Class of '18 Best foot forward through the autumn leaves.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

old thread was getting big....

That's great news First! So glad he had a better day. DD confirmed that she is coming home for reading week so that's Monday week for four nights. Yay. I should be feeling a bit better so I can spend some time with her doing nice things. She can drive me around.

marmite I hope you are feeling a bit better by then and can enjoy some time with her

I hope you are well enough to enjoy your DD's visit Marmite. Reading week is often taken up by catching up with unfinished assignments etc, so your DD may not have as much free time as you both want.

I'm glad your ds is looking better first. It's amazing what some home comforts can do.

Marmite I hope you and your DD manage some nice activities together. It'll be nice just to have her around for a few days I'm sure.

LuckilyDD is pretty on the ball and spent yesterday preparing her reading material for reading week but obviously I will send her back early if she needs to get to the library etc. It will be lovely to have her here for a few days though.

Reading a worrying thread on the FB group about a tenant leaving University and their shared accommodation and the rest of the students being responsible for the rent. Asked DD to send me her contract and of course they are joint and severally liable so if one leaves the landlord will chase the remaining ones for the unpaid rent. Fingers crossed none of them give up.

Ursula - reading same one! Refused to be a guarantor but still a concern.

Dds landlord did not ask for guarantors.

I've given DS a list of questions to ask when viewing. As I don't know enough about tenancy agreements a friend who has rental properties will look over DS's once he has one.

We had a lovely day visiting DD on Thursday. She has settled right in and seems so at home already. She loved showing her Nan, her sister and me around "her city".
I agree the goodbye part doesn't get any easier - we did the park and ride this time though so I at least had the 10 minute bus journey to pull myself together before having to drive home!
We left DD2 there with her for the weekend and the 2 of them had a splendid time together. I was worried that (16 yr old ) DD2 would insist on being taken to parties and clubs, but it seems they went to museums, played crazy golf and watched movies instead - phew!
It was wonderful to see her but too short a visit. I'm going to try and squeeze another one in before the end of term.

Sorry to hear your worries about your DS first, but good to hear he seemed better after a day or so at home.
Marmite sending hugs and healing wishes to you as always - lovely to have DD's visit to look forward to.

Catching up with all the adventures! Hope everything is going well for you marmite
Obviously ds will not be coming home mid-term, but looking forward to seeing him on 10th December.
He has made some good friends in his flat, but some of the other boys he shares with have no understanding of kitchen hygiene - cutting up raw chicken on the draining board next to sink - and only three of them seem to clean the kitchen. He has joined tae kwon do club, German society, athletics club and goes to the gym so is keeping pretty fit. His previous tae kwon do club in China was pretty brutal - training in 40 degrees with no air conditioning, trainer standing on the kids to improve flexibility.. - so he finds his new club training quite easy.

His course is going well and he is looking after himself - he is a reasonably talented cook and makes his own soup, sauces etc. He is so far away and I am relieved he is okay!

Your ds sounds very capable Shanghai :) the training in China sounds hardcore.

Dd won't be coming home either, but terms are so short and intense there that it seems like she's away for quite a short time. She has longer for her Christmas break than there is time remaining of this term.

It's so nice Lobster that your dds could spend time together. How lucky they are to have each other and to enjoy each others company.

DD1 upset last night. Composition tutor has set work for reading week and it can only be done in uni on the computer system so no visit next week. I think she is gutted as she feels a bit guilty that I am poorly and she can't help. Bless her. Tried to reassure that although I was disappointed uni work was more important. Really hard to get the balance right. She's planning a weekend visit later in the term now.

Oh that's a shame marmite.

DD also has no proper reading week as although she has no lectures she still has seminars.

marmite ds has no reading week, I think the courses don't really allow for it, they are quite long terms anyway, and I suspect they think parents/students wouldn't think the students were getting their moneysworth if some specific lectures/seminars/projects weren't included ( a bit like the composition element of your dd's course) I would LOVE him to have a reading week, except only if it was actually campus based and you had to sign in every day at the library or similar; I fear the reading at home would be minimal...

Dh is in hospital with an emergency operation, he is recovering and asked me to bring him some books as he was going mad with boredom. I pulled ten relatively lightweight fun obscure books off our shelves that I had bought a long time ago I thought he would enjoy, only to find he had read them all..[apart from an obscure Edith Wharton, who in their right mind would have read that?) He had read every single one, every thriller in the house, every classic, it is like the Tiger that Came to Tea. I've just bought him three more thrillers to take later.

So I don't know quite why ds1 hates reading. Perhaps when he is 21 magically some part of his brain will click together and he will enjoy reading for pleasure/enlightenment.

I think t'internet has killed off the art of reading in the young. I know I am guilty of spending far too much time browsing my ipad when I go to bed before getting out my kindle. DD text DH at 2am to tell him she was watching the Top Gear Vietnam episode as she couldn't sleep. I suggested she tried reading a book instead but of course she has no glasses ...

That's a shame marmite but a weekend visit soon and then they will be finished for Christmas (around 7 weeks I think until DS does) . Hope you're feeling a little better.

DS does read for pleasure - maybe growing up in a household that constantly reads rubbed off on him. I use my kindle a lot but also visit our local library every couple of weeks.

Best wishes to your dh Nettle.

You must be disappointed Marmite, it's not too long until Christmas break now though. It is possible that if your dd spoke to her tutor she might be able to get an alternative way to do the assignment on compassionate grounds.

What a shame Marmite

Hi everyone, I dropped off for a while as there was a lot going on at work plus home renovations and a new allotment but I have found you all again.

Not sure what to make of DS1 and uni. He turned up to his first lecture, sat down and realised that he was sitting next to one of his friends from school...how can they not have talked about what courses they were doing!!! Equally, his flatmate brought a friend round from his course and DS1 was surprised to realise that that the friend was a friend of his from back home. Again - no discussion about courses????

He is in a flat of 4 which is smaller than he wanted. The other boy is fine, one of the girls is very quiet but DS1 has made friends with the other girl who is the one above on the same course as his friend from home (if you follow). Through them, he has made a really good friend who he seems to spend a lot of time with. His halls are about 25 mins walk from most of his lectures and he has two 9am lectures. This, for a boy who struggled to get to school on time despite living ten mins away - there were a few Uber journeys in the first few weeks which, thankfully, appear to have stopped.

Not sure how well he is doing with the cooking front but I did send him with some of his favourite meals. I think money is quite tight but he did have the opportunity of a warehouse job with DH's company before he left to earn a slush fund but turned it down so I don't have a lot of sympathy.

hovering that made me laugh ds is a lot like that, they really don't spend much time asking each other what women might think were essential questions...
and in ds2's case they conversely spend a lot of time arranging football fixture dates..

Oh Marmite that's a shame that your DD can't come home for reading week. A weekend visit later in the term sounds like a good thing to look forward to though.

Nettle I hope your DH recovers quickly. I'm not sure anyone at home would be able to find me a book I haven't read in the house. Maybe one of dd's, but I think she's been reading my books for a few years now. I would have to send DH to the library for me, or get him to download some onto my Kindle.

Loads of sixth formers don't really keep track of who's going where hovering. They have vague ideas about courses that everyone is applying for, but then they don't all end up where they thought they were going to, so it's quite often a surprise to see friends from home at uni.

DD has just let me know her student loan has been changed and she's getting £1000 more in her maintenance loan than we thought she was getting. So that's less money for me to find!!!

We have got past the first anniversary of my husband's death, DS didn't realise the significance of the message from a friend who was "thinking of him" and I'm hoping that he is so wrapped up in his life that the date just passed him by.

The agreement for shared cooking in the flat never came to pass and it is each to their own but at least now DS is not reliant on someone else to provide a meal. I'm trying to sell the idea of cooking for the freezer on the days when he doesn't have a big classroom commitment but this is about as popular as my other great idea of shopping for more than one day's meals at a time. It;s his life, if he wants to spend more time than he needs to shopping and cooking then that is up to him.

No reading week here. I'm sorry that Marmite's was blown out of the water with set work but I hope that weekend will turn out to be something special.

I am a recent convert to audiobooks, I listen to them while I use my hands for sewing, knitting or weaving. I can have one at a time from the library service, as many as I can get through and they are free.

Sending you hugs knitting.

I have been toying with the idea of audio books when I can't sleep but don't want to sit up with a book or my kindle. DD was an avid listener to Famous Five audio books whenever she was ill as a child.

Stupid question - what do you use to listen to them?

If I can't sleep I read my paperwhite. Why do you need to sit up to read Ursula?
Reading a paperwhite is easy lying down.