University 2019/20 intake: vacations, vaccinations, va-va-voom restored and virtually into their third year

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

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I know what you mean @simbobs. DS is here until tomorrow but he will leave a gap. DD, in particular, has enjoyed having him around. The dynamics of family life are different without one/some of the brood.

Is your DS back at work today? Assuming he didn't test positive to COVID (which is excellent!)?

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 Yes, he is back at work now as of yesterday, and is waiting to find out whether they will extend his contract. He tested negative, thankfully. He must be packing some mighty antibodies! I hope everyone else and their DC are safe and well.

@simbobs good for him keeping well. I hope he gets his contract extension too.

Ds1 is going back to Norwich New Year's Eve. He has tickets for a club that night. I've told him if he's clubbing I don't really want him returning home as there will be a lot of covid circulating. So he will stay in Norwich for a while. If he really wanted to return home then of course he could. But he'd rather be in Norwich. Though he doesn't want to go to the club now, he bought 2 tickets and the rest of his house mates couldn't get tickets, he'd rather go out with them instead. But he has told a local girl he would go to the club with her. He was hoping night clubs would be told to close New Year's Eve so he could spend it with his mates instead. But they aren't closing.

DD will be here until 9th. She has a grad scheme telephone interview that she wants to do here beforehand she goes. She also waiting for a laptop to be delivered for a wfh job due to start today but it’s obviously been delayed over Christmas. Luckily it’s a job she can continue when she goes back. I’ve just found out that this year she has 1.5 days of teaching a week this year!

Sorry for errors,should have read before posting.
DD2 on the other hand has y12 mocks on Jan and is doing very little revision and lots of boyfriend. Trying to gently encourage the former, any tips?

Y13 mocks rather! NY resolution is to check before posting.

@icanbewhatiwant, DD is/was meant to be going clubbing back in Bristol, but friends who are medics are not so keen now and she is upset that they probably won’t be going and the ticket money is lost.

@Benjispruce5, I think DS has similar amounts of contact time. And probs won’t be f2f next term - he’s dreading online again
Good luck to her with the telephone interview!

@bigTillyMint the friends are sensible.

We were supposed to be doing a family karaoke meet-up but have decided against that for 'spread' reasons, unfortunately.

I can definitely see why people might be hesitant to go out clubbing at the moment. Presumably the medics may be super careful because they have clinical placements to factor in next term?

Good luck to your DD with her telephone interview @Benjispruce5. Good to see that some of our young people are thinking ahead!

@icanbewhatiwant, yes DD agrees it’s sensible, but is still upset!

Thanks all. She’s got through the cv assessment, maths assessment and personality assessment so this is the next stage which she is dreading as she’s got to this stage before and got no further. I keep telling her to think, ‘Why not me?’
One of her few home friends has a paramedic placement in the new year so won’t go clubbing. They might just get together for a few drinks at home.
A friend’s DC is looking at Mercedes F1 graduate schemes if anyone is interested. There are several 12 month placements in engineering, manufacturing, HR and health and safety.

careers.pageuppeople.com/920/cw/en/job/496667/motor-control-graduate

This is one of them.

@Benjispruce5 - My other mantra to DS was ‘you only need one job’.
Good luck to your DD. Searching for a job can be so difficult and a bit soul destroying. But, I’m sure she’ll get there.

It’s hard isn’t it? DS has just put his 18th application in for a summer law internship, and that’s just the first hurdle

@bigTillyMint- Good luck to your DS.
It’s so time consuming.
DS applied for around 30 summer internships last year (iirc) and it all just took so much time. Guess the advantage of lockdown was that there wasn’t much else to do!

Due to DD's continuing CFS she isn't applying for post grad jobs. She will take a year off and look at post grad degrees.

@RampantIvy, I think thats very sensible - I’m worried that DS will have bitten off more than he can chew in addition to coursework and diss in an essay subject.

Just to add to her worries, DH just tested positive.
We are all negative. He’s fine, a mild cold at most. Grateful he had the booster a few weeks ago. Now for the isolation conundrum in a full house!

It's such an inconvenience isn't it. DD is going to a NYE party tonight. I hope that this doesn't turn out problematic for her. DH and I WFH so having to self isolate wouldn't be a problem for us, but DD is going back to Newcastle at some point next week.

Ds1 is going back to Norwich later to go to a night club with a girl from our village. I did tell him I don't want him back home after clubbing. But apparently no one will be at his Norwich house for at least 10 days. So he doesn't want to stay there on his own. He will stay the rest of tonight, obviously. I don't think he's seeing the girl from the village as a gf. There is a spare room in ds's student house. But dh thinks I'm naive and they will be sharing a room. They've known each other since toddler age, I'm sure they can be just friends. Anyway...I think I'll have to allow Ds home and hope he's not picked up covid.

@Benjispruce5 what a nightmare! I think many more of us will catch it now, but as it seems to be relatively mild, it may not be a bad thing in the long run. We'll all be super immune!

DS is going to an all nighter tonight and then getting a train back to his student house, so any bugs won't be coming our way. He still considers himself a student, even though he has deferred. He did not get kept on in his job, no surprise to me, though they may take him back at some point. He will have to get another job now, though.

I'll be glad to see the back of 2021 tbh. Not been a great year for our family.

Oh, that's a shame @simbobs. Will deferrig cause problems for his student accommodation? If he isn't registered as a student there will be council tax implications for him and the landlord.

Some of DD's friends ended up deferring this year because they couldn't do their year abroad, so they are living in non student private accommodation. They all got jobs to fund this.

I'm convinced it's possible to be long-term friends with the opposite sex, particularly if the young people in question have grown up together (almost like siblings) @icanbewhatiwant? However, am aware that 'friends with benefits' is much more a thing than it ever used to be, so who knows?

Really sorry to hear your DH has tested positive @Benjispruce5. What bad timing for your DD1.

@blametheparents your mantra about only needing one job is a great one!

@simbobs your poor son (with having to look for another job) after being so diligent and doing his LFTs religiously in the lead up to Christmas while he was still working. Hope he finds something better very quickly.

@bigTillyMint I get what you mean about too much going on with spending a lot of time applying for graduate jobs/internships, etc. with important assignments in the mix too.

@RampantIvy your DD's plan sounds sensible for her.

I've told DS that I'd prefer him to get 'any old job' for a year to give him time to think properly about what he wants to do next, rather than jump into doing something that's not right for him (particularly if it involves more money being invested in his future!).

Happy New Year to everyone. Let's hope it's a better one than the last two.

@RampantIvy he was still registered as a student when the checks were made so we are just keeping quiet. He will struggle to pay the rent, and council tax would come my way as there is no way he could afford it.
Happy New Year to everyone!