Thread 44 GCSE Covid Cohort - Countdown to Christmas & New Year

[OrangeCinnamonLatte]

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

Whoo hoo! Thanks @OrangeCinnamonLatte .
3 more sleeps until DS comes home from LA! Let’s hope my stinking cold has gone by then. I feel like poo.

Thank you OrangeCinnamon.

Thanks for new thread @OrangeCinnamonLatte

Another new one already?!

Thank you!

MN have changed font for me.. anyone else?

Find it harder to read!

Yes, new font seems fainter somehow, but might just be unfamiliarity.

Thanks for the new thread Cinnamon, I'm very much hoping all our dc manage to duck the worst of the seasonal lurgies.

DD2's carol service tonight and she has a solo - unaccompanied, with the rest of the choir joining in later on. She's having nightmares about going flat...

Thanks @OrangeCinnamonLatte

Good luck to mini Zitti.

Had my first turkey lunch today with a Yorkie but no pigs in blankets on offer. Very nice to have it cooked by someone else.

Thanks for the thread @OrangeCinnamonLatte

Been up to collect DS today, -7° here this morning and 5° when I left Notts at lunchtime! DS couldn’t believe the snow here and how cold it was. He’s straight out clubbing with school friends tonight so the weather can’t be bothering him that much.

A new thread!

we drive up to Leeds tomorrow to a premier in. and will have a day shopping on Saturday before taking ds (and keyboard) to where the concert is on Sunday. Then home first thing Monday morning. My auntie/godmother loves about 5 mikes from concert venue so we are staying with them.

Thanks @OrangeCinnamonLatte

congrats @seeline on the course change.

and hope ds’s boyfriend is ok @ cannonnet… sounds scary…

Definitely a relief to get course swap agreed. Although within half an hour of that email she had one from accommodation saying that she had to vacate her room within 7 days! So a change of plans for this weekend 😆

Thanks @OrangeCinnamonLatte

So, DS is home, I drove up and fetched him this afternoon. We haven't had snow but the RAU looked stunning with white fields and late afternoon sun

Found you - thanks @OrangeCinnamonLatte

Going to collect DS tomorrow after his lunchtime seminar. He hasn't started packing yet and has to empty his room. Last weekend was the first weekend he didn't come home in ages so I've not had much of a chance to miss him like some of you. He's still being a pain and not picking up his calls and struggling to get out of bed in the morning. But......at last he's been joining in with the Nottingham social life. He went shopping with a few Rutlanders last weekend, has been joining them for dinner, went to a birthday meal and went clubbing and got back to his room at 6.30am. You can't believe how happy that made me 😂
He's got a lot of missed work to catch up on over Christmas, three assessed essays to write and exams to revise for. And he's got his summer job back, starting on Monday. It's only Mondays and Fridays so should be manageable and will give him lots of exercise and fresh air (linen delivery at a well known holiday park)

Hope you're feeling better @Oblomov22 and all the ill students are on the mend.

Any Rutland folk know the parking situation for loading up the car?

Don't like new font. Changed all of a sudden?

Good to hear from you mummy!

I'm in bed. Not feeling great. Getting hair cut tomorrow night.

Hope I'm well enough to drive up to Notts and pick up ds1 first thing Saturday morning!

My DS1 coming home on Sunday - he asked if I was going to collect him, but St Andrews is TOO far from Bristol so he has to wait until trains are working!

Thank you Orange. Sorry for not posting anything of late, but reading, so much going on with you all.

Great to hear from you, Oblomov, you've been on my mind. Fingers crossed for the trip to Notts.

Don't blame you about the driving Monkey, my cousin went to St Andrews from Bristol and she had to get acquainted with the train timetable pretty sharpish. (Now she lives in Edinburgh and her parents are constantly up and down the motorways...)

Dd2's solo went well! She is very chuffed and we're drinking the bottle of free bucks fizz I got from M&S Sparks the other day. I'm sad to think this is her last school carol service though.

DS come back with heavy cold snd cough. Possibly Covid but he seems to think he's had it for weeks. Since I have literally myself just had it, I shan't make him test . He still went swimming today!

@mummyinbeds My DH parked at the same place we used for drop off, the car park closest to Rutland Hall - it's still about 100 yards away but could be worse. DH was grateful DD is on the ground floor.

So gorgeous @EspeciallyD .

DH has just started the journey to pick up Dd. She has had a mixed semester. She didn't get into one ensemble (too many applied and picked names out of a hat). She found it really hard to make friends on her course. Some of it is her own fault...she has been coming back most weekends ...not for us but the BF. Her flatmates have bonded without her as they all like clubbing and she says she doesn't. She just hasn't found a tribe /group yet. One particular module gets her down a bit but otherwise she is happy with the work/load etc.

On a more positive note she has done a fair few shifts as a Teaching Assistant in local schools and had some really great feedback , loved it, come home covered in paint and glitter and got paid so all good there. She loved working with older kids with educational needs.

Apparently she isn't going back to Cardiff for exams week as the exams are online and are essay hand ins. Unfortunate as DH and I will be in Dominican Republic. I've arranged for her to stay with her Nan for company.

I'm not sure what is going on with her BF he seems so troubled. He doesn't go to uni and works for his Dad who has threatened to sack him this week for his attitude. They seem so interdependent , which worries me. He just seems to have no-one to look after him and Dd takes that role. 😳. We spent some time yesterday looking for functional skills courses for him to do as he has not got GCSEs Dd is worried he won't be able to get a job if sacked . I feel bad for him, but worried for Dd ...that she is not embracing uni life so much because of the relationship.

She has said she wanted to leave / change courses a couple of times , when I chat to her it always seems to be related to distance from boyfriend. Everything is then OK for a few days until she has another wobble.
It doesn't help that she doesn't go back to Cardiff until end of Jan. I hope she doesn't get cold feet about going back.

So I guess that is what I'll be worried about over the next two months ! It will be nice to have her home. She came home only to spend whole weekend with boyfriend and not us a few times this term.

Hello! We are still DD-less. Term probably finishes today, who knows? But we’ve had a plan for ages to pick her up on Tuesday and stay a couple of nights near the in-laws, for various reasons. Probably no bad thing as it’s still very cold here and everything is covered in snow. Roads are clear for the most part but it feels safer to go on Tuesday when it’s unseasonably warm rather than unseasonably cold.

I had an incredibly vivid and realistic dream a couple of nights ago that she came home and said she wanted to drop out. I was SO relieved to wake up.

Ha! Found the new thread. Thanks for all the heartening messages. She slept well and looks loads better. I slept horribly but that’s the price of love.
We went out to lunch and bought a tree and then we had enormous fun trying to recreate my dear daughter in laws classy minimalist mantelpiece with our kitsch and disproportionate decs . The monstrous elf is particularly unsettling, but made us laugh!

That's good to hear Zebra.
Thanks Zitti.

DD home safely from Newcastle. She’s finding our ‘Only turning the heating on if it’s snowing inside’ house quite chilly after her snug flat!

@Zebracat Bless her, what a turbulent time. At least she has opened up and is talking. It's also great that she acted and has spoken to the university and they have been supportive. I hope the medication helps and you take time to look after yourself too.