Thread 35 - Covid Cohort from GCSE 2020 'What They Did on Their Summer Holidays'

[OrangeCinnamonCroissant]

This is a thread for supporting all young people post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting. It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, please don't within this thread. Please also be sensitive when responding to threads about grades. It's all relative!
Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue.
Our DS/DD may continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed) We have decided for anyone interested they will find a thread within the Further Ed board.
Possibly a move to Parent of Adult Children Board in future? Post Results?

Previous Thread

Thanks @Monkey2001 . We are in the fortunate position of having the other house already as hsve rented it out for years. We lived there for a few months when DD was 1 and I hated the area so we upped sticks a few miles down the road before moving down here and rented it out. So I am a bit nervous in case I hate the area again but it has improved a fair bit, we're at a different stage of life now and I know a couple of people from Bristol who have moved out there recently so fingers crossed. I think it will be a good base and work well now.

Nothing gone as yet.We have so much stuff and I can't imagine how it is ever going to get there!! A smaller local company said they couldn't quote as too much for them. Packers coming tomorrow then they spend Thursday loading and we'll be camping there overnight on Thursday . Lorry/lorries (didn't dare ask) arriving Friday morning to unload. Round 2 of removals will happen after we exchange, whenever that may be.

Mayo can go in the cool box coming in the car @Benjispruce4 😀 Goodness I have a decent sized case of pre - move and exam results jitters. I am excited though.

@Benjispruce4 you must be a southerner? Mayo and chips is wrong!! It should always be ketchup

Volterra you have probably moved 100 times and I don’t want to teach my grandmother to suck eggs, but in case it is helpful:
make the beds 1st. Don’t want to do it when knackered after a v long day, you will be grateful to just fall into them
put loo roll and hand soap in your car as well as cleaning things - I usually remember the loo roll but never remember the hand wash!

hope it all goes v well!

@Delphigirl I have moved a fair bit but not for 20 years and feel very out of practice and never with so much stuff. Tips are extremely welcome and make me feel calmer so thank you 😀

I have taken the day off today (have silly amounts of TOIL to use up) and come to the beach. Is very nice just being by myself. I have worked from home for years but since 2020 DH has also worked from our admittedly large converted garage and sometimes it can get a bit much.

DS and DD up in Scotland with XHs family including a very new cousin (5 weeks or so) until Friday so feels quite odd not having them around. Due to various reasons they haven’t been able to see XH since late June so they have been with us all the time (and DSs GF quite often too).

Have taken both 18th and 25th off for results days. DS thinks one of his friends 18th birthday is 17th august so they may all be hungover for results (or may postpone by a day)

Sounds lovely @MirandaWest !

I've got results day and day after off...but may have to work as no-one else in the office . I wouldn't mind but I took last week off as sick leave and ended up working at least two days, still have three days holiday to take before end of August and no other space to use them. Also ended up doing work before I flew away on hols. It's never ending 🙄.

Oh, good Volterra!
Well DS is at his first day of work today - thank goodness. Unlike the others who have always had weekend and Saturday jobs from 17yo onwards, he hasn’t because of Covid and then because his academics have been so shaky he has filled that time with tutors and studying. But he is also the kid with the biggest spending habits and money drips through his fingers like water. So he needs to earn and learn to save and budget. He’s got a great job in a cafe £10 ph, 9-5, 6 days a week - he thinks great because he can go out every night, I think great because he can get a second job in a pub a few days a week. I’ve just shared that with him and he has dolefully agreed 🤣🤣🤣
move also told him he needs to save at least £300pw in a savings account and show it to me, as we have paid for his ocean adventure and he needs to contribute to that. So I hope that will focus his mind a bit!
DS1 has been working full time all summer and hopes to have saved £4500 to take on his year abroad. Good boy!

Cinnamon you know you have the right to convert those holiday days to sick days and claw them back, yes?

Oh sorry I misread - thought you took last week off and then got sick. As you were, ignore me

My main job is Mon-Weds and I do a bit of part time work for DH's business on Thursdays which is very flexible so I'm going to pack in as much as I can this Thurs and not have too much to do the following two Thursdays. Both schools have invited parents in but DH has somehow managed to end up with hospital appointments at the exact times we are invited in on both days 🤦‍♀️

Good luck for moving Volterra. I love chips and Mayo, or even better ds2 and I love chips and curry sauce.

Chips with mayo AND ketchup here. But never brown sauce. Urgh. And could never get on with the gloop of take out curry sauce either.

Best of luck on moving Volterra. Still stuck in AML land here. My MIL has now got to get her bank manager to certify a sale deposit from, wait for it, 1989. Her solicitors that dealt with it are no longer trading, and an archive bank statement with its entry (and the solicitor's name as the depositor) won't cut it. All this for £50k which I'll pay her back in less than a month. If the flat wasn't for my mum I would have walked away ages ago.

That’s a whole new level of ridiculous @ealingwestmum . I know there need to be regulations in place but 1989??? Stressful enough buying somewhere without that on top 💐

Actually I did have a day of leave for my wedding anniversary. I couldn't figure out why my limbs hurt so much walking back from the pub. That's when it all started covid wise !

They have this stupid use it or lose it rule so it hardly seems worth bothering as will have to take by end of August.

I like my chips without sauce.

DD finally turned 18 last week. Had a great family party and she loved the photocard that we put together. Also went to the pub so she could order the drinks and she got asked for ID, took the barman a while to do the maths. She’s having her first proper week off since finishing A levels as she’s been so busy with so many commitments.

Results suddenly seem to be not far away but still no information from the school about getting them…

That sounds rubbish @paddingtonpaddington are you able to look back and see what they did last year ?

It’s got to be mayo with chips and even better lashings of it on a fish finger sarnie! 😂
DDs ‘going to Uni’ haul consists of towels so far.
If she meets her offer next week then I’ll have to shop for a duvet and covers - yet more items DD’eed in terms of the covers or in the case of our actual duvets chewed by Ddog!😡

DD had her induction day for her first job today. Has shifts We'd, Thurs, Fri and Saturday. I think she was imagining a more part-time situation 😆

She has a birthday party on 17/8 with her boyfriend staying the night. Train strike on the 18th means he can't get to school from his house to get his results. Just hope it goes well for both of them - going to be difficult otherwise. I'm just trying to work out how to get two hungover 18 yo to school for 8.30!!

😡
Exam board staff will strike on A-level results day over pay dispute

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0615ea8e-17ec-11ed-b1f4-627a202c7457?shareToken=66773fd25851802e07b26431442b9a0b

Chip shop chips with ketchup
Crispy French fries with mayo (the mustardy French sort not Hellmans)

Proggy it has to be salad cream on a fish finger sandwich.

#teammayo

Get ye behind me Satan!
Noooooo….

👍🏼😂

The best chips/frites are the triple-cooked ones with spicy mayo from the green van on the square in Bruges.

Depending on my mood (and what else I have with chips) I'll have mayo, or curry sauce, or ketchup or just salt and vinegar (preferably with a gherkin sitting by the sea). Chips done well are hard to come by outside of a proper chip shop, some Chinese takeaways do a good job though. Also, when the mood takes , McDonald's fries 🍟
Never been so disappointed as the time we went to a Harry Ramsdens though.