2nd year uni (starting 2018)

[HSMMaCM]

The old thread seems to have filled up!

Thanks for the advice guys. After feeling dreadful yesterday I self medicated with wine and chocolate and feel a lot better this morning. Dd1 seems perfectly happy although one boy has already moved out due to the noise.

I just spoke to one mine as he emailed about their power contract/charges - they are using something called Glide in that house which seems to split the bills equally. He was fine and was cooking (which he does a lot at home too). They seem to have found a reasonable place to put their car although as we expected a distance from the houses (the twins share a car and are in different houses).

I have not had a second of peace since they left really, loads of work, just had a work man here, had another on Friday too. Far too busy to miss anyone but not missing the lack of mess.

they are using something called Glide in that house which seems to split the bills equally

DD mentioned some app for keeping track of shared expenses, maybe that was it. I think it's mainly just their internet and a few shared household items though.

She and DH are currently loading the car, they're going to leave at silly o'clock tomorrow morning as she has to get unloaded and ready to help on a pre freshers course by midday.

The iother twin is using something similar too. They sound like a good idea as instead of having a bill registered in one name and having to chivy your friends along to pay each of you just pays each month on your card. The one I saw today (as he was asking me to pay) is gas, electric and water combined whch they seeed to set up in Aug or Sept although surely there will be bills from 1 July when the tenancy started so I hope they know about that. He has been trying to see if they want the fees yet for the university but it doesn't seem to be asking him to pay yet so that's fine.

One of mine also mentioned they have done the council tax registration as a student so you don't have to pay that. No lectures as yet.

DS heads back on Saturday he's very upset to have missed Harry and Megan there on Monday ( not!).

He's got a few days work experience this week at a friends company and has an interview Friday morning for next years placement! Fingers massively crossed for that - would be great to have it secured and out of the way.

Luckily in his house all bills up to a cap are included so they don't need to worry about bills, though his mates have moved in this week and found a lot of broken items!

DD is back, sent me an email with subject Help ... and a photo of a large spider in her bath. Dealing with spiders is my job usually but not quite sure what I was supposed to do about it from a couple of hundred miles away! (DH dealt with it)

Aww, To a Def to be petrified of spiders but overcame my fears when I had DC as I didn't want them to be frightened. I still don't like them but can at least put a glass over them and chuck them out!

I killed one with my finger yesterday and had to wash the blood off.

bloomin' autocorrect! Should read I used, not To a Def, whatever that means!

(spider blood not mine I hasten to add .It was not a tarantula)

Xenia you are HARDCORE!! 😂

AWESOME

Xenia, come to mine! The spiders have ganged up on me as DH has been in the US for work, I think he sent them a postcard because they KNOW I am alone. I have had to resort to killing them by launching a Jamie Oliver cookbook at them from arm's length (only Jamie will do by the way, he has the right dimensions and weight!). Shudder......

ono40 - get a cat, it'll eat them! Mind you, you then have the possibility of needing to clean up cat sick... Bleurrrgh!

I do prefer not to use my fingers but it was a huge one and no paper was to hand so I just have to be rid of it ( I accept however that lots of eople think that is wrong - to murder a spider but if I left them all the house would be over run). Meanwhile I have spoken to both sons now - both was happy; one told me about his half marathon which went well and his cooking; the other is seeing his tutor today which is normal at the start of the year and neither had any problems. All going well at the houses.

Wear a suit (or pink dress)

Someone please put me out of my misery - why, exactly, does the colour of one's dress matter?

I’m guessing it was a topical joke re (un)suitable business attire and not serious advice to our student DCs!

Errol is correct!

A male Managing Director at Credit Suisse who dresses as a woman two or three times a week came 32nd in some FT Business Woman of the Year listing last week. Pictures were of him in a pink dress, not one that many women would feel able to wear to work. My guess is that he had to be pretty senior to get away with it, so not something for a student/employer networking event.

Hmm, could they not find 32 good enough women then? I'm fairly supportive if trans rights but not at the expense of women's rights.

Ha, Credit Suisse Twitter feed congratulating 'Pips' Bunce is very funny indeed.

Other than that I will stop short of a thread derail.

More on topic, DD has been frustrated by the way the SU determindly pursue niche topics, whilst being seemingly uninterested in topics that affect the student body as a whole. At one point students marched against the withdrawal of Hall Wardens, a policy the Union had supported. Quite a big contrast to DS's University where the Union, though not perfect, appeared to work constructively with the University to progress big projects.

One of mine may be going to a careers event. I hope so. He says he has a friend he can take along who would want to go too.

(The interesting point about Bunce is that the person chooses some days to dress as a women and some not apparently which is very different from someone who is transitioning to the gender they have always felt was theirs - although not at all unusual; for generations women have come home and caught their husband dressing up in their clothes yet he does not want to do that all the time)

DD has just sent me some photos of her house, as student houses go it's pretty nice. It even has garden furniture (in the garden, to be clear, unlike some student furnishings I've read of).

Unlike DDs house which has other furniture in the garden

More on topic, DD has been frustrated by the way the SU determindly pursue niche topics, whilst being seemingly uninterested in topics that affect the student body as a whole

That was certainly the case in my student days, there were big protests about Nelson Mandela for example. Whilst his plight was important there seemed to be a lot of time campaigning for that and not much that helped the students.

At DD's SU there are many societies which cater for the wealthy students and less so for your average student loan student- one that she was interested in (though didn't join because of the money issue) is arranging a 3 week horse riding trek in Brazil

DH and DS have set off today. I shed a tear or two I'll admit. Just hoping the house is nice, and he has a good second year. It'll be odd adjusting to having fewer bodies in the house. Hope all goes well for others moving back in the next few days.