Current Oxbridge students - continued again...!

[Panicmode1]

Think the other thread is full....!

DS heading into first year exams. Worked all through holidays and seems to be keeping sane. Took him back last Sat and still keeping wandering into his room and then forgetting he is gone.

DD now announced she wants to try for HSPS - wish it was a less competitive subject. Fear DS experience will have raised expectations.

@Panicmode1 redundancy is so tough - so many friends (and us) in the same position in fifties. I wish someone had told us this when we were younger.. I had kind of banked on being able to keep working longer. DH set up own company after being made redundant a few times (tech market fell of a cliff). Not been easy and he makes half of former salary with no pension/hols etc but increasing by the month and he is so much happier. I am thinking of making a similar jump but don't quite dare!

@Panicmode1 hope your DH's job applications are coming along recognising it is so very tough when lots of younger people 10 / 15 years younger in the market too. I've friends in this position.

@Clemenc0 Happy Anniversary - we celebrated our Silver Wedding this week with friends and family last weekend. DC2 wrote a super poem that had me in tears...

Happy photos from May morning this week and we are awaiting reports from last nights Ball - coincidentally DCs' colleges have had a joint ball every three years for decades which is lovely. DC1 went back - many of their friends are on 4 year courses so lovely to reconnect and DC2 went too with her college friends. I imagine they haven't surfaced yet!

I'm heading up for Eights in four weeks time with some girlfriends - DC2 targeting Blades again after success in Torpids last Term. DC2 in what she calls silly second year so no exams. Instead they are struggling with Italian bureaucracy to secure a spot at Uni in Italy for September. O are the pits in the total lack of support they offer. Another Brexit dividend we didn't need. They've various exams to take to help secure the place with goal posts endlessly shifting. Timings for the visa will be very tight as in Italy uni places only offered after final school results known.

Thanks @Juja. That anniversary was swiftly followed by another one; my partner's 60th which actually falls tomorrow but preceded by a weekend of socialising with family and friends both here in E. Anglia and in London. Apart from that I have a job interview this coming week. A busy time which stops us fretting excessively over DS and upcoming finals. We saw him yesterday and he looked very well indeed.

Thank you for your kind words @OnedayIwillgetarest and @Juja - he's being so resilient but it's flipping tough!

Lovely to hear everyone's news - hope that all of the celebratory events have gone well, and that you are all enjoying the BH weekend.

DS is halfway through exams - tired, but less stressed than last year...I can't believe it's only one year until he graduates....how time flies!

Hope you and your DC are all well.

DD has another couple of weeks of revision teaching and then exams. Mock results back and she is now in a quandry, she did far better than she expected. Only DD can be in a quandry about doing better than expected, but for her it is now choosing between extra-curriculars (which is where she thinks she wants to go in her career) and getting that stellar grade.

At the weekend we popped upto Cambridge just for a few hours to drop off some things she had left at home plus an accessory I had made to go with a ball dress, had lunch at Six (I think someone on this thread mentioned this restaurant a while ago but we hadn't had time to go before now, thank you to whoever recommended it, the food and views were amazing), got fed up with all the tourists and then headed home, leaving DD to get on with studying in the college gardens.

Radio silence from our mathmo at C over the last fortnight (3rd year exams 3-and-a bit weeks away) broken yesterday to let us know that he is fine: intensive maths revision at the moment is a punishing series of pull-ups in his study mate's doorway with default penalties of working something seriously complicated out on the blackboard they use. We asked him if he wanted us to take him out for lunch as a break as we are only 20+ miles away but he can't spare the time or lose his focus. Fair enough, we thought that might be the case. We have sent him a cream tea by mail order instead and suggested he share it this time. The only problem is that his teapot isn't large enough to do that with more than one other as he doesn't do teabags. Nor do we; a minor eccentricity we have passed on - along with a tea strainer and a cosy. To do so would damage his credibility - his words - but then his mates do like his tea and drop in often to share enjoyment of it.

I hope that others whose DCs are in a similar situation relative to exams and so on are OK and finding a way through it all.

DS finished on Monday and DH went up to take him out for lunch yesterday. He said he was in cracking form and feeling positive about the outcome (let's hope that he's right!).

Hope that everyone else's DCs exams go/are going well and that all of the Bumps/Balls/post exam hedonism proves excellent afterwards!

@Panicmode1 Well done to him for getting through the exams. See you on the other side when it is all done. Beyond exams is another test - varsity tennis match.

@Clemenc0 loving the images of the teapot. DD loves real leaves if she is having a green tea. When all her friends were asking for tech stuff for Christmas she asked for a teapot so we can relate! We even have a travel score for tea, Bath scored very highly as none of the places we visited was it was ever served in a mug and the milk was always provided separately.

@Panicmode1 fingers crossed for your DS!

DD is still struggling massively to get entry to an Italian University for her third year- Oxford are worse than a chocolate teapot - @Clemenc0 😉
They give no concrete support and have no bilateral agreements with overseas unis. I'm crossing every finger and toe for the EU / UK youth mobility scheme that is being negotiated. Might not be in time for DD but will help future linguists.

I think DD will have to go to Rome and sit on someone's desk. Email responses are whimsical at best and there is no phone number - they give a Skype name but Skye stopped functioning on 5th May!!

Ds is submitting his dissertation today. There has been no particular visible stress about this and he was 'just doing final bits' 24 hours ago (is he really my child I sometimes wonder. I suppose it helps that theres no element of having to get it Printed). Once he's done that, there's still lectures but only 2 exams in about 3 weeks' time. He's booked graduation tickets in case he doesn't get his fourth year. A strange thought that this really could be it.

Ha @PettsWoodParadise we have a league for ice cream!
@Juja We're crossing fingers that the new scheme happens in time for DD's year abroad - she has a couple of years to go and her language gives options, but obviously she's got a preference. Hoping to learn from the experiences of peers going next year.
She's still doing all of the things and having a wonderful time. Collections results have been ok; all we need now is for her tutor to remember to hold some sessions on the topics in the end of year exams, that they haven't looked at yet 🙄

My first year DS has booked spaces at an Oxford formal in a few weeks time for me, DH and other DS.
He's not been to one since Freshers week and doesn't seem to know anything about them.
Just checking with those more experience that we will be ok turning up as he's booked spaces for us? I've started imagining that they have special formals for family, and that everyone will look at us askance when we turn up.

You lucky things! We never managed to go to one as DD was there in the covid years. You can safely turn up & smile at everyone without fear f embarrassing him

@Manahoy we went to a formal at Cambridge early in 2020. DD and her then BF wore gowns but we only had to wear suits/smart attire. Because DH is frugal (aka a tight person), DD has inherited some of his characteristics. She asked us to buy wine and bring it to her before the dinner. We did as she asked and she promptly decanted it into 2 college-stamped bottles that she had had the foresight to take home/steal from the bin but who cares? I am still in awe at her skills as she didn't spill a drop! This meant that we saved the corkage charge and the M&S wine was rather nice.

It was a lovely event and something I recommend if you possibly can go. Now she has been nominated as a Junior Fellow, I hope we can go again, but not holding my breath!

We went to a formal at DS's college in March this year - there were 6 of us. It was easy going with a pleasant feel. It took me back to boarding school days in 1960s Yorkshire and a panelled dining room - all on a smaller scale but little doubt over what it was all modelled on. I am sure you will have a great time. I recall reminiscing over my family's involvement in the Middle East with one of Britain's more infamous spies (C, Trinity a long time ago) in the 1950s. DS was all ears - not a great approach if you are looking for a summer job with UK Gov't that requires direct vetting, I suppose, but then perhaps I could have been less expansive.

@Clemenc0 sounds most swash buckling Carré - esque

I'm off to a formal next weekend - Boat Club Dinner - but as DD coincidentally ended up at my college I'm attending as an alumni not a parent - DD as captain is doing a speech so very exciting. At the moment getting through Eights is proving a challenge- I feel like I'm living in a soap opera with at least daily episodes. Coaches resigning - selections contested - illness - it goes on.

Anyone else off to watch Eights?

@Juja It was, really, but I was 8 at the time the defector fled from where we lived at the time and I had other things on my mind - anxious to be liked by a girl called Gillian as I recall.

DS4's DPhil graduation is next weekend Malbec. DD4 is at home for a week and I told her about your DD1's Junior Fellowship - she was very impressed. Just need some sun for DS4. His is the last graduation. For DS3's wedding in his undergrad Oxford college at the end of March I was at High Table and was very, very glad of the comfy seats.

Haha @ 'frugal' :)

Nice to hear from you @AsTearsGoBy . As it happens, DD1 is in your part of the world now, having driven up from C via Leeds - as she is not an undergraduate, she can drive her beloved car in C! Enjoy DS4's graduation - will his gf be there? DD1 went to see her a couple of times when she was home.

All change at school as a few old timers are going this summer. You will have to PM me for the gory details!

Thanks all for sharing your experiences, much appreciated. I'm really looking forward to it now.

Ooh @Juja I would have joined you on the towpath but I'm working tomorrow. Have a great day.

Has anyone been to watch a DC competing in Oxford Summer 8s? DS has just learned to row this year and has some races next week. Should we go and watch?

Hi. Yes! I have no idea what it's all about really! DS is training hard and is no 2 in the second string boat from his college.

@NestEmptying @DownTheStream If the boat makes it thru to Saturday then it is all very social on the river, with music and BBQs at the various boat houses. Lots of parents there to watch. We have been a couple of times on the Saturday and enjoyed it even tho, imho, it isn’t a great spectator sport 🤣. Interested to know if anyone has experience of the other days- obvs no BBQs but are there spectators?