Happy thread

[Wulfruna]

Lots and lots of congratulations to the Giraffes - what a relief for you all!
Durham is such a lovely city - and a top university, so special good wishes to Kingsley.

And great for Ferrnando to have such good results under his belt - presumably he is now also having to make crucial decisions about the future?

[giraffe]

My niece is also off to University this year. She took her A levels two years ago and didn't get the grades she needed for pharmacy despite working really hard, and started resitting some of them. In February of her resit year she was offered a full time job at the pharmacy where she was a Saturday girl, and decided to take it and train as a dispenser, so abandoned the A levels. She qualified as a dispenser, with almost full marks in all her exams, but has now decided that she would like to go to University and has an offer from Hull for Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Science. So there is life after bad results too.

I'm still waiting for Fernando to make some decisions.

[Bunnylump]

I think my niece is going to do a course in vet nursing instead now. The shame of it is that she COULD have started it two years ago on her original GCSE results, but has spent 2 years "flogging a dead horse" (if you'll pardon the inappropriate terminology for a potential vet nurse!!) trying to achieve AS levels. But I'm sure she will get there in the end. It's just so horrible when they see others doing fantastically, and they haven't!!

I remember with horror that week between Dibble bombing out on his A levels (mind you, that was ENTIRELY his fault, he hadn't done any work) and getting Exeter through clearing. But he ended up sorting himself out in fairly spectacular style!!

So, are you off to buy pots and pans and potato peelers, Giraffe?? My top tip is DON'T buy anything decent. Even if they are really careful with their own stuff (like K) others end up using and losing their stuff when theirs is dirty!! Oh, and don't buy too much kitchen equipment, because they usually only have a tiny space to store it.

[giraffe]

She is catered 3 meals a day in college for the first year, so I assume she will need very little apart from mugs and teaspoons, and may be sharing a room, so I don't know what storage she will have. I'm waiting to hear what they send in the way of details. I remember we were sent a full list of everything we needed, and I just bought that, with the exception of an ashtray. (which they told you to bring even if you didn't smoke, as I had no intention of letting anyone smoke in my room!)

[Bunnylump]

When Dibble originally looked at a different course at Exeter, there was the choice of being fully catered. His response was "well, if you think I'm eating THAT you can think again. I'm COOKING. I don't think that enthusiasm lasted that long... Stupid thing is, he CAN cook (I wouldn't let a son of mine be that namby pamby) he's just so LAZY that he doesn't. Having said that, last weekend when he turned up with his pals, I was well impressed with the filo pastry Mediterranean vegetable and bacon tart I was presented with after they'd finished making a hideous mess in my kitchen...

[giraffe]

K doesn't cook. F does, but she doesn't. She picked her college based on location and I think they were all fully catered in that area.

[MBH]

So there is life after bad results too.

I always said I never had an 'A' level brain. Only took TWO to ensure there was no way of going to Uni, and jumping from CSE to 'A' level Physics was not my brightest of ideas --- I just thought that I liked the subject even though a lot went straight over my head. [I did manage to get my 'O' level out of the 'A' level exam]

I'm still waiting for Fernando to make some decisions.

Give the guy a chance. I stayed on at 16 as I had no idea what I was going to do with my life. Total luck that this was the year that the first ever computer class was offered at school (to the 14 year olds). I got myself onto that and filled in the timetable by joining the typing class. I think I've used the skills from my CSE Computer Studies and Typing far more than my scraped results at A/O (AS?) and A level Pure & Applied Maths.

This lead to a 10-month BEC/TEC at Gateshead Technical College [Ooops - it's a University now I hear ], and I had to fight my way onto that course through a day of apptitude tests - my exams counted for nothing. Over 240 applicants for 20 places.

I only started learning my true skills in life at the end of that course where the company I had a placement with kept me on. I've still not got an 'A' level or University brain, and my attitude towards the PTLLS course reminded me that I'm not an academic of any note, but I've figured out how to use the brain I've got

[giraffe]

F needs to fill a UCAS form out in the next couple of months. I have tried suggesting that he has a gap year, (Which I did as I was totally clueless, and still am!) but he won't hear of it. I want him to make decisions for the right reasons after researching what is involved, rather than in a rush without time to look anything up because school want to write him a reference by a certain date. He did do some research (without being nagged ) yesterday after he got his results, so hopefully he is starting to see that there is some urgency to it. In two weeks he will be back at school and hopefully concentrating on his studies, and will have less time for research and visiting possible Universities.

[Bunnylump]

You mean that Dibble's approach for picking universities on the basis of whether they had a good basketball team and how far they were from the sea wasn't sensible??

[LAT]

I don't believe you need to visit all the universities you apply to - but you do need to visit before accepting an offer, of course. I don't think either of mine went to see all the unis on their list but we did try to make sure they had visited at least one campus based one and one town/city based one so they could get a feel for what it might be like.

And as for stuff, certainly being catered for in the first year is a boon and K is unlikely to need much more than some mugs and spoons, plus possibly a couple of plates for the odd occasion when she might miss the main meal and get a take-away or a microwave meal. They may even not be allowed things like kettles and toasters in their rooms. probably depending on how old the building is!

My K has always enjoyed cooking and is quite inventive whereas L was much more likely to take the easy way out. There was the memorable occasion when I was at an office conference and got a text from him "is there an easy way to chop a pepper?" . When questioned later he said "but weren't you proud I was cooking?"
But nowadays he cooks quite regularly and has tackled several of the favourite family recipes which I typed out and put in a folder for him.

[MBH]

Kingsley will be studying Music at Durham

Without putting any pressure or obligation on the poor lass if there's anything I can do up here for her (or YOU) then let me know. I'm thinking in the longer term for contact or help in the future.

Also - give Lally a hug from us all She might be feeling a bet left out (and we want to see her dancing on our screens again)

[giraffe]

Thank you MBH, you might regret that, as the only person I know within 30 miles of her, when she can't work out how to open a tin of soup!
The college assigns them "Parents" in the year above. A boy and a girl in the year above they can turn to and who will invite them for a cup of tea on arrival. This means they also get grandparents, the parents of their parents, who are in their third year and in the fullness of time they also get children, next year's freshers. This seems to me to be a good way to get them all settled in and mixing between the years. So hopefully she will have a network of people to get her out of trouble when needed.

[LAT]

My daughter recently had a drink with her great-great-grandson! He lives not too far away and they have kept in touch since she left. I think she said he has just graduated.

[gill216]

My daughter recently had a drink with her great-great-grandson!

This was the first piece of the thread I read. My eyes were like saucers and I was about to ask for the secret of eternal youth.

Well done Giraffelets.

[clvrlad]

Thank you MBH, you might regret that, as the only person I know within 30 miles of her, when she can't work out how to open a tin of soup!

i wouldn't bet on that if i was you... :-p

[MBH]

Thank you MBH, you might regret that, as the only person I know within 30 miles of her, when she can't work out how to open a tin of soup!

I shall of course remind her that she has an excedingly BIG brain, and her hobbies include puzzle solving

[SparkOut]

Pumpkin landed at Heathrow safe and sound last night, was a happily emotional reunion. She's had a great time and done some amazing things. The Great Wall was her most favourite, out of a multitude of highlights.

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I know you can get images of the Great Wall from the internet, the thing is, she took her pictures while she was there.

[Bunnylump]

That's brilliant. And what a good photo!! I'd love to go to see it myself one day. Glad she had such a good time, and glad you got her home safe and happy, too.

[LAT]

Glad she got back safe and sound Sparkout. I bet you were all relieved.

The Great Wall was definitely one of my highlights when I visited last year. One of those "Gosh, I'm really here!" moments when you first see it.

Did she have any particularly interesting meals?

[SparkOut]

She said the boys ate ox penis, but she and the other girls steered clear!
Mostly they stuck to plain and bland. She's now a chopstick ninja, which is good for someone who couldn't even put the two in the same hand before. They also did get some pizza, chips and things in a few places.