Class of '18 nattering as they head in different directions.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Hope this works. On phone with dodgy signal.

If it is any comfort, one of the few couples I know who stayed together from school through university and beyond have now been married about 40 years!

On the whole though there is a lot of growing and changing post school.

A few years ago I watched a programme about officer training at Sandhurst. A statistic quoted was that at the start 20% smoked and 80% had a girl/boyfriend. By the time they graduated 80% smoked and 20% had a girl/boyfriend.

That quilt is beautiful! I wish I'd had the foresight to save things over the years. I'll be giving that advice to all my friends with babies/littlies though!

DD's BF is a year older, and a year into his apprenticeship. He's still living at home about 20minutes from us. Their relationship has been fairly casual over the past year - dd always to busy for things to get too serious. It seems to have intensified since she finished exams though and they've barely spent a day apart for the whole summer (he even visited her during her work experience placement) so I am worried now that it will be difficult for them both when she goes.

We still haven't been able to start preparing properly as still no accommodation details - no idea what size her bed will be or whether she'll have her own bathroom etc.
We're hoping we'll get some info by the end of this week.

I love the idea of going for a visit to the university city, but I just don't think we'll be able to fit one in now.

I start back at school tomorrow

Shanghai I hope your ds has a good journey and arrived in the UK safely.

DH and I have been together since 6th form. Neither of us went to university but we lived 300 miles apart for a few years for work.

I'm great at long distance relationships. Met DH at 17. He went off to Manchester uni whilst I stayed local. Managed to live together for 4 yrs in London. Had DD1 and DH stayed working in London and I moved back home. It was a five year plan. 18 yes later he is still coming home at weekends and spending week in London. I often joke that when he retires and we live together we will probably get divorced! Love him to bits and trust him totally. Only way it can work.

DS no gf (or bf) so not got that to think about. Will just note that DH and I got together at 17, went to different universities 4 hours apart by public transport, so saw each other usually twice a term at most, got engaged in first year, married at end of finals, and celebrated silver wedding this year. Long distance first love can work out!!

Lobster
Thanks for good wishes. He arrived in London and checked into hotel. I felt mean yesterday making him do the trip alone (I will meet him next month) but this is the route he needs to travel every time he comes home and if I was with him he would just rely on me for directions to gate etc. (not a direct flight)

Glad he made it to London Shanghai.

I will be driving my ds over (+-) a 12 hour drive. But after that he will also be flying back and forth except for September and June each year when I will cart his stuff back and forth.

Am planing on booking his Christmas flights soon. We have paid for accommodation in the Christmas and Easter holidays so there is no problem for him to stay on a couple of days here and there (there are not flights home every day of the week).

I have bailed from the FB group, I can't cope with the sobbing.

I'm just concerned that DS1 will spend all his time wondering what his GF is doing so that he doesn't immerse himself in uni life and that he will miss out because he is spending so much time down in Sheffield (and so much money getting there)

DS has no GF - he said he hasn't time to concentrate his efforts on a girl right now.

The FB page makes me laugh. I have posted a couple of things but nothing major - there is a lot of weeping and wailing going on. I'd rather keep mine to myself.

Shanghai - glad your DS made it over safely.

shanghai glad he made it safely. It is a long way to do on his own but it should be less worrying next time.

No partners to worry about here. I do have friends who knew each other from school, started dating in their gap year, went to different universities and married at graduation. They are still together nearly 30 years on.

DS called and everything is fine. He had a couple of questions:
Can you drink the tap water in the UK?
Why are there no sockets in the bathroom?
Glad I am sending him to my mum's for three weeks - not sure what his flatmates would make of his questions!
On the plus side he declared uk bacon to be decent and was pleased there was no congee (rice porridge!)
He does have a girlfriend - she will be in Sheffield and he will be in Warwick. I have been with dh for over 30 years, but met at university not at school.

oh bless him Shanghai!
Yes,
We are too dim and would electrocute ourselves.

Found dd in a towering rage. She has discovered the pitfalls of online banking passwords and now has to wait 5 working days for a new one to be sent. Oops!

The electoral register letter turned up today (the one where you have to say who lives in your house). She's filling out an application for a postal vote so she can still vote in local elections. She seems a bit narked that the adult world is full of paperwork.

OhYouBadBadKitten
I've just started a new thread in Higher Education to rant about the amount of admin DS1 is facing.

"Apply online" sounds easy and convenient, but not when technical issues and/or "Computer says no" moments mean you end up having to phone up and then wait in a queue to try to speak to someone who might be able to sort it out.

Elections - don't forget they should register at uni too. They can vote in local elections at both and choose which location for general.

Sigh. DD had a fab time at Leeds, is tired, achy and grumpy and gone to work refusing to acknowledge she is going to uni next week.

She is good at packing light but I think she is going to need more than a bamboo toothbrush and spare knickers

Good to hear the questions your ds has Shanghai.

Mine is also clueless on how mobile phone contracts work in the UK, teenage jargon and slang and forgets that you have to turn plugs on at the wall! Ours don’t have on and off switches!!!

Will be also interesting to see what he thinks of the drinking culture. Where we live the kids can drink from 16 and there is no culture of binge drinking or drinking spirits.

He is very sociable and loves to party but the culture here is not one of getting drunk.

He has joined the FB group for his hall! Has not told me but we are sharing a room on holiday and his phone is buzzing like mad beside me with all he notifications.

We fly home tomorrow and then the Uni prep starts!

Highly recommend giffgaff for mobile phones. Loads of data, no contract, cheap, easy.

Kitten
Thanks for the giffgaff suggestion.
One more question from ds - why are people wearing t-shirts, it's freezing? He's wrapped up in a shirt and jumper.

I'd second Giffgaff.

He'd hate me Shanghai. It's 17 degrees here, I've the windows open and am in a t-shirt!

It's not freezing, it's lovely!!

I agree that the weather's lovely just now. It's stopped raining so my tent is dry again! Last night was so lovely to sleep in the tent without worrying about getting wet or being blown away!! I've got my nieces today and tonight so it's a good job we've got more than one dry part of the tent.

DD is on Tesco mobile, she's got a decent amount of data and it's cheap (because I pay for it on my account).

Raspberry I'm sure toothbrush and knickers is plenty. I'm also pretty sure she'll remember things like phone and laptop so she'll be able to order things once she's there. She will be fine once she gets there and sees how much fun she can have.

I'm chilly.

But that could be something to do with submitting the VAT return. I think Hell is slowly freezing over.

DD still not looked for found her passport. She is slowly getting through all the online registration stuff, made so much easier with her new Apple Mac

Still not got a student bank account. I am completely overwhelmed by the choice so may get her to just change her current account to a student one which hopefully will not require a passport to do.

I've purchased random stuff like kitchen roll and tinned tomatoes but little else.

Still, now the VAT is out of the way hopefully we can concentrate a bit more.

A large sherry wouldn't go amiss.

I think a bottle of fizz is more appropriate for the VAT return. I'm not looking forward to my tax return, given my change in circumstances I'm going to actually have to think about it rather than following what I did last year.

Thanks for the info on mobile phone operators.

Ds has also heard that UK school kids refuse to wears coats! He is totally baffled by that. Is it even true????

The climate here is colder in winter but the UK is not warm in the winter. Why is it not considered cool to be warm and dry? Is it just a school day thing or do they go coatless at the weekends?