St Andrews into 2021 (new thread)

[Newgirls]

Ok can’t think of a catchier title! If anyone can send the other thread over here pls do!

Prospective and existing parents etc all welcome here. Transport, accom, cloaks, choirs, beaches and more to be discussed. Next year will be better surely!

@Newgirls thanks.

I think it would be a good idea for him to contact the accommodation team to ask, when they are doing the bulk allocations it might become less personal. I have found everyone I contacted there very helpful.

Thanks. I will do! It seemed such a antiquated system I assumed they’d be doing it semi- manually.

I think it is mostly manual too, but they must be doing over 2,000 allocations, so worth asking how best to flag the request.

I called and they were very helpful. They do take sharing preferences into consideration. Apparently first offers have now been sent (but DS is not part of that batch).

Waving hello to everyone- we are starting the drive to St Andrew’s now and will move DD in tomorrow morning.

Did your DS get his room share request @Eightytwenty ?

He doesn’t know who he’s sharing with. The other person got allocated a single room (whether by choice or luck I don’t know!).

Hope all your move-ins go smoothly.

In case any DC here are interested, this is supposed to be the Fresher week highlight - DS never managed to get tickets in time in the past fixr.co/event/starfields-2022-tickets-132305825

Good luck to all the new starts. Dd says the town is buzzing, she is delighted to be back. Hoping tbey all have a fun time at freshers week.

DS happily deposited at Sallies. What a lovely hall and he has an incredible huge room with a view of the sea. Hope rest of the newbies similarly happy with their rooms/ halls.

DD settling in. Other girls in her apartment seem lovely. It’s quite a long walk to her lectures, but a very cosy room.

We left her last night. It was a wrench for me.

Dropped dd yesterday. She’s going into 3rd year and is sharing a house with 2 friends. The house is ok but absolutely reeks of cat pee! Apparently when they went to see it they were aware of the smell but the landlord blamed it on the boys who were the current tenants. Have advised them to complain but because accommodation is in such short supply don’t know that anything will be done. One of her friends moved in their last week and because the carpets were filthy the parents hired a carpet cleaner and shampooed them. I suspect this has exacerbated the issue and the smell will calm down a bit but really the carpets and underlay need binned and the under floors treated. Luckily it’s only the downstairs carpets that stink. The girls’ bedrooms are ok. It’s a shame as she was looking forward to house sharing this year.

Oh EightyTwenty very jealous of your DS' view! My DS has 2 windows with views of greenery and is very happy with their double bed. Move in went well. Left behind a very happy young man about to go downstairs and have pizza, music playing and lots of Freshers chatting with each other. Me and DP left him to it went and bought a pastry and ate it while watching the enormous waves on the enormous beach feeling a mixture of happiness, sadness and envy 😁

Sorry about the cat pee haggis it's a bugger to get rid of but will fade. If it doesn't then the only thing that will sort it is ripping up the carpets. Are the tenants even allowed to have cats??

Feel for you Stockpot it is a wrench but you'll feel a lot better when she's settled in properly.

I can't wait to hear how the Pier Walk went today.

@Stockpot hear you. I feel better for having stayed relatively local and popping back to see him for the pier walk and lunch today. Hearing him chat about social activities definitely makes me feel better even though we will all miss him loads.

@SayYouDontMind it seems you get the location and view or the nice facilities. Suspect they will all enjoy where they are and also have hall envy of others.

Yes, DD, sent us a message and said she did he pier walk. She said parents were there taking pictures. I felt really guilty, but we are still driving back to London as I type, both with work in the morning. 😕

She seemed happy and content. She did say that the pier walk would not be an every week thing for her. Too slow a walk with lots of bottle necks.

We didn’t see a pier walk due to lockdown etc and my top tip would be see if they can get a mate to take a pic of them in a cloak some time at the end of the pier, when quieter. A lovely momento. Isn’t it a beautiful place? The accom situation is dire but I hope they all are sorted and settle in soon.

www.instagram.com/reel/CiF2McFPDYT/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Can’t see DS. But I’m definitely in it 🤣

DD and flatmates went to the chapel service (very surprised at that) then joined the queue for the pier walk but got fed up and just left! Never mind, I’m promised pics at some point. They seem to have settled in and don’t seem to bother about the smell. I reckon the house has belonged to someone with cats and the new owner has simply put new carpet on top of stinky underlay. I guess it faded enough for last year’s tenants and the carpet cleaning has stirred it up. It’s really bad though - eye wateringly bad.

My niece got dropped off today. She was very nervous as she didnt get her accomodation choice and is in the smallest one which is catered. My goodness shes as happy as larry. Her room is massive and over looks the garden just stunning. Shes off clubbing tonight. Its such a relief.

Dropped my DC off on Saturday. Hall seemed huge and a bit impersonal, but DC has joined in to pier walk and been to the union, so I think they must have met some other fellow students. Not sure if they are going to manage to make it to breakfast at all this week!

If they have a signed contract then they can definitely ask the landlord to sort it out.

I dropped mine at his first private accommodation and I think they have a great house although it is much further out than they wanted. Only problem was that there were no shelves or drawers, so nowhere to put underwear. We went to B&M for a chest of drawers instead of doing pier walk, which was a shame as it was our last opportunity to see it. He and housemates are planning to do it next week, but it is Starfields next Saturday, so midday might be a struggle for my sleepy DS....

@Newgirls

Oops, meant to say @haggisaggis sorry to hear about the smell. Have you googled "getting rid of cat wee smell". I know some carpet smells are absorbed by raw onions. Can they bake cakes to fill the house with cake smell?

Hi @Monkey2001 . We are prepared to buy loads of the cat pee remover cleaner you can get - but for it to work you need to absolutely saturate the carpet and underlay and since the smell is everywhere would be a really big job - which we feel should be for the landlord. The 3 of them will hopefully submit their list of issues today and get a response. To be fair it is more dh and I that have an issue - St Andrews flats are SO expensive and we feel they are being taken for a ride. dd and her friends seem OK with it! They need to point it out though - I don't want them being blamed once their tenancy is up.

@haggisaggis of course it is the responsibility of the landlord, but if they don't do anything, it is the poor students who are missing out on the ability to use their flat as they would want to. 😟Hope they manage to sort it soon, but it sounds like they need to replace the carpet. Let us know whether they manage to get a satisfactory solution.