Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

SingleSue

LydiaJ wrote: »

What GDB said.
Also, will youngest need extra support to study and live for spectrum reasons? If so, which university looks best for this?

He may need it but whether he will actually take it is another matter....it's a bit of a bone of contention at the moment, he only very reluctantly allowed the fact he has other things besides asthma on his UCAS form.

He can live independently, Josh is the one who struggles with that but his way of dealing with it is to not actually go out anywhere apart from where he absolutely needs to be. He would go to lectures and go home but that would be about it and is what he does here, the upside of that is that it has given him oodles of time to concentrate on his study and do all his projects.

It is actually his asthma and his immune system problems which is my main worry, especially with freshers flu. We have no idea why but he has never been able to fight things off like everyone else and a simple cold which most can shrug off and still go to work with, can lead to him being hospitalised.

He has problems realising when he is on a downward spiral with his asthma, only noticing he needs help when it is almost too late to resolve things easily (and boy does he go downhill fast) but we are working with the asthma nurse to try to get this sorted.

As for which is best...not a blooming scoobie!

michaels

It was my work xmas do this evening.

We only found out when they called at 8.30 to let me know I had missed the starter and the first course was being served. Google calendar runs our life so me having put it in for next week* means that as far as we were concerned that is when it was. This evening at that point I was taking dd2 to emergency docs and dw was trying to get the other car jump started (someone had left an interior light on when we last used it 3 weeks ago) to pick up dd1 from her youth club xmas party so we didn't make it to the xmas do.

*In my defence they had offered two dates and I had voted for next week.

zagubov

LydiaJ wrote: »

Thanks Sue.

I did a bit more digging, and found a pdf buried deeper on the gov.uk site, clearly aimed at staff rather than the public, which confirms that young people aged 16 or 17 can change their own names, but if one of the parents doesn't like it, they can get a court order to prevent it. Once they're 18, of course, they can do what they like.

I get the impression that DS has been planning this for years, and is unlikely to change his mind. He feels he'd like to get it done before his GCSEs so his certificates will be in the name he's going to have for adult life.

This would be wise. Does he do triple Science or double? I only ask because some schools make you take Core Science at 15 and the other GCSEs at 16. It would be smart to get onto the school exams officer and the Exams Board to make sure all the quals are in the right name.

I've had to show my certificates many times for jobs but that's normal in my sector. I have to stress to my students to hold onto the paperwork like it was precious as jobs are now becoming more insistent on paper certificates.

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

How/where do people even hear of these jobs .... ?

I still don't know what I want to do.

Neither do I!
I'll just have to carry on having fun while I decide! :rotfl:

Seriously, though, despite having had two careers, very different from each other, I can't say that either were a true vocation, (although the second one was closer), partly because I never felt I was very good at either. Well, I was rubbish at the first one, which was why I changed. I was only average at the second, technically only adequate, but not too bad at the interpersonal side of things.

It would have been nice to have found something I was really good at, but I suppose you can't have everything!

vivatifosi wrote: »

I had no idea what a spad is too.

NPT, bearing the gift of random information since 2009.

I just lurve random information! That's why google and wiki are my heroes!
Them and my online etymological dictionary! :rotfl:

LydiaJ wrote: »

I'm like that too - apart from the visual appeal when written down - which isn't such a big deal to me. I am now curious to know how you chose "Pyxis" and what it means to you. So do tell, unless it would "out" your RL identity or otherwise compromise your privacy, in which case obviously not.

Well, I collect wooden boxes, especially small ones, and a pyxis is an Ancient Greek box used for containing medicines, salves and ointments, make-up etc.
I found a Victorian pyxis which is in my collection.
A modern pyxis would be a metal cabinet with lots of compartments used in hospitals for storing medicines.

I like the word because I like its meaning, it being relevant to me, I like its sound, and I like the fact it starts with a P, me being the pinnacle of peadom an' all, (that's another story!), and I like the fact that it has a Y. I like Ys. I like Xs too!
I like the way it is assonant and sibilant.

Bet you're sorry you asked now! :rotfl: :rotfl:

LydiaJ wrote: »

Your first driving licence was a little red booklet? You must be older than I have been imagining you!

(Oops! I've outed myself! :rotfl:)

I was an infant prodigy! :rotfl:


(I think I got away with that!):rotfl:

Plus I've always been very immature for my age!

LydiaJ wrote: »

Biggles.

Ah! Biggles!
I was mad on aeroplanes, so used to read Biggles!

PasturesNew

michaels wrote: »

...

Now you know, don't forget to cancel the babysitter or you'll be handing over another £20 next week when you get a knock at the door and she's standing there.

Pyxis

Sue, would he be entitled to have a free flu jab?

And the meningitis jab, of course.

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

Now you know, don't forget to cancel the babysitter or you'll be handing over another £20 next week when you get a knock at the door and she's standing there.

On the plus side - at least you were there to make the decisions for your child ... as a babysitter I've always said "I would only ever babysit for a child that is large/old enough to walk up to me and say 'I need an ambulance please' as I can't make those decisions"

The "worst thing" that ever happened to me when I was babysitting was a knock at the door - I was about 15. There was a man there at the door - turned out he was the brother of the woman whose house I was in .... and he'd escaped from prison and was on the run, could he come in. Yes, of course he can - he's her brother, he's an adult, he's big .... and I can't think of any way to say "Ooh eck, that's scarey, bugg4h off".

So I sat and chatted to an escaped prisoner for 2 hours until his sister came home.

'I need an ambulance please'
He/she might say that when they've got a splinter in their finger!

'he'd escaped from prison and was on the run,'
Did he actually tell you that? :eek:

SingleSue

Pyxis wrote: »

Sue, would he be entitled to have a free flu jab?

And the meningitis jab, of course.

Oh boy yes he is entitled to a free flu jab and I assume he will be called for the meningitis one very soon, if not, it will be something we will arrange before he goes.

Fresher flu isn't actually flu though, it is more like a super cold where all the different cold varieties from all over the country (and abroad) meet up in the first few weeks of uni and have a party.

I'm hoping that because he isn't actually the most sociable of young people that he might avoid some of it, I really can't see him going to Freshfest for example.

One thing for sure is that at his next asthma check, we will have to talk through all the options with his specialist nurse and decide what the way forward is. She has been his specialist nurse for years and knows him and his rather weird system well (like his autism, it is complex). The fact that he will probably have to change his medical support system is scaring both him and me but with spending a lot of his time away, he can't really stay with the one he has.

Of course that brings on the other issue, him actually being able to discuss and set all of it up on his own as he needs such complex help...it took years for his specialists to get an idea of his weird and wonderful body and the right mix of drugs for his current situation to keep it going and him out of hospital.

Using our usual black humour fall back, maybe I should be investigating the fastest routes to either York or Lincoln hospital at different times of the night and day.....

michaels

PasturesNew wrote: »

Don't quote, will delete.

PN touting for an xmas dinner invite again

vivatifosi

Pyxis, I don't know where you live, but it may be worth checking whether your local library has an online reference collection. It could be a useful add on to your other fact sites.

It depends on the county/unitary authority, but most have things like..

Encyclopedia Britannica
Oxford English Dictionary
Dictionary of National.Biography

You'd probably enjoy playing with Credo Reference too.

When you've finished with those, the CIA World Factbook is great too, but has its own website