Wednesday 2 October 2013

Unification part 2

Some years ago, the alert amongst you will recall that I wrote about the great joy of seeing elder child off to Uni.  Somehow, three years have flashed past and it is the turn of not-so-tiny daughter to fly the nest.

If I thought he was bad at getting himself organised, she was so, so much worse.  Her idea of preparation was to a) spend most of the summer either nipping from Festival to Festival or b) island-hopping in Greece or c) spend what little time she stayed at home, out clubbing till 5am.  Every night.

24 hours before leaving, she had still not packed and was asking questions like "Am I getting a student loan?"  Me: "you applied for one, didn't you?"  Her (disinterested voice) "Dunno.  Can't remember."

On the day, I sent the Shah out to top up the tyres on the car, seeing has how it was going to be carrying an extra 3cwt of crap several hundred miles. He came back to glumly announce that one of the tyres had a "dimple" in it. Several minutes of stressful shrieking followed, mainly from moi and mainly along the lines of "what the fuck does that mean?  Speak English FFS!"  What it turned out to mean was that we needed a new tyre pronto but there was no way to get one on a Sunday morning.  We had a v-e-r-y s-l-o-w drive to Uni.
Daughter posed nicely for a picture in the car before we left, putting on her best smile for blogging purposes, comme ca:-
With Marmite Toast in hand..
But chums, I have to tell you that this was the reality...
Mardy as...
We got there and hauled all her possessions up to the 5th floor of her Halls of Residence - thank God for lifts.  We all queued nicely and patiently while one family (who had brought mum, dad, undergrad daughter, three smaller siblings, two uncles and a Granny) took up all the space and got in everyone's way.

I shared a lift with one dad who said grimly "I reckon I need to do one more trip up there and that's it and we'll BE FREE and we can go and CELEBRATE!!"  a feeling echoed by 99% of the parents there, I'll bet.

Her brother was on holiday in Corfu with his girlfriend at the time and insisted on sending us thoroughly irritating pictures like this:-

Damn his eyes!

So I retaliated with the view from Daughter's new bedroom window in the pouring rain....


Yes - a lovely car park and, in the distance, ASDA, Halfords and Maccy D's. We went to CHAVDA to stock her up with food etc.  Somehow, we spent £183. God knows how this happened, given that everything there costs an average of 25p.  The Shah was very, very unhappy.

Still, she seems to have settled in well.  The house is much quieter and much, MUCH tidier but also much emptier without her.  Her room looked like the traditional tip when we left her and, of course, she has discovered that she's left half her life here "OMG I forgot my straighteners!  How soon can you come and visit me?!"

Nothing changes!

18 comments:

  1. Awwww......been there and I suspect you will miss her.....where is she?

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    1. I do miss her enormously Libby - you know how that feels! She's down in Bournemouth doing Journalism - I'm so jealous!!

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  2. We followed dozens of Uni cars on the A1 and all but three had large metal airers in the back holding back tonnes of stuffed to the gunwhales with shite. Airers?! Not very rock and roll is it.
    You and the Shah need to book a cruise now.

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    1. Funnily enough Rog, we didn't take an airer and have since had a panic-stricken phone call "I've got nothing to hang my wet clothes on" so I imagine we'll be setting off down the M3 sometime soon....

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  3. Wowee. Congratulations and commiserations! What a big day for you all. I'm actually more devastated for you than you seem to be! Looking forward to reading your adventures and I'm glad to see that nothing changes. Wonder where your son gets his sense of humour from?! ;)

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  4. Wowee. Congratulations and commiserations! What a big day for you all. I'm actually more devastated for you than you seem to be! Looking forward to reading your adventures and I'm glad to see that nothing changes. Wonder where your son gets his sense of humour from?! ;)

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  5. Thank you! To be honest, she was ready to go and we were more than ready to let her go! I took it as a sign that we had done our job properly. And yes, son is the one who is exactly like me - very similar senses of humour - how did you guess?!

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  6. How exciting, on so many levels! We should be doing this next year with the eldest, although as I've looked around the Uni's, studied the UCAS website, drafted my personal statement (erm I mean his!) and read countless prospectus course details I feel like I'm off to Uni!

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    1. I felt exactly the same way with no 1! it is a very exciting time and at least you will still have 2 more at home for a while!

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  7. Wow, it must feel really strange with her being away. Never mind, she'll be back at Christmas no doubt and you'll remember all the joys of having her around again.

    My son is supposed to be deciding where he goes next year, and he's taking it easy with the research too.

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    1. I think boys do take it easy with research. Our son didn't really want us to be involved much at all, whereas we had to live every moment with our daughter....hope yours makes the right choice!

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  8. Well done on launching them both. We've got a couple more years before we send our untidy second one off to uni.
    (Did you notice I held back on whether we were looking forward to her departure?)

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    1. haha HF! I'm sure you are looking forward to it (much as we were) because there comes a time when they NEED to go and equally, you need them to go! All will be well and she will eventually return a different, much more mature (and probably nicer if our experiences are anything to go by) person!

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  9. Oh I'm a turmoil of emotions reading this, knowing it's our turn next year. Like Jay, I feel I'm already there!
    Must remember an airer!
    So the Shah will now be doing his bathroom dances all around the house now...??

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    1. Yes, you have this joy to come, Trish....and as for the Shah, he seems to have forgotten about dances for the minute, so I am very much hoping he doesn't read your comment!!

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  10. Your daughter is a stunnah and obviously off to a good start with a marmitey toast in hand. A view of the carpark will ensure that all views from now on are upwards and onwards, aiming for the uncle's views! I can't really even imagine dropping my first off to uni (or even imagine one that would take him...). Not being mean, as the kids say...

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  11. It's a rite of passage for us all! She's coming home this weekend - not to see us - for a party!!

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  12. My eldest has gone off to Uni but she's at the same Uni as me so for the first couple of weeks I kept getting "Could you bring me....." texts She lives on campus, I get the joy of carrying her possessions up to her on the train. Some things never change.

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Oh go on - say something for God's sake...