Thread 42 Corona GCSE Cohort - 👻Creeping it Real for Oct22

[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 advice to be had.

previous thread

DD is home for the weekend. she’s been away 5 weeks and seems all grown up! I met her halfway on the train last night and we chatted all the way home hearing all about her cooking disasters, new friends, course etc. I’ve missed her so much but she’s really been enjoying herself. I doubt I’ll see her before lunch today but have booked her a flu jab for this afternoon and am busy baking her favourite goodies.

I feel guilty about loving my child free life. I’m still in bed reading a shamefully bad book.Someone suggested we should become professional foster parents. No.
She says she might come home during reading week tho, and it would be nice to see her . Ds2 comes home from America today. I’m really hoping 3 weeks away will have reminded him of the joys of independence. I’m thinking of putting in some Boarding House type rules. Kitchen open between 4.30 and 4.35, no frying, no spices. Laundry on Saturdays before 8.30 am. 2 showers a week of 5 minutes duration. Room inspection on Sundays. Overly punitive?

I'm a bit sad that ds isn't coming home for reading week but happy that he has got a job doing something he loves next week.

He will be back over Bonfire weekend as he has a local gig.

I wish I had the chance to miss Dd but she keeps coming home. Her Cardiff life is slowly getting busier so it won't be sustainable and hopefully she will realise soon.

She has organised her own driving lesson, piano lessons and a new job...she is temping as a Teaching Assistant in schools so has done all the admin herself around that (application, CRB checks, Welsh registration etc) I'm quite impressed when I think about it. I must remember to not let my annoyance about her having to see her boyfriend most weekends overshadow that...

First job in school today, she is in a primary setting but wants to experience secondary ...braver than me ! I hope it goes well

Well if they will insist on treating the house like a hotel....

@Comefromaway I think it is lovely to have them come home for specific events and family rituals. Hope he enjoys his job!

DD is coming home tonight 😊 She has a fairly late lecture and has opted for a much later train as it’s ‘later and cheaper’ - cheaper is self-explanatory, I suspect later is cos she does NOTHING at speed. She’s never been on a train by herself before, it’ll be late and dark, and she has to change trains.

Needless to say, I will be glued to Find My Friends for three hours.

She STILL hasn’t done any washing and isn’t bringing any home. My mission for the week is to persuade that it IS necessary to wash your bedding, even if it’s not as often as some people might suggest.

@DontCallMeBaby do you know there are things you can do to help train journeys - all stations have on line arrival/departure boards showing platforms and whether trains are running on time. So if her train is late, you can see how the connecting train is doing and tell her which platform she needs. I once missed saving over an hours wait on a cold dark platform for DS because I did not look up the connections before he needed them, and by the time I realised there was a train he could get, it had gone!

DS2 has gone to visit friends at Sheffield for their open day tomorrow, then going to Nottingham tomorrow evening to see GF at Broadgate Park. He is very excited😁. There is a possibility that he might have his first ever nightclub experience tonight - the main student he is visiting also does not drink and has not been to a club yet, so thought he and DS could brave the ordeal together! I am pleased that DS1 is also in Sheffield at the moment, visiting his GF, so they will all meet for lunch before DS1 goes back to St Andrews. Wish I was with them.

Ds2 text me last night asking for ds3's mobile number. Then he FaceTimed him. I didn't know at the time. I sent him a 🤬 He asked what that was for. I said you won't FaceTime me. So he said he will later. He did say he's excited to be coming home in 2 weeks. He's getting the train from Brighton to Cambridge. I'm tempted to pick him up from Cambridge. It's still an hour and 20 mins drive. But I thought maybe it might tempt him to come home more often. But he will probably get another train from Cambs to about 20 mins from home. He could get a third train to our nearest town it's only one stop but the train from Cambs goes on to Ipswich instead of the one stop to nearer us. I will probably take him back to Cambridge for the home journey on the Sunday though. He's coming home late on the Fri and going back Sunday. So not home long. Did I say that he's turned vegetarian? I thought he would at uni as he's easily influenced. He messaged to say they'd all gone to McDonald's and had bacon McMuffin. They'd forgotten they don't eat meat 🤣 he's wants us all to eat veggie meals when he's home. I don't mind eating less meat, but dh was a beef farmer, so we would never persuade him. So that won't be happening.

Thanks for the flu jab reminder @PaddingtonPaddington I have booked one for DS for reading week. He’s not planning to come home for the whole week at the moment (seeing what others do first), most likely will come home Thursday morning and stay the weekend, I have booked the jab for Friday). Got him Covid boostered while he was here last weekend, and they kindly offered to do mine while we were there too.

Coming home last weekend (it was a long one, Thurs eve to Sun eve) did unsettle him for a couple of days when he got back but he’s fine again now. Coming for a flying visit next weekend to meet up with an old school friend who is still at home here. The train isn’t possible, I thought I would be doing less mileage once he’d gone (I used to drive about 100 miles a week just ferrying him around for school, sports etc even when he was in boarding) but it seems I am doing just as much. Don’t mind though, I like driving and like being in the car with him.

I was hoping to get ds' 3rd covid jab booked during reading week but it's not a good idea if he is going to be playing for a theatre show all week.

Ds doesn't have a reading week. Ds1 never had them, but he did a science. But I thought ds2 would as he's doing history.

Ds2 has only had 2 covid vaccines. He won't have his third, so I'd never get him to have a flu jab. Our gp surgery is doing both vaccines together (obv not for younger people) dh had both last weekend. I was expecting him to be poorly. But he was fine.

I'm hoping to persuade DS to have his third Covid jab now he's experienced Fresher's Flu. He had no symptoms when he had Covid so was of the opinion it was a waste of his precious time.
I'm booked in for my Covid booster this afternoon and my flu jab tomorrow afternoon 😱

This was DS’s and my 4th covid jabs, he was in one of the early groups with me as his carer so we both had our last booster in December. DS still hasn’t had covid and we were worried about his immunity wearing off now (I have had it this year). Neither of us has had any after effects from any of them other than a slight headache but it does seem to vary a lot from person to person. I’ve never had any reaction from flu jabs either (I had that a couple of weeks ago too).

Just in from getting my covid booster. Much moaning in the queue which was fairly justified as it was totally outside, long and not moving. Wasn't being well managed and I ended up having to ask one of the volunteers to help the man next to me go to the front. He was 90 and shaking from standing so long. Anyway happy to have been done and not get a parking ticket.

I have my covid booster booked in for Monday. i've had a text about booking my flu jab too but I'll wait a week I think.

Dd is coming ‘home’ for a week. I say home, but we’re still living with friends and then we’re going to visit family from Monday to Sunday. She’s taking advantage of the fact that family are nearer Manchester and Liverpool, so she’s going to see friends there for a couple of days to break up a whole week with family!

Wise JustHere. I had both jabs together a few weeks ago. Won’t be doing that again!

Ds isn't coming home. Dh sold his car today. Dh is fed up with him, he never phones, just only texts Me for Amazon/eBay/money. He had his first exam today, it's only worth 2.5% of his final grade, (that could be just for this year though, I wouldn't know because he hasn't called) but it's the first of many.

@Oblomov22 Same with DD - just doesn't want to talk to us. Just sends texts. Or does facetime when she wants something and then goes. Even when home last weekend she asked me not to chat and just sit with her. DH got some chat from her on the journey there and back at least so I grilled him. It's hard not to take it personally but I am really trying.

She seems quite overwhelmed with it all tbh, totally exhausted with the schedule. Has stopped going out during the week as too many 9.00am starts etc. Her timetable does seem to ease up from next week (down to 18 hrs per week) which should make things a bit easier. My friend told me last night that it was good that DD doesn't need to chat all the time, and she had definitely heard a lot more students are the same - seem to be in 2 camps, the not calling at all or coming home too often. I went out with 4 friends last night and 3 said their DD were coming home weekly from Manchester (and they are all friends there together) but still homesick etc. At least ours seems to have settled.

DD has messaged Beeston HC about joining them and they replied instantly to say come along to training - DD was chuffed how welcoming the reply was. Hopefully she will go along on Wednesday and go from there.

I've just booked Covid boosters for DH and me for November - need to do Flu jabs after ( or before) as don't fancy them overlapping..

I've had a pretty low couple of weeks and last night going out with friends made me realise how bad I've been, I really do need to go to the docs to talk about HRT - have been burying my head in the sand and hoping it will go away but definitely got worse.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend - those that have DD/DS coming home I hope you enjoy your time with them. Those that won't be seeing them, at least you cant argue ;-) your kind will come. Once Christmas comes will be probably all be so pleased when they go back in January (DD has 4 weeks home).....

Evening all, question for the Notts lot and sorry to take the prize for the most boring question ever - do you know how to order Amazon to Notts? My mum wants to send a surprise to DGS but I'm not sure how it works and don't want to give the surprise away by asking DS. I think it's a different delivery address (locker) than the normal post address, isn't it? But if she orders to a Amazon locker, presumably Amazon would email my mum that it had been delivered and she would just have to tell DS? Or can she order Amazon to the normal post address, will the post room take it or must Amazon orders go via a locker? 

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn @Oblomov22 @Heifer @singingstones @mummyinbeds and any other Notts-ers I've forgotten - thank you!

I had a FaceTime call with ds this afternoon 🎉 it was great to see his face for the first time in 5 weeks. The first thing he said was turn the camera round and show me the dogs. Then he kept calling our younger dog...she'd put her head on one side confused. Ds said 4 of his housemates go home most weekends. The 5th often stays but is going home this weekend. He also said he does have a reading week but doesn't know when it is, I thought that as a bit strange siren this timetable stops. All his lectures were cancelled this week due to Covid. He seems happy anyway. He says he's enjoying it all.

DH has a drive thru flu jab at the local GP tomorrow. We live 100 yards away. He has to drive...

@blinkbonny not notts. But I've done amazon locker delivery to Ds at Sussex. He said he will get it quicker than coming to the uni address. Then I get an email from Amazon with a code. Ds puts the code into the locker to open it. It's very easy.

@blinkbonny

I'm not sure any of us have actually used Amazon lockers yet (although how I haven't is a shock considering how pro them Dh is, and how much stuff ds1 has asked for!

But there are 3:

Amazon Hub Locker: Kidding – Hugh Stewart Hall, Nottingham, NG7 2QX
Located in the small car park to the rear of the halls.
Amazon Hub Locker: Emmit – Derby Hall, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2QT
Located round the corner from the Student Post Room.
Amazon Hub Locker: Ting – Nightingale Hall, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2QS
Located at the rear of the building opposite the tennis courts.

All easily accessible apparently. Depends which is closest. You choose which of the 3 is closest, to ds halls of residence, when you place the order.

Or yes, I have ordered Amazon to Rutland and ds had picked it up (textbooks) from the postal room. only small letters go straight to The actual halls themselves.