Thread 53 - Covid GCSE Cohort - Happy New Year 2025 to our fab young people

[Delphigirl]

New thread! Looking forward to traversing 2025 with this fantastic group 🎉😘

Agree Expensive, all a bit weak and a shame.

Sympathy with @Shimy DS. I did ICAEW exams back in ye olde days. Not fun and in the end never passed the one that was hard maths so am part-qualified. Did 10 years in audit and accountancy and then happily moved on.

There is good news. DS has landed a graduate job! Very lucky.

Oh wow, @EwwSprouts the first in the group! Well done to him, what will he be doing? Will he be coming home or is it based elsewhere?

@EwwSprouts That is such exciting news! The first job after graduation is the hardest to get & he's got it same yr he'll graduate, that will allow him now to just focus on his finals. Huge congratulations.

Thanks for the commiserations, resit all booked for the 18th.

Thank you both. He'll be coming back home to save up and he really wants to stick with his sports clubs, though he was applying for jobs further afield too. Will be a 50 min commute. He's going into the food industry so will use his degree, to a degree.

@shimy Fingers crossed for the 18th!

Thats brilliant news @EwwSprouts !

Oh @EwwSprouts, very well done to your boy! Really good news.

Congratulations @EwwSprouts , your ds is our first thread graduate job success. Well done him!

Congratulations @EwwSprouts !

Thanks all. It seems funny if he is the first as the job was advertised back in October so it seems the process is slow for all. He hadn't got to assessment level with any of the other applications so as I said bit lucky. Fingers crossed for another successful DC soon!

Brilliant news @EwwSprouts

Great news. Well done to him

Well done, @EwwSprouts!

Thanks everyone.

Did anyone else go and see the cinema streaming of Macbeth with David Tennant? Very intense.

I assumed it must have intense @EwwSprouts given how many times the theatre production had had to be paused.

On another production, I had to abandon viewing The Years last Friday night. There was a curtain interruption due to a couple in audience fainting. When the lights came on, I looked at DD who was also green, rushed her out just before she was about to pass out. She felt very foolish as she knew it was fake blood and yet reacted. Nothing to be embarrassed or know in advance, I guess we all respond differently!

We left quietly 😱

@ealingwestmum I didn't know about the pauses! Your poor DD & the others. It does seem, as ever, boundaries are being pushed. A friend invited me to see the cinema streaming of A Little Life. This was the description on the website "A Little Life follows four college friends in New York City: aspiring actor Willem, successful architect Malcolm, struggling artist JB, and prodigious lawyer Jude." Great. Not great, the whole thing is multiple flash backs to CSA and subsequent self-harm. A significant number of the audience left at the interval. My friend who works in theatre was appalled at the lack of advisories as she felt in brought theatre generally into disrepute.

We saw it @EwwSprouts , and totally agree with the feedback you have. Both DD and I had read the book so we had a heads up as to what was to come, but it was even more of a tough watch over nearly 4 (!) hours. Left Norton quite traumatised, allegedly leading to his engagement break up :(

There’s such a fine balance, I want to support theatre, given my geography but it is challenging at times. I steer clear of anything immersive!

A friend suggested seeing A Little Life a year or so back and I decided against having read up about it. While I'm not one for trigger warnings because of e.g historical sexist attitudes or whatever there is a place for it with violent or horrific content - with films you get that alongside the classification, but live theatre not so much. I do like the current trend for streaming theatre to cinemas, makes it easier and cheaper for those of us out in the sticks, but I do make a few proper theatre trips each year and sometimes the productions by small local theatre groups are excellent.

I shall take a lesson from you both and do more research next time. None of the four of us had read the book and we stayed for the second half thinking it would get better. Sad if the play did lead to a break off of Norton's engagement but you can see how it could lead to a dark place.

The next play I am going to see in person is new so no reviews... Mary and the Hyenas. Wish me luck lol

Year-13 DS has decided that he likes high-stress applications and so has thrown his hat into the ring for a Choral Scholarship to accompany his Cambridge offer. Fingers crossed for him!

DD is not yet looking for jobs. As I think I've mentioned, the timing is odd; there are trade fairs and degree shows where agents/publishers talent-spot upcoming artistic talent and she can't really make plans before those. She's now working flat out on her Final Illustration Project. She's written a one-act comic operetta and is making posable puppets and scenery for photographic illustrations (a style which is fairly distinctive and AI-immune at the moment). If MN ever allows photos again after the recent problems, I'll upload a couple of pics.

Wow that sounds exciting for both of them!

How many of all of you in here will have your dc from this thread still at uni next year?
DD will be in her fourth year and hopefully ds will just have started.

@NCTDN DS will be in his final year next year, as will his little sister. Could be a stressful year.

DS is coming home tomorrow for a week. The French uni have a week off and he desperately needs a reset. He had to present in a seminar this week. He hates doing presentations at the best of times, never mind in French to a French audience. It's knocked his mental health off balance but he'll be fine after some home comforts. He's also going up to Nottingham to see his old housemates and group of friends. It could be the last time he sees them all together which is a bit strange.

@NCTDN - DD graduates this summer. DS will be in his 2nd year next year.