BTM. Brilliant. Well done to her for sticking to her guns. Going to court would have been a real hassle for them, but also for the landlord and he presumably realises he probably would have lost. It sounds like both parties got a reasonable deal.
Before decoration they should insist that everything is dust sheeted to protect from plaster dust. Or they should put everything away, hide things under the bed etc. And leave the sheets down for as long as possible as the dust takes two or three days to settle.
Then a big party.
DD turned 21 last summer. Her birthday is always during exams, but we were able to do something just before the start of term, and about a dozen of her University friends stayed the night and then continued on to University. Weirdly she seems to be the only Londoner, indeed perhaps the only southerner, amongst her friendship group. Others have persuaded now her to attend some sort of conference in a couple of weeks time (I think medics are encouraged to go to additional professional conferences, which are then fun as they meet students from other medical schools as well as learning more about specialisations) so that they can then stay with us. Last time her friend, from the Midlands, had never been to London and was completely amazed, which was fun. I am a bit of an evangelical Londoner and similarly took my mum's carer, who again had never visited the capital, around for the day. I think she was quite relieved when she got on the train back to Dorset.
I don't think the snow settled. DD is on placement and if any surgery is involved, the surgeon normally insists medical students accompany him on his early rounds, meaning they have to be in by 7.30am. DD obviously needed to complain to someone about snow at such an early hour, so picked me. I guess it makes a change from rain. She is on placement out of Bristol from late January for six months, which will effectively be the end of her being a proper student.
The career thing is odd. We sat opposite a student on the train last weekend who was taking a Masters at Imperial after a degree at Durham, who suggested the biggest difference was how career orientated everyone was in London. Networking breakfasts, career events and more, and everyone discussing applications and options. This matches our experience. At the LSE parent induction day, laid on for parents of overseas students mainly, but interesting nonetheless, our student guide complained that in your first term the careers office rationed to two advice sessions only. I may be wrong but I doubt too many students elsewhere even try to get two career sessions in their first term. The fixation on Goldman Sachs et al caused DS to rebel and decide investment banking was not for him. Even then he seemed to be having "next steps" type conversations at an early stage gaining a lot of information from people a year or two above him.
At the parent induction the LSE Director had a whole powerpoint with information about post University career paths, and commented that employer feedback was that LSE grads were usually technically ahead, but sometimes lacked breadth. I think this may be the case for medicine as well. DD is really enjoying her rural GP placement with some great home visits to farms, but probably does not have the same depth of technical knowledge of her friend at Imperial. Degrees are only the start of the learning process so as long as you get the job you want, it probably does not matter.