Thread 56 – Covid GCSE Cohort – Spring 26 – Yr 4 Uni and Graduates

[crazycrofter]

The old thread has filled up and no one noticed - I think we're missing @oblomov26 sharp eyes!

I've tried to tag in everyone I can think of, but apologies to anyone I've missed!
@shimy @endlessdistraction @justherewithmypopcorn @mummyinbeds @aslockton @oubliettebravo @craggyrat @anothernewname460 @ealingwestmum @ewwsprouts @seeline @piggywaspushed @nctdn @icanbewhatiwant @comefromaway @heifer @kingscotestaff @delphigirl @zebracat @cantonet @socks1107 @blinkbonny @anneofcleavage

Hello @Decorhate- great to hear from you and fantastic news on the job front!

@Piggywaspushedbrilliant news - I knew something would land eventually! When does he start?

Poor @Delphigirland @craggyrat - get well soon !!

Don't know. He has a 4 week notice period at current place but he can't get them to respond to his messages currently and he is on a 7 day leave.

@Piggywaspushed great news!

And I agree about Paddington - the DCs bought me and DH tickets for Christmas (went in April). It was utterly joyful, and the songs were great. Definitely worth seeing if you can.

Sorry you are ill too @Delphigirl get well soon

Well done to DS1 @Piggywaspushed and your DS @Decorhate

DD and I have got tickets for Paddington in September before she starts back at uni. Really looking forward to it.

Paddington tickets are now so expensive but it’s one DD really wants to see so hopefully they’ll come down soon or come to a theatre closer to home so travel is easier and cheaper.

Fantastic news on the job for DS1 @Piggywaspushed

On holiday at the moment with DD and her boy’f and it’s bliss just chilling and enjoying the sunshine. Hotter in England bizarrely though. We see the YP at breakfast and dinner but it’s lovely seeing them do their own thing during the day and then choose to spend meals with us catching up on their fun day and asking about ours. They’re great company. They remind me of DH and me at their age. We always made friends with other folk in hotels mainly our parents’ age back then and they’re the same 😂

Great news @Piggywaspushed. I really hope he enjoys the job and it is a stepping stone to his chosen career. My DS loved buses and trains as a child. I always thought transport logistics/timetabling would have been right up his street!

I would love to see Paddington too, but I am not prepared to pay London prices. We have got Blood Brother tickets for £45 at our local theatre to look forward to.

Our tickets were in the cheap seats and were honestly fine. The only thing blocking my view was a young girl who kept leaning forwards to lean in the rail. Her head blocked the whole stage... I swapped with DS at the interval. But our tickets were about £50.

Has he sent them formal notice, via email/letter? I think they’ll have to abide by the date on that as the start of his notice period.

Holiday sounds lovely @AnneOfCleavage !

@Aslockton I saw Blood Brothers on tour a couple of months ago and it was brilliant. In fact it was the first thing I ever saw in the West End back in the 80s too, so special to me.

Paddington is DD’s birthday present, most of her Christmas and birthday gifts have been event tickets in the last few years, and we always used to go to Kids Week in the West End till she aged out of it. It’s fairly easy for us to get there (apart from the trains being so unreliable).

Fantastic news on the job front @Piggywaspushed & @Decorhate .
DD(18) has never had a paid job despite 2 recent interviews (Cineworld & KFC which she didn't get). It's so much harder at the moment. I remember DS literally walking into a job 4 summers ago (Spoons!) straight after his A levels after getting offers at Asda & a local pub as well.
We had lots of Skylander figures and apparently, they vary in value for each one from pence to pounds. I remember DS getting them for Xmas/birthday from family and we had a small boxful of them because I didn't want to just take them to the dump/charity shop (which I probably would have done after another few years sitting in the garage).

I have a pile of old tech I ought to get rid of (tablets, laptops etc, I do worry a bit about the inofrmation on laptops, the tablets are all still useable enough to factory reset. I hadn’t thought of CEX, only Ebay.

Who mentioned the Gogos? DS was completely obsessed with them, he would spend hours lining them all up on the wooden threshold of the living room doorway and taking photos of them with our old digital camera (autistic!). When he went to uni I blitzed his room and found them all over the place. I promised not to get rid of them but they are all at least in a smallish box now. He and DD also collected Moshlings for ages, I think most of them were pretty low value but we did have some limited edition ones, problem is figuring out which is which. Think we’ve still got those too. I did get rid of DS’s gazillions of football cards, again possibly some were valuable but trying to figure it out is impossible, there were literally hundreds and hundreds of those.

@EffortlesslyDistracted my DS was the GoGos. He loved lining them up. The shiny ones were nice! Then he had a tiny Nerf gun and try and shoot them all down. Happy times!

Lovely catching up on degree and job news. Well done all. DD gets her results next week. DS - who knows if his exams are being marked. He hopes not because he's convinced he failed at least one.
DS came home yesterday. He's left his stuff in Nottingham so we still need a trip up there to empty and clean his flat at some point.

DD is currently having a train journey from hell to get from Aberystywth to Manchester to see Take That (free VIP tickets courtesy of her friends Dad) She's had two unscheduled changes of train and missed a connection so far and is stuck on an overcrowded very hot train. I'm a bit jealous she's seeing TT so I'm not too sympathetic 😂 I have the long journey to Wales to bring her home for good next weekend. Back to a full house for the foreseeable.
Do any of you know whether they can claim benefits while job hunting? Bank of mum has closed down!

I've just had to Google Skylanders and GoGos - if it didn't involve a football DS wasn't interested.

Same! I thought people were talking about Belinda Carlisle's group...

Yes, they can claim benefits. DH looked into it. Trouble is, they nay be forced into taking awful, inaccessible jobs whilst claiming . Best just to find a minimum wage job.

My ds (and his dad!) loved Skylanders; we have heaps of them in the garage! And dd was massively into Moshi Monsters!

Moshi Monsters was about the only thing my two were ever jointly obsessed by.

I went to see Take That last week @mummyinbeds, they were great! Ds had D&V so missed it but the insurance paid out so I’m taking him again this week 😂

Did he have to get a Doctors note for that @crazycrofter I usually take out the insurance but it seems so full of loopholes. I missed a show about a month ago due to train cancellations but there wasn’t insurance available for that one

Take That are one thing that makes me realise that a lot of my friends are quite a bit younger than me! My FB always fills up when they go on tour but I was mid 20s when they first came along and they sort of by-passed me, along with the Spice Girls.

@Decorhate @Piggywaspushed Fab news about the jobs!

@mummyinbeds You too can watch tonight's Take That show live! https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/how-watch-take-amazon-circus-34133988 (Courtesy of my hairdresser this morning.)

I priced the pantomime at the Palladium for our book club as French & Saunders are playing the ugly sisters. Most of the cheaper bands are gone so we wouldn't have been able to sit together as a group and the rest are eye-watering prices.

DS had a few Skylanders and Moshi Monsters but they probably went to the charity shop. Still got lots of Wii console & games might have to see if they have any value.

Now googling Moshi Monsters..

The row behind where we sat for Paddington is available for some showings later this year at £65 which really isn't too bad.

@EffortlesslyDistractedi have literally never bought insurance before but something prompted me to do so this time! The blurb all said you needed a doctor’s note but we’d have had to pay for that so I just submitted it without and they paid out! I guess they could see his ticket hadn’t been scanned?