Thread 40 - Corona Cohort , Falling into Autumn 🍂

[CinnamonOrangeCremeBrulee]

This is a support thread for our young adults post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting, and their results ( or life updates for those who went into work or have had results earlier). It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, uni vs employment please don't within this thread.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue. We were previously on the secondary board and then further education, now we shall be here in 'Parents of Adult Children' gulp

Our DS/DD may continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed). Be warned there might be lots of 'Uni Freshers' chat this time of year. My experience is that everyone is welcomed wherever, whatever their child is doing we have some in work, gap years , apprenticeships etc too. Lots of contributors with different experiences and always sympathy and support to be had !

We are also going up to Manchester with DS this Saturday. I did there and back to deliver DD in about 9.5 hours last week, but I agree, this Saturday the roads are likely to be v busy, so journey may be a slog. We're staying over this time round, luckily.

@Seeline which accom have you got? DS will be applying to UEA for 2023 and we dipped into the website and had a quick look at accom. Lots would be out for DS because the beds are only 6 ft long and he is 6'2.

@icanbewhatiwant what complex choreography you have for the next few days! Very odd re accommodation shuttle.

Thanks for the new thread and for posting the list. DD having a bit of a wobble about A level choices and college in general but I think she's going to be ok.

DS has his accommodation details so now has an address and can join the uni gp practice. Starting to feel real now although we still have a week to go. He is in a block of six flats with five people in each one, it's a bit tucked away which might suit him, somewhere to escape to I guess!

He still hasn't sorted out new clothes or his uni ID (which he told me he had done two weeks ago) 🤨

Ds1 made plum pudding with my mum. Ahhh. Made me all proud.

That’s lovely Oblomov, love GP relationships when they work well. Just left my MIL at our home with very confused dog watching 5 suitcases and us leave the house :(

@Monkey2001 DD could put down 5 choices - of course she got the most expensive one. She's in Crome Court - I think the newest block. Flats of 12, on campus. She did apply for other en suite accommodation both on campus and in The Village. She really didn't fancy the iconic Ziggarats. She described them as rather like living on a submarine, and bathrooms were shared between loads of students. I have to say I didn't notice any of the beds being particularly large. I didn't even see any of the small doubles that seem so popular everywhere else.

That's lovely @Oblomov22 . Sadly DD was only just 2 when my Mum passed away and Dad & both DHs parent has already passed then. She doesn't remember by Mum but loves to hear about her and she wears her 1 of her rings along with a ring from my grandmother on the other side. I still love to her about other childrens relationships with their grandparents though as it's so warming.

Re sentimental, I ordered DD a ring for Christmas but it was too big so meant to get it altered, but as usual didn't get around to it. It fits me, so I asked her would she mind if I kept it for me and ordered her another one, how would she feel if we had the same ring and she said that would be nice, so when she goes to uni I will start wearing that ring - about as sentimental as we will get ;-)

Oh and that book I mentioned "Oh the places you will go" by Dr Seuss. - Has anyone else seen it? it's great.

Good luck to anyone going today. So pleased to read that all have settled ok and that any wobble has eased - apologies if I've missed anything that isn't happy.

On the plus side - managed to get DD to sort her ID photo so that is sorted, online registration done and applied for Nottingham uni medical centre so she is up to date on that side, is going to sort out Covid booster (no drop in local but friend also needs is so will get a life somewhere else), and picking up her reading glasses with another friend along with inhalers. Said she appreciated me offering to help her but she is going to do it with her friends - happy days.

We still have to open her IT equipment box from DSA yet though and sort that out... Also we will be going to Dunelm after all at the weekend...

Good luck to everyone moving in this weekend..sounds like there are a few..My DS going to Lancaster and doesn't go till the 2nd, must be one of the last. We went to IKEA at the weekend and spent a fortune. Still need to look at his clothes, stationery and other random bits. Must write a list. I'm starting to not sleep at night worrying about him. He games too much and doesn't talk to people enough. Also we are going to have to cancel his driving test as he isn't ready at all..don't know what to do about the little car. Think we might sell it as he isnt going to be around to practice and it won't do it any good sitting there, but then that is totally giving up...
I definitely won't be doing the open when notes, but I definitely will be sending him little treats here and there in the post...if I have any money left. Another of my nightly worries!!!

Heifer, I understand. I myself never had any grandparents because both my parents sets-of-parents, ie 4 died before my parents even met. my mum was an orphan at 16 and lived with her older sister and put herself through teacher training college.

So I've never had any grandparents either. my mil was lovely, (huge family, my ds's have 24 cousins and she died 2 years ago. I'm close to my mum, and I'm glad ds is seeing her now.

@Oblomov22 Warms the heart that does.

@ealingwestmum Poor pup. Will be an in your face welcome on your return!

That’s lovely @Oblomov22 . Dd has arranged to visit her grandparents (my parents) for a night next week we haven’t seen them since early July.

I love grandparent relationships too. My brother was looking forward to being a grandparent when his daughter was only 2 because he saw the lovely relationship she had with my parents - lots of the pleasure without the responsibility and the right to always be nice!

@ealingwestmum our dog hates it when suitcases come out, she is part collie and spends her life trying to round the family up and knows that suitcases mean someone is going away. My childhood dog used to hang around the car when he saw suitcases and jump in at the first opportunity so he could not be left behind! But as Eww says, you can expect a lovely welcome - ours runs in circles and squeaks and squeals when she gets any of her special people back.

@Seeline the rents at UEA are so high! The rooms look lovely, but £7.4k for self catered with a single bed is eye-watering, particularly when he was hoping for shared bathroom accom in Newcastle for £4.5k! We are not planning to visit before he applies as it is a really long way from Bristol. It is his safety net choice as for medicine they use the UCAT admissions test as 50% of the post interview score and his was very high, so should be almost full marks for that bit. Their medicine course looks great I will be very interested to hear anything you have to say in general about life at UEA once your DD settles in.

So true Monkey; she is also prone to a little widdle for extra excitement when we return :)

Just had a useful admin session which was surprisingly well-tolerated by DS. Now registered with doctor, uni card applied for, railcard ordered, Nottingham app downloaded.

Just MS365 to sort plus he needs to do the bridging work and buy some clothes. We are nearly ready. Hope all who have recently arrived are coping well (and the parents left behind).

Just booked Nottingham lunch for next Thursday.

Went for Gusto the Italian in the town centre the A La Carte menu looks well lush.

Considered Fottergills - starter and main for £18 came recommended.

Oh and that book I mentioned "Oh the places you will go" by Dr Seuss. - Has anyone else seen it? it's great.

I used to read that to year 11 in final assembly!

@Monkey2001 there are definitely cheaper options, especially if he doesn't mind a shared bathroom. Will keep you posted!

I have been to Lancaster today with my DD and her friend. There have been so many posts I have forgotten who else was going.

The shopping centre is lovely. The area seems nice. Sainsburys is near the bus stop.

It's really a nice area.

We have also found out her and her friend are sharing a flat (well of the info given by others is accurate).

DD has found a few girls doing Biology and joined a few chat groups which seems positive already.

Is Lancaster one of the last to start?

Thanks for the new thread @CinnamonOrangeCremeBrulee

@ealingwestmum our doggo has form for that! 😂

Hoping all at university now are enjoying freshers!

DD will be one of the last to go, I’m driving her down on 1st October and we’re staying overnight as it’s a 5 hour drive there and back. I’ll take her into her college in the morning and leave just after lunch.

It will be the first time either of us has been to Oxford and the first time we’ve seen her college ‘in the flesh’!

We are Wednesday! Cripes !
Whenever I hear about Lancaster it always sounds lovely and really sociable.

Well that's it...Ds is in his accommodation. We arrived at 11am. We had a long walk with all his clothes to the flat. Then I decided to park in a disabled place for 10 mins to unload the rest. There were several disabled spaces closer. His room isn't that nice for £179 week. The carpets are old and stained, as is the chair. The desk has chunks out of it. The ensuite is looking very old with lots of thick limescale, then outside his window is a huge block of flats being built. The kitchen was nicer than ds's at UEA though with more communal space. Ds took advantage of being in first by choosing which cupboard to have plus top shelf of the fridge. We went to Asda and bought extra food. I felt mean leaving him as no one else is there. It was very quiet on campus. So I messaged dh's dd and suggested seeing if Ds wants to see them tomorrow. She messaged back to say she'd already gone to pick him up. So he will spend the evening there. So he's not on his own. Not that he minded that much. I'm now at my dm's. I'll drive home tomorrow.

I think the others are arriving at the accommodation Saturday. But Ds will sleep most of tomorrow. He's had a long day today. That's if the builders don't wake him up.

Wow @ProggyMat that IS exciting when does matriculation happen ? (Yes I've watched too much Eve Bennett)

Very much mainly a lurker but loving all the preparation/dropping off posts. Heartfelt sympathies and to those whose children are on the grumpy/nervous end of the spectrum. Fully expecting that next year when DS heads off, but his polar opposite, DD, went off to Edinburgh last weekend having planned, shopped, packed and farewell-partied in a pretty organised and good humoured way. She even left room to take the dog. If she could have arranged for the Queen's cortège not to arrive the same weekend that would have been good, but that did add to the momentousness of the occasion, and apart from having to give up on the big food shop because of all the closed roads, all was fine. I am now enjoying the random (but still pretty business-like) calls home to ask questions which have included "what's a standing order?" and "can I open a tin with a knife?" so far 😀

@CinnamonOrangeCremeBrulee 🤣you’ve watched more than me!

I think matriculation is around 14th October?

Sub fusc purchased online- didn’t want the stress of negotiating somewhere I’d never been to buy and see her in it- and a ‘little black dress’ for a formal dinner she’s been invited to in the first week - or should I say 0 week?
I love the dress but DD moaning about elements of it , as per 😂
Im not so sure about the ‘tutorial friendly’ clobber she intends to take with her either but I’m switching off and trying to answer when she asks ‘ do you like this’ ? with ‘Do you’ ? 😂

@icanbewhatiwant DD's best friend is moving into her accommodation in Sussex on Saturday. I think she said she is in Northfield. Her older sister was at UEA and she commented that the kitchens at Sussex look bigger.