Thread 46 - GCSE Covid Cohort , Searching for Summer Solstice

[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

Thanks! DD has already spent the money from the commission, on self-publishing her first illustrated novella (just for friends/family, not for general sale). She was very excited, as most illustrators work on a freelance basis, so this is "proof of concept." There are a tiny number of salaried jobs, normally doing cover designs for publishers or working for magazines. (It's a whole new world to me.)

My DW visited her a few weeks ago while in the vicinity for other reasons, and together they found that, for a few quid, you can catch the "guided bus" (a bus that thinks it's a tram!) from the centre of Cambridge to a wildlife reserve (RSPB Fen Drayton) or on to St Ives ("like Cambridge but with normal prices") so that's a plan with her mates for next week. Who knew? (Maybe your DS's cup of tea, @estherfrewen, or maybe not?)

@PhotoDad - thanks will mention it. Sounds like something he would definitely like

@crazycrofter google the name of her network provider and roaming charges, I checked mine last week (Giffgaff) and they are still the same when in the EU.

O2 is the same as when in eu too, but you may need to send a text message to opt in

Great, thanks both! I've googled as it's ID Mobile and looks like she's ok in France, Belgium, Croatia and Portugal, but not Morocco, so that's useful to know. I'll just have to remind her not to use any data when she's there.

You need to be careful near borders too as its easy to switch onto another country's providers by mistake.

Congrats on DD passing her driving test @crazycrofter and yay to voting in the local elections @PhotoDad - DD will be doing it for the first time next week too. Amazing re DD's art commission too - exciting!!

DD has had some great news and some not great news come through today: great news is she entered an adult singing competition (first time as an adult) and came second! The girl who came first got 1 point more and sang in French so we are super proud of DD. Bad news is she has had a horrid rash come up since Monday and on contacting the Dr today it turns out she has a cat fur allergy so no more cat snuggles for her. (she had a pin prick test years ago and we never registered the cat fur element as didn't have a cat). He's a feral boy and she has been gradually getting closer and closer and can pick him up and cuddle him now but seems coupled with grass pollen allergy and hayfever season the Dr thinks she's been super exposed to allergens causing a rash to spread everywhere which is another reason i'm proud of her singing comp as she went anyway despite not in the mood. She also has a first date this weekend so she's nervous for that as now has to rethink her outfit. I know it's just a 1st world problem but to a anxious teen it's all happening at once.

Wow @AnneOfCleavage that's amazing about the singing, well done to your dd! Hope the first date goes well too, exciting! Cat fur allergy is a bit gutting though 😥Dd is allergic to cats, in that she gets all bunged up/sneezy around them. Her uncle has invited her to go to Croatia (they live there) with her friends in the summer to cat sit for them whilst they're away. She hasn't mentioned to them that she's allergic! I hope she remembers her anti-histamine...

Well done to your dd too @PhotoDad on the commission, that's brilliant!

Hello new thread 🙂

On my way back from London where I’ve been accompanying DD to the door of the US embassy to get her visa for her summer camp. It’s meant to take 2-3 hours, she was done 17 minutes after her appointment time, despite having had to retake her photos. So glad it’s done.

I’ll see her next week too, but unfortunately that’s for my mum’s funeral so not something I’m happy about.

I think she’s done for the year something like 22nd May, with speaking assessments the week before. She’s going to Paris for a weekend at the end of May, but has to come home to reclaim her passport (US embassy sending it there) and then go back to Preston as she’s flying from Manchester. Not quite sure when we’re clearing out this year’s flat with her. Flying to the US mid June, quite something for someone who was nervous about taking the Tube by herself yesterday 😬

Nice singing AofC.

Phone call in Portugal at 7pm
from ds2 HoY, despite email 3 times to attendance team that he's away for 3 days. (1st time in 14 years of schooling, 100% attendance most years for both ds's). Jobsworth.

Nice here.

It's so hot, 28 degrees that we can only spend 10 minutes in the sun each day.

Oh oblomov please swap places!!

I'm in my mums Alvor Portugal timeshare. It was her present to me, us, for my 50th in Jan. Ds1 did his 2nd 15,000 parachute 🪂 jump today. I was supposed to do it (my first) too, with him, for my 50th. I can barely walk. I finally went down to the beach today, I can only walk 50m.

Thanks for the new thread! No news here. Ds should be finished his exams by the end of May. As it’s half term for me I’ll go and collect him & belongings then.

No sign of him getting a summer job yet in spite of nagging reminding him frequently

@Oblomov23 Lovely birthday present. Admire that you intended to chuck yourself out of a plane!

@AnneOfCleavage Great achievement and good to hear of another driving success @crazycrofter

No exciting news here.

Thanks @OrangeCinnamonLatte. Hello everyone!

Not a very nice update but as DS's birthday is round the corner thought I'd check the on cake we ordered. There's been a sexual assault in his flat. DS is now very anxious about the move for 2nd yr as they are all meant to be moving in together in September. The girl concerned does not wish to report it, I've told DS she needs to report it asap but got my head bitten off.
Has anyone else experienced this and how was it handled?

Oh, @Shimy, that's awful. Afraid I don't have any advice here.

That sounds horrific Shimy. But the decision whether or not to report, and when, lies exclusively with the victim and DS was not wrong to decline to tell her what she should do. He sounds like a good friend to her.

That does sound dreadful. Poor girl.

Thanks for the new thread.
@Shimy , how awful but you must be so proud of your DS for being such a good friend. I won’t go into detail but something fairly awful happened to dd this term (not on campus) and I encouraged her to seek counselling with Student Services, it was free and she found it extremely helpful. Maybe he could gently suggest that to her?

@PhotoDad To be honest I am gobsmacked too.

@Delphigirl I let it drop as soon as he said she doesn't want to but wasn't sure at the time. He is a good friend and is very angry, infact the whole flat is angry. I asked what the boy had to say for himself and DS said he's been avoiding all of them, hiding in his room.

@Comefromaway It's completely upset all the excited looking forward to living together they had for September because how can the poor girl now move in with the same boy? I'd hope the boy withdraws his tenancy.

@cariadambyth So sorry to hear your DD experienced something nasty too but glad to hear counselling is working.
I actually think your suggestion is an excellent idea and will mention it to DS.

Shimy if you want to suggest something useful he and his other flatmates could do you can ask him to get each of them separately to write what they know about the event, timings, what the girl has told them and how the boy has acted/what the boy has said and then email it to themselves as a contemporaneous record in case she later decides to report it. He could also suggest the girl does the same before she starts to doubt herself/what happened. It will be important for everyone to have some contemporaneous record of all of this while their memory is very fresh. The emailing to themselves will be clear evidence of the time each record was made. But no discussions amongst them all before or as they do it and they should not share the emails with each other. And make sure they do not speculate just state what they have seen or heard themselves.

@Delphigirl That's an excellent idea and will pass it on. Thanks.