Heading towards 4th year or post grad/jobs

[Xenia]

Continuation of the previous thread for those of us with children who are just finishing their 3rd year at university (so either "graduating" in 2020 or going into year 4 in Autumn 2020)..........

My twins' degree results will be out in late July. Good luck to everyone else waiting for finals results.

[Loshad]

@Parker231 that was really kind of your ds.
I had a hurried trip to return Ds3 to Manchester the day stricter measures were announced so he could be back to crack on with the PhD, fortunately as he is living with DS2 ( very junior medic) he has company some of the time. That has only left DS4 who is in y2 and is revising hard for his exams in a couple of weeks. Neither he or I have any idea when he will go back to uni, it’s good to still have him here.

[Xenia]

The Parker son sounds very helpful.
My twins' law workshops restart next week so both are at home and one is relaxing and other doing lots of applications.

[Horsemad]

Parker your son is lovely helping the neighbours, bet they love him! 🙂

DS2 is quite chipper just lately, despite having 3 assignments in for the 18th. I'm buying lots of his favourite food/treats, to keep him going. 🙂

[Carriemac]

DD is writing an law essay for her masters on the exact same topic she did an essay on as an undergraduate - in a different institution. I asked her was she tempted just to hand in the same essay again ( is it plagiarism if you wrote the first one? ) but she said she is 'tweaking and expanding'. I'm curious to see why mark she will her compared to the first one .

[ErrolTheDragon]

Brief exchange of texts with DD - all her housemates are back now, so I think she's fine. She doesn't know what's happening re the lab part of her 4th yr project - it might be allowed if it's a necessary element for accreditation perhaps.

[Xenia]

Tweaking and expanding sounds like the right thing to do, Carriemac, regarding the essay.

My second twin accepted his place this morning for their next one year law course starting in September in London (they will both live at home). He said he had checked his emails a lot and the offer had still not come through so I called up (also because one twin was offered £1k alumni discount and the other had not been) and they dealt with it all (although apparently it had been sent to a different email address and he had had it all along but all fine now and the alumni discount will apparently be applied to each twin later this year).

I did raise on the phone if the course starting in September will be all on line (as this year has been) and obviously they do not know. It does leave the difficult issue that their London fees are about £4k more even with the discount than, say, doing it in Leeds and yet if it is 100% online for the same course it must be hard to justify the £4k or £5k extra but I did not want to get into a debate about it so just left it. The main thing is they have a course to do and are making some progress in that sense with a career in law. (The places are conditional on passing this year's course however so that is the current hurdle).

I think they are in a much better position than those doing GCSEs and those who are freshers in this pandemic so just grateful for that. As my daughter said yesterday only her child at nursery is allowed to have a good time with his little mates every day - rest of us (unless out at work) are confined to our houses just about. My other daughter had to do a very unusual save the date wedding email for March today naming what I almost call the 12 apostles - the 13 of us who - if the current wedding ban is lifted by then - are the chosen few who can attend the distanced church service. It works out neatly as parents, siblings and siblings' children ( no spouses).

[Malbecfan]

Gosh @Xenia that's hard, but I'm glad the numbers work. Good news about the twins and their applications though. @Parker231, what an amazing DC you have!

DD1 will be returning to Cambridge in just over a week. She has permission from her tutor due to the terrible broadband here and her need to work in the lab. DD2 is going back to her uni on Saturday as she too has face-to-face teaching shortly. Weirdly, I am looking forward to a day of driving as some downtime from the mania of trying to teach live lessons, babysit key worker and vulnerable children and deal with the shit that my elderly father is managing to create. I need a life!

[Carriemac]

It will be a lovely wedding Xenia. Well done on your DTs being so motivated .
All those with kids going back, do you all fell as anxious about them as I do? At least when they're at home, DH and I have been vaccinated and they are not exposed to anyone else

[Parker231]

DS has decided not to go back yet. He can do his modules online.
We’re glad he’s staying with us and he and some local friends have organised a running club whereby they meet up with one other person for a run each day. It seems a good idea as he’ll see a different friend each day.
With his Uni friends they have organised a weekly drinks night via Zoom. Our food and drinks shop has gone up drastically!
He’s taking his passport to the embassy today for renewal. He just has to drop it off and hopefully it will be ready in six weeks.

[Xenia]

Thanks although the problem is if the law does not change then the wedding will not take place in March. 3.5 months without any weddings allowed in London unless you are dying it would be very very long so hopefully they relax it before the wedding date otherwise I suppose my daughter will then have to push the wedding back to the first day weddings become lawful again. She is calling it a "micro wedding". I suppose we should call it a putative micro wedding as it might not happen on the date planned.

Anyway it will be fine, the least of anyone's problems in the current pandemic.

I don't feel anxious were my Bristol son to go back. He and most of his friends have either had covid 19 or not caught it despite being close to those with it and none of them has had any long covid or bad symptoms. I am happy to leave the decision to him as if he goes I still do not get my house to myself as his twin is here so one extra is not a big difference. I think his flatmate is in the flat doing exams so probably best he stays away so as not to be a distraction and probably will still be here next week when his course restarts online. He says most friends are still in Bristol (these are all post grads or year 4 of degrees and all in private rented places) but I don't think he's decided when to go back yet.

[latedecember1963]

Fingers crossed for your DD's wedding, Xenia. 1 of my colleagues is supposed to be getting married in May and DS1 in August. We've worked out a list if the limit is 15, which I think they would go ahead with, but 6 is just too few as it wouldn't include siblings and grandparents.
They are being very sensible and counting their blessings that they have kept their jobs and have somewhere nice to live but the uncertainty is hard.
DS2 has had his 2nd negative C19 result this lunchtime so he was heading to the uni library this afternoon.
I've worked with KW and vulnerable pupils this week who were happy to be back in school. Yesterday we only had 7 in my bubble which meant I was able to spend extra time with 1 child who was struggling to grasp a maths concept until I was confident she'd got it.
We have to take my MiL for her C19 vaccine tomorrow. Hope it's all going to plan for those of you who are/ have family involved in the vaccination programme.

[Parker231]

DS has heard that his Uni is offering a rent waiver for about six weeks for those not currently able to be in their campus accommodation.
Xenia - I hope the wedding takes place. A few we were due to attend last year were cancelled and one has now been rescheduled for 2023. The couple have decided to start their family first and wait to have the type of wedding they have planned for.

[Parker231]

DH has just got home from work. The vaccines they were due to receive today haven’t been delivered. No information as to when they will get them. More work to cancel and reschedule appointments- unhappy patients all over 80’s year old.
I can’t think that this government could possibly make any more mistakes and cost more lives but each week they seem to mess up again!

[Xenia]

My daughter did the opposite - originally in Dec when got engaged considered Oct 2021 for the wedding but when it became clear we might be with these wretched measures for ages and the hotels were saying if you need to cancel you get no money back and have to postpone until the next year they decided to go for the 13 guest wedding instead come what may. Hopefully we might be lifting measures in London by half term and weddings will be allowed again. If not then probably by April. I expect it is the first time since the 1500s that the UK has banned weddings for so long - ban started around 19 Dec in London. If they go on too long with the ban then the churches might litigate.

At least we are the best country in Europe for vaccinations - done more already that the whole of the EU. I think London having it worst first in all the waves of it might well come out of it a bit sooner than other places so hopefully by February we may be seeing improvements.

[ErrolTheDragon]

I'm a bit surprised absolutely basic weddings are banned ie registrar plus 2 witnesses for those who want the legalities sorted.

[Parker231]

Registry office website

The government has announced a national lockdown for a period of six weeks up to the 15 February 2021. This means all weddings and civil partnerships will be be cancelled up to this date (unless there are exceptional circumstances). However, there may be further cancellations after this date dependent on future government announcements and guidance.

[Xenia]

Errol yes it's very unfair. I have been making comparisons to Catholic weddings being banned in the 1550s except even then you could marry as a Protestant. 3 weeks is fine - we can work around that. However it was around 19 December in London that weddings were totally banned (unless you are dying) and I think also earlier in the year. To make the ban last potentially until 14 Feb (thanks Parker for that - I will let my daughter know as I suspect that will be the date they let church weddings resume too as they have been in sync with the laws on registry office ones since March) 15 Feb is a very very long time with no weddings (about 2 months for London ) unless you are marrying on your death bed or something along those lines. My daughter wants her children in wedlock as it were as it seems a bit unfair not to let us gather 13 distanced people in a church ( a smaller number than you would have at a lawful Sunday service). We don't need any food or drink - just the church mass.

She and I are optimists so assume the March wedding will be going ahead but we shall see. The national lockdown is 6 weeks but London weddings were banned from earlier I think about 19 Dec so that is nearly 2 months with no weddings in London.

Anyway the biggest problem our family has is we are planners with goals and things booked months ahead and that is not something that is easy in a pandemic. People who book things like holidays at the last minute can work around the changes much more easily.

[Carriemac]

I find the lack of certainty around planning anything the most difficult thing.

[Parker231]

Carriemac - totally agree - trying to move countries when we don’t know when we can travel is stressful. Changing jobs has been very straightforward although our tax affairs will be a nightmare but I’d like to be to go and see some houses rather than have viewings online.

[Xenia]

Yes. I have always been a planner in terms of personality type and now that is very hard given the constant changes. At least I am not having to plan a move of countries. It must be hard for Parker just to do on line viewings etc.

[Eve]

Both my DS went back before lockdown as exams and coursework due in January.

Not many back in their accommodation but enough for company & in halls as do few around DS has been able to mix a bit.

DS1 had good news yesterday, he had a discussion with his potential manager from his job offer about deferring for a year and they have agreed. I persuaded him not to have a year out after a levels as I knew if he stopped studying he wouldn’t go to uni so this is good for him. Let’s hope world opens up and he can do the travel he wants.

[simbobs]

I took my DD back to Newcastle last week. She is in private rental and really needed to be back for her mental health, as she just can't work here (all psychological, imo, but that's not what counts). I rather enjoyed the drive, even though it is a long way. Felt like a day out though I only stayed long enough to eat something and leave again. At least she is getting what she paid for in terms of accommodation.

The same cannot be said for DS who has been told to pay his rent by today by the accommodation provider, despite being told to stay away by the university. It now looks like he will be here until after Easter. Not ideal for any of us, really. We left some things in his room that he could do with having if he stays that long, so yet again I will be breaking rules and going to pick up his computer.

[Horsemad]

Didn't realise your DD was in Newcastle, @simbobs. Or I may have forgotten, sorry!

DS mentioned he'd had an email from them saying his course wouldn't be resuming face to face studies at the moment, so as I thought, really.

[latedecember1963]

That's good news about the job deferral, Eve. As you say, let's hope he can actually do some of the things he would like to do. I agree that it's hard when you can't plan anything with certainty. For me, the research and planning is half of the fun!

Has your DH had a better day, Parker? MiL has had her 1st vaccine at our local Town Hall in the last hour.

[simbobs]

Good news that vaccinations are getting done. Fil had his, and they asked whether they could hang around (in car) in case there was a no-show so that mil could get hers too (Pfizer one). Sadly it didn't work out, though I know of others who have had their jabs this way, Inc student volunteers.