Be Excellent To Each Other

I've been waiting on a visa to move to the US to be with my Fiancee and today I had the interview at the embassy and it was approved. So in a few weeks I'll be moving across the pond.

Are you in Sweden at the moment?

Yes

Just not enough shootings then?

The drinking age is 21 there so that’ll be a few years wait for you.

Then why haven't you been paying cod with me??

Don't need COD when you can do some real life FPS over in the USA

I haven't been playing cod with anyone. The constant having to download 300gb every time you want to play gets frustrating.

I've been here so long I'm actually pushing 40 now.

Don't be silly.

One of my favourite games of recent times, The Case of the Golden Idol, is getting a sequel!

I got married on Friday.

Congrats! Why wait till today to tell us? Second thoughts?

Congrats to you, sir!!

_{Nikachu is surely a child bride?}

'Grats!

I bet it was cold in Gretna Green

Assuming all weddings are like my wedding, the hangover is only just receding.

Congratulations, @nickachu!

My invite got lost, sorry

Congrats, young man!

Huzzah! That's a proper Yay!

Congratulations!!

How does your fiancé feel about you suddenly getting married?! She must be livid.

Congrats, nickachu!

Been busy with other stuff basically

The first swifts have arrived.

That's a significant delay... just like that lag switch, but in real life this time.

That has to be the oldest “Kleek”iest joke on Beex.

I was slowly getting closer to a decent reward on Maximiles, filling out surveys and clicking the odd link. But I still needed a few thousand points, so tried the old (if you remember the WoS days) 'trick' of a gambling offer. Required spending £20, so I put that on roulette (red/black, little on green). To make sure I'd fulfilled their requirements, and seeing the initial £20 as a write-off, I'd idly played half of it on various slot machines. I got bored and left just over £10 in there.

Then waited.

It paid out on Maximiles after two months, as they'd said.

The minimum amount to payout is £20, so I put £10 on black. It won, they've paid me back £20.88. Stake covered, reward ordered.

Maximiles is still a thing?! Wow!

Ace. I did the WOS maximilses trick and got myself a new Xbox 360, a load of gift vouchers for Christmas and a lovely gift from Debenhams for the wife.

It was great. I made hay while the sun shone and made a killing.

The swifts arrived two days ago. They're a bit early this year.

We got swifts 2 or 3 weeks ago!

My Daughter got her GCSE results today.

She has had a really rough time at secondary school (we live in a town of about 12,000 people and its the only secondary school in the town, so it would've been very hard for her to swap to a different one).

It was the school her brothers went to, and back then it was one of the best schools in the Country, and was at least in part, one of the reasons we moved here in the first place, however, the previous head teacher left, they've joined an academy, and since then it's just been awful.

Just overbearing and needlessly strict rules (much more so than the school I went to in the late 80s /early 90s) Kids sent to reflection for the smallest infraction, No real accommodation for "naughty" children, just, you're naughty so you're getting punished.

She moved up from primary school just as covid lockdowns hit, and I think she was very much affected by that, her first 2 years of secondary school were not normal at all.

She was suspended so many times, she pleaded with us so many times not to go on (and she point blank refused to some days) I think her attendance for her final year was something like 70%

She hated the place. They didn't like her much either.

Any way, she's got pretty much 4s across the board (which would be just scraping a C for those familiar with the old way of marking GCSEs).

The important thing is that this is enough for her to attend her preferred college course of a Diploma in Graphic Design.

I am hoping the new environment will allow her to thrive. Even if it means she has to get up earlier to catch a bus or two

Congratulations to your daughter, Malc. All young people that have managed to get through the study and process of exams at such a young age, and especially with the Covid-lockdown start to secondary school, deserve recognition. It sounds like she didn’t have an easy time, but pressed through, supported by your family.

Hopefully the next setting will nurture her interests and skills and she’ll continue to grow and thrive x

Excellent news for your daughter Malc!

Fingers crossed she finds the course and the new college a far better place to learn and grow.

She did better than I did!

Great stuff, hope she enjoys her graphics course.

Good for her, Malc.

Our granddaughter, who's been living with us for about 5 years, also had some troubling times at secondary school. A couple of bullies took a disliking to her and she'd been attacked a couple of times and threatened many more times. But despite all that she's only had about 10 days absent in 5 years, and then only because of genuine sickness. All of this and also a troubled relationship with her mum and her mum's abusive partner, so it's all credit to her that she's managed to come out of it relatively unscathed.

She scored a 6 in French, which she took last year, an M2 Merit in BTEC Health and Social Care, and four grade 4's, Maths and both Englishes, and (surprisingly to us) Chemistry, which we think is a great result. She really struggled with maths, and the family clubbed together to pay for a tutor which rally paid off.

Thanks everyone

Congrats to your grand daughter

Well done to Ms Warhead too!

Had my crown fitted. All teeth are back to tooth-shaped.

And she's a princess now

Malc - congrats to kid. School isn't for everyone, hopefully she'll thrive-'em-up at college.

Warhead - congrats to grandkid. Sounds like you've got a survivor there. Hopefully she gets the best revenge of living well and the bullies eat shit life-wise and end up being the types of people that throw themselves down bus steps for compo.

Mimz - congrats for gnashers!

Good times all-round!

A crown of teeth

I bet you can buy that in paperback.

Yes, a the start of a new series by George R R R R R Martin.

Further to the granddaughter story, she applied to 4 colleges to continue her studies in Health and Social Care. She had conditional offers from 3 and one knock-back from her preferred choice that was already over subscribed.

Again, to her credit, she handled all the applications on her own, needing no help from Mrs. W or myself, after getting advice on the process in school. Of the three conditional offers, she ruled one out for a variety of well thought out reasons, but had on-line pre-enrolment sessions with the other two. She also did dummy runs on public transport to see how easy they were to get to, and to see the environments, which resulted in a final ranking for first and second choices.

Mrs. W went with her for enrolment at her first choice today, and all went smoothly, so she's all signed up. On the way back Mrs. W said she'd better contact her second choice to tell them she wouldn't need their place, only to be told that she'd already e-mailed them before they set off on the journey home.

I never cease to be impressed by her organisational skills.

Excellent brain work to all involved.

Went to Aberystwyth on my bike for lunch, and the sun came out as I arrived.

You went to Aberystwyth on your bike from lunch… whilst already in Wales, you mean? Or did you go there from here?