Early days at uni 2017

[HSMMaCM]

How is everyone settling in?

DD starts on Wednesday.

Hmmm, DH took us all out to dinner, so nothing has been done tonight!

Well DS has been out every night so far, he's met up with his school friends at the other Uni last night and tonight. He's got his timetable and has lectures on only 2 days out of 5!!!!

For comparison , his room is a large double on 5 th floor of an old converted pub in Sheffield , no lift ( fine he needs the exercise ! ) , I would say shabby but clean and solidly built, think it will be nice and warm in the winter. When I say a large double , it's a very good size room with a double bed in the corner. Not ensuite though but has a sink and the bathrooms are 3 between 7 flats ( the other 4 flats have ensuite ) - £4004 a year. Not too bad but still takes some finding as we are funding it and letting him live on his loan.

User, I was quite shocked that there were only 2 lifts for 21 floors in DS accommodation. Luckily he is on the lowest floor so has the option of stairs.

Ah, mine is on the top floor so doesn't have that option! 17 floors is a little too far to walk but the views are amazing :-)

MIng a converted pub sounds lovely. Full of character?

User - the stairwell is lovely old stone like ours was at school, the flats aren't particularly characterful but I think it's got a nice feel. When we looked round originally the fake leather sofas were peeling and wrecked but they'd replaced them by the time he moved in with new ones, not finest quality but I suppose you wouldn't waste your money on decent ones for students !

On way home from work today I passed one of the new Universities in our City, and there were thousands of fresh faced students clearly coming away from Freshers fair - all clutching their empty Dominoes Pizza box (it works like a voucher for their first free pizza) and lots of other goodies they'd been given to draw them in to the freshers fair

Haha Back, in our city at the weekend DS and I played 'Spot the Fresher'

To be fair, it was quite easy as most were carrying a clothes airer/various bags and were accompanied by harassed looking parents!!

Sounds like fun - maybe play Fresher bingo; bonus points for extra items?

I claim points for a full set of riding kit, several 40" televisions and Lakeland heated clothes airers.

Dd has been in she Sunday and been out every night, yesterday until 7am but she is a bit of a party animal, she says she is having a few night in now (yeah right). She has set up her room and face timed me last night it's looking very cozy now.

She has a lad in her flat that has no idea how to do anything remotely domestic so her and another lad are teaching him some basic cookery as they feel a bit sorry for him. Apparently he was all wide eyed watching the pair of them saying wow how did you learn that.

Got some very drunk texts this morning

Obviously sent very early this morning

Now worrying if he is ok

Dd' s halls are £4500 a year but she'll have to get a metro card with being further away.
She had her leavers meal with her dancing friends last night. Her sister was crying because it just hit her that it will be the first dance show without her in Oct and she can't even come with us to uni on Sat as she had dancing (and there is no room in the car!)

Bill, my DD is also a party animal, but is in awe of a flatmate who has brought his slow-cooker and is cooking real food!

Rufus, I bet he's OK - just the drink talking. But I know what you mean!

Its the one thing i am frightened off big

That he drinks too much and chokes...

But thank you

(I have texted him to say he texts me the second he sees his phone...and yes, if i dont hear anything i will be THAT mother)

Bill -ah, thats nice (not the poor lad's incompetence, obv, the cookery lessons).

Today's Times has a piece about the VC of Buckingham saying that rather than drink, students need tranquil spaces (including allotments!) and welfare dogs (bucks has two). I'll have to show it to DD when she emerges. Last night as we took turns ironing a heap of her clothes to pack, she was cuddling our dachshund and saying she intended to persuade her college to get a large pack one. This idea would be sold to them as a recruitment tool, and therefore the less pleasant aspects of dog ownership wouldnfall to the admissions tutor.

We took the wet MacBook to the Apple Store yesterday and they had a look at it and said it would need a new something or other, was completely kaput and would cost about £500 to put right which is about what it's worth. V fed up. DS brought it home with the back off as they had undone it with the special screwdriver. Anyway, DS cleaned it and dried it and did various other things to it - and it burst into life and now seems fine! I suppose it might go any moment but he ran a diagnostic test and it said everything was normal. Blood pressure now improved!

Right he just texted me with

I'm OK

I was amazed at the TVs going in. Presumably for gaming? The local supermarket had a huge pile of airers as you walked in. Kettles & toasters might have been better as these were not provided. None of his group had realised that, so presumably the local supermarket will be able to flog hundreds of them to the new students.

You're doing well. Yesterday's message was 'hi'

I got a message from ds last night 'I've got fresher's flu' - further investigation suggests it is just a bit of a cold but I await further contact today so see how he is doing.

need

Apparently when ds1 is pissed he send loads of messages

I usually get 'I'm alive'

odd

Oh its horrible when they are sick away from you

Unless its contagious or mank in which case the further away the better

'Ok' is good, rufus.
Morvah - whew, thats good. Hearing these tales of computer woe, I'm more tolerant of glad DH is an overthinker... yesterday they spent quite a while re-setting up DDs laptop, to make sure it was virus-free and all the security and privacy settings are turned on and she knows how to check they're still on after an update (win10 is really bad for turning things back on again). But he also set up an (old, slow) laptop as a spare - not sure if she's taking that or just that we have it ready if hers breaks.

Was quite shocked that dd went for the meningitis jab with no reminders

Well I've had two real phone calls proper conversations...the second time. I got told off because as soon as o answers the phone apparently I asked what was wrong..and DS was like mum nothing just chill, just wanted a chat!
Anyway all is fine. His flat mates are boring and don't open their doors so he has no idea who's home when he is. He said he opens the door and shouts hello (obviously onky during daylight hours I did check) and no one answers him, but then he'll hear people in their rooms when he's in the kitchen..he's decided its a good thing as this way he'll work when in halls. He's cooking proper food I bought him the jamie Oliver 5 Ingredients boom and he's made two of the meals already

AuntP sounds like he is sharing with my DD. She has a pretty full timetable with something on campus at 9.00am every morning, and is trying to sort out her DSA, DBS and vaccinations as well as back accounts, railcards and University admin. The first suddenly required an additional specialist eye test before she could have the main assessment, and we somehow managed to find a cancellation last week. I think even she is surprised that she is inching her way through it all. So other than the first night, no nights out, though apparently there are plans for a house party.

Its so nice not to have to be involved. I hate admin.

Had message from ds to say he's missing home a bitmost likely girlfriend but that Uni life is great!
He's joined the gym and had a Philosophy workshop never done Philosophy before!! He's also enquirer about spending a semester abroad in second year as Uni has strong links in N America, Hong Kong as well as usual Erasmus exchanges
Dh and I are off tomorrow for a fortnight in the Indian Ocean to celebrate our 30 th Wedding Anniversary - first child free holiday in 24 yrs![big grin].... I've given the dcs our itinerary and told them to behave while we're away!! ( all 3 have now left home and are in Scotland ,England and China!!)