New Uni starters 2015 (continued from Preparing for Uni)

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Thought we needed a new thread to continue from preparation.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/2466997-Preparing-for-Uni-in-2015-continues

Suspect all have arrived by now...

min for you and your son.

Bloody hell sassy that party sounds horrific . Good on your DD for standing up for herself.

Sorry to read that others are struggling too.

DS is coming home tonight for a long weekend. Am so excited. I told DS2 that he was to make himself available for dinner tomorrow evening (normally all get something different on a Friday and at different times) as we are all going to sit down together and eat. His response was that on a Friday he has plans , well last weeks plan didn't go exactly to plan did it DS as we ended up in A&E you... Needless to say he will be eating with us

Sassy, that party sounds horrific: am so shocked that that culture still exists. Well done to your DD!
I've had a few text exchanges with DS: about to take on the college laundry this evening. (Despite training over the summer am slightly fearful for his shirts!) He has had his first supervision meeting and has an essay to write for Monday, so work begins in earnest.

What an awful party sassy but massive well done to your dd for standing her ground and not being bullied into it.

Dd has started lectures today and working like mad to get her essay done by Sunday. Still seems very happy though!

I am proud that DD stood up for herself, she is quite a contradiction in terms because she can be quiet and introverted but also feisty and headstrong if she gets a bee in her bonnet.

Good luck to DC's as things settle down and lectures begin/continue.

Received a message asking where her cutlery is. She is in catered halls but other than the minimum dining requirement of 36 dinners per term, it is a pay as you go set up. I can only assume DD has been dining out morning, noon and night each and every day to not have needed even a spoon before now!

Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced printer with equally reasonably priced ink cartridges? Dd didn't take one with her as she wanted to see if she really needed one but she already thinks that she does!

DS took our HP Envy 120 from home. Costs about £80ish and ink is about £16ish for dual pack (colour and black).

We need to buy another printer now!

We bought a Canon pixma John Lewis for DS which cost £44 which also scans. Cartridges seem reasonable too. Initial printing seems good, it is wireless and it is compact and relatively light. We bought it on a whim without doing any research but it seems to have good online reviews.

MrsBartlet we got DD a HP printer for about £50 at Currys, she is signed up to the Instant Ink service.

The idea is that they send you a cartridge (free delivery) before you run out, £1.99 per month gives you 50 pages, £3.49 per month 100 pages and £7.99 per month 300 pages.

You can change or cancel the plan at any time and carry over unused pages equal to the amount of your monthly allowance. If you print extra there is a small fee.

They also send a free envelope to return used cartridges. Apparently you can save at least £70 odd quid per year.

Thanks all. I'll have a google. We are going to see her next weekend so I could take a printer with us then. Otherwise I thought I could have one delivered to her but not sure if that is allowed.

Picked DS up from the station at 9.30 tonight. He is full of a horrible cold, one ear blocked and has a tight chest. He sounds dreadful. Says all of his flat mates are the same. He said he slept Tuesday once he got back from Uni until the maintenance man woke him up and slept from around 3pm till 8 last night.

Re printers DD1 bought one from Currys for around £50-60. If you buy an Epson one you buy really cheap generic cartridges on EBay. We checked what type was needed on the Currys website, then looked at how much the generic ones were selling for on EBay. I have always done that with my printers.

With DD2 she has been given a printing allowance of £39 and her halls are really close to uni so we will wait and see (DD1 also got a stationery allowance that she could use anywhere in the uni, even for coffee)

We bought a Brother DC 2500 black and white printer and scanner for about 80 quid from John Lewis. It comes with a cartridge that gives 1200 pages and a spare Brother cartridge from Amazon was 40 quid and gives 2500 pages. You can also use the cheaper refill cartridges for about half that price.

DS rang at 8.20 this morning. I thought something must be wrong as a) it was quite early for him to be ringing and I knew he had lectures at 9.00 and b) it is the 1st time he has initiated any contact in 3 weeks - it has always been us ringing/messaging him up to now.

He said he was fine and just ringing for a chat whilst he was having his breakfast. He said his course is interesting but challenging, which is as he expected it would be. Seems to be living on a restricted diet of unhealthy food but says he has done some jogging although he hasn't yet joined the gym.

I asked him about booking flights home for Christmas. He said he breaks up on 18th so will look at coming home on 19th or 20th Dec so he has time to pack . I pointed out he won't need time as he can only bring 10kg of luggage including the case and he should look at flights for 18th. Seems he can't be missing us at all .

We got DS's HC3 form back in the post yesterday. They have not granted him free prescriptions or dental treatment - just a rather high maximum he can be charged. It appears we are being over generous with our parental contribution so the Government feel he has a surplus of £40 + a week which he can spend on any medical treatment he needs . It was intended that his money from us should cover his flights and text books and any other equipment he needs for his course - clearly the Government hasn't taken that into account! Fortunately as he's in NI I'm hoping he will get free prescriptions anyway, if he ever gets around to registering with the medical centre there so it's just his dental appointment he's got book for the Christmas holidays he'll have to pay for.

I think ds has ended up in some type of Fame Academy by mistake.

He texted me a chatty message today while he was sitting in a cafe with famous now grown up child actor, A, today. He went out to a gig last night with B, ds of very very famous band's PA (free tickets, met the band back stage etc) plus all about his new friend, C, dd of a very famous TV personality. They're off to see famous parent's TV show being filmed next month.

Ds is not studying drama. He is not remotely in to sleb twaddle but I think he's a bit starstruck.

I sent him a worthy parental message about concentrating on his studies

Dd2 came home last night for her sisters birthday. It was lovely to see her. She seems reasonably happy. She doesn't see university as her place yet but said she doesn't quite feel she belongs at home anymore, which made me a bit sad. She did refer to university as home several times though.

I think she is still a bit stressed with it all, feels everyone knows more than her, is more organised than her etc. Her additional modules in totally different subjects are stressing her out a bit because she isn't getting any backup from these depts. and feels a bit lost.

But tomorrow she is going to earn about £70 for allowing prospective students to look in her room at the Open Day. She is going on a dept pub crawl tonight and next week we will will visit her as it's her birthday and we're going to take her for dinner the night before. I'll take a cake that she can share out on the day itself.

She was a bit sad getting on the train and wanted to stay an extra night, for a good sleep, but when we talked about coming home in reading week for a few days she was very non committal. I'll take that as a good sign.

Mumslife agree totally about the one sided 'all about them' conversations. Even when it's ds who rings me our chats all currently go like this:
Me: So, how's the food/friends/ course?
DS: Great! (plus interesting comment about food/friends/course.)
Silence.
Me. And what about the hall/ nightlife/ tutor?
DS: Great (plus another bit of info about hall/ nightlife/ tutor)
Silence.
Me:

at fame academy Haff

£70! That's great mrsh

Had DS to the dr's this aft. Luckily no chest infection but he has given him some fresh inhalers (not had to use them for about three years). Didn't charge me for the prescription (haven't yet sent off that form). His new gp hasn't yet requested his records, but old gp said they will still see him anyway even when records have gone.

He is still the same DS but yet somehow different. One of his flat mates works in events/promotions so when they go to the O2 Academy they get to go to the front of the queue for everything...bouncy castles...foam parties...

Haffdonga!

Our conversations have been very one-sided and dd is not normally like that at all. But to be fair she is doing lots of interesting things and meeting new people and I want to know every little detail. All I am doing is going to work and preparing to start decorating her bedroom tomorrow! We skyped for about half an hour the other day and I said that I would have to go and she did say "oh no I haven't had a chance to ask about all of you yet" so her heart is in the right place.

Thanks for the advice about printers everyone - that is another thing I need to sort this weekend in between decorating.

Hope your ds is ok Pug - a case of freshers' flu perhaps? I thought I was coming down with freshers' flu this week - do you think mums can get it as they're feeling low once their freshers have left home?!

Probably MrsB!

He will be ok. GP did say to him though to expect many colds over this next year.

Yes, I think we could possibly come out in sympathy with it

I'm also decorating my dd's bedroom this weekend MrsBartlet - just hope dd doesn't surprise us with a visit before I am finished (though obv would be lovely to see her)

I've found you - just had a very tearful daughter on the phone - she is just so lonely and struggling and feels like she can't make friends. It's heartbreaking . She has social anxiety and also is a recovering bulimic. Just want to get in the car and go and get her!! I hate hearing her struggle and im not there to help her!! In tears now