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

@Heifer perhaps dd will feel happier year 2. Will she house share?

I don't really have hobbies, I like to walk my dogs, but that is alone or with dh. I would love more friends and a social life, I have a few friends round here, but they have lived here most of their lives and seem to have busy social lives themselves. I grew up in a different place and left all my old friends behind, I see their photos on Facebook, but they aren't really friends anymore. But I'm a "don't like to ask" type person, so wouldn't ask to meet up. Dh is very sociable, while I'm at work he spends his time visiting people.

I've still not heard from Ds2 I've messaged a few times. But it's not unusual for him to not reply.

@Monkey2001 yes that is impressive!

Congrats to your DD @crazycrofter 🚗🎉

Wow Monkey, that’s impressive. I have a lovely female plumber who is the poshest, loveliest lady ever and I’m in awe of her.

I’m away on a cheeky visit to Venice right now with DH. I am not able to go on water (phobia of sickness) so having worked out we could walk everywhere to finally agree to a trip, I have clocked up circa walking 40kms in 3 days. My plantar fasciitis is screaming at me right now.

Well impressed @Monkey2001 !

@ealingwestmum Have you done the secret tour of the Doges Palace? Very interesting.

Congratulations Crazy dd. 🚗
Sorry to hear that icanbe.

No hobbies here, through choice, but in between mn'ing and drinking wine and curry with friends asap, I spend as much time in my dressing gown doing as little as possible. This all works fine.

Well done mini @crazycrofter . Now for the shock of insurance!

Well done crazy, such a relief when they pass. We are just about to start the process again with DS 2, I hope the driving test bookings are better now than they were?
@Monkey2001 that is amazing, I don’t have enough patience to do anything practical.
There have been some incidents of spiking here, not a big place nor a student place. Really worrying.
@Heifer my DS gets a bit ‘bored’ and definitely misses the home, but he’s having a fantastic time most of the time. I think it’s because everyone is on differing timetables and doing different things, so they can feel alone. Clearly they can’t go out every night. He’s in the rugby team, so they party hard.

Oh Eww, wish I’d posted earlier as I’m just about to leave. Only a conventional walking tour done with mo mention of secret palaces! Next time…

Yes, the insurance 😮😮 Does anyone have any tips? It’s looking like an extra 800 to add her to our policy for the year. It doesn’t help that our insurance is up for renewal in a month and I suddenly have 3 speeding offences on my licence 😩

As she’s not around the whole year I was thinking of short term insurance as a named driver for the weeks she’s back as long as I don’t end up paying more than about £600. But it’s hard to find for new drivers.

@crazycrofter have you tried marmalade? I know you can buy just a certain amount of hours with them or do a student cover. Ds2 is insured through them on his own car for £600 for the year. But I know there are other options for students.

We have 5 cars, it winds me up that dh won't sell one. Ds1 is in NZ for the year. Ds2 is at university a lot of the year. So both cars sit there. I've suggested selling the older car, ds2 can drive ds1's car when he's home. But dh says if we do that ds1 will return from NZ early then Ds2 won't have a car. Ds2's car is horrible, it is a brown Corsa. They've both been embarrassed by it over the years. It's an old man's car. It is 10 years old but only has 18,000 miles on the clock. So Dh won't part with it. He says we will never find one with such low miles again. I can see it staying for ds3 he's only 13. It's dangerously slow too.

@crazycrofter it is very unlikely that adding a new driver to an existing policy is the best thing to do, first thing to try is Compare the Market etc. We ended up with a Hastings Direct black box policy for 2 parents and 17 and 20 year olds for about £600. Direct Line have been brilliant for adding DS1 onto our policy- got refunds for adding him on instead of extra charge (😂) and only wanted £5.60 to add DS2 onto our powerful estate car for a week, but he did pass over a year ago. DS1 just didn't drive for the first year, it goes down when they passed a year ago even if they don't drive in the year.

@crazycrofter another tip is that if you get insurance at least 2 weeks before you want it to start, it is cheaper.

@Monkey2001 that's interesting about adding them to existing insurance not being a lot. One reason dh wants to keep both their cars is the fact he thinks it will cost a lot to add them to our insurance. We both have quite powerful cars.

My main hobby is singing in a ladies choir. Lovely leader kept us all going through lockdown via zoom, and it is so great to be able to sing together again.
I also started cross stitching over lockdown which I really enjoyed. Not done much recently - must go to the opticians....

DD has managed to find a driving instructor - two towns away where my mum lives which means I'm going to have to take her over each time she has a lesson which is a pain, but there was just nothing where we live. Hopefully it won't take too long, but no sign of local test slots either.

On car insurance …

Our car: VW Passat estate 2018
DD’s car: Ford Fiesta 2010

All insurance fully comp. Figures 1, 4 and 5 are actual policies we’ve taken up, 2 and 3 are quotes from Comparethemarket just now.

Me and DH only, actual premium: £243

Adding DD with test date January 2022: £675

Adding DD as though she passed her test January 2023: £811

DD’s actual insurance straight after passing: £1,382 😱

Renewal quote a year on: £885

So much cheaper to add her to ours than insure her own car, and it might even have worked to share a car between three as we don’t drive ALL that much. But our car is big and an automatic so not that great for a new driver. And the second car came in handy just before Xmas when my driver’s door decided it wouldn’t shut and I had to get to work!

That seems to tie up with all the quotes I’ve had @DontCallMeBaby . I haven’t actually rung our current insurance Co but I’ve done lots of online quotes for all 3 of us on the car, and I’ve done quotes for just me and dh for comparison. The difference is about £800. I’m going to ring Hastings on Monday as @Monkey2001 seems to have a good deal with them, but all the comparison sites are fairly consistent - around £1100 for all 3 of us is the lowest. I’m sure it will go down next year!

Ds will start learning in August too though so that’s another thing to add into the equation!

Loving some of your hobbies but also love that some of you don't want any either.

Re car insurance. We were shocked when we tried to get DD short term insurance in her name in an old Ford Ka. Ended up forgetting that and adding her to DHs insurance for the Ka and was only an extra £17 per month.

@DontCallMeBaby ouch that's expensive insurance. The area we are in must make a difference as ds2's was £509 when we renewed in November just after his 19th birthday. He has a 13 plate 1.1 Corsa. Car is parked off road on our drive, that may help to keep insurance down. Ds1 is 21 his was only £400 for a fiesta, it is newer than the Corsa though.

Congrats on driving test and courses!

We are on a little break in Wales at the moment. DS is on a windsurfing course (and DW also enjoys the sport). I've been pottering around nature reserves and catching up with stuff (see Hobby 2 below). DD couldn't join us due to term-time, but she's started on her Final Projects for the year. Will be a long drive back tomorrow evening with school the next day.

Hobby 1 is complicated boardgames, mostly with DS (and DD when she's around) and sometimes with DW or with colleagues. Hobby 2 is studying, I managed to persuade my employer to half-fund taking a degree relevant to my work, and I am currently on year 7 out of 12 (doing it very part-time).

I wonder why your insurance only went up £17 pm @heifer? I can't get it less than an increase of £66 anywhere!

I put DD (provisional) on my insurance and took DS2 (licence for about a year) off… and I got a £129.50 refund. Can’t tell you what that means for the premiums as it’s a multi car policy, but that is obviously the cost of the difference between a learner and a newish driver round my way for an old Audi a1

Had a panic call from DS1 just after 6:00 saying he had left his rucksack with laptop (and Nintendo Switch} on the train when he got off at Sheffield. As his dissertation is on the laptop, that could have very bad consequences. Luckily my train driver friend was able to get in touch with the train manager and we knew within an hour that it was safe and in the care of the train manager - phew! It is usually DS2 who does things like that! I am going to collect it from Bristol Temple Meads as it passes through.

Looking forwards to seeing him and his GF for a pub lunch in Bakewell tomorrow. I will be basking in maximum Mum points for sorting out the lost rucksack!

@Monkey2001 that was lucky about the bag. We are going on holiday near Bakewell in the summer. I've never been up there.

Found you all - Placemarking.🖐