2017 seems so long ago, now they're fledgling graduates.

[latedecember1963]

4 years since A Levels and the wait for August and confirmation of where our chicks were about to fly the nest to.
It's been 4 years that has sprung a few surprises along the way, not least this lovely series of threads.

Well done for the graduations and nice to see the lovely photo above. My son's friend said the Bristol 2020 graduations were going ahead but on the Bristol website I could not see that in any definite sense so I hope they do contact the 2020 graduates to let them know as at least one of my twins wants to go. Currently they are the gym but their working friend is still here doing work videocalls. She is no trouble I just prefer the house with no one in it to an extent, rather than not only my lot but lots of their friends too often here and yet mine are just about never (even back when the boy across the road was always here when they were about 8) at those other children's houses so it seems a bit one sided. Anyway that is just a minor moan and I am very happy they are all happy and getting on well with their law studies etc.

I know what you mean @Xenia it's nice to have the house to yourself occasionally. Your boys are flying through the law course - DD has just stared hers with first exams april. She's been offered a paid internship at a firm though which is great news .
@Horsemad so nice of you to take the other grads out with you - must be a bit miserable to graduate on your own.

Congratulations to your DD and DS on their graduations Carriemac and Horsemad!🥂 I like your dress, Carriemac.
Nearly all the international students on DS's course had to graduate without family present although a live stream was set up to enable people to watch remotely. There was a lot of rallying round to make sure noone was alone on the day.
Hope your freezer woes are sorted now, Tilly. Yesterday I told DH we had a leek in our veg box so I'd use it to make soup. He only heard the 1st part of my sentence and immediately thought I meant a leak had sprung somewhere! I think he's feeling quite bruised by the last couple of weeks.

Hotel Xenia sounds a whole lot nicer than working out of a Travel Lodge hotel room. I think it's a good sign when your children and their friends come back voluntarily. At DS1's wedding several of his friends said they have always felt welcome with us. The parents of his Best Man were invited in recognition of the way they'd always been quietly supportive of him when he was going through his annoyed with us phase.

Thank you @Horsemad the dress was a lockdown recommendation from the style and beauty boards ! Mumsnet to the rescue again

I wore

www.marksandspencer.com/floral-lace-v-neck-waisted-dress/p/clp22526311?color=MULTI#intid=prodColourId-22526311

Had a coat on over the top though. 🙂

Also wore new shoes and regretted that. Ouchy!! 🙄

@latedecember1963 - the leek/leak made me smile! 😆

late, I suppose although my sons are sleeping in today but even so my son's friend (who is lovely) was up for work (online work), had left the kitchen door open (my neighbour for the first time in 10 years or her son has 2 huge fires of leaves very close to my fence for some reason) and is doing normal perfectly good things like a video call, got her breakfast etc... It is just an extra person in the house I suppose and we are into day 4 now. Also when my sons are up very late they sleep in until after lunch but instead of my having the quiet morning to make up for one at least of them being up to 3am..... whilst I work away the guest is up. None of this can really be objected too as she is a nice person, up early to work etc
Anyway hopefully she goes today and then may be no one will be here all weekend other than sons' local friends during the day and my sons.

You are quite right that people come here because they like it here of course and at least I have an end in sight or need to negotiate one - the twins' moving out date in 3 years +. Ah to be hermit.... lucky hermits. Meanwhile in other news daughter saw midwife today and all is well. She has another appointment on Monday and there is still a month to go - in fact if it were 2 weeks late it could even be a Christmas Day baby.

Lovely to hear about the graduations. I hope the live streaming worked better than for my DD!

Very stylish, Horsemad. Isn't it lovely to have a reason to dress up again?

That's funny, Xenia, we set age 25 as the point at which they should be living independently too. DS1 moved out slightly earlier and always jokes that he's banked that time in case of future need. Let's hope not!
We have always told the lads that we would always find room for them if needed, even if it wasn't their own room.

Wondering if I can get away with wearing the same dress to the graduationtomorrow - I've got a new jacket to go with it
I miss all of mine now they have moved out - I expect they'll be back at some stage for a bit between travelling / jobs etc

Absolutely you can, Carriemac. As you say, a different jacket and maybe different jewellery and handbag and it's a whole different outfit.
Michelle Obama made me laugh when she wrote about the world's press forensically analysing her every outfit whereas Barack could get away with dusting off a rota of 2 or 3 suits throughout his 2 terms.

Lovely graduation pictures! Many congratulations.

It’s gone quiet here. DD is busy, both with her course and with making up for 18 months lost socialising. The annual medic bar crawl for example, with 1,000 or more taking part.

She was then invited to a Halloween party with Imperial students from her course last year, which was nice. Though slightly sad, as she could have had such a great time. I think she may be meeting up with them again in a couple weeks. On her way home a group of drunk young men tried to open the door of her Uber, but couldn’t as the driver quickly used the central locking. The driver claimed it was not the first time this had happened. DD was quite shaken, and probably should have informed the police as it was on the Embankment where there are almost certainly cameras. Then she discovered that there had been a big fight leading to a murder outside her flat in Bristol. Halloween can be quite chaotic and unruly.

A former flatmate is staying with her in Bristol this weekend and then another friend the following weekend. I guess it is nice for them to know someone who is still in Bristol.

I may need to nag her about starting to get her elective sorted out. She has decided that going overseas it too uncertain, and has good ideas of what she might want to do in the UK, but needs to get writing. Does Haffs son know what he will be doing?

It’s starting to dawn on her that this medicine thing is never ending. Two years left of her course then two years foundation training then a minimum of three years specialist training. She is glad she took a gap year and an intercalation year, but it’s starting to seem like a long time before she gets to the end.

My brother, back in the day, went to Australia for something to do with his medical degree. Not so easy these days.
Our lovely guest and I genuinely mean lovely... has gone and one son has discovered the heated outdoor pool at the gym is deserted in this weather so is wonderful to swim in in splendid isolation as darkness fell today.

Even despite the niceness of the guest (who was up early to work) it is good tonight just to have my 2 sons and I here.

@Needmoresleep I hope your Dd gets something good arranged for her elective. Mine was going to do one with the local air ambulance unit which would have been amazing but got cancelled due to the first lockdown. They did offer to rearrange for her but she could not avail as they were back on placements by then.

She was a bit dismissive of some of the overseas electives - she felt that they were glorified holidays rather than useful experience- but that might be what some people want!

She’s F1 now & loving it. She’s lucky that her first rotation ward does not expect/need them to work over their set shifts too much so plenty of time for socialising etc. Whereas others she knows are doing long hours regularly

Lovely graduation outfits!

@Needmoresleep, how scary for your DD on both counts. And hope she finds an elective she likes. I can’t remember what DDs friend there is doing for hers

Glad your DD was ok, NeedMoreSleep. Thank goodness for the quick thinking of the driver. A friend of ours is a taxi driver and he's stopped working Friday and Saturday evenings because he's had too many close calls or loutish behaviour.
Medicine is relentless. Our niece and her DH are GPs and work very hard to balance looking after their patients, their family and keeping up with new medical developments.

Glad you've got some peace, Xenia. Weekends should definitely be your space.

Did you ever get to view your DD's graduation ceremony, Erroll?

DS1 went to New Zealand for his elective, and many, many of his cohort were also in the South Pacific area. I think they were all very keen on the idea of a glorified holiday! I was 100% behind DS1 having a glorified holiday as well - in fact most of them tacked on a real holiday in Bali to the glorified one.

Yes glad to hear your DD was ok NeedMoreSleep - scary.

Did you ever get to view your DD's graduation ceremony, Erroll?

No, it just wasn't there on the video, can't be helped.

@ErrolTheDragon

Did you ever get to view your DD's graduation ceremony, Erroll?

No, it just wasn't there on the video, can't be helped.

that is such a shame.

I think DS's Masters graduation next month will be quieter socially as he never met anyone in person, sadly. They are talking about going for a drink afterwards though and I hope they do, it will be a good opportunity to meet up with people they had to work with through the year.

The one this week was 2 days of catching up with coursemates & celebrating.
There was quite a lot of celebrating... 😉

Lovely to hear that some graduation ceremonies are now taking place Sadly ds graduation ceremony was online, so never got to meet his classmates ( apart from his 2 flatmates)Very disappointing for him as we'd celebrated his dsis's graduations with lovely meals and stays in a swanky hotels
However after working in a home style shop back in home town, since his graduation ,I am delighted that he has now secured a graduate job on Barclays grad scheme!
( in fact had 3 different job offers in 1 week!)
Although he doesn't start scheme till next August he's just so relieved and will continue working until next June, hopefully passing his driving test in the meantime and then take couple of months off to travel with girlfriend

That's great news @Stopyourhavering64. Well Done to your DS 🙂 Will he be local or is he going to be moving away?

@Horsemad

That's great news *@Stopyourhavering64*. Well Done to your DS 🙂 Will he be local or is he going to be moving away?

Thanks @Horsemad , he'll only be about 90 mins away which is ideal as it's close enough for us to visit and he'll be closer to his gf too ( considering he was at Uni 7 hrs away and his sisters both now work on the other side of the world!)

Dec the only thing I remember about my doctor brother's Australian trip was (a) he got engaged (although later that broke up and he married someone from the UK) and (b) he nearly died when caught on coral on the barrier reef when swimming if I have remembered that correctly. It was certainly a good experience over all however and I have never even been to Australia despite my doctor uncle emigrating there in about 1970 with his wife (he never returned and died out there) to Tasmania. We never visited as it was too expensive and even the Christmas phone call was a big deal as it was so expensive to make in those days. How things have changed with communications these days.

Nothing exotic here. My older son got his new GHIC just after the twins and I received ours but as our holidays abroad in 2020 and 2021 were both cancelled I am not holding out hope of travel abroad for a while.... particularly as a big family now it is getting so complicated with 2 grandchildren in school, a new baby coming (gc no. 3) next month, twins still doing exams until next summer.

Someone I know via work emailed today about a son's graduation (a 2020 one now taking place) - not Bristol. Bristol's2020 ones seem to be Spring 2022 at earliest so I am not sure they will happen.

Good luck to the son taking the driving test above. My son's friend who was staying this week is hoping to do one of those intensive courses for hers as she never had driving lessons when younger.