Thread 49 - Covid GCSE Cohort - The nights are drawing in...

[OrangeSpicedBun]

Autumn 🍂 well and truly underway, has been chilly this week !

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). 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 :

www.mumsnet.com/talk/parents_of_adult_children/4880640-thread-48-covid-gcse-cohort-summer-before-year-2-uni?latest=1

Photodad loving the sound of teaching ds bridge. Thank goodness for piccolo ds getting the offers he deserves after all that shit! Sorry to hear about car on way to driving test Delphi.

@PhotoDad dd2 had a bridge club at her primary school 🙂 it is one of her weird facts when needed that she won the school bridge competition - the fact they even had one at primary school seems to be a great source of amusement 😁

Fantastic news @Alsoplayspiccolo.
@delphi these driving test dramas are sent to try us...
@Oblomov I hope it wasn't too bad a fall.
Can you manage to de-compress over Xmas?
@Photodad a holiday in Scotland, with Whisky sounds like my type of holiday.
Christmas spaniel attached 🎄🐶 .
She's settled in already - a red spaniel with very expressive eyebrows & eyes that pierce your soul.

She’s a beauty Cantonet

Gorgeous @Cantonet

Small world! I was there 1988-91, so probably know your friend, at least by name.
(My tiny claim to fame is that I was there at the same time as Ewan McGregor, Joseph Fiennes, Daniel Craig and Damien Lewis).

@cantonet how beautiful! Looks very relaxed in her new home 💕
@Alsoplayspiccolo thats quite a stable of peers….😱

@Cantonet - just gorgeous!

@Cantonet
Love the photo. What a sweetie.

@Seeline love the idea of your choir, sounds just like something I should join.

@Alsoplayspiccolo DD has some friends at Guildhall and all speak very highly about it. Sounds like your DS has some fantastic choices.

I’ve been helping DD do a new UCAS application for 2024 hoping to start in year 2 - just pondering on the reference as whether to contact the school and ask even though it’s been over 18 months since she left or try and think of someone else.
In other news DS has 5 offers on his UCAS for physics so awaiting offer holder days to try and help decide.

@Cantonet Sooo gorgeous!

@Alsoplayspiccolo Did you have a favourite among them?

@PaddingtonPaddington Two UCAS applications in one cycle - stress! One was bad enough. Pleased your DS has received all his offers.

Tbh, the music students and the drama students didn't really mix much.
However, my friend was asked out by Joseph Fiennes...and turned him down! And another couple of friends loved next door to Ewan. He was quite reserved but lovely; it was right before he landed Trainspotting.

Max Beasley was on the music performance course back then, as a percussionist, so I played in wind orchestras with him - he was pretty loud and gregarious, and a bit of a Manchester geezer. He went off on your with Take That soon after.

@Cantonet I’m not really a dog person but she is beautiful!

@Cantonet Awwwww.

We had a lovely holiday in Scotland (no snow!) Got home to the news that my very elderly dad has been in hospital for a bit, and he's been assessed as now needing a higher level of care than his current residential care-home (which is lovely and just around the corner from us) can provide. So next week (well, after Boxing Day) will be spent trying to find him a new place and sorting out the logistics and finances. Luckily I'm on holiday until well into the New Year!

@Alsoplayspiccolo Friend had no chemistry with him?! You and Max making music together. All sounds awfully glamorous compared with the life of a trainee accountant 😂

@PhotoDad Sorry to hear your father needs more care. It's an absolute minefield finding a nursing home you like with a room available. Fingers crossed everything falls into place.

Merry Christmas, everyone! Just the four of us at home this year, and (oddly?) I always love shopping for and cooking the Christmas meal. And eating it!

Merry Christmas everyone! Our guests too ill to come. We have a lot of food for 3 people....

Merry Christmas everyone! Just the four of us at the moment, DParents coming over for the afternoon shortly. Big hits have included personalised ketchup, new darts, bubble tea kit.

Merry Christmas everyone! We have had lots of people here over the last few days but just the four of us this afternoon which will be lovely. Then more family coming in a couple of days.

Merry Christmas Everyone. Dh's friend who lost both his parents came for roast. All good.

Happy Christmas 🎉🎁🎉
Am very sozzled waiting for my sister's Turkey dinner. 18 of us here & we travelled up with £80 worth of smelly french cheese ( my dad's favourite Xmas present) & lots of vintage port. Xmas spaniel having a whale of a time eating the turkey giblets.

Happy Christmas to all. I've been catching up on the thread and everyone's news.

@Cantonet love the pup pic. Gorgeous. I remember posting a pic of our pup on here when we got her. She was 4 yesterday.

I've not really been feeling Christmassy this year. I didn't decorate the tree until a couple of days ago. But it's been good today. It has been strange not having ds1 here though. He'd been in New Zealand almost a year then flew to Australia a few weeks ago. Ds2 came home a week ago, but is apparently driving back to Sussex tomorrow as he needs to use the library. He's got quite a few essays due in over the next few weeks. I think he will be back early Jan once his work is handed in. Seems a shame to be in an empty house. But that is where he wants to be.

I will try to keep up with the thread. I haven't been on much recently.

Bet she is Cantonet. Perfect 1st Christmas.
We've had a dog visitor today aswell, she's a total sweetie, and she liked the leg of lamb bone.

Merry Christmas! We had six for lunch. My trauma was discovering this morning the plain turkey crown I've ordered from M&S for last few years has this year been mucked around with basting and did not have the wheat free logo. Mum is coeliac. Resorted to hastily defrosting a chicken breast for her. The GF Yorkshire puds were okay though.

Dog envy. Photos of Christmases gone by with our dog have been popping up on my phone.

Merry Christmas everyone. We were at my eldest ds for lunch. Dh was too Ill to come and the other granny was really unwell upstairs. But the 13 of us who made it had a great time. Dh is well into the 2nd week of covid but has a constant cough, can’t sleep at night and he is really emotional and weird. He’s normally very even tempered. I’m getting a bit worried. Breakthroughs with our girl though. She’s suddenly become very affectionate and out going, loves company , joins in everything. She keeps saying that she feels like Pinocchio, like she’s come alive. She has been so shut down, we are having to find new ways to interact with her. She used to need lots of space and time alone, if we do that now she feels excluded. She keeps me on my toes!