Crepe Fear!

[GiddyGiddyGoat]

Ta Da.

Oh lord Stropps yanbu but actually it's good she wants to go. Driving is hard though. We went by train and I was amazed that the university station is right on campus. As you know it's Ds2s top of the list...we had a grand day out there. Hope you both are able to enjoy the day. Despite the stress. ....does Dd know what subjects she might be interested in?

Yes MrsS I abhor lateness too, especially the perennial sort. I have several good friends whom I love dearly but never arrange lifts with them or anything like that as I get too twitchy. I love the sound of French and theatre studies...but then I approve a of anything in that vein.

WAF bless you, what a day. And what a touching family time afterwards. Just what one needs...that they rally round when needed. So sorry about your friend. Her boys sound wonderful. Was a hospice never an option?

molly can you tell us more about liars League? I must have been distracted when this was discussed!!!

tilly DS went to open days after AS levels in the summer. He got a lot of them out of the way then, and a few more in September...they get time off from school if needed although many are on Saturdays. DS has pressed the button on his UCAS application this week. He's had the meeting with his reference writer and then ....we wait.

I am tired and backachey. We have a very full on weekend. Am struggling in to religious service gear...smart but modest. Then after plenty of homework screaming, no doubt we have to get Dd and 5 friends to a bowling party and then us on to Hampstead Theatre...finding a way to see DS off to the wilds of west london to a friend and then a series of pickups after the theatre. Joining CV on the chauffeuring bench!

WAF, it sounds like you have a totally lovely family. And Starter for Ten is a fab book/film!

MrsS, that sounds like a most excellent possibility. I do think they need to be both engaging and useful, given the current costs/grants/job situations, but then I am a very practical person!

MI, I am not sure DD or many of her pals (or indeed myself when I went) are thinking about uni for the joy of studying the subject - more the means-to-an-end and social-life

BD, hoping for a positive update after your GP visit.

Rudy, is it croaky or husky? Have you been shouting at your students too much?!

Loads of x posts. MI couldn't agree more.

rudy'if you want to have a chat about voice problems feel free to PM me xx

But seriously, why do if at all if you don't enjoy it? It's like some of my students at the various gigs I've taught - they don't seem to want to be there and frankly they're wasting their money because they're not putting the work into learning the skills I can teach them either.

One of my most (out of a wide range to choose from) bonkers university tutors told me once I'd never have so much time to read again, however poor and pressured I might feel at the time. Looking back, she was probably right. It wasn't all fun but there was a lot of enjoyment in it.

Absolutely DD1's degree has to be her own decision, and I would not push her into anything she didn't want to do. She just seems utterly clueless about what might be on offer and is not inclined to do any research at all. I have said (as has DH) that she should do what really interests her, whereupon she gets a panicky look and says "But I don't know what really interests me."

I only mentioned theatre studies to her last night, and she said "Is there such a thing? My careers counsellor says I should do either law or business studies, as I'm clearly not going to do medicine." I quite want to tell the careers counsellor to fuck off and leave DD alone, as she's clearly doing more harm than good, and ruling out a huge raft of potential studies by her narrow focus on what is going to pay well in the future.

DD1 is doing her French standard level this summer (a year early, and if she doesn't want to do higher, she can just leave it there), and I am hoping that if she gets her predicted grade in it, then that will be a massive boost to her confidence and make her realise that she is not going to fail everything, but she will have to put in a bit of effort and work.

Yes, BD - how was doctor?

Sorry for going off on one pretentiously.

Hope the stropps duo are nearly there! While utterly enraging, it's good that she's chosen to go, and her approach of 'so, I guess we're not going then' was about her only way of changing her mind without losing face.

Signed off for two weeks in the first instance...... Not sure how I feel about it as think I am leaving team in the lurch

MrsS, they sound like the old bat who was our careers person in the 80's (bearing in mind I went to a grammar school that was stuck in the 50's in the 80's!) I was a black sheep as I was deliberately choosing to go to a Poly (God forbid!) to do a vocational degree. Which was something I had been interested in since I could talk, and I still love now!

Yes, hope you've arrived OK Stropps.

BD, don't worry about the team - you need to put yourself first as I should have done many years ago when in a shitty work situation TAKE THE 2 WEEKS OFF!

BD - you will be much more use to your team if you go back rested and feeling better after two weeks. And your absence will give the wankers you work for senior management a chance to see how much you usually do, if you're not there. Sister will be along shortly to give you a pep talk.

MI - not at all. My views of theatre studies as a degree are coloured somewhat by a friend's offspring, who was an utter arse and did not work afterwards as he was an actor and not going to lower himself to do anything else. Have lost touch with her now, and wonder if he did actually get a job and move out - he'd be about 35 by now.

Yep, BD.

Code red in the Inferiority Complex as DP let the hamster escape last night.

My degree was Theatre Production and Design, same as Wilbur, I think.

I know, but you didn't see the state my admin was in this week. I will be reading her the riot act and telling her not to cancel any annual leave either....

Well then she needs to see her GP too. Don't try and cover up the fact that you are all buckling - if you are all stressed and unfit for work, then you should all be on sick leave. IMHO.

I blame bloody Puritan work ethic personally... :)

We arrived at 11.00 and I'm just preparing to put the matchsticks in my eyes to keep up a semblance of awareness during the talk on the biomedical science course. Happily, as soon as we arrived in the med school we got pounced on by a lovely student guide who gave dd a v good tour and lots of lovely info. Dd is constantly looking like alternating with and is muttering things like "Oh I'm depressed now because it's lovely and I will never get in". However, it is vvv useful whether she comes here or not. Just wish I weren't so knackered.
Caffeinating before the biomedical talk and a campus tour. Never been to Birmingham before in my life, but won't get to see anything of the city. Virtually all wannabe students have parents with them.
Wish we could take the train, but crap rail links in south Dorset make it impossible, sadly. I bloody hope dd doesn't want to visit Manchester, Warwick and Nottingham in half-term.

BD - I will be working this weekend to tie up the loose ends in my last job before moving on to my new one. Someone said, just leave it for someone else to finish, but that just seems wrong and unfair. And I've done all the grind work anyway, just need to get the report looking like a report and not a random collection of thoughts.

I am clearing out DD1's room. She alleges that she has nowhere to put her clothes. Strangely, I have managed to put them all away, with room to spare. It would, of course, be helpful if she threw out stuff that no longer fitted her, or stuff she has had since sixth grade, which is now, frankly, worn out. I have hung up all of her dresses and skirts in the wardrobe, having retrieved them from the floordrobe, and folded her tee shirts neatly. And I really don't think she needs 14 pairs of pyjamas (and she must have more at school), several of which are at least 6 years old and looking distinctly grey.

BD, as the doctor has signed you off for two weeks you are now Sister's responsibility. Her interpretation of being off work is extremely narrow. She is writing your name in her Ward Round book as we speak. Your Care Plans will not include any work-related emails or phone calls. Your colleagues may be allowed to send you flowers. Please stick to the rules if you don't want to find your bed moved into the sluice.

Yes, BD, you listen to Sister. And I told dd that she spoilt our chance of a mini MU. She was and said sorry. Which is something.

Standing at Sister's shoulder nodding at you slowly BD. You are unwell with stress. You. Your stress. Be OFFFFFFF. What Tillly said. Your team are your team and you are a dedicated captain but they are responsible for themselves too and they will lose no respect for you.

Girls, I have co-organised a school union and it is tonight and I'm all a-fizz and barking it up on fb. In light of yesterday, am all about human connection. (Suspect I might also be all about getting completely smashed ) We've just booked a bog standard function room in town. I have been nutso up today pogo-ing around doing silly voices and shagging DH who is at Wilkos getting me blu-tak to stick up any photos people bring.

Stropps, well done, well done, well done. I wish we could send a chauffeur to drive you home.

"floordrobe" - I'm going to adopt that Mrs S. I think theatre studies and french sound great. Also, I do know a few who have changed courses at uni, so it's not impossible if she decides it's not for her once she's there.

Stropps - glad you made it - hope that it will motivate DD by giving her something to aim for.

DD2 - is being a right royal pain and if I challenge her on anything she says we're old and set in our ways, we don't understand her and that she can't wait to be out of here in a year. She moans about how laid back friend's parents are - I pointed out that it was interesting that her friend wanted me to read her PS and it wasn't her own parents that seemed to be behind her on this.

WAF - your family sound fabulous and Herb's you've a way to go DS will be 18 and that includes the dreaded teenager years!!! Love the idea of a rhino saver though.

Doing silly voices and shagging Dh

Sounds like a my ideal weekend WAF

Stropps if Warwick is ever on the cards let me know!