Thread 45 GCSE Covid Cohort - Bunnies bouncing into Spring

[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

previous thread

As we are going into private halls Sept to June, I have Dd back the whole summer. I fear she will be moody and difficult, like she has been this week, she also has a job at a playscheme (started this week) that is quite demanding that she will have to commute to.

Talking of balls etc I got her a bargain dress from Cider for Musoc ball. Dark green satin. I think Cider is akin to Shein/Primark so not terribly ethical. It is a lovely dress on her though.

DD's contract for next year (HMO) runs from early September to late August, 51 weeks, at full rent the whole time. She'll probably stay down at uni for most of next summer to take advantage of that. She wants to maximise her time in Cambridge as she loves the city so much, and realises that she'll not be able to afford living there again for a long time. Her friends have now all found rooms but as one of them said, they'll be "living on dust" given the rent!

She arrived in SW Scotland after a 6.5-hour train journey with three changes last night (not bad for someone who was uncertain about catching a bus this time last year). Currently fast asleep, and as the weather forecast is rubbish today she can certainly spend a day unwinding (and making a start on an essay which is due at the end of next week; she rather resents writing essays as part of an art course, but apparently they're needed to make it academic enough for an honours degree...) Planning on some photography with her tomorrow and Friday! I took my own camera for a spin yesterday and got some nice pics of red squirrels (I caught the wildlife-photography bug from her).

Also, she's just got her first ever paying commission from someone off the Internet!! If all goes well and it's not some kind of scam, she'll get £100 for what she says is about a day's work doing a traditional pencil drawing, A3 size. She's really happy as she wants to be a freelancer one day.

We are 12 month rent too. It came as a shock to me,must say.

Not only can they stay in the summer...the paperwork suggests they are expected to and that they have to move in on the first day and do checks. I'm not happy about that at all and am hoping this falls to another housemate!

I was also surprised there is no between rental cleaning.

I'm obviously naive!

Ds is going into private halls next year and he has chosen a 12 month contract but it doesn't start until September so he is going to have to sofa surf a couple of nights per week in August as he has work.

Oooh, @PhotoDad show us your red squirrels! I spotted this one on the Isle of Wight last week. Well done to DD on the train journey and the commission.

DS is going back into halls next year, so definitely at home June to Sept, he will be working full time at his placement for the first 8 weeks or so, which is voluntary, and he’s hoping to pick up a bit of paid work too.

@EasilyDirected Well, since you ask! I was really happy with this one. Bonus Nuthatch thrown in for free (my favourite woodland bird). DD has a much better camera than mine (prize money from competitions!) and we'll revisit that hide tomorrow or Friday.

Mine was taken from a hide too, just on a phone but it was close up and good light (and new phone). I haven't seen a nuthatch for years. DS ia doing a bird survey assigment at the moment so I have been goung out with him.

Dd1 had an ‘interesting’ situation where we took all her stuff to her new flat in the summer, saw the state of it, tried to clean a bit, gave up as it was so disgusting, and packed the car up and went back home.
The landlord then got the cleaners and decorators in which charged a fortune and used loads of electricity - lots of dehumidifiers running 24/7. Luckily we had taken readings.
They then took the readings again when they could properly move in. I am not sure we ever got the rent back for the couple of weeks she wasn’t in but Octopus were good with the bills as they set up the bill after they properly moved in and the landlord had to pay for the cleaning electricity. Small victory.

Ds has always had 12 month contracts for his houses in Bristol. Last year was annoying as his first rental lasted until end of June and second didn't start till end of July so had to collect all his stuff, store most of it in our front room for a month and then take it all back again. The previous tenants moved out the day before, and he was allowed to move in during the afternoon while the whole place was cleaned during the morning. Luckily he's staying in the same house for next year so can stay throughout.

We're going to have to have DD's stuff in our room for a while this summer! When I was at uni, my home base was in the Channel Islands and my parents couldn't offer any logistical support. I remember carrying all of my stuff, in many many loads by bike (backpack!) or on foot, to a self-storage for a couple of weeks between contracts.

@EasilyDirected Phone cameras can be amazing! All our family have cheap-and-cheerful phones, though, and I am slowly learning to "drive" my camera. DD always shoots in manual mode as otherwise the camera "gets the settings wrong," her one concession is to cap the max ISO. (That might well be gibberish to everyone.)

DS's contract states that they have to have a professional end of tenancy clean which they recommend a particular firm for. It's about £450!! But I do take that to mean that the previous tenants would have to do the same so it should be in a decent state to move into.

That is definitely against the rules... it cannot be in a contract and tenants cannot be charged for cleaning.

Piggy is correct. As long as the property is left in a similar (less normal wear & tear) condition than it was found in they cannot insist on a professional clean.

Yes, there's been a few MN/Twitter threads on this!

Anyway, Burtons Menswear. Was pleased with our bargain, and it came today. Everything labelled wrongly. Trousers had tag as 32L. They were 44L. The jacket was also huge but on a 38 hanger. Honestly, I think it would have fitted Big Daddy!

Grrrr.

Yes this is good to remember. To be fair Dds flat was spotless after they returned (the wardrobes and other furniture was falling apart but very clean). They also argued and got brand new mattresses as the undersides were disgusting (they had steam cleaned one side only and the moisture had settled underneath and gone black). I kid you not - on the last day the landlord made them sit there whilst he spent an hour and a half looking for dirt. He found dust on the top of the skirting boards, particularly when pushing his finger behind the furniture and vegetation growing in the yard walls. Dd argued to move the wardrobe would cause its collapse and pulling out weeds would too. He charged the 3 of them about £40 each eventually for cleaning the 6 windows inside and out and wiping the skirting boards (took it out of the deposit return). It was to be £450 in total but Dd wrote a very good email with all the photos. She also made sure the university and the agents knew about him. And she told him that she reckoned the sewer pipe outside had collapsed and he ought to get it fixed (tomato plants are a give-away apparently)! It was a learning experience after a lovely landlord the year before.

Got my yr11 ds a suit from next - can order as separates which is useful when they are not a standard fit! and the long trousers are actually long enough :-) even do a 28L which is tricky to find!

Yes, that's what I have now done- but now I have paid and he has to wait til Burtons refund him to repay me... Great.

To change the subject completely, I have some lovely news today. Dds went all the way down to London and saw Streetcar at the theatre. Dd2s stitches are out and she wore a soft beanie hat. They had a fantastic time and her health was good. She has a window before her next hospital appointment so we paid (nice hotel, tickets, train, food) for a wonderful 24 hours for the two of them. Her nurse said it was ok. First time I have not been with her at night since she was ill: even with all the hospital stays I slept beside her. So I had a few glasses of wine and slept like a log! I was awakened by the phone with Dd2 giving me (what seemed like) an excited 1000 word critique of the play just before they checked-out. I didn’t even realise it was so late.

Oh, that's lovely! Well done to her.

Zanda that's lovely. You must be delighted.

Lovely to read !

Thanks Piggy NCTDN Orange
Dd2 is singing again. She’s going to be shattered later!

How lovely Zanda

That is good to hear Zanda.
We came home from our Dorset caravan early. It was raining constantly ,miserable, all fed up, my back killing me. Glad we went though. Ds1 stayed home to study for his 5 exams. There's a new sushi restaurant on our high street for me and him to try.