone else harassing their dc to see what's happening or is that just me. I'm realising I have a slight control streak in me and am really struggling to sit back and let him get on with it. Fortunately he feels able to tell me to back off when he needs space!

Sorry for the bold 🔽 fat fingers and tiny keyboard on phone!

OYBBK DS hadn’t even thought of applying there initially.** It was only when he thought that maybe he should look at some that didn’t ask for super high grades as alternative options. It is a really lovely university, smaller than I expected. The course tutors and in particular the admissions tutor for the subject were extremely helpful and spent quite a lot of time talking to us.

Cats - it took 8 weeks for me to get my car back - the garage had to wait for a forensics bod from the insurance company to look at it as there was no forced sign of entry. I got rid of it when it came back - I didn’t feel comfortable in it which I know sounds stupid as it’s only a hunk of metal!

The situation you have described could be it starfleet. Someone has defo been in car, glove box etc all emptied and scattered all over car - nothing seems to have been stolen though. RAC have been and taken car to garage. One of the faults found is with the doors - what we don't know is if the fault was already there and the potential thieves took advantage or the other way round iyswim.
ddog barks very loudly if voices and car doors close to house so could have scared them away if early evening.
We would be able to manage to get away in second car for part of the holiday, but ddog was sick on last journey in this vehicle, so hope they can fix main car in time!

That’s a bit rubbish Catslife. Sorry to hear that. Mine was broken into around this time last year whilst parked outside the house. Couldn’t understand how as nothing damaged on the outside but police think they used signal blockers to stop the doors locking. Hope you get things sorted and do manage to get away.

We are one week down of half term. DS has been quite motivated and has done “some” work. We’ve spent a couple of days together (a very rare occurrence) pottering around our city visiting places we don’t usually have time to and today was spent at Leicester Uni open day - he is now having a re-think about which ones he is going to apply to as this one impressed him course wise.

I am sorry ^catslife*, I hope that it's not been broken into because I know too well what it feels like to think that someone has been rummaging though what is a personal space. I hope you get it sorted and manage to get away.

DS has a three day residential course this week, he's back to college for two days and then it is half term. Over two of those days he would have had three single lessons so I'm pretty sure he will be working harder while he's away than he would have been at college. I'm planning on three mornings in bed (until at least 7am) and we'll be taking the opportunity to eat the things that DS doesn't like.