Daughter to Uni - Question 2!

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I've just done the five minute walk to the nearest supermarket, bought some stuff, and walked back. I live in a very studenty area. It seems that the entrance requirements for Edinburgh University students does not include the ability to look where one is going.

[Arch]

I've just done the five minute walk to the nearest supermarket, bought some stuff, and walked back. I live in a very studenty area. It seems that the entrance requirements for Edinburgh University students does not include the ability to look where one is going.

I'm not even convinced having a brain is a requirement any more, anywhere!

Certainly, literacy seems to be optional. or at least that specific part of literacy pertaining to reading the leaflet on what can be put in recycling boxes....

A colleague suggested the other day that as households of all male students seem to the worst at remembering to put their boxes out, we should instigate a drinking competition. We'll make note of the number of beer cans each week, and declare winners at the end of year. We'll specify the beers they can drink, so as to ensure ali cans, and not steel, since we get more money for ali....

Any pieces of pizza left in a box would automatically nullify that week's total of cans....

[L CC]

Finally - Term is starting at the "University of South Coventry but Warwick sounded nicer". Just got the daughter out of bed, the bicycle and a big lock are in the car. Just need to load 4 tonnes of food and the rest of her possessions and head up the M40.

I doubt she'll ever meet No1Son- maths & art don't mix much, do they?

missing you already!

you loser

Bless.

[hellymedic]

Finally - Term is starting at the "University of South Coventry but Warwick sounded nicer". Just got the daughter out of bed, the bicycle and a big lock are in the car. Just need to load 4 tonnes of food and the rest of her possessions and head up the M40.

I doubt she'll ever meet No1Son- maths & art don't mix much, do they?

missing you already!

you loser

Bless.

I still wonder if my Mum had offspring #6 because she missed me after I went to university...

[Jules]

Finally - Term is starting at the "University of South Coventry but Warwick sounded nicer". Just got the daughter out of bed, the bicycle and a big lock are in the car. Just need to load 4 tonnes of food and the rest of her possessions and head up the M40.

I doubt she'll ever meet No1Son- maths & art don't mix much, do they?

She is in a house that appears to hold quite a few new maths undergrads. Is he nice? Shall we try to engineer a romance?

She's in Whitefields - about 30 seconds stagger from the bar and a similar distance from Costcutter - but a bit of a walk to where she's supposed to be working. Fortunately she has a bicycle!

[Jules]

Term start todays at Imperial. I can't quite see the logic of actually starting at the weekend, when they don't need to be in College before Monday, but I presume there is some reason why they do this (maybe they get an extra couple of days funding from HEFCE?)

...and today it seems as some friends of ours from Hampshire dropped their daughter off there this morning (she's staying in some Catholic seminary just off Kensington High St that IC seem to have found as an additional hall of residence since my wife completed her Ph.D there) and realising that they passed the end of our road on the way in invited themselves over for lunch so we could all celebrate the loss of our daughters.

[TimO]

... she's staying in some Catholic seminary just off Kensington High St that IC seem to have found as an additional hall of residence since my wife completed her Ph.D there ...

That sounds like Alban Hall, which is part of Heythrop College, originally a Jesuit college of Philosophy and Theology, but now part of the University of London (unlike Imperial).

That Hall is actually physically colocated with Heythrop College, and Imperial has some sort of arrangement to use a small number of their study bedrooms.  At £175 a week, it isn't that cheap (or at the top of the range, £250 a week, in some of the halls around Princes Gardens), but that does include some catering.

[mrcharly-YHT]

missing you already!

you loser

Bless.

The little buggers.

I found myself welling up when I received this "Dad, I miss your cooking."

(apparently bosnian food is fatty meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Salad and veg are cabbage)

[L CC]

Finally - Term is starting at the "University of South Coventry but Warwick sounded nicer". Just got the daughter out of bed, the bicycle and a big lock are in the car. Just need to load 4 tonnes of food and the rest of her possessions and head up the M40.

I doubt she'll ever meet No1Son- maths & art don't mix much, do they?

She is in a house that appears to hold quite a few new maths undergrads. Is he nice? Shall we try to engineer a romance?

She's in Whitefields - about 30 seconds stagger from the bar and a similar distance from Costcutter - but a bit of a walk to where she's supposed to be working. Fortunately she has a bicycle!

No he's not nice, he's a GIT.
He's at Bluebell, and also has a bike, but being from the sticks is still sans city-grade lock. So, for this week he's on a green pomp, and hopefully (we did nag & underline the importance, but, y'know) gets sufficient lock-age for that to remain so.

[Feline]

I know my son is alive only because of Facebook pictures currently. It seems fresher's week became fresher's month and he has hardly slept in his own bed 


I wonder when he will run out of money for parties .....

[Cudzoziemiec]

Bloody arts student!


I reckon he's really the biggest swot in the first year and he's just faking these pics to make you jealous. 

[Butterfly]

At least his bike hasn't been nicked yet

[L CC]

He's at Bluebell, and also has a bike, but being from the sticks is still sans city-grade lock. So, for this week he's on a green pomp, and hopefully (we did nag & underline the importance, but, y'know) gets sufficient lock-age for that to remain so.

He failed to get sufficient lock-age.
Prat.

If anyone from the midlands is offered a green pompino by a man inna pub, check out the provenance.
 

The halls had a visit from the boys in blue who labelled all the bikes with inadequate locks, in order to advise new and (in this case) lazy students to get better protection. No1Son admitted he didn't even get round to taking the 'this bike is at risk' label off it.  He got back from a weekend at his girlfriend's to find the pomp gone.
I know he must be clever, coz he got those twinkles an that, but really... You can tell them all you like but ...

[barakta]

Erk re his pomp being stolen.  Thieves are vile, I wish someone could stop them actually thieving in the first place

[clarion]

Oh good grief!

[jane]

My daughter lost her lovingly built up (by me) fixed on a pretty black and gold Lincoln Imp 1960's frame in her first year in Glasgow, even with a couple of decent locks.  Three years later, in her final year, she still has her tourer (gold Orbit Caraway, my handmedown). However, last week, as she went to unlock the New York Kryptonite she uses on it,  the key snapped off in the lock.  Poor lass can't win, it seems. 

[Kim]

On the plus side, she should be able to take her time sawing through it with a hacksaw without any bother from the police...   

[rogerzilla]

Mini bottle jack, cheap from Machine Mart.  Wear eye protection.

[jane]

Do you think a hacksaw would get through it?  She was thinking of borrowing a neighbour's angle grinder.  Is that overkill?

[Kim]

If there's an angle grinder available, that seems like a good option.

I imagine a hacksaw would work ...eventually.  I expect you'd get through a few blades and get thoroughly sick of it after the first 20 minutes, though.  They're okay against cable locks, if you've got a second pair of hands.

If there's a spare key and it's in a reasonably sheltered location, I'd be tempted to try retrieving the broken one with a bit of araldite-fu...

[TimO]

Actually, the New York Kryptonite locks are pretty damned solid (and heavy!).  It's probably going to take a fair amount of work beyond a hacksaw.  I suspect even an angle grinder will take a while.

If it's an old lock with a tubular tumbler lock, then it may be amenable to the old Bic pen trick, but the more modern Kryptonite locks seem to be a bit more proof against this (mainly by not using this type of lock mechanism!).  However (i) the key being broken off suggests this isn't an option, and (ii) the tubular keys don't really break like this, so it's probably a more modern type.

The New York Kryptonites may be too small to be attacked effectively with a mini bottle jack, they deliberately have a quite small "shackle" to minimise this risk (or you risk damaging the frame in the process).

[Kim]

Hang on, we're going about this the wrong way.

What YACF staple is good at breaking locks, and you'd be a fool to send your daughter to university without?

That's right:  Thermite!

[TimO]

Hang on, we're going about this the wrong way.

What YACF staple is good at breaking locks, and you'd be a fool to send your daughter to university without?

That's right:  Thermite!

Plenty of advice on Thermite in this thread, and a University ought to have some of the chemicals easily available.  The last time we need some solvents, we got them by wandering upstairs to the biophysics area, and asked a random person!

Of course, you could just end up welding the lock to the bike frame ... (or it's smouldering remains).

[jane]

She is an art student, at Glasgow School of Art.  Although, she has used a variety of power tools at various points in the production of her pieces, and some of the work produced might look as though Thermite was used in the process, I don't think there's much of that kind of product available at the art school.  But I may be wrong.
    Her boyfriend, however, has just graduated as an aeronautical engineer and started work at British Aerospace.  I have no idea what he might be able to procure to assist in the process.   And his father works at Faslane.  Between them and the neighbour with the angle grinder, I'm hoping they can sort the problem without my help.

[mcshroom]

And his father works at Faslane.

I think some of their stuff might be a bit too powerful