University 2020-2021 Part 11: Final Furlong For First year Freshers..........Then Freedom Follows

[sammyjoanne]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/4058013-University-2020-10-Empty-nests-warm-vests-and-covid-tests-uni-parents-2020?pg=20

This is a follow on from the previous part 10 thread.
Named because its heading into the summer term.
''Freedom follows'' as in end of year for summer break, (hopefully end of covid restrictions too)

Dds finished her last exam today and they are going out for a nice meal tonight in Leamington... I sent her some Cocktail monies. Where did this year go?

DS has finished his last exam too. 10 days now of having as much fun as is sensible in Manchester atm. (Which isn’t much probably!)

I think they have all done amazing this year and thoroughly deserve to let their hair down...

DD in the middle of her exams and hers finishes end of next week. Covid is back on campus according to the latest figures. portal.lancaster.ac.uk/intranet/cms/coronavirus/covid-19-statistics DD is aware and her flat mates, and being extra cautious . Hoping the rates dont go up much on campus, as loads of students had the October version so hopefully they have some antibodies still.

Back now from the weekend. Water witch did not disappoint, gorgeous food, and also ate at the kings arms in morecambe which was nice as well. Traffic going to and from Lancaster last weekend on the M6 was really bad. 4 hours to do a 2 and a half hour journey. And she gave us a load of stuff to take home too, so less for when we pick her up July 17th.

Daisy Susannah Specialted, its been crazy how fast this year has gone. You would have thought with covid (and not much to do) it would go slow, but it hasn't. I remember the joining the thread at part 9 I think it was, when us parents were fretting on how they would get on, and the ups and down the unis handled the covid situation. lets hope next year will be a better one (and more in person teaching)

DD just completed final exam and year 1 at Lancaster over! She will be a uni rep as well as Law Dept rep next year and I am so damn proud of her for how she has managed her learning and social differences, in what has been a crazy tough year for them all. 💖. She would hate me saying that so saying it here instead 😂😂 I love Lancaster for giving her a home and helping her to find her feet so well. It's a fabulous university.

@BCBG that's great to hear! Sounds like your dd is doing really well. Ds has one more exam to go on Thursday although he is doing absolutely minimal revision. I fear it may come back to bite him when results come out although I'm secretly hoping his relaxed attitude will help his ocd in the exam. He went to bowland forest onSunday and spent the whole day swimming in the river and having fun. He's talking about staying in Lancaster over the summer and getting a job which I never thought I'd hear him say. Maybe he is maturing!! Very happy he's keen to stay , he's obviously having a great time .

Good to see that the DC are enjoying themselves and most exams coming to an end.

Dd will be home for a few days Sun-Tues and having her jab on Monday... She's taking her car back so they can get out and about to places like Stratford on Avon (also means she can load it when she's coming home in July).

I’m picking up DS3 at the weekend. He’s spent an extra week there after the exams and met up with his big brother, my DS1 today for a burger. First time they’ve done that since late October before Manchester went into tier 3 or 4. I can’t remember anymore, so many tiers! Thankfully not tears.

DS1 has booked his first Covid jab in Manchester, he’s 23. DS3 will have to use the national system at home as he’s registered with a GP in Manchester rather than here. Our nearest mass centre is 30 miles away. Hopefully he can book his second either there again or back in Manchester for September.

It’s been a strange old year. Not sure if it’s gone quickly or not. 🤔 The Christmas worries seem ages ago. Happy holidays to everyone and I hope all your results are what’s needed to go on to second year.

Have a great summer Susannah and everyone else. The year seemed endless back in Jan/Feb but seems to have flown by since then. Hopefully I will be joining you all again in September when DS1 finally makes it to Uni after a late decision to take a gap year. I’ll try not to pester you too much for packing tips etc

You’d be very welcome, Oratory.

It's feeling a little like Xmas here
...i haven't seen dd for 2 months and I'm fortunate she's home for a few days from Sunday (home for Father's day even though dear father has other plans).. Lucky he provides well financially but its sad :-(. She's offered to cook for me (paella) :-).

Just hard to think that effectively it's another summer where their holiday plans are on hold...

@BCBG thats amazing news to hear your DD is a rep. Shes really settled and Im pleased for her and for you :) @specialted wow thats sounds like hes got Lancaster well and truely sewn into his life wanting to stay over the summer :)

DD is still doing exams. Shes got one Friday one Saturday, then one next friday and one next Saturday, so 26th is her last day. Shes thinks the physicists will have a get together before they all leave since some of the contracts finish early. She plans to stay till the 17th, but might be leaving a week earlier depending on what the flat is doing. Shes got a flexible contract with her storage with armadillo inbetween morecambe and lancaster, so once she knows, she can let them know of a confirmed date and we can drop off her kitchen/bedding/decor there. Good news, shes got her first covid jab on monday. Put her name down at the health and innovation campus to call if an appointment becomes free and it did :) 6 of her flatmates did the same thing and they have had theirs done. Party front there hasnt been many with exams, but is someones birthday in the flat on Sunday and they are all dressing up as him.
DD new housing contract doesn't start until 22nd of September, so will be nice to have her home for a bit. And fathers day both DD joined together and bought DH 'fat balls'. I nearly choked on my tea when they told me, and then they explained its feed for the bird outside in the garden (he loves to watch them in the morning after a night shift with a brew). DD2 has decided she wants Lancaster in her top five when she applies for zoology (couple of years away mind you!) but now shes been a few times, Lancaster has grown her also.

@Daisysway thats good news she is having the jab too, and really nice Stratford upon avon. Lovely place to walk around.
@SusannahSophia it has been a strange year. Lets hope year 2 will be much better for all our DC.
@Oratory1 definitely join us for September :) looking forward to hearing about freshers, and settling in.

Will definitely have a catch up in the summer. Hopefully we all get to do a few nice things with our DC :)

Thanks, @sammyjoanne. DS is booked in for his jabs as well, but not until 1st July. Luckily both will be when he’s at home so he’ll be safely double jabbed before going back in September.

Watch out with the fat balls, don’t want her dad to mistake them for artisan scotch eggs!

Good to hear your news @sammyjoanne . Ds also has his first jab booked in on Tuesday, no idea how he did that, think he just gets dragged along by rest of his house as he's not the most organised. He finishes his last exam this afternoon, just in time for watching football tonight. He said he hadn't had a lot to drink for a whole week so was looking forward to celebrating tonight . I think it will be full on partying/relaxing for him till the end of term. I know one of his flat mates does physics so they'll have to wait a week until the whole house can celebrate together.

@SusannahSophia I laughed out loud at that!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/2017083-He-has-eaten-a-fat-ball

For anyone confused.

Crying with laughter at that thread @SusannahSophia ! Am in the middle of baking and had to stop to read what happened!!! Just brilliant!

@SusannahSophia lol thats so funny, I think I best warn DH when he gets them on Sunday, just in case. @specialted good news on your DS for his jab too :) and yes, unfortunately physics students had to go right to the end date wise,12 exams in total.

@sammyjoanne... How's your dh now?

Dds house are having a house party tonight because I think it's the last night the current house occupants will all be together.. I think a few of them return to their home countries this weekend.

Dd went to see her house for next year and was very happy...its the first time they have physically seen the house...they do not move in till September though.

@Daisysway DH is doing pretty good at the moment thank you :)

After several scans, they confirmed its all over his skull and ear bones and one of his left knuckles. Pagets is strange because it does not spread, so it wont go to other parts of the body. He had a zoledronic acid infusion early May which slows down the bone growth in Pagets, but it made him very sick. He couldn't walk well for a couple of days and had to help him to the bathroom, up/down the stairs. All his bones hurt. It took about 5 days to get right again. He has another infusion booked for August, but people on the support group on facebook say future infusions do not have severe side effects as the first one thankfully. Has a separate appointment next week to assess his ears and his hearing (as its always been bad) and that's down to the pagets. They think they can give him an op so he can hear better which is great :) So he is doing fine now, back at work, back to normal :)
And that's great news your dd got to see the house. That's nice she got to look inside and get excited about moving in.
DD has not seen inside yet, but we looked round the outside on the visit to Lancaster a couple of weeks ago. I like the fact it faces a pedestrianised area, but DH and me not so happy round the back where the entrance is. Isn't very well lit and there's a short alleyway to get to it. (I'm thinking some solar panel lights maybe might help?) Previous tenants have lived there for years. All medic students and they were pretty happy there. DDs group has still not decided who has what room. The guy who sorted out the visit, took lots of pics, and also sorted out the tenancy. So he gets first pick as he did all the hard work,, and the rest sort it out amongst themselves. So they need to sort that out before they break up this term.

@sammyjoanne... Good that your dh is getting the treatment but it must be scary too (although it sounds like he's adapting well and back to work ).

I’m glad to hear your DH is doing well, @sammyjoanne.

Picked up DS today. He’s the first to leave his flat, so we packed up and cleaned his room but the kitchen was absolutely minging! He’s ‘lost’ quite a few kitchen bits including his saucepan and frying pan. There was no way of finding them in the chaos of the kitchen. Anyway, glad I bought cheaply as I can remember similar with DS1.

So first year finished and DS is home. He was quite sad leaving his home of the last 10 months or so. Exam results to come out ‘some time’ according to DS. 🙄

Enjoy having your Ds home I'm sure the summer will flyby... Dd seems to think she will have her results around the 13th July.

Dds home for a few days (picked her up from station today). She's lucky their accommodation has a cleaner who comes in to do the kitchen so it's kept fairly clean. In stating this they have had numerous issues with the accommodation of late... Leaking roof into the top bedrooms, continuous plumbing problems (no hot water again - second time.. last time it took 5 days to resolve). Considering accommodation is NEW... and cost £174 a week its not great. I wrote to the VP yesterday I was so disgusted with how they are handling this issue. The students have been really happy with the set up of the townhouse but it's obviously not been plumbed or built well.

Hi everyone, just checking in, it's been a while .
DS finished exams and was getting stuck into some freedom and fun, when his track and trace pinged! So he's isolating again...gutted for him, and DS2 who was going to visit. Once he's free, more fun is on the cards, vaccine no. 1 , then his flat are moving into their houses. I'm expecting him home with just a bag of washing, laptop and cricket bat, in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile DS2 is applying for accommodation at his firm (Bristol- suggestions welcomed) and DD is doing open days for 2022 start. Deja vu x 100!