Thread 18 - Corona Cohort Enrolling to Year 13 2021, Invasive Infections & Uni Uncertainty

[Orangecinnamon21]

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Dd is going to Reading just for the day as we’re off on holiday on the Saturday. I’m sure it will be a super spreader event! She went to a Christian festival in July and out of her ‘volunteers group’ of 50, I think around 15 got covid.

From what I hear Boardmasters has resulted in a load of Covid cases. Inevitable really. I'm not convinced it's a huge problem and surely anyone who allowed their child to go would have thought it through and recognised it was a likely outcome.

OOh - just remembered. We got given a couple of packs of the new LFTs too. Just do both nostrils rather than the throat and results in 15 mins.

I suppose the main problem is then passing it on to less robust family members, which is what DS1 did after a weekend of nightclubbing.

And to be fair, DS2's holiday has been wrecked a bit. He has been mildly ill/isolating for nearly all of it . He still isn't right.

Thanks for the reply yesterday about the personal statement @Monkey2001, DS definitely needs to get cracking on that now.

Yeay, DS now vaccinated! Bristol started 16/17 year olds today, so bit behind the pack, but done. Have a family holiday with GPs next week, and there may be a little bit of protection by Monday. So far only 1 out of the 16 family members cominy has had Covid.

Re festivals, I would want my DSs to avoid GPs for at least a week after a festival and do LFT before seeing them.

@Piggywaspushed

Modules can change quite a lot though?

Yes but in this case it really is very different emphasis. So general engineering at York is mainly electrical engineering with a tiny bit of mechanical chucked in but at other places it’s the other way round.

That said we did the self guided York tours this afternoon. Started at the East campus and DS fell in love I think! It seemed to be the water lillies and bunnies hopping around which was quite a strange twist

The West campus is less shiny and new but overall he loves the feel of the place. We will be showing him the city tonight and tomorrow before heading home.

He is now re-considering whether he is so against the electrical side of engineering as he likes it so much. It’s definitely along with Bath vying for top spot!

DS is going to Reading next week. He was vaccinated in late July as a local centre has spare doses. His older brother DS1 currently has COVID now though so fingers crossed he doesn’t catch it from him.

Sorry all, will catch up asap been rather busy today. Doggo is home and v well behaved. Bit velcro the wonderdog! Hoping he will settle a bit, trying not to fuss him too much but he is a lovely boy. Likes the new 100 cricket !

Oh I see re the modules! Bath and York are nice places to choose between. You'll have to see how eh takes to the enormous hill in Bath!!

I am v hopeful my trip to Bath next week will happen. Feeling like I will be up to it. Fingers crossed.

@Decorhate DS is going to reading her has a weekend pass and early access so loads of time for him to catch horrible things. He’s had his first jab about 10 days ago now so hopefully by the end of the month he should have some immunity developed?? 😬🤞

DD and her friend have tickets for the Sunday at Wireless. She has had her first jab last month so who knows what could happen?
I've just looked at the Sunday line up and haven't heard of any of the artists performing
Also as a mum of a child not wanting to go to uni I have been reading your stories with interest and I want to wish you and your DC good luck with the application process too

Sorry ds2’s summer (and yours) has been dominated by covid @Piggywaspushed, that’s really rubbish. We lost the whole of the Christmas holidays to covid, but then you weren’t allowed to do much then anyway. Dd worked out earlier that she’ll only have spent 3 days of her holidays actually lounging around at home, she’s had plans/been away every other day so far and the rest of the holidays are already mapped out. I know she’d have been so disappointed to miss out on stuff. I hope your ds can manage to have some fun these next couple of weeks. And I hope you both feel better soon.

@OrangeCinnamonCocktail he looks lovely. I hope he settles quickly.

@Monkey2001 DH's dd studied at Sussex. She did travel for a few years after but has married and settled down close to Brighton. So she's stayed in her uni town.

SandyBayley, DD got back from Boardmasters last night.
She had an amazing time, sharing a tent with 3 friends. Everyone has to prove a negative LFT test before entry, and retest during the weekend, and DD had her first vacc a couple of weeks ago, so fingers crossed!

@Piggywaspushed he absolutely loved Bath! The hill is of course enormous but everyone gets the bus which takes ten minutes so is no real bother.

We have so far visited Nottingham, Bath, Bristol, Durham and York. Warwick yet to do sometime soon. His favourites by far are Bath and York, partly because of the campus being separate but in easy reach of the City in both cases. Nottingham is a No and Durham and Bristol would be maybes.

Hope you get to go to Bath, it is really good as they get to stay in uni accommodation so get a feel of what it may be like. We purposefully got buses around so it was realistic. It helps that I went to Bath so was able to give a good tour round the city. Again in York we purposefully got buses to the uni campuses rather than the taxi suggested by our hotel.

I hope you are all feeling better now. DS1 currently has Covid and is in our house while we are away, he is feeling rough but fundamentally ok. Thankfully he has had one vaccination which is likely helping. We will be cleaning the house thoroughly and limiting him to his room and bathroom when we get back in the hope we don’t get it 🤞🤞

20 we're off to Bristol today and Durham in a few days. Then we've got Nottingham and Warwick to look at so will be interesting to see how they compare with your DS views.

20 if he loves a campus in easy reach of a small city, is Exeter on your list?

Niece who went to Boardmasters has just tested positive and will be missing big family holiday next week. She is gutted and wished she had not give to festival. [Sad]

I think we are still at the stage of deciding which events we really don’t want to miss & which to forego to help with that. Ds2 went home early from our trip to see family so that he could minimise his contacts for 10 days before Reading.

I was very cautious for the week or so before we went as we hadn’t seen our parents & siblings for so long.

In comparison with my older two, ds2 is very behind with his uni decisions. He still hasn’t finalised what course he wants to apply for & we haven’t done any visits. Hoping to do Bath & Bristol next month when we take DS1 back.

DS doesn't want to spend time visiting universities, he is happy with the virtual open days and other people's reports. Of course as he only had 2 options it is much easier for us! I am hoping to persuade him to do a little northern tour at October half term, taking in Manchester and Newcastle and visiting DS1 at St Andrews - DS2 has not been there yet.

Anecdotal text from DD from Crete to tell me that she’d dodged a bullet not being able to go to Boardmasters with her friends; all 5 testing positive on their return. With at least one vax each, most had 2. But no one is presenting really poorly which is good.

Monkey looks like DD will be making all her applications void of any visits too. I don’t know why, just lack of time I think and not wanting to get overly invested incase it goes nowhere.

What is this Boardmasters of which you all speak?

It's a music and surf festival in Newquay, several of my friends DCs went.

Ah, I see. Board :Makes sense !