Class of 18. No need for new school shoes

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Old thread:www.mumsnet.com/Talk/further_education/3478916-Class-of-18-now-in-2019-blimey

A thread for those of us whose kids left school/sixth form/college a year ago. Friendly chat :)

Has everyone has seen the news about Bolton Fire in USL flats? Most people I know in the cities affected are now in second year houses rather than flats, but it is concerning to think that this might have been one of our kids' halls. No USL flats where ds1 is, but no doubt there is cladding anyway

Marmite how are you feeling?
Ursula what a relief to have got through the op. fingers crossed that dog starts to warm up, maybe his affection is the won't let you out of his sight rather than the touchy feely sort.
knot how are you, and how is ds, was thinking of you as dd now embarked on a weaving project and it is like some Hieronmymous Bosch (how do you spell it?) horror. I'm sure there must be a more tranquil ordered approach.

We've just taken the dog for a walk in complete darkness, lucky he is luminous. Spent the day gardening for a relative. Feel much invigorated by dreadful bags of sludge and chopping things up. All a bit more disheartening in one's own garden where the work is never done or satisfactory.

Terrible about the fire.

Awful news about the Bolton fire. I hope everyone is OK.

Visited DD in Newcastle today and had a mooch around the Christmas market. She has made a lovely group of friends and has sorted her year 2 accommodation out already.

That's horrible Ursula that someone went home with all your DDs things in her coat. How very thoughtless!

Would love to speak to my DD - she's too busy! just beginning to feel a wee tinge of empty nest that I didn't feel last year. But DS1 is home for weekend so eases it a bit!

Went Christams shopping yesterdayAnyone else doing that? Have decided on a small basket (mini hamper) of things for DC as they need money for ski-trip and game console - how do you spell it? Haha

must add, we are only contributing to those bigger items. Need them to budget!

Not doing anything Christmas related yet. Well I made the cake a few weeks ago.

Dd wants a new North Face jacket. I think her boyfriend is coming for Christmas dinner. Yeah! I love having extras. An excuse to go ott.

I was considering buying them a weekend away in a nice hotel. Anyone ever done that so can advise on the logistics?

Nettles I am doing ok thanks. Still bit of a seroma but getting there. Going to try swimming this week.

Ursula I paid for my daughter and her boyfriend to have a weekend in Berlin with some friends for her birthday. She booked air bnb and flights. Just seemed better than buying a lot of stuff she didn't need.

Agree silly to waste money on unneeded things. So DH and I put down the clothes items for them when shopping. They know what they want fashion wise.
But we did buy a topical mug each (needed) and a favourite food item each. Will add a couple of other things for fun.

It's getting colder here . Coat and scarf definitely needed. Hope our DC all warm now.

Glad to hear things are going in the right direction health wise marmite. I love swimming!

We’ve got no heating. Boiler broke on Thursday evening. Plumber came on Friday. Needs a new pump. Will be here on Tuesday. TUESDAY!!! Fortunately we have the Aga in the Kitchen/Family Room but dear god the rest of the house. Brrrr.

And because DH is recuperating he is sitting around watching tv and falling asleep. I normally send him to the upstairs lounge to watch sport but it’s too cold. I like to sit at my kitchen table in silence whilst I read the papers and do the puzzles. And watch the birds on the feeder. I’ve had to take to my bed to read. I found an old oil filled plug in heater that is easing the pain a bit. But getting out of the shower to a damp towel is grim.

Dd has been asked to stay on in her job when the temporary Christmas contract comes to end which is nice. Will probably be about 10 hours which is better than a poke in the eye.

We’ve got no heating. Boiler broke on Thursday evening. Plumber came on Friday. Needs a new pump. Will be here on Tuesday. TUESDAY!!! Fortunately we have the Aga in the Kitchen/Family Room but dear god the rest of the house. Brrrr.

We pay £££ to British Gas, but I can honestly say that it is worth every penny. They have come out to us on Easter Sunday, when we have had 12" of snow and every time we have needed them. I know they get a lot of negative press, but they have sorted us out every time so we are sticking with them.

We have just moved suppliers and thought we had boiler cover. But the chap who cane to sign us up forgot to put it on.

Do British Gas carry all the necessary parts with them?

It’s quite character building.

It's not going your way at the moment Ursula! It must be arctic! (perhaps I should get dd to post my clothes bundle your way ) Good for your lass with her job.

dd has been asked by her summer internship company to go back at Christmas, but she's away for some of the holidays and has a big project to continue, so I think she has declined it.

That's really good to hear Gin :)

I started Christmas shopping today. Mostly it consisted of wandering around the town we had chosen saying how we'd forgotten how rubbish it was there. So we aren't really any further ahead and I'm not sure if I've got any more free weekends between now and Christmas. We are seeing dd next weekend, so perhaps I'll take her shopping and hope she chooses something.

Do British Gas carry all the necessary parts with them?

I couldn't say, but I think they must carry a selection. They have always managed to fix any issues that we have had on the spot. We have never been left without a working boiler for several days.

I'm sorry that you are having such a rubbish time

UrsulaPandress you have my sympathies. Our twenty year old boiler had to be replaced during half term. In the last few years we had several periods of time with no hot water /heating while we were waiting for one part or another to be replaced.

I found a hot water bottle. Hurrah.

Oh Ursula must be miserable! Yay for hot water bottle.
Funnily enough, we're having our old boiler changed in January before it conks out. But only bad is intermittent cold bath water at mo.
Warm thoughts your was Ursula

Your way

Hats on in the house then Ursula. If DH wasn't recuperating then it would have been a good excuse for a weekend get away to a dog friendly hotel. Even a local one would do, heat, no cooking....

Brrr - Ursula hope your heating is fixed soon. Weather here has been relatively warm (25 during the day) but dropped today so dd was shocked when she stepped out for track training in her shorts and it was 10 degrees.
We have a mega internet sale (T Mall 11/11) here so have finished all my Xmas shopping. Ds is home on 9th December and we fly to Vietnam on 13th so I expect he is looking forward to some warm weather. I will miss these cheap, shorthaul trips when we move next year.

Well it seems the cold has done for me. We received a letter on Saturday from Aegon with whom I have a small pension, asking anyone who knew the whereabouts of the next of kin of UrsulaPandress to please contact them. I checked my account on line and there was nothing showing .

I phoned them first thing this morning and the chap had to go off and speak to the Bereavement Team and he then came back to the phone to say there appeared to have been a mistake as someone with the same name as me had died. They will be reinstating my policy.

Can this happen? Sheesh I couldn't even buy extra Premium Bonds the other month without uploading copies of my driving licence and passport and then they still said my address wasn't recognised and returned my money. Despite me having a fair few bonds with them already. They did apologise and gave me £50 for my troubles.

Vietnam for Christmas sounds fabulous.

Ursula, go and check with your dh to make sure you are really here.

can ghosts type? maybe, you do get ghost writers....

Kitten **
That's so weird though Ursula, must have been a very strange feeling reading that letter!

DD has made a decision about next year - she's told her bf no - she's not ready to live with him and she doesn't want him to re-locate to her uni town.
Phew! I like the boy a lot but I'm so relieved!

She's currently house hunting with a bunch of her course mates - they're hoping to get something slightly closer to town/colleges for next year.

She loves her house this year and loves living with her friends but it's so far (even with the bike!)

My contact with pension departments (three of them) would indicate that nothing happens without a national insurance number. I wouldn't have thought that having the same name would have been enough to have killed you off Ursula.

I do National Savings and Investments online now, you can see whether your premium bonds have won without waiting for the letter.

DD came home for the weekend and we had a lovely time pottering about. I caught DH just gazing at the three DDs lying together on the sofa. It is hard to imagine what it will be like this time next year with two of them gone.

No Christmas shopping actually done here yet. I have traditionally not started till after DDs birthday at the end of the month. I do feel I may get some in before that this year though.

Your DD sounds good lobster. Don't want too much commitment at a young age. Time for that.

Christmas shopping is so good this week if like me you do not like crowds. I usually do it last week of October. We had a lovely time on Saturday. I usually do a lot online but I enjoyed our shop. So nice DH and I can do a few things together at leisure without having constant demands/ferrying of kids!