2017 seems so long ago, now .....

[Xenia]

Continuation of our previous thread.

Fabulous pic @Stopyourhavering64 and. Gleneagles too what a treat!

Lovely to see the picture - thank you and great you could get all the family together for the birthday. We almost managed it for my grand daughter's baptism bar a few people and hopefully will manage it for a family event later this month. We did have all immediate family there at Christmas too in 2021 so things are getting back to normal.

Child 5 arrived safely in France. Child 5 is now in France for a week with his girl friend's family which I think is theirfirst family holiday abroad probably since at least 2019. That means he has had 2 trips abroad within 3 weeks (after not a single one since 2019 so making up for lost time there). He says it is very hot there 34C (sounds worse than where we were in the Caribbean where you get lovely tropical heat with damp and occasional rain which I love).

I hope the stopyour son finds accommodation and well done on getting the grad scheme job.

Stopyourhavering64 , graduation looks like great fun.

i’m sharing the frantic accommodation hunt - DS starts end of Sept and there is nothing to rent. We are 6 hours away from where he will work , he is in Greece at the moment & not back til mid Sept and if a flat is not snapped up they want in person viewing.

At this rate he’s going to be in a tent!

He has written to his employer saying he’s struggling - as they have 50grads starting they must know it’s a problem.

Good luck to those wanting rentals in London - it’s dog-eat-dog here apparently, people being gazumped and prices ever increasing.

Hence why my two are in no rush to move out 😩

It was the same in Bath when my DD was there. People kept coming in and offering more money than them.

It was a great few days! ....
now we also have the hunt for accommodation for ds who starts his grad scheme mid August in location 2 hrs from home
Unfortunately ds doesn't drive ( thanks to lockdown, cancelled tests/ backlog etc) so will be reliant on public transport and work is with Barclays based in Knutsford ....there is a bus which runs through several villages/towns en route
dh and ds have been to look at accommodation today but it's such a minefield as ds is only 22 which seems to go against him for some rentals/ houseshares
Not helped with him heading off to Prague for a lads holiday with some old school friends next week - priorities eh!

Good luck to those looking for accommodation. My sons' friend has just found his first place on his own ie not in a house share in London which seems so cheap some friends are wondering if it is a con but we shall see. I hope he's looked into it carefully. I was reading my old diary yesterday and the hunt for my first London accommodation for my first job when I was 21. It was one room in a large house in Victoria which had a hob plugged in but no other cooking facilities. There was a dirty shared bathroom at end of corridor for everyone on that floor - shower and loo only and the landlord had to provide croissants once a week to pretend it was a "hotel" type thing otherwise the rent acts meant people could stay for life on low rents (it was just before assured shortholds came out and suddenly property to rent became available again). The rent was double what I had hoped to pay but I took it and was there until the January when we moved into a school provided flat (we were just married but spent the first term apart whilst my husband sold his house in the NW of England and found a new teaching job in London) and then by about July had bought our first place out here in outer London and I was almost about to give birth.

That was quite a lot passed law exams, had wedding, move to London, started first job - all at age 21, husband sold his house, found job in London and moved down, then bought my first place (husband's second) , hired childcare (before I gave birth), toured maternity wing of hospital on 1st wedding anniversary, gave birth, back to work 2 weeks later when 22. Qualified when 23.

Meanwhile back to 2022 and one of the twins is back from a week in France with his girl friend's family which is very kind of them. He has had 2 trips abroad within 3 weeks (after none since 2019 due to the pandemic).

DS2 found the accommodation hunt brutal. However HR was really useful eg these areas (Durham) you are competing with students, these areas less competition, these outlying villages no good if you are a soft-southerner but super cheap if you are a northerner etc. Also advised to give impression you wanted a long lease (couple of years) as there is usually an break clause so you easily get out in a year or less. Don't mention you are thinking of buying ASAP. Big up your job title say manager not grad programme. Go to viewing in person, don't dress like a student (the older you look the better). DS2 was successful first time against 4 others. However he was a bit devious as he started a conversion about clubs in Newcastle (with the 2 groups of medics who had studied there) whilst agent was getting stuff from his car but stopped talking when agent came back. They continued the discussion!

HR said to him if all else fails offer to pay 6 months rent upfront (they pay a generous sign on bonus). Also his company (big global tech) was happy to guarantee rent which the agency liked. Less checks for them to do.

Some good advice SandyIrvine, thank you.

viewings are a real problem as DS is not in the country and the work location is 8 hours from us.

It seems like a long time since I last was on this thread, it had dropped off my list. Poor old dog reached the end two weeks ago. The house is so quiet without him.

In happier news, DD moved into her new place this weekend, with the help of her BFs dad who hired a van. Glad they're out of their shoebox as the hot weather hits the south. Before that, back in June she was able to participate in various May Week events she'd missed out on in the previous two years including a ball, and seeing the Trinity fireworks from a kayak

2017 really does seem a long time ago. We still have at least a year before we have a DC who is not a student any more.

The good news is that DD is now home following her exams (they sit finals at the end of Yr 4) and is taking her elective in London so she should be based at home for much of the next four months. She has tentative plans to visit her DB in the US in August, but neither are good at planning so I might step in withy some concrete suggestions. Her DB is also due to be based in London for a period in the autumn as his US PhD supervisor is taking a sabbatical in London, and has, very kindly, agreed to keep DS and one of his colleagues on. The colleague, Latin American, I think, may also be staying with us. A houseful is much better than an empty nest.

In the meantime we have been on a Hurtigruten coastal cruise which was great, and away for a few days in west Somerset. Lots of other things are going on including the fact that DH has bought loads of UEFA tickets, I am volunteering as a marshall, he has tickets for a test match in the North West. and it is the in-laws Platinum anniversary. July is busy. Then DH has to go to Edinburgh on business so we will catch a weekend of the festival. Life has restarted, though it is astonishing how many people we know are catching Covid. I can only think that having been exposed any number of times on the London tube I simply have to take my chances.

I am one of those many landlords who are slowly divesting. It is getting tougher and tenants more demanding. We had a big scare a year or so ago when the tenant renting my mother's flat (I let it when my mother moved to sheltered housing partly because she wanted to believe she could move back when she "felt better", partly to pay for her care) used all the exemptions allowed under Covid rules and then threatened to wait until she was evicted. Thing was she was renting it as a second home by the sea, with a perfectly nice large house elsewhere, ignoring the various Covid restrictions. The legal complications of trying to evict a tenant from a property in probate were huge.

I am lucky in that all my current tenants have been there for at least 3 years and are lovely and I hope they say the same about me. Its not just the proposed loss of S21, but also the environmental stuff. With the best will in the world, given the current workman crisis in Central London, I don't know how I am going to upgrade Victorian properties from D to C. And its not really about money, except that to work here a workman will have paid £250 a week in ULEZ, CC and parking before he even starts work. Most won't.

However to add to Sandy's tips

1. Read Rightmove the night before and identify properties that are genuinely interesting. Do desk research on transport routes etc. in advance.


2. Follow up next day if necessary being outside the letting agents office as soon as they open. (Many are lazy and happy to let to the first reasonable looking tenants.) Ask the boss to be understanding. Having a place to live is a priority if an employee is to settle quickly.


3. As a new jobber consider offering parental guarantees, plus make sure previous landlord references are quickly available. This is cruicial if any are still students, ie doing something like law conversion. The six months rent in advance can work, though it is something that is used by cannabis farmers/pop up brothel/AirBnB subletter types so can also be viewed with suspicion.


4. Find out when the property will be available and offer to take it the very next day. (This is real money to a landlord.) Don't quibble about furniture. If it is meant to be unfurnished but there is a large sofa sitting there offer to take it. And buy the rest from British Heart Foundation. If you do a deal they might take away the old sofa when delivering the new.


5. If there are sharers, have any who can't make the appointment primed to make an instant decision based on photos and the judgement of the person looking. (Suggest they go past the night before, and sort out budget in advance perhaps having the person with the lowest budget take the smallest room.) Then make an offer on the spot at the end of the viewing. If the property is not madly overpriced and there is likely to be competition, consider making a full asking price offer. Demand/rents in popular areas for new jobbers always rise towards September so worth looking now even if it means paying some extra rent over the summer.


6. Many letting agents (well Foxtons) will try to push a multi year tenancy. Agree to it only if you have a break clause after 12 months. Most landlords will like a tenant who is likely to stay, but won't want to be tied into a multi year contract as they are then committed to having to pay agent commission for those years even if something happens.

@ErrolTheDragon sorry to hear about your dog . End of an era .

Great tips for renters - DS in Manchester has found a flat - current household breaking up as 2 medics going to Oz .
DD is spending a month in Stockholm and then sits the rest of her Irish law exams in late September and hopefully look for a training contract .

Sounds like some good summers shaping up for everyone.
Ds has just got home from Tanzania which seems to have been great fun, chaotic and shocking in equal measure - which I suppose is the point of going.
We have a brief window of just a few days with both ds home together before ds1 goes to spend summer with his girlfriend in europe and then re-starting student life in September (we're back to sorting student kit of pots and pans and new laptops just like we were at the very beginning of these threads!). Ds2 soon goes back to do a GP placement in what is now his final year - yikes!
@Errolthedragon so sorry to hear about your dog. We lost our old girl in 2019 and there is still a gaping dog-shaped hole in the family.

DD and her BF picked the right time to go on holiday with his parents to a villa with a pool somewhere in the south of France. It's hot, but not as hot as Cambridge!

Yes, sorry to hear about the dog.

It is brutally hot here - about 38C (was 42C in my car yesterday before I got the aircon on) so as my son and I are working here I have a bowl of cold water under my desk for my feet and we have curtains closed as it is so much hotter outside than in. The garage is the coldest place but I have not yet been reduced to working in there and hopefully tomorrow will be cooler. One son is doing good work as my trainee solicitor and the other is taking some annual leave first so has had quite a few days including today by the outdoor pool at his gym and in the spa there and just keeping cool - a bit like a holiday resort there, he says and sometimes too many small children and people but still quite relaxing. Almost all his friends are in full time jobs so usually only up to going out at the weekends now. Technically my 2 are still students - one got very cheap entry to Hampstead swimming ponds this week as still has a student card until September.

Their law results were supposed to beo ut on Friday but now the date has been changed to Monday 24th July which is annoying although hopefully they both passed - we shall see and one has his girl friend staying next week for her work experience week (law) in London so I hope the trains run okay. She should certainly allow a lot of time particularly on day 1 for delays as it is a bit unpredictable from out here in outer London at times. So usual full house for me now combined with working with one son full time. (He is very good and very keen so that's all good)

(25th not 24 for the results.....)

Hello again everyone. I've been reading the thread and it's great to see so many DC establishing themselves in their careers.

DD has completed the first year of her PhD and passed that last week so is no longer a probationary PhD student. She came home for a long weekend a couple of weeks ago which was nice. It was her birthday this weekend, but I was away on a school trip so she stayed with her bf and seems to have had a great time. She is staying on in her shared house for the next year. One housemate is moving to the USA for further study but one of the PGCE people (DD's really good friend) has a job close by and a new colleague of hers is moving in so they can lift share. It means DD's rent won't be increasing.

@Stopyourhavering64 has your DC sorted accommodation yet? I grew up not far from Knutsford and know the area well. Apart from the bus, trains run hourly from Manchester Piccadilly and Chester so if they are prepared to commute that way, you might have more success.

Yes , thankfully managed to find somewhere in Knutsford itself - a cottage by himself which he's delighted with!...he had thought he might need to commute but this one came up at the right time
Dh went with him to the viewing and obviously ds came over well ( it's decorated very "twee" but he's just thankful of somewhere to stay and within budget!)
Next thing he needs to focus on is to pass his driving test! ( should have sat it last year but they were all cancelled, then a huge backlog and then his instructor became unwell and not able to continue- leaving ds without instructor or test!)....we live rurally and instructors are few and far between
He still needs to see what is deemed suitable attire for job and then purchase said items - somehow his "uniform " of black jeans may not be suitable even if he is in IT!
It's his birthday just before he starts so I can see a trip to Manchester/Chesire Oaks is on the cards for flat warming gifts/clothes!

That’s handy @Stopyourhavering64 and good luck to him with passing his driving test - has he got one lined up? I know Cheshire Oaks - ok for a day out, but a bit hit and miss 😃
I reckon there’s a fair chance of IT attire being lower key?

Dd1 is now a Dr. She graduates tomorrow with a merit in academic dentistry so very proud of her.

Congratulations to her!

As to clothes for IT types, I'm pretty sure some of ours wear jeans, black or otherwise. It may depend if he's 'customer facing' or not.

Congratulations to your DD @RedHelenB!

@Malbecfan and @RedHelenB Well done to your DDs

Congratulations - lots of successes on the thread. The twins got distinction (70%+) on their Legal Practice Course (for future solicitors)and I am glad they both did similarly (one got 99% in one paper - he said it was an easy paper but it certainly seems a very high mark to me). His girl friend, doing the same course but at a different institution, has her results tomorrow. The girl friend is staying with us this week for her week of legal work experience at a firm in London she really likes so I hope she gets a paralegal or a training contract offer from that and that the week goes well.

So that is it - all exams done for my children forever probably and the twins should qualify as solicitors in 2024. They have one tiny exam during a professional skills course later this year but it is not quite the same and I think most people pass it after a short 3 day course.

We managed to get all the 5 children and grandchildren and husbands etc and one of my siblings and their children and my other sibling's daughter together for a meal etc last weekend. That was 15 people (not including the baby who has just started some solids but is still pretty much exclusively breastfed). It is a pity my parents are dead as I am sure they would love to see the large growing family.