Early days at uni 2017

[HSMMaCM]

How is everyone settling in?

DD starts on Wednesday.

Ds got an email today saying loan will arrive in 3 working days

Oh, how horrible tobee. Her poor family and friends.

Tobee so sorry...
yes it was on the news websites yesterday... so many horrible stories right now re students on there what with the drugs being handed out in Manchester with business cards too... not to mention all the press about the great debts they are building up and how the wiser move is not to go to uni these days...

I saw that story in today's newspaper. Poor girl. Poor parents. Truly horrible thing to happen.

Eve... my other DC had a DSA laptop for uni. They sent it through the post to us at home. He was actually able to pay a bit extra and get a better model. They provide software and a bag.
BTW ... if any of you didnt already know, most unis now give free office 365 ..word, excel etc to all students. No need to buy as one of my friends did

Oh tobee

We did the DSA thing, we got voice recognition software and other software (I'll have to check what) plus the hour of student support and an allowance for printing. We upgraded the laptop, it cost us £300 including the contribution that we'd have had to make to the basic workhorse laptop.

Tobee, just read back, that's awful :-(

The university that mine has gone to has a reputation for drugs being easily available but I think that's going to be the case at many universities. We just have to hope that they are sensible enough to stay away :-(

tobee how dreadful, the poor girl and her parents - doesn't bear thinking about. What a sobering start for everyone there.

I saw that tobee

Poor little mite and her family

I reminded DD again to be careful.

@Tobee my dd is at the other City uni and yes, they all heard too
One of her neighbours has been in hospital with a bowel infection and there’s been tons of Pukers
She’s been out 6 nights on the trot and finally staying in tonight

Eve and Needmoresleep

ds had a dsa needs assessment and the written report that followed gave him a choice of 3 laptops. This seems to be the range. He also has a printer, scanner and various bits of software (Dragon Mindview Read & Write Gold, Notetaker Pro and Aspire). No idea what some of them do and he's not terribly impressed with the laptop but says it will do. He had to pay the first £200 I think and there was an option to upgrade at his own expense but he went with what they gave him.

His report was very thorough and also says extra time for assessments, extended deadlines for any submitted work and extended loans in the library. He gets 2 sessions a week with 2 bods, one is pastoral regarding organising himself and anything asd related and the other is study support reading through his work etc. He says he thinks he will just ask his tutor if he has a problem and the report is all rather ott

tobee, how awful for that family. I spoke to one of mine today and they are both fine. I think it's been a fairly sociable first week. It was the first time I've spoken to this twin since I dropped him off a week ago tomorrow for his field trip. the trip was good. He seems fine. I thought there were 12 boys in his block but some share rooms so it is more like 16 for 3 showers although 4 of them do have a bath on his floor. His room is absolutely massive and he loves it. His twin likes his much newer smaller halls so I'm glad they both ended up with something they like and that they did not take the car which was an original plan as it's just sitting on my drive not being used until holidays. He is sure he won't need it now so that's simpler for them and also he is sure he will not be home until the holidays which is fine and what I did in my day. Food is good. No complaints at all so they are either keeping bad things from me (which is fine, they are 18) or it really is all good.

Everyone keeps asking if I'm lonely. I have never been lonely on any day ever in my whole life, even on a remote island alone in the Pacific. Anyway I've had a 7 hour course to give this week and since 6am today have had people wanting things from me and calling all day long and then yesterday my first day alone in 33 years (bliss albeit I was working) my son - the oldest one who I moved on Monday to his own house popped back after work to collect a package that had come here.
I have rushed to notify council tax that at long last I get my single person 25% off discount and emailed the local electoral roll people too as my older son has now registered to vote near his new house (the twins have arranged a postal vote which will come here to home) as we never know if elections will be in term or university time.

eatyourveg Your DS sounds like mine. He also thinks his DSA assessment is overs the top. He is supposed to sort out his support with the disability officer but 4 days in and he hasn't set foot near the place. I reminded him again today but he is seemingly far too busy with freshers fairs to fit it in[hmm[

DS goes tomorrow, we are just finishing the packing

@ImListening - Oh good. 2hrs away is not so bad. How is your dc doing now?

With our ds we had a couple of weeks of major anxiety and he was sooo close to packing it in, but a drastic course change, short-term meds and long-term counseling appointments seem to have already made a huge difference.

He's just announced that he doesn't feel like he needs to come home this weekend and has made plans for next, so he'll see us at Thanksgiving!

So, in 12 days he's gone from us bringing him home for an emergency Drs appointment (our Dr actually had us bring him round to his house and talked with him for >1hr on a Saturday night!!), multiple sleepless nights (for all of us) and ds genuinely feeling like he couldn't possibly ever settle at the uni., he's now choosing to next deign to see us on 6th Oct

Good luck for tomorrow horsemad !!

Got a text from DS this afternoon asking how long to steam broccoli for.

Broccoli? I was quite impressed.

Then got a call just now. How was the broccoli? Oh, um, I got the steamer out then realised I forgot to buy the broccoli.

Oh well.

Ds1 texted dh to ask him hiw to do scrambled eggs in the microwave

Note he didnt ask me.....as eggs in the mirowave is WRONG

Thanks lazydog.
Glad your DS has settled - your Dr is a

Best at 'forgot the broccoli'!

lazy thank you bit better today when I spoke to her. Glad yours has settled in.

It's a nerve wracking experience- I can still remember 30+ years later

I forgot to buy the broccoli

DD's boyfriend turned up to take her to dinner tonight.

She hasn't arranged her DSA support either

Rufus _ dead easy to do scramble egg in microwave!

Just so long as they know not to microwave an egg in its shell. DD decided yesterday to find out if she could cook pasta in a microwave - the conclusion was yes, but a pan would be easier, so worth knowing only for if all hobs were being used.