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

Yes, Shimy, he’s a full boarder. He had his first exeat a couple of weeks ago, which was lovely, and comes home for half term (end of Michaelmas term) at the end of next week, for a fortnight.
Im travelling down on Thursday to watch him play in a symphony orchestra concert, staying in a hotel and bringing home the next day.

DD’s birthday is the end of the month, right before reading week, so I’m hoping she’ll come home for reading week.

@NCTDN there is also a coop and a small Tesco near Waitrose. I think the assumption is that they go out on Saturday nights, don't know what they are supposed to do on Sundays. I don't suppose catered students spend enough to justify a delivery, although there are now all those delivery services which almost give things away, I have heard that Getir do some stupidly good deals.

EerilyD I adore Westonbirt Arboretum in the Autumn. So incredibly beautiful.

I think my Dd has about a month's worth of those ridiculous scrappy knickers they sell in Primark🙄

Sorry @anon2022anon I've neglected to welcome you ! Welcome !

DS says the fridge in his flat stinks. I told him it's most probably rotten meat well past sell by date. He says he'll have a quiet word as he doesn't want it to be a big deal. Very mature I thought.
He's done washing and did a whites and a dark. Said it's more time efficient to do both at same time in separate machines which made me laugh. All this new 'housekeeping' he's having to learn🤣

I was clearly the mum who did it all for him when he was at home😬

@deuxgarcons i think we are all quite guilty of that!

@deuxgarcons same here, but I’ve had a lot of fun listening to DS telling me how long it all takes. He sent me photos as he was worried about how much you could put it n. I will be teaching DS 2.
DS1 woke us up to watch F1, can’t believe he’s so organised. He has rugby later.

@NCTDN is he in Stoke Bishop? I grew up opposite,used to use the co op in Stoke Lane or the big Tesco on Kellaway Avenue . Not sure if there is a bus that goes there.

Volterra & Monkey yes she's now got a Clubcard and a nectar card for food shopping!

As part of my research on universities, back when dd was choosing where to apply to, I looked at the proximity of an Aldi and/or Lidl to the campus! That criteria is looking even more important now with food costs as they are..

Ds sounds very on the ball @deuxgarcons !

Dd does keep making me laugh, she has only been at Cardiff a short while and our town is 'boring' and too expensive. Luckily there is a Lidl really near the Music Building. She is very lucky because they are better than Aldi due to the yummy pastries.

Haha! Lidl pastries are very nice! I think I prefer Aldi overall though, but that might just be habit.

Glad she’s enjoying Cardiff @CinnamonOrangeCremeBrulee ! Dd went to visit some friends there in Sept and was bemoaning the fact that she didn’t apply there! But this week she sent me a message saying that Nottingham was definitely the right choice, so that’s good. I guess if they’re happy most of them will conclude they’re in the right place!

Just catching up with the thread - I have been doing lots of cleaning, painting & sorting in preparation for having a group of friends to stay next weekend. Still lots to do over the winter but it’s clean/uncluttered enough for now. So haven’t had much time to notice the nest is empty.

Sorry to hear about those who are having difficulties, especially @Volterra ’s Ds

I never got to do interrailing when I was young & it’s something I’d love to try some day.

@EEerilyDevilled my dd had issues with her dsa printer despite setting it up before she went. It was to do with the printer being wireless but not being able to add it to the WiFi network - it has to be connected via USB. Pm me if you want help - I seem to be doing a lot of tech support by WhatsApp at the moment!

@Shimy MIL was mid 40s when I met dh. When he pointed her out to me across a crowded space I didn’t believe him at first!

By the time she was mid 50s they had a baby in the house again courtesy of SIL who had never moved out, so never got to enjoy an empty nest.

@CinnamonOrangeCremeBrulee DD has a similar amount of said items with her and has no plans to darken the door of the laundry room as yet! 🤣
Fortunately, food in her hall is heavily subsidised and I don’t think she could eat as well if she was self catering.

DD said to me last week that she could cope with cooling, or shopping, or laundry, or clearing up, but having to do it all at the same time as well as studying and trying to find her way around is utterly exhausting. I did tease her a bit but it is a lot for them to adjust to.

Poor DD is still quite poorly. She had a high temperature (I sent a thermometer with both mine -it helps me judge a hangover Vs flu😁). I told her to keep taking painkillers and fluids, but it's such a worry. I can see she hasn't checked WhatsApp since 10 last night which is v unusual, but hoping she is just sleeping.

@handmademitlove thank you, yes, that's what we had to do when setting it up here, I am going to look on the app/instructions again today and then try and talk DS through it again. He has all sorts of cables up there so hopefully can sort it.

It's frustrating though, I dropped him off right outside his halls yesterday, I could have popped in and sorted the printer easily. But he doesn't want me coming in because someone might see and that's not cool. So remote support it is.

I actually think it's probably better using a wired connection so other people on the halls wifi can't send things to his printer by mistake. Or as a prank.

Sorry to read about those with struggling dc's. I still don't hear much from ds2 so can only assume he's happy. I just get one message occasionally, yesterday his message was I've bought baking potatoes, can I make wedges with them?

@EerilyDevilled it made me laugh when you said your in laws were retired age when their son was in his 40's. My poor dh is retired now...yes he is retirement age and we have 3 youngish dc's. 13, 18 and 21. All his friends go away a lot and do all sorts. We can't join in as can't leave ds3 I know he wants to do all the things they do.

At the moment I quite like the thought of an empty nest. As ds3 has been nagging me all morning to play risk or monopoly. I'm a bad parent as my answer is always no to those 2 games. He's hanging around bored. But I'm sure you empty nesters would be happy to have a dc nagging. I'd rather be catching up on housework.

@EerilyDevilled I am going to Westonbirt on Friday, taking dog so can't see all of it, hope we can see enough to be worth it.

@icanbewhatiwant a friend introduced us to a socialist version of Monopoly where the players all gang together to break the bank. It is MUCH more fun and takes about 45 minutes if you are quick. The Boot is the bank, 2 other players each roll one of his dice and he can't buy property. Players all work together to build up sets as quickly as possible, you can't buy anything until one of you lands on it, but you can let each other buy the things you land on, so everyone works together and everyone wins. The better you play (the luckier you are), the better your time. It doesn't matter who has the money at the end, just the speed at which you, as a team, break the bank.

@Monkey2001 we have several versions of monopoly. One is quicker with a card reader for everything. We have the cheats version and a playing card version. But it's only ever me and ds3 playing. Do not much fun, I'd play with a group of us. I absolutely hate risk though.

@CinnamonOrangeCremeBrulee @ProggyMat DD’s eternal knicker supply secret is rather the other end of the scale - despite my attempts to get her to throw them out, she has knickers as old/small as age 10-11 in her stash. TBF M&S size 6 and age 11-12 are the same size … no idea where she inherited the tiny arse from though, not me.