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

@Monkey2001 yes! I’m keeping man eye on the trains. Confused her by telling her where her second train was going (Bristol) so she can spot it it easier. “I thought it was going home??” I think I’ve enlightened her now.

Thanks @Oblomov22 and @icanbewhatiwant - I will walk my mum through it and see how we go!

@Heifer Hope the Beeston session goes well.

I've forgotten which halls your DS is in @blinkbonny but there is also an amazon locker at Broadgate Park, it's called Vine and is just behind reception I think. When your DM goes to check out, in the delivery section there is an option which says "or pick up near this address", so if she puts his postal address in as the delivery address, it should suggest all the nearby lockers for her to choose. (This is on the app.) When I have used amazon lockers in the past they have emailed a QR code which you show to the scanner at the lockers and then the right locker will open. So she would just need to forward the QR code email to him.

DS is home 😊
He looks great, I must say, and full of chat about uni life. He is really enjoying it and only felt homesick when he was ill. It's lovely to see him and hear all his news. And to do his washing of course, which he has separated into two bags, darks and lights 😂

@Monkey2001 I have just made your flapjack recipe and now waiting impatiently for it to cool!

Yes we have used Vine Amazon locker a lot . Instructions are correct above. Only problem is that it won't take big parcels but it lets you know when you're ordering.

Up waaaay too early, as I'm taking DS15 to a two-day sports training event he's involved in, an hour away, and he'll be camping "on his own" (but right alongside a team-mate and family). I'm going to be naughty and head home after watching for a couple of hours. I really don't do camping well. It's forecast to rain, but so long as his tent stays dry he'll be fine.

Ooh, Amazon lockers are a good idea.

I can see one of DD's email accounts (with her permission, this was useful during paperwork stages) and have spotted, too late, a receipt for an online purchase where she hasn't entered her house number!! I wonder whether the parcel will reach her. Best case is that the courier phones the contact number. It's all about learning life skills, isn't it? And as it's stuff for her room it's hardly time-critical. (She lives in a uni-owned house so there's no central mail point for her.)

We're going to see her next weekend, staying two nights in a hotel, as she doesn't get a reading week. Really looking forward to that! She and her illustration friends are planning on spending the weekend making Hallowe'en decorations for the First Year Studio, and watching the Lord of the Rings films.

@singingstones was it OK? 🤞

DD made it home successfully 😊 First train ran on time until just before the change, 4 minutes late in, so a good call not to try the version of the journey that has an 8 minute turnaround at New Street. She unexpectedly had a friend with her for most of that leg, but had to do the change alone and checked with a LOT of station staff she was on the right platform.

I had to excuse myself at midnight as I was tired, but I hope she’ll still want to tell us EVERYTHING today - for as long as she’s in, that is. So far I mainly know she’s changed her mind about wanting to live with her flatmates next year.

My DS got home! successfully too. Went to Nandos after picking him up but nothing else planned. Just watching lots of sport on TV!

Well, Ds is back in our home town.

he messaged me yesterday afternoon to say that a girl he knew years ago from dance invited him to an event at our local uni. So he got on a train and met her there.
except it was boring and he found he had little in common with her. So he got a taxi to the pub round the corner where one of his best friends lives and went to karaoke night there. He stayed over and he gone to spoons for brunch with him.

his train back leaves at 4pm. I don’t mind as his friend (he’s on a year out) had some bad health related news this week and could probably do with a mate at the moment.

Delicious @Monkey2001 you are absolutely right about the caramel-y taste 👌 thjs is now my go to recipe so thank you!
(I think I used more butter than I should've by mistake but in my defence I was a bit 😵‍💫 from driving to Nottingham and back)

Can anyone help with conservatoire audition fees. Ds’s friend has completely missed the fact he has to pay RNCM £75 he can’t find any reference to it on his emails he simply paid the ucas fee.

How does he rectify this?

@Comefromaway I'd advise DS's friend to ring RNCM on Monday and ask to speak to the admissions team to sort it out. (Audition fees seem a bit ridiculous to me, universities which interview don't charge for those!) Late applications are still open but only for a week so time is pressing here.

@Comefromaway I’m pretty sure DD had to pay the audition fee with the ucas fee on submitting, best to contact RNCM admissions and check.

He’s only paid the £36 ish he’d have noticed an extra £75 I’m sure. But the application has gone to them as they’ve sent him the link for their theory test and to submit the recording on Acceptd

He might be eligible for remission. I’ve told him to email and ask.

Dd is home. She did her first wash yesterday! She shared a dark wash and a light wash with a friend so it only cost £2.50. She also said she’s realised she’s definitely an extrovert (who would have guessed!) as she never spends any time alone at uni and she loves it. I’m glad she’s got constant company, as she doesn’t get that at home even with her manic social life.

Ds2 has gone to Leeds for the night, presumably to see friends from school. I hope it doesn’t unsettle him (Leeds was his firm but he didn’t get the grades).

Middle child is home for the weekend & we will meet Dd for dinner tomorrow before he goes back. I think it will be Christmas before we are all together again. Ds2 has a reading week in a few weeks & will come home then.

Thinking further I have a feeling that when Ds applied to ucas we had to pay the fee to his college. Will the fact his friend applied independently not via a college have caused this issue?

DS1 up to his familiar tricks...

Can a phone dropped in a toilet be repaired??

Rice to dry it out @Piggywaspushed ! But has he actually never dropped a phone down a toilet before?!

Agree try rice

He has broken or lost seven phones crazy....

This one is in my name.

He did it at 11am but kept using it for about 6 hours.

@Piggywaspushed DS's phone did most of a cycle in the washing machine. Was in a hoodie pocket. Three weeks in a big bag of rice in the airing cupboard proved successful. Good luck!