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

@Zebracat Yes, of course they were indeed wrestlers . I was reminiscing about Wrestling not boxing....oh I'm so ashamed .

....and now i can see very clearly that I can't be helped on this matter!!! "boxers", boxers, boxers, boxers!!!!

@Heifer happy birthday to the young lady!

DS loves to play sport but doesn't watch much on TV except tennis and the odd football match. I'm oblivious to most sport now I'm not ferrying him all over to hockey. We enjoy Wimbledon if we can get tickets (been lucky 4 times!). DH has a season ticket for football and has gone for years with his brother.

@Monkey2001 I was shopping Sunday afternoon. Plenty of parking available!

@Zebracat Sounds like festive fun.

Thanks for the new thread @OrangeCinnamonLatte

@singingstones Is all well?
I’ve missed your role call to ‘our new threads’

Happy birthday @heifer DD.

We are all football fans here, DS and DD both played from being 5 until this year. At one point I was on football training/match duty six days a week. DS is also a referee. We all watch F1, winter sports, Olympics - anything but golf and cricket really. DS is at a match this evening.

DS will be back to uni for an exam on 17th January and at the moment plans to stay even though he has nothing else until 30th. A lot will depend on his mental health so I'm not making plans.

Happy Birthday Heifer dd. And yes like Popcorn and Crazy, I'm dropping him back to Notts on Sunday 15th, he has 3 exams that week like I said.

Our tv is practically on permanently - We watch endless (ie every single game there is of) football here. And I like it too. (In fact next week we are going on a surprise tour of the Spurs stadium that both ds's know nothing about). And that's how I get my copious amount of MN'ing done. And boxing, and any big event I like to peruse: swimming, gymnastics, athletics, tennis, darts, anything really.

@Oblomov22 DS supports Villa and I took him on a stadium tour for a Christmas surprise about 4 years ago, it was one of the nicest things we've ever done together, the tour was brilliant. We're all off to the darts at the Ally Pally tomorrow and grestly looking forward to it.

We've done the tour at Spurs. Best time was at White Hart Lane when we bumped into Ledley King! The new stadium is awesome.

Not sports fans here, although I follow Wimbledon (the tennis tournament, not the football team) and enjoy watching some events at the Olympics. One of the reasons I married DH is his indifference to all sports .

Nothing much going on with dd1. She was granted PIP the other day, went to the opticians yesterday and vowed she would never go again as she found it so stressful and worse than the dentist! They're all very friendly and chatty at my opticians so I suspect that was the problem for her.

Dd2 has an offer from Cardiff and an interview invitation from Manchester - can any Manchester experts out there suggest a good hotel to stay in, as it's soooo far away from us we'll need to make it a 2 night trip. Is the Travelodge across from the MRI OK or is it noisy?

oh dear we are big Arsenal fans here <waits to be thrown off thread>

@ZittiEBuoni where are you coming from to get to Manchester?

South coast, NCTDN, so we'll get the train from Bournemouth to MCR Piccadilly then probably try and stay as near the uni as possible.

@ZittiEBuoni we have stayed at a conference centre near the university - Luther King House, booked through Booking.com. Basic, but clean and cheap, great breakfast in a university hall style.

All these big football team supporters. Ds2 supports Ipswich 😂
We live almost exactly halfway between Ipswich and Norwich. He used to prefer Norwich but now it's Ipswich. He likes Man U too.

Haven't been on for a while and just catching up on posts. Collected DS1 from Swansea last friday and it was such a gorgeous sunny day we had brunch outside at a beach side cafe! He is having the time of his life (his words). Loves his course and Swansea.
Sport is normally on our TV all the time. I'm arsenal but DH and ds2 are Fulham season ticket holders. Ds1 and Ds2 also support Liverpool. Ds1 mad about F1 and we got him ticket for British GP next summer for his 18th birthday. Should have been for last summer but we weren't organised enough! Ds2 just spent 4 days at St George's Park on school football camp which he said was amazing. They got to watch England v France there. Shame about the result.
So now DS1 home my fridge can't keep up and my food bill has increased dramatically. He's been out most nights seeing friends and what's left of his loan severely impacted by the difference in price of beer in London compared to Swansea.
He's looking at houses now for next year. I wondered if it's possible to pay X months rent in advance instead of having to be joint guarantor to all flatmates. Does anyone have experience of that?
Hope everyone is having a great time with their DC home for Xmas.

Thanks, Monkey2001, just looked it up and it looks ideal, close to big park and main road with bus stops but quiet.

I’m with you @omnishambles

Could you chuck the OP off the thread ? We are Cheksea Season Ticket holders 😆
DH will watch anything else sport related too. I take a passing interest. Can't stand Cricket/Golf on the radio though.

Dd has barely come out of her room since she got back.

Happy birthday little Heifer for yesterday. Congrats on the offer/interview little @ZittiEBuoni !

So much news to catch up on here; I hope that everyone is happy and well now.

We don't watch any sport at all in our household, I know that's an unusual thing.
We're currently coming to the end of a week in the Highlands (a very generous present from my in-laws) which has been incredibly relaxing. (Apart from the drive up, when I managed to skid the car across an icy road...) DD and DW have been out hiking when the weather permits, we've played boardgames, watched movies, and relaxed in a little pool. DD is very happy to see open countryside again, her one criticism of Cambridge is the lack of hillwalking in East Anglia. Her Open Return runs until January 9th, and classes resume the week after that. She's happy and healthy and still so full of enthusiasm about her course and her friends. She's also finally completed the fantasy novella she's been planning for at least the last two years!!

We'll be back tomorrow afternoon in time for the Tesco delivery. In the meantime, the main Christmas present for the family is due to be delivered today (after a moth's delay), there's no way I can postpone it, and I don't know whether our friendly neighbour will be in (and willing to accept a huge parcel). Fingers crossed, but it looks like we'll be picking it up from a depot next week.

Thanks for all the birthday messages for DD, she had a great time. Funny thing happened this morning. She has started playing fortnight with her bf online until 4.00am recently, then apparently remembered she had a driving lesson this morning at 10.30am so quickly went to bed, got up 10.15, came downstairs. Sat and waited. Her driving instructor isn't usually late so I asked was she sure it was this morning, yes she said 10.30 on 23rd Dec...... oops. She made herself a toastie and went back to bed... She is going out at 4.00pm with a friend so I guessing I will next see her at 4.05pm as she runs down the stairs, shouts bye and off she goes again. Worse thing was said was she knew she would have to get up again early tomorrow morning :-)

I'm finally starting to make the house Christmassy - don't always feel like it tbh and neither DH or DD seem to care but I want to at least make DD room and the sitting room nice. We can't have a Christmas tree (dogs) so I've got a garland and have ordered something from the florist with a candle and flowers etc to put up high - or save to get out when the dog goes to bed at 9.00pm... Would be nice this year if I could actually wrap the presents before Christmas eve, always leave until last minute, especially as I've already done some for DD Bday, this year may be the year I finally get around to it. I don't have any excuses really, our Christmases are very chilled, just the 3 of us, nothing stressful at all but I just don't have a Christmas mojo anymore. Both my parents passed away around Christmas time (Mum 16 years tomorrow with Dad 2 years earlier). We also lost my nephew 6 years ago so Christmas for the whole family can be quite a struggle, we all tend to do our own thing. There has very recently been a family birth and wedding in late January so things are looking positive. Really looking forward to seeing everyone in January, but as usual it will be a very quiet Christmas for the 3 of us.

What have your DD/S been up since being home?

@PhotoDad Highlands walking sounds perfect.

DD is revising for her Jan exams and revisiting her first two weeks of lectures - ‘Back then I didn’t have a clue how to take notes!’

She’s had a Christmas meal with her school gang, helped her Granny decorate her tree and is currently off collecting our tree with DH.

DS has finished his essays and his internship applications and is coaching at a sports camp this week to replenish his beer funds.

Isn’t this wet weather dreary? Preferred the freeze. I’m resting up trying to get rid of a cough that’s hanging on since end of term. Barely slept last night. Luckily I’ve done everything I need to do bar one small shop for forgotten things. Picking DD1 up from station tomorrow afternoon . Really hope I feel better.
Walking in the Highlands does sound nice. We took our two one October when they were younger and had great weather. Beautiful around Fort Augustus.

We love Scotland too - planning Hebridean Way this summer.

@Benjispruce4 I prefer wet to cold as the house is 5 degrees warmer!

@Monkey2001 Love the Hebrides!!

DW and DD got back from a 5-hour hike just after sunset. 30 minutes later it was pitch black! Glad that the timing worked; I was getting a bit worried.

Also, the big Christmas present (a huge campaign boardgame, which is something I and both kids enjoy, and which I actually ordered two years back) has arrived with our neighbour! He flagged down the Parcelforce van and volunteered to look after it, before it went back to the depot. So I will pick up a bottle of something him on the way back down tomorrow. Good to have nice neighbours.

We haven’t quite got DD home yet, we picked her up on Tuesday but have spent a couple of days with DH’s parents - they’re in Stockport and NO ONE needs to go up and down the M5/M6 three times in as many weeks. We’re 40 minutes away from home now … her cat wasn’t well when she came home in October so we’re hoping for a proper emotional reunion this time. You know, like cats are renowned for 😂