Heading towards year 3 exams (uni 2017)

[Xenia]

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.

Like every crisis, it brings out the brave and sadly also shows who the scum of the Earth are. Muggings for NHS id sadly doesn't surprise me but then I've worked in jobs where I see just how badly some people treat others and the bar is exceedingly low.

Goodbye best wishes to the DSs with birthdays today. I survived my day at school - it was actually quite nice as there were only 8 kids there and they were lovely. It was good to be able to use a decent internet connection so I got lots done.

DD1 has been missing biking around so she volunteered to do her 30 minutes' exercise by biking to the community shop in the next village to get my dad his newspaper. He's happy, she got some exercise & fresh air although she says Cambridge has made her forget the cardiac-workout hills round here. She's now revising and chatting online with her course-mates so it looks like cooking dinner is once again my responsibility.

Good to hear that most people's young are in the place they want to be for the duration, but perhaps not above collapsing drains, poor GoodbyeStranger's ds!
Needmoresleep Fleabag is essential, beautiful, seminal watching but I agree with your dd, perhaps not an to be shared .experience with your parents/dc.

DS is desperately applying for temp jobs (stacking shelves probably) to put towards his masters fund next year. He was rung this afternoon and asked to do a phone interview there and then but he asked if he could phone back in half an hour because he was eating breakfast . When he phoned back the job had already gone. You snooze you lose, ds. He's obviously competing against all the A level students who've had their summers cancelled and the millions of other hospitality, retail workers etc facing unemployment.

I'm quite angry with my employer (a charity). They are using the government's offer of 80% pay (to prevent people being laid off) as an alternative to paying their staff. They are 'offering' individuals the choice of taking the money instead of having to work from home during the lock down 'because it might be easier for people' who have children. These are not people who would otherwise have been laid off as we can work from home and have funding covering our roles. I feel there's something exploitative about it. )Not quite as bad as Sports Direct though!

Haffdonga have they thought how they will manage without these people after this is all over?

Betty but these people wouldn't have been/ won't be laid off anyway as there is ongoing funding for them! The point of the government funding (as I understood it) is to help people who would otherwise have to be laid off. My employer is using the cash just as a convenient way of paying the wages of people they have no plans to get rid of.

I can't express my views as my funding runs out in December. I'm a little outspoken and bolshy now I'm in my dotage and if I make my views known too clearly they could just decide that they actually are going to get rid of me.

My employer is using the cash just as a convenient way of paying the wages of people they have no plans to get rid of.

Ah, I see - I misunderstood. I'd be spitting feathers in that situation.

We were supposed to be in Oz now, obviously did not travel but no refunds as we could have travelled ( last Friday) , though we'd have beed
Stuck there. Who knows what next term will bring for all our DCs , I do
Hope
They get to do their finals somehow

Carrie, I am so sorry.

The missed opportunities are so sad for our DC. The way they were so abruptly dispersed. The missed placements and internships, and, quite probably the missed post-finals events and graduations.

A friend's son should be leaving tonight for Asia and home. He has had to wait about 10 days for a flight with a spare seat. I hope it is not cancelled, as he has been very alone. It is a sad way for him to finish his three years.

A hands on practical and vocational degree has suited DD. She is dyslexic and learns by doing. Self study is not her forte. She also does not know how she will be examined this summer. It would normally be OSCI, which is a practical test, so suits her, but doctors are normally roped in to do the examination, and presumably they won't be available. She is also still waiting to hear about two of her intercalation options, including the one she really, really wants, which is proving a bit unnerving. Who now knows when she will hear. Again, I assume medics and others making the decisions will have other priorities.

But these things are minor. I hope everyone, their DC and their families stay well.

I don't think stuff to do with issues around studying and getting home is minor for our young people - university has been the centre of their life for three years and they don't know anything different. This summer should have been a time to switch from student life to working life and that needs marking with events to help with the transition, they haven't had it and I think that makes it harder for them.

I don't disagree that it is hard. Indeed it is really sad. We are all having our lives put on hold, but these are such crucial months for them.

It is obviously minor compared with the pictures of people struggling to breathe. But perhaps my post did not express it well.

It has all happened so fast, so it is hard to take in. Especially if you were happy and busy elsewhere and planning your next steps. DD has effectively taken on the cooking, which is great, and we still have some ancient yeast and bread flour left over from her bread making phase so she may see if she can produce something edible. But otherwise I suspect she is pretty stunned, and not sure what to do.

I think we're both on the same hymn sheet Sleep
People needn't feel guilty for being concerned about things being bad in lesser ways for some than others and I was trying to say that - it's bad of all of us in different ways.

Let us hope the price is worth paying. I suppose we should always fall back on my mother's advice to children - life is not fair.

DSis also dyslexic (and dyspraxia). He has absolutely loved his time doing this degree. It is minor but I know he is sad about it.

I have offers my children payment towards a dream trip when all this is over - so they are painting the garden fence
Clearing a hedge
Sorting the attic etc for £15 an hour
As well as doing all the cooking etc when DH and I are at work
Just to give them something to look forward too when this is all over

Not paying them
For cooking etc obviously
I'm not that soft

And I'm not that disappointed about our dream holiday being cancelled - working for the NHS at least has given me some perspective for now

DDs BFs DM phoned last night to reassure us that DD is settled in. Apparently they're revising most of the day and then going out for their statutory walk. The BF had been out and stocked up with large supplies of lined paper, which they class as an essential.

That's nice of her to give you a reassurance call Errol.
They sound like they have a good routine going! 🙂

I shouldn't laugh but....DD and DS went out for a walk together and came back in a state of some lighthearted discomfort - they saw the off duty community police officer (who is a friend of a friend and knows full well they are siblings) who called over the road 'Are you out for a walk with your girlfriend?' to DS. He was mortified at the thought as girls are from a different planet

Yes, it is going to be very difficult for the police.

I have never had so many people walking, riding, running and cycling on my road as yesterday - all trying to keep distance of course (private road but open access, wood opposite, golf club etc so a very nice place to walk).

In theory one of mine drives home from university today which we hope is similar to Foreign Office advice that if you are abroad you should return home (and so is allowed) rather than a major breach of the law. I don't think we have road blocks across motorways and I have advised him not to stop on the journey (90 minutes).

Xenia Durham has sent an email to students only yesterday, saying that PHE says explicitly that it's ok for students to return home, either on public transport or by road.

That should say Durham explicitly says that PHE has told the uni, but same difference.

They are supposed to self isolate for 15 days when they come home. This is of course easier said than done with 20 year olds in their own home.

Really? That guidance hasn't been put out by Durham. I don't think that makes a huge amount of sense really.

And how has 14 crept up to 15?!

I can see that it would make sense to strictly follow guidance, and stay at home for a couple of weeks, only going out for exercise where you can stay remote and only with family members, especially if they are coming from a City or a University community where the virus is already circulating, to somewhere rural, with perhaps an elderly population and limited local health provision. Isn't that why locals near Balmoral are cross with Prince Charles. He may be fine, but they will want to delay the spread within their community for as long as possible.

My friend's DS managed to get his flight back to Asia last night, but has decided to self isolate in a hastily rented AirBnB for a couple of weeks. She is sad at not being able to see him, but sees the logic as she has her elderly mother living with her. Actually in London the chances are that he has already been exposed and has built up immunity, but until we have an antibody test, no one knows.

I wonder how this will change us. For a start we love Zoflora. I spotted some a few weeks back when the Government had first started talking about handwashing and hygiene. Two capfuls added to water in empty spray bottles. Then eating. We want to avoid supermarkets, not least because after we thought we were better temperatures have returned, as if our immune systems are doing a good job, but don't really know how to fight this one off completely. (Assuming that we have the virus.) Luckily there is no coughing or lung problems, weirdly my main symptom aside from mild, though occasionally high, temperatures, fatigue, and morning headaches, are sore eyes. We are not really ill, but not well either. So hunkering down at home, doing some work, but having plenty of rest and drinking lots of water, is fine.

And then planning and cooking meals. We are running low on fresh stuff, though have milk in the freezer. I had bought some Bramley apples as they last, so apple pie tonight. After that it's going to be like our grandparents generation, tinned veg and dried fruit. Though with pasta and rice rather than potatoes. (Our potatoes were really only fit for planting, but we don't have a garden so ate them anyway.) Its fine. I wish I could buy some more eggs, and potatoes, but we can last another week or two. And I think we may useful reset our view of food as a treat, to food as an important commodity to be valued.

I bought several packets of Ethiopian Coffee beans just before this all started and put them in the freezer. (From the Ethiopian Coffee Company.) It's a bit like Desert Island Discs. I have my luxury item and Spotify.

And DD got offered a place on her top choice intercalation. She is delighted, though may change her mind once the reality of living at home ceases to be a novelty.