Author Topic: Daughter to Uni - Question 2! (Read 23953 times)

TimO · « **Reply #50 on:** 02 September, 2012, 11:44:07 pm »

Quote from: a lower gear on 02 September, 2012, 10:54:34 pm

... Suggest to her that she stores food in hall fridge in forms that cannot be immediately eaten ...

One of my flat mates, when I lived on campus (some of the "Halls" were actually comprised of 6 and 12 person houses and flats), took to putting blue food colouring in his milk, to dissuade people from borrowing it!

Butterfly · « **Reply #51 on:** 03 September, 2012, 09:59:27 am »

Toasted sandwich maker.

hellymedic · « **Reply #52 on:** 03 September, 2012, 10:34:51 am »

Suggest a couple of mouseproof longlife emergency meals she keeps in her room for use in case of flu and theft.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #53 on:** 03 September, 2012, 10:44:22 am »

Toasted sandwich maker - ah, yes, the perfect tool for emptying halls of residence . . . No matter how careful you are, sometime, you will burn stuff and set off smoke alarm.

I would add to the list:

Sewing kit - one of those little ones on card. Amazingly useful - cause when a button falls off, you can reattach it.

Leatherman or similar. Molishing, for the purposes of. Some swiss army knives are just as useful - if you are sending pliers with her, then a small SAK is good. The tweezers and scissors get used a lot when away from home.

TimO · « **Reply #54 on:** 03 September, 2012, 11:35:47 am »

Quote from: mrcharly on 03 September, 2012, 10:44:22 am

Sewing kit - one of those little ones on card. Amazingly useful - cause when a button falls off, you can reattach it.

The ones you occasionally get in hotel rooms are great for this purpose, although it seems to be rarer and rarer to find them. Some bugger must be nicking them all.

Kim · « **Reply #55 on:** 03 September, 2012, 12:16:27 pm »

Failing that, some needles, pins, threads on sewing machine bobbins and if you can find them, one of those foldy pairs of scissors will fit nicely in a GameBoy game cartridge box...

PaulR · « **Reply #56 on:** 03 September, 2012, 12:28:52 pm »

Hmm, two of our three offspring are springing off to uni this month. I reckon they'll muddle through OK and they'll quickly work things out - I say this in the light of my own survival when I went to France after leaving school and, despite being shy, impractical and scared, managed to survive six months out there.

I've bought laptops (under strict instructions from Mrs R not to fob them off with cheapo refurbs or second hand stuff) and son #1 now has a d lock, pump, tyre levers and lights to go on the bike which will, I am convinced, be nicked within a week of arriving in Manchester. Daughter seems to think her room will be too small for the full-sized xylophone we bought her.

Thing2 · « **Reply #57 on:** 04 September, 2012, 01:11:09 am »

Quote from: TimO on 02 September, 2012, 11:44:07 pm

Quote from: a lower gear on 02 September, 2012, 10:54:34 pm
... Suggest to her that she stores food in hall fridge in forms that cannot be immediately eaten ...

One of my flat mates, when I lived on campus (some of the "Halls" were actually comprised of 6 and 12 person houses and flats), took to putting blue food colouring in his milk, to dissuade people from borrowing it!

My friend in halls did this. He shared a kitchen with a bunch of medics, and it was the only method he found to stop them drinking his milk. It did make tea a strange colour though!

hellymedic · « **Reply #58 on:** 05 September, 2012, 03:07:12 pm »

http://youtu.be/Q0UOYY_tgL0

PaulR · « **Reply #59 on:** 17 September, 2012, 12:16:31 pm »

Son #1 is now a student. We took him up to Manchester at the weekend with a car full of stuff, drove back with it very empty. It feels quite odd but I'm pretty sure he'll have a great time and we'll get used to the relative quietness at home (we still have a daughter at home who plays percussion and piano and a younger son who plays organ, trumpet and piano and also sings, so there's still some background noise).

One of the highlights was putting his rather fancy lightweight steel road bike (a Dolan-built Cougar) in a secure-looking shed full of sheffield stands. As he locked it up with a heavy shackle lock and a cable, I was greatly reassured to see the range of other bikes there, very few of them properly secure. They included a beautiful metallic cherry to silver fade Ribble in 531c tubing with a pair of Shamals on it. Penniless student oafs, eh?

Kim · « **Reply #60 on:** 17 September, 2012, 12:23:12 pm »

The students reappeared over the weekend. There won't be any room to park until christmas, and the drunken zombie noises began in earnest at about 6pm last night.

I was mildly amused to note an Ocado van doing its thing for the house across the road. No doubt the penniless student oafs were stocking up on a term's worth of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

L CC · « **Reply #61 on:** 17 September, 2012, 12:39:43 pm »

Is Warwick backwards?
No1Son doesn't go for another fortnight...

Kim · « **Reply #62 on:** 17 September, 2012, 01:10:55 pm »

Term doesn't start until next week, but these are going to be mostly second and third year students wanting to get a head start on the drinking during freshers week.

Warwick uni does seem to exist in its own little bubble, though. They still haven't worked out that they're actually in Coventry, so it wouldn't surprise me if they were a bit out of sync in the fourth dimension, too.

dasmoth · « **Reply #63 on:** 17 September, 2012, 01:15:40 pm »

Quote from: Kim on 17 September, 2012, 01:10:55 pm

Warwick uni does seem to exist in its own little bubble, though. They still haven't worked out that they're actually in Coventry, so it wouldn't surprise me if they were a bit out of sync in the fourth dimension, too.

I don't think I've ever come across an incident of them actually claiming to have anything to do with Warwick. It seems to be more a matter of not wanting to be associated with Coventry. Do you really blame them?

(I think I may have heard on or two of them claiming it's really in Leamington Spa. A check of the map doesn't really support that hypothesis, either).

Kim · « **Reply #64 on:** 17 September, 2012, 01:38:04 pm »

No, I suppose that's understandable.

My main issue with Warwick is that when I attended an interview/open day thingy, the EE department tried to impress us by having been on Channel 5 news, with a funky bit of silicon that could detect the difference between lager and bitter using smell. Clever chemistry, and the beer angle's always popular with undergrads, but they hadn't got the memo that Channel 5 was not and never has been cool.

This is still much better than the institution not a million miles away from where I'm sitting, who tried to impress us by taking photos of us using a standard commercial digital camera. This was in the days when such things were rare, but not unheard of: Our school had one; it was crap. The strategy would have been understandable if they didn't have a research group that had just completed a working prototype of a self-driving car (it was the late 90s, so it took a boot full of computers to drive down a well-painted motorway without crashing into anything, but that was still pretty damn awesome).

Feline · « **Reply #65 on:** 17 September, 2012, 03:45:20 pm »

I delivered my son to Plymouth on Wednesday with all his stuff. I know he's still alive because every day he gets tagged in his new friend's photos on Facebook. So far he has been captured:

swimming in the sea (brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr)
at some kind of a white T-shirt party where their T-shirts gained more and more graphiti as the night went on (and then they were writing on each others stomachs with sharpies)
having a pillow fight on wheelie chairs in their kitchen area and corridor
lying face down on the pavement somewhere
Lying on the draining board in the kitchen
at some kind of party where they are all wearing identical blue T-shirts
teaching his new roomie called Charlotte to make pancakes

The last post on his wall asked him if he is still alive.
I am still waiting for a reply to thursday's text message asking him for his postal address!

Kim · « **Reply #66 on:** 17 September, 2012, 04:53:50 pm »

What, no school disco?

Wowbagger · « **Reply #67 on:** 17 September, 2012, 04:58:58 pm »

Quote from: Kim on 17 September, 2012, 01:10:55 pm

Term doesn't start until next week, but these are going to be mostly second and third year students wanting to get a head start on the drinking during freshers week.

Warwick uni does seem to exist in its own little bubble, though. They still haven't worked out that they're actually in Coventry, so it wouldn't surprise me if they were a bit out of sync in the fourth dimension, too.

Warwick Uni seems to have close links with Leamington Spa. My daughter, who studied there between 1999 and 2002, spent two years in interesting student houses in Leamington. Her first year was in Halls in Warwick.

CAMRAMan · « **Reply #68 on:** 17 September, 2012, 05:35:31 pm »

Warwick is closest to Kenilworth, but probably just about qualifies as being in Coventry! Though Google Maps don't seem to show political boundaries. We in Warwick escape the students cos the buses are crap, but Leamington bustles with them.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #69 on:** 17 September, 2012, 05:39:26 pm »

Quote from: fboab on 17 September, 2012, 12:39:43 pm

Is Warwick backwards?
No1Son doesn't go for another fortnight...

I don't know what you mean by backwards, fboab.

barakta · « **Reply #70 on:** 17 September, 2012, 09:45:28 pm »

Feline, looks like he's having a great time! Awesome.

Canardly · « **Reply #71 on:** 17 September, 2012, 09:59:37 pm »

Warwick is somewhat good. Inscription carved into science lecture room trestle.....'dont do maths' tickled me pink.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #72 on:** 17 September, 2012, 10:08:37 pm »

When my daughter went, Warwick was her second choice. Cambridge was first. She made what was probably a tactical error of applying to Pembroke College, which admits a tiny number of history students every year. She was very pleased with her place in Warwick, which apparently has the reputation as second only to Cambridge for history amongst British Unis. While she was there, the Uni boasted that on some international league table it was 5th in the world for History.

I believe Warwick also has a good reputation for maths. ISTR that one of her chess-playing acquaintances Nicholas Pert studied maths there. In fact, the link confirms it.

L CC · « **Reply #73 on:** 17 September, 2012, 10:14:08 pm »

Quote from: Wowbagger on 17 September, 2012, 10:08:37 pm

I believe Warwick also has a good reputation for maths.

Indeed. That's why he's headed there. He toyed with Cambridge/Kings/Imperial but decided a) Cambridge was too much like hard work and b) he didn't fancy London- too expensive.

Fab Foodie · « **Reply #74 on:** 17 September, 2012, 10:17:50 pm »

Quote from: Feline on 17 September, 2012, 03:45:20 pm

I delivered my son to Plymouth on Wednesday with all his stuff. I know he's still alive because every day he gets tagged in his new friend's photos on Facebook. So far he has been captured:
swimming in the sea (brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr)
at some kind of a white T-shirt party where their T-shirts gained more and more graphiti as the night went on (and then they were writing on each others stomachs with sharpies)
having a pillow fight on wheelie chairs in their kitchen area and corridor
lying face down on the pavement somewhere
Lying on the draining board in the kitchen
at some kind of party where they are all wearing identical blue T-shirts
teaching his new roomie called Charlotte to make pancakes

The last post on his wall asked him if he is still alive.
I am still waiting for a reply to thursday's text message asking him for his postal address!

Most Excellent!
Drop #1 daughter in Falmouth on Friday ... the countdown begins!