After a long gap I finally have time to write again about the fortunes of my lovely family.

Older daughter has completed 3 years out of her 4 year teaching degree and looks to be aiming at least for a 2 i and maybe even a First!  She will be home on Friday.  Good news for her (and maybe for us,  she is handy at doing shopping, cooking etc being used to fend for herself) but she does tend to try to organise us all because clearly we don’t do anything the proper way!!  Plus trying to organise the QTs is guaranteed to cause friction,  I gave up long since trying to organise them.

At least she does finally have a part time job in McDonalds which means she is at least vaguely self supporting.

Trying to get the QTs into work is rather more daunting.  Neither of them have a CV – both have personal statements but as QT2 is only in lower 6th form his is rather sparse.  But all of the retail jobs (working in the shops in town) state that they need experience. Neither of them have experience of any work at all.  This seems to be a chicken and egg situation,  how can they get experience if no-one will take them on??

At least QT1 has an unconditional offer to study a stage management degree at a Stage School just outside London.  But this has a massive downside,  she has to purchase almost £200 worth of equipment and items “required” to take the course (apparently) as well as having to set aside £250 for theatre tickets etc and purchase an Oyster card as well as setting aside money for other travel.

Because the place is not actually in London she doesn’t get a London weighting in her student loan which loan is, as in the case of older daughter, woefully inadequate.  This is because the student loan application takes into account only what you have coming in on paper (ie wage slip).  It takes no account whatsoever of your outgoings which in our case are in excess of our income.  Nor does it take account of the fact that we already have one child at University who we were, until recently, subbing relentlessly for travel to and from home,  for food and for items such as the University hockey kit.  All of which means that the system is unfairly skewed against students whose parents might look “well off” on paper but in fact might not be well off at all.

QT2 in the meantime looks set to definitely go to America for 4 years after his A levels under a Sports Company scheme.  I didn’t want him to do this and have had minimal involvement but he will have accommodation and a studying place sorted out for him,  he will be linked up to a rugby team and that is about it.  Plus even though it is called a “scholarship” it still costs many thousands of pounds per annum which will be paid by OH’s mother as we certainly don’t have that kind of money and he can’t get a student loan for that experience.

Frankly I feel that it is bad enough for your child to go to University for 4 years but at least if they are in the UK you can get to them/assist them in an emergency etc.  4 years abroad is a very different prospect.  But I guess it is what he really wants to do and as the opportunity is available to him he has to take it.

QT1 was 18 just over a week ago.  Because we are rubbish parents we didn’t manage to find out in time what she wanted (a £600 laptop) and therefore don’t have the money to pay for it at the present time (other more pressing things, house falling apart, showers leaking, extractor fan in kitchen not worked for about 2 years, etc etc).  Money will need to be set aside because she will need it before she goes away in September.

Anyway, thinking to be nice I decided to make a home made fairy castle cake.  Now I had done this once before for older daughter’s best friend’s 18th some years ago.  That was in the winter.  Of course on the Saturday before QT1’s birthday it was one of the hottest days of the year.  Result – all of the buttercream melted and the towers fell off,  several times.  So we had to buy a shop one after all.  Boo hiss.  But the sponge in the castle was, actually, delicious as was the homemade strawberry flavoured buttercream (even if melted) so it didn’t go to waste.

I  will put the recipe on a separate post.

We went for a family meal on the Saturday night with the two Grannys and that was disastrous as well because the whole ambience was rubbish,  the menu was so limited as to be ridiculous,  the service was very poor and the food cold and very “nouveau”,  we had to pay extra for vegetables (green beans) and potatoes both of which were undercooked.  This was at a “posh” hotel.  Afterwards my sister-in-law said to me that she knew of several complaints about the place.  Wish I’d spoken to her beforehand!

On QT1’s actual birthday it was also Father’s Day!  So we went for full English breakfast, in the blazing sun!  Out in the countryside at a local garden centre.  Really reasonably priced and we sat for a couple of hours enjoying the sun.  Later in the day she went out for dinner with her friends and so in the end not such a bad day.  She gained over £100 in cash and cheques as presents as well!  Lucky her.

Now that QT1 has finished her A’Levels and thus her formal schooling she therefore has nothing to do except lie around at home blogging, ripping stuff, writing fanfiction, binge watching endless series of American programmes, twitter, instagram, tumblr,  etc etc etc.  Nice life if one could get it.

QT2 in the meantime can’t get over the injustice of the fact that his college term goes on for a further 3 weeks.  In between college he lies in bed binge watching blogs, You Tube and Big Brother.  AARGH.  Because he has pretty much given up all sport except rugby there is nothing on at present but I guess his pre-season training will start in a week or two.  In the meantime I manage to drag him to the gym 2-3 times a week so at least he is doing some constructive exercise.

Its going to be a long summer!