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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Heading towards year 3 exams (uni 2017)

998 replies

Xenia · 05/12/2019 09:23

Continuation of www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3538808-heading-towards-year-2-exams-uni-2017 as we have reached page 40.

Hard to believe they are all in year 3 now and many will finish university in June 2020.

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ErrolTheDragon · 22/03/2020 13:12

DD has a 39 week contract, she'd been intending to stay over the Easter to revise had things been normal. She's been allowed to leave pots and pans etc in the lockable half of her wardrobe.

ErrolTheDragon · 22/03/2020 13:17

Long life milk is ok in porridge (though I'd guess not at the same time as marmite)- actually I find skimmed UHT tastes ok in tea, I think it's the fat which changes taste when UHT'd.

Needmoresleep · 22/03/2020 13:24

DD has been cooking us her student repertoire. Vegetable curry using everything lurking in the bottom of the fridge. Risotto with frozen veg and bacon. And, inevitably, pasta with tomato sauce. I wonder what the Mother’s Day treat will be.

DS, in the States, had a real shock. Supermarkets full one day, empty the next. He is not particularly domestic, indeed I think he spent his whole first year living on pot noodles. He plans to stay out there. He will need to get more organised.

BestIsWest · 22/03/2020 15:42

Brought DS home yesterday. Everyone in his house was going home. He plans to sort my garden out in between finishing off his final assignment as best he can. I think he will go stir crazy too. He has offered to take over the cooking too - he’s not a bad cook either even if his repertoire is mainly vegan.

Needmoresleep · 22/03/2020 16:13

One complication seems to be that GPS in some areas, especially rural areas with a high number of second homes, are not accepting new registrations. Yet students are often registered in their University towns.

I have no idea what the solution is.

ErrolTheDragon · 22/03/2020 18:18

Oh blimey... I was going to remind DD to try to do a temporary registration or suchlike when she got to the BFs. She had to do one when she had tonsillitis during her first internship so she may be assuming there will be no issue. Hopefully there won't be - I don't think it's a second home area. Maybe if it's just for prescriptions if she's registered online with her uni practice that might work - I order my stuff online, there's a box to specify where to pick it up.

bettybattenburg · 22/03/2020 19:59

We're now leaving the house as little as possible. I will have to go to work as a key worker so I will be avoiding the others until I have come in, had a shower and washed my hair, cleaned the bathroom and then putting my clothes in the wash. We are also not closing any doors so none of us are touching the door handles except the external doors.

Eve · 22/03/2020 22:26

DS had word tonight his placement site is critical staff only & anyone who has no operational reason to be there told to stay away.

He was expecting this and a lockdown so had car packed & ready so he left at 8pm tonight - 7-8hr drive for him though 😳. Lots of be careful and have naps instructions.

He will need to go back by end June to finish & empty his flat.

ErrolTheDragon · 22/03/2020 22:57

Hopefully there won't be too much traffic, Eve.

Needmoresleep · 23/03/2020 08:43

I hope he got home safely. DD has a tiny car and has only had her licence for 18 months, so I do worry about her on motorways.

On GPs, one of DDs friends who lives in a pretty remote rural area shared something her family received from their local GP, which suggested patients warn "new" neighbours that the practice lacked the capacity to add new registrations. I am sure DDs friend will be OK as she only left to go to University, and equally someone who was staying with a local family because they cannot go home. The share came just as we were discussing people we knew who have relocated to a second home in the Highlands and Islands, despite both (in their late 50s) having major health issues, and having to self isolate because they have just returned from abroad, and despite one of them being a major health neurotic (the sort who used to take her baby son to the GP at least once a week.) We think they are mad. They will be just as safe self-isolating in London, and much safer here should they get ill and have complications.

The amount of extra food we are consuming is incredible. Some will be the fact that we are not eating out. I was also eating less naturally when I no longer had the stress of caring for my mother, but boredom is now taking its toll. But a good part of the blame lies with DD. Young people eat....

bigTillyMint · 23/03/2020 08:50

@Eve, hope your DS is home safely now.

DS had a temp yesterday and was looking poorly. No cough, but bad guts Envy 111online test said SI so we are all SI now. Not really a problem for the others but I should have been at work.

It might not even be CV - the rest of us are fine Confused

ErrolTheDragon · 23/03/2020 08:59

That's the bugger of no testing - you all have to SI now, but even if you're pretty sure someone has had CV you can't then assume they're immune.

Eve · 23/03/2020 09:20

He's home - arrived 3am with a bunch of (reduced in price) tulips as he stopped at a service station for food and a nap.

@Needsmoresleep - describes me this morning as I had no sleep as hes only a recent driver, with a tiny car recently out of the garage after breaking down - so I was awake worrying for hours!

Xenia · 23/03/2020 10:30

Ah, my son who got home a few days ago brought me sone lovely greenery from wood for mother's day - yew, holly etc which is rather nice compared to the usual flowers (and cost nothing and presumably is more likely to be coronavirus free).

The other twin plans to drive back from university on Friday. Dissertation work continues apace for the one at home but lots left to be done on that. His course has a much earlier deadline for that than other courses at Bristol.

I work from home anyway so no change there except my 2 bits of (very small) first legal advice this morning were both about coronavirus contract issues.

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Xenia · 23/03/2020 10:38

On the second home issue there has just been more guidance (it is not the law of course, it just the state's preference)

This guidance is for people planning to visit second homes or holiday premises during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Essential travel does not include visits to second homes, camp sites, caravan parks or similar, whether for isolation purposes or holidays. People should remain in their primary residence. Not taking these steps puts additional pressure on communities and services that are already at risk."
www.gov.uk/government/news/covid-19-essential-travel-guidance

Some people will genuinely live in 2 places so I suppose they will need to choose which it is and if they have horses and other animals in the country they may have to pick the country home unless we decide as a nation we are going to put humans above animals I suppose.

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Needmoresleep · 23/03/2020 11:37

DDs small car is at our 'second home'. We were down there for a football match, which ended up being cancelled (hard to believe it was only 9 days ago) when her medical school closed. Street parking in our area is really expensive (£4 per hour plus congestion charge) so it was perfect she could join us and leave it there. We are trying to sell the flat since we don't need it now my mother has died, but dont expect to find a buyer anytime soon.

Luckily this means we did not make it available for holiday let's which would have been complicated. But still better to be at home. London may be worst affected but I saw a table showing the number of over 70's as a percentage of population. Our borough is one of the very lowest. Where my mum lived is one of the highest. This is likely to make a significant difference in terms of safety.

Breakfast was two slices of the Mothers day cake. This is not good.

ErrolTheDragon · 23/03/2020 12:06

We just got a veg box + milk and eggs; no bread today but they should be able to add that in future. It's a local firm who get stuff from wholesalers, they used to supply pubs and restaurants etc so they're very happy to get local household business instead - apparently they'd had to lay some people off and are now hoping they can get them back. We have a WhatsApp group for the cul-de-sac so lots of us have put in an order so that they can deliver to us all at the same time.

I may now be looking for recipes for swede, which is something neither DH nor myself have ever voluntarily eaten before. Grin

Xenia · 23/03/2020 12:28

Need, I think inner London where my daughters live has a lot of young people so even if lots of infection fewer deaths. I am further out in suburbs so we have had over 100 dead of it because of the older population which will be by Oxfordshire where my son is has had 50 deaths.

Glad Errol got the veg box. I just went out to get necessary food from a small Tesco express which is easy to get to and they seemed to have masses and masses of potatoes which my son asked me to get including piles by the tills on a special offer so I got 2 packs for him. They also had lemsip so I got 2 of those whereas my daughter in inner London (who has had a heaache for over a week and ran out of ibuprofen today) went to 4 shops there today and none had it. I think we are pretty well covered for food out here due to absolutely intense competition from at least 6 majors supermarkets and masses of small corner shops, grocers, butchers etc although I may be eating my words soon.... and there were no eggs in the shop I was in and no lentils which my vegan son had hoped to find and a limit of 3 items per type of item.

I used to eat a lot of raw swede actually Errol. Not sure why. I would but it and chop chunks off and eat them - delicious.

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Xenia · 23/03/2020 12:28

..buy it not but it...

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Needmoresleep · 23/03/2020 12:49

If there is any chance it is CV, it should be paracetamol. However Boots are claiming that they only have 10 days supply in total. The thing about central London is that there are so many small supermarkets, so it has been possible to simply pop into various ones whilst passing and stock up with odd variants of paracetamol - albeit normally cold and flu remedies including caffeine. If there is a national shortage though I suspect that this will be more difficult.

Other things should become easier as supply chains sort themselves out. I noted that there was plenty of veg in the supermarket on Saturday, but mainly of the British winter veg type. I sort of approve. I never liked swede, but parsnips are popular in our house. That said shopping for two was fun. We did not need much so price was not so much of a determinant and I would walk to Borough Market and enjoy choosing nice cheese, fruit & veg, bread, meat and fish. Exercise and no waste as I was just buying what we needed.

I guess the new model is more time spent cooking but using staples and whatever we can pick up.

Congestion charge has just been cancelled, which won't make much difference, but might to inner City workers who don't want to use public transport.

ErrolTheDragon · 23/03/2020 13:01

The 'new normal' will almost certainly include more seasonal and local produce, which is a silver lining. The only plastic in the veg box was the milk containers (the milk is from a local source) and on the cucumber and lettuce.

Xenia · 23/03/2020 13:19

AH, Errol should talk to my vegan son - he is very very pleased that the canals of Venice have fish in again etc.

Thanks for the update on the congestion charge. I wonder if that applies to my diesel car as regards the scheme for those (I rarely drive in).

I know about ibuprofen as I sent the children a link early on on the French view on it but I think my daughter only has that and nothing else and she may be starting to feel better now. She and I when we get a cold seem to have 7 days always without any symptoms but just feeling rotten, then the nose runs etc and then it might go on to the chest as if the body spends a week trying to fight it off first so may be she will now get better or else find moves into a more symptoms phase of whatever she has. Her work have allowed everyone to work from home at present anyway and closed the London office building to workers.

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latedecember1963 · 23/03/2020 13:19

Glad your son got home safely, Eve.
We had an email last night to say our caravan site is now closed until further notice.
I made shortcrust pastry using a food processor on Saturday for the first time in years.
Here are a couple of swede ideas for you, Errol.

Heading towards year 3 exams (uni 2017)
Heading towards year 3 exams (uni 2017)
Carriemac · 23/03/2020 15:29

I'm delighted to report DS2 is home safely from Melbourne, just in time I think
DD is back from oxford . Exams will be online in some form , she's moved out of her flat for good as has DS1 .
I think it's safest for them all to be at home , getting really ill in a student house would be frightening

latedecember1963 · 23/03/2020 16:04

You must be relieved, Carriemac. Did you manage to go out to visit him before all this kicked off?