Class of 18. No need for new school shoes

Yes, so sad. Think you might be right kitten. We have a nephew very sad to be home from Durham year one and another hoping anxiously to go to Liverpool in September!
My DD Hope's to get a bit of her year abroad.

Oh well, some people have it so tough! Has your work picked up kitten? And is your DD okay? Mine working hard for exams.

Everyone still well?

Hope your family are back safe and sound Shanghaidiva.

Hello everyone,
haven't been here for a while. So what do we think? Will unis be back or students working remotely in September? I'd say it is 50-50.
Hope you all stay well.

I was back in school today for only the second time. The children who were in were mainly vulnerable rather than key workers or EHCP. There is only one boy who has been in every day. The others are dipping in and out. They all seemed to have a lovely time. They were doing the same work as has been set online for everyone, so were happy to have some support I think. It was nice to see them.

DD has officially finished everything now I think. No exams for her year group. Her friend who was due to have a resit still hasn't heard what will happen about that. I think the attention has all been on the 3rd/4th years who do have exams to sit.

I'm slightly worried about whether DDs flatmate will be able to return from the USA after the Summer, but suppose we just need to cross that bridge when we come to it.

DD has signed up to be an academic "parent" next year. She's quite excited I think, and looking forward to having some fun with her "children". Her parents were fairly rubbish, and kept cancelling nights out because they 'had work to do'. Fingers crossed she loves it and gets out a bit more in 3rd year than she did in second!

DD2 and DD3 are still getting set lots of work by school, despite effectively having left. They are both plugging through it though, which is both nice and sensible of them I think.

Ds is revising for year 2 exams and dd is now on week 9, I think, of online learning. I am bored, so ‘helping’ with online learning!

DD has no lectures for me to sit in! Finished completely until September. No exams or essays She seems very busy crocheting and talking to friends! She has tried job hunting but just missed the supermarket boom locally. Her flat mate went back today to collect the last of her belongings and get the meter readings. DD brought all her things back before lockdown.

DS1 is finishing his Master's Dissertation so will have that to proofread next week!

DS2 has a busy sixth form timetable with at least half his lessons on Teams, plus on chat to his Form Tutor. They are attempting a Y12 assembly next week!

I'm working in school two days next week will be a shock!

The yeast was an ebay purchase. Fermipan will do it as a search term. Watch what they are selling though, some show a full bag but the listing is for 100g. It looks to be going for around £10 including postage at the minute, if you can hold off then the price will fall I think because it's inflated at the moment. I used to buy it 500g at a time and keep it in the freezer, I'd not quite get to the end of it before it started to be a bit sluggish.

I've sat through two Zoom lessons today, I can't say that I learned anything but it seemed to be effective.

Well life goes on. DS is having a lesson in the dining room, the second of the day. He's not yet worked out that unless he tells me in advance there is a chance of the washing machine starting the spin cycle mid tutorial.

I have sorted my baking woes, I bought a sack of bread flour and 500g of dried yeast. I have tried making bread with a sourdough starter on two previous occasions and it didn't go well.

DS has got a temporary job at a local grocery store.

I have successfully managed to grow a sourdough starter and have baked an edible loaf of bread from it.

I already know how to knit a square, but am thinking of stepping up my skills to try something more ambitious.

When I was the same age as DS we had a cake starter called Hermann. I don't know where it came from originally but it came to us in a large margerine tub with instructions for care and a cake recipe. He used to live in the back of the fridge and we had cake on a regular basis for two years. This was before the internet, in the dark days when recipes came in books rather than being instantly available. My mother worked for an American company and she had one of their American cookbooks which had a section on sourdough. This was a revelation and we expanded Hermann into several different cakes and also pancakes and waffles. It is entirely possible that Hermann lives on in student kitchens in Manchester to this day, split and passed on for the last three decades.

I've had two goes at a starter for bread and was unimpressed, I'll stick to yeast. I will now go and shape the dough into 16 rolls and fill the house with the smell of fresh bread.

I found an only slightly out of date bag of bread flour at the back of the top shelf in the cupboard today. No evidence of weevils, so I tried it and made 8 lovely bread rolls. I am quite delighted with myself (I usually just use the bread maker)! I'm only disappointed now that I don't have enough to make another batch. I'm sure flour will be back in stock soon though.

I'm trying to master Sourdough, 'Knitting' but can probably only have one more attempt until I can get more flour!

Shanghai he looks like he's wearing a transparent version of Darth Vader's helmet and you are right, he's totally unrecogniseable.

DS was supposed to have a practical assessment next term, I thought it would be cancelled as there was no realistic way to do it and today it was. They finished the rest of the assessments a few weeks ago so it's not a great loss for everyone except the finalists. I don't know what they are doing as DS stopped reading the email aloud before then.

I'm having a delivery of eggs, milk, bread and veg tomorrow which means I should now crack this "shopping once a week" lark. I'd forgotten the impact DS has on bread and it usually wouldn't be a problem because I've been baking ours for at least six years. I'm now down to the last three bags of flour. It's trivial stuff but thinking about little things takes me away from the bigger picture.

My goodness Shanghai

i'm a TA. I've volunteered to go back after self isolation but there are very few kids in, only one last week. Not sure what is going to happen after Easter.

Thanks for all the good wishes. This is my dh waiting to be transferred to quarantine. Not outing as I am sure nobody would recognise him!

Oh my goodness Shanghai that must be really hard for you all.

DD continues to have almost daily online sessions with Uni. They were due to finish classes for Easter then be on study leave at the end of this week anyway, so I assume that will stop. She has been very low profile and very quiet in the house, so I am hoping that she will be a bit more vocal and involved come the end of the week.

Having originally been on the rota to be in school two days a week, I'm now not even in once a fortnight because so few children are actually turning up. We're getting signed up to Google Classroom over the holidays though, so hopefully we'll have some regular contact with the children, and do what we can to work on keeping the gap between those with parents keeping them working and those who are happy for them to be on TikTok and YouTube all day to a minimum.

Goodness @ShanghaiDiva that sounds really tough.

DD1 is now glad that she had her exams before the end of this term, but annoyed that she "wasted" her last few months studying every minute and not making the most of being able to spend time with her friends.

We have been isolating for the 2 weeks since she arrived home as DD2 and I have both had some symptoms.
We've now agreed that her boyfriend can move in with us for the foreseeable future.
He lives alone and has been utterly lonely and miserable for the past week since lockdown started.
I'd (selfishly because I'd miss her!) rather have them both here than DD decide to go and live with him which I could see possibly happening.

I'm still at work - we have a lot of key workers' children at my school.
Slightly envious of everyone who seems to be spending their days doing yoga and reading, but I know I'm better off being busy really!

@raspberryrippleicecream
Yes, we are stuck here now as China has closed its borders to all foreigners, even those with residency.
My dh got one of the last flights back on Friday (he was in HK) and is now in a quarantine facility for 14 days. He will then be allowed to go home. (Assuming he continues to pass all health checks). We have not seen him since 12th Feb and it’s going to be a few more months until we are all back together.

DD is working on her final essay, due tomorrow and all done then until September. She had a video conference about choosing Honours modules during the week and came out of it very excited about some different options, and also a compulsory 3 weeks abroad that is fully funded! She thinks she is ok to progress to Honours, not sure when that is confirmed.

We are all self isolating as as soon as DD got back, the friend she had spent her last week with became ill!

Shanghai this must be so difficult for you all as a family. And when it should have been your last few months in China too.