Another path ....... the journey begins

[chopc]

Hello @321zyx @AvocadoPlant @bendmeoverbackwards @BigWoollyJumpers @Braveheart35 @calculatorqueen @ChimneyPot @Dobbyisahouseelf @Eastisup @jano69 @Majaso12 @MidLifeCrisis007 @NCTDN @Notagardener @OnTheBenchOfDoom @Parsonage63 @Pumpkintopf @Peaseblossum22 @quest1on @Peaseblossum22 @SATSmadness @SeasonFinale @Tenpastseven @Vargas @Xenia

Apologies for anyone I omitted to tag

@Pumpkintopf. Not sure we’d want to pay
£250 a week if it’s over 52 weeks as that’s £13,000 a year and more than we’re paying now.

DS has signed up for a house at £650 per month exclusive of bills! And it is for 50 weeks June 30 2022 t0 16 June 2023. Eek!

@SeasonFinale my dd is similar - £600/month plus bills.

Hope everyone's exams are going well. Spoke to dd yesterday, she had finished one essay, she said it was ok, wasn't hugely pleased with it. I've had a message from her today to say she is struggling and her brain isn't working properly. They are due in tomorrow! Hope this is just a blip and she'll get it done to her satisfaction.

I think ours are doing the same set of exams @bendmeoverbackwards

Dc1 and 4 other students pay per months together, excluding bills £3900. So per person about£175-180. This is south London, on bike 20 min to campus

Dc2 has not sorted out anything yet....

Season and Bend that's a useful insight as DD is quite keen on Bristol 🙈

@Notagardener that sounds quite hopeful! Whereabouts in south London if you don't mind me asking and how did he find his house - through student accommodation services/something else?

Am basically clueless and asking for your collected wisdom, those who have older dc or whose dc have been more organised run mine!

In my day it was a trip to the uni accommodation office to look through ring binders of house listings then visit some horrible houses in the dodgiest bits of Reading (all of which was pretty dodgy back then anyway!) Things have moved on I hope..!

@Notagardener. Is that a 39 week or 52 week contact? I’m a bit worried about having to pay for 52 weeks.

Between elephant and castle and Burgess park.
His student accommodation was also near elephant and castle.
He made friends with more organized students. I don't think he did much/anything...
It's through an estate agency.
I do believe some of them, parents, live around London anyway

52, but it's his second year, and with same friends. He doesn't come home much. In the summer he stayed there for most of the time. Only came home for 1 week

Firstly, Happy Birthday to @bendmeoverbackwards for the upcoming day. I hope your daughters manage to all be there together and you have a lovely time.

@jano69 so sad that it has been almost a year without your Dad. I hope you get through the anniversary. My Mum died almost 12 years ago, I still feel physical pain when I think about it at times but we try to remember all the lovely things, the mad sayings she had, funny stories from her life and that we were lucky to have had her long enough that she got to be a Grandma to my children.

Awful that so many of you have had poorly children and in some cases, yourselves. Ds had freshers' flu right at the start but okay after that.

Ds has already booked a room in a student block for next year. He is paying £145 per week for 51 weeks, all bills in. That means we only act as guarantor for him and he doesn't have to hope the last person out the house locks the front door. Dh had stuff stolen whilst he was in halls of residence as someone didn't shut the communal door properly and there was a drying area so his clothes were nicked from there.

@Pumpkintopf goodness I have just had flashbacks to going to the accommodation officer's office to look through the ring binder to find a house. Also how grim they were, with the cheapest furniture whereas now they all seem quite lovely in comparison.

Thank you for your kind words @OnTheBenchOfDoom and so sorry to hear about your Mum, she must have been young. Your memories of her sound lovely and I'm sure she knew how loved she was.

@SeasonFinale how's your ds finding the essays?

@jano69. That must have been such a difficult time last year. I hope you get through the anniversary ok. My Dad died just over 5 years ago and my Mum 12 years in April. My mum especially and because she’s missed so much would have loved to have known what her grandchildren had gone on to do, they were so young when she died. I really struggled the first year. I don’t have much family to share news with as my brother has multiple sclerosis and now completely bed bound and can barely talk much.

Oh gosh @Majaso12 that's so hard, hugs to you. Life is so bloody unfair sometimes. My dad also died very young, I was only 4 when he died and my mum brought me up alone. She died 2 years ago which was difficult as we had a very difficult relationship.

I'm sorry about your brother too

@bendmeoverbackwards. Thanks. Sorry you’ve also lost your mum and dad. I honestly thought when I lost my mum I was never going to get through it, it was so unexpected.

I am sorry for all those who have lost a parent. Ditto about the physical pain bench.

Unfortunately my dad dropped dead at the gym at the age of 56. I had just got married but I will forever regret my DC not meeting him. He lives on in so many ways and my parenting is hugely influenced by him

@chopc. That’s so sad and so young. DH’s dad died aged 35 I think or he might have been 32. Life can be so cruel.

I’m so sorry @chopc, that’s no age at all, what an awful shock. Sounds like he was a lovely man and father.

Thanks for thoughts bend and majeso.

That is beyond tragic about your DH dad Majeso! Can't imagine

And so sorry you had to grow up without a father and had a difficult relationship with your mum @bendmeoverbackwards

Huge hugs to all!

@jano69. I'm so sorry and hope you get through the anniversary ok.

My Dad dropped dead at the same age as Chopc's though at home. Sadly before I even met my husband. My Mum died 15 years ago. DH's parents are 90 this year, I am very fond of them both but a little wistful.

DS1's partner's Mother died last February, and she already lost her Dad three years ago. She is 23. Desperately sad for her and all of us.

In uni news, DS2 has decided to stay home for exams, as he has very noisy flatmates. He should have gone back last weekend. The exams are next week. Then he has a Festival week, and actual lectures don't start until nearly the end of January!

My DD at a Scottish uni went back last weekend and had her first in-person lecture in nearly two years this week. (The last few weeks before lockdown there was a strike running over several weeks which affected all her lectures). She only has nine more weeks after this week before she finishes, and U think at this point she'd have been quite happy to stay online.

Thank you all for your kind words about my Dad - it's so strange to think I haven't seen him for a whole year now.

I'm really sad to learn that so many of you lost your parents so young and unexpectedly. Bend - I can't believe you had to go through that when you were so tiny. I've been very fortunate to see both my mum and dad reach their eighties and beyond. Sending big hugs to you all.

Majaso12, so sorry to hear about your brother too.... wishing you a speedy recovery and a well deserved good weekend when you eventually come out of isolation.

DD is taking the 10.30am train back to Durham tomorrow and is excited about returning to college and seeing her friends. I hope the tonsillitis doesn't return. I had mine out when I was 11! She'll be paying £145 per week plus bills in second year, it's a rip off.

There were a lot of Oxford offers on the MN thread yesterday. We must've been a particularly unlucky bunch last year.

@raspberryrippleicecream we are clearly late night posters!

So sorry to hear you also lost your parents too young, it seems there are a lot of shared experiences here. 💐

I'm not surprised your DS has decided to stay at home to do his exams. My two are planning to do the same this Spring.

Night night x

Oh raspberry sorry to hear about your parents too and your DS's partner. That is tragic

Jan09 - hugs

I remember you losing your dad @jano69. I hope you are managing the anniversary ok. I have a couple of treasured memories of my dad who died when I was a very small child and lots and lots of wonderful memories of my stepdad who brought me up . He died 15 years ago . A keen Union man and commenter on current affairs, I often wonder what he would have made of the world now. Every time I am ranting at the news I know he is looking down with pride

Dd will be paying paying £7800 for 52 weeks next year . That amounts to more than she’s paying this year ( less weeks this year) … but without food! That seemed outrageous to me until I realised how much peoples Dc will be paying in London ..lol -so I’ll shut up now
Dd can cook v well but she has been so busy so far this year that I fear she will not eat properly at all when she has to shop and cook for herself. I think her flat has talked about doing an online shop and sharing the cooking which I am making lots of encouraging noises about . I did similar as a student and although a pain to organise a big shop once a week, it saved us all lots of time and money. We were all keen to eat fairly cheaply though.. I’m not sure Dd knows what that means!