August 2026 - Neil Turner's Blog

Clearing through the ages

August 13, 2026 by Neil Turner

A screenshot of the UCAS web page about Clearing and how it works

This is one of those rare occasions where I talk about my day job. Today is Results Day in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (Scotland had theirs on Tuesday last week) when the results of this summer’s A-level examinations are released. This also means that many 18 year olds will find out if they have achieved the grades they need for the university place, and if not, whether they’ll need to go into Clearing.

I’ve been involved in Clearing in some way every year since 2004. It’s always our busiest day of the year at work, hence this was written a few weeks ago as I’ll not have had the time to write this today. Things have changed a lot over the past 22 years, and so I thought it would be interesting to look back on how different Clearing is now compared to 2004.

I’m not going to go into detail about what Clearing is – there’s a guide from UCAS that is updated each year and less likely to go out of date. This is more about what has changed, and my perspective on it – especially from the point of view of someone who works in higher education.

As usual when I write about work, everything here represents my own opinions and experiences, and this does not necessarily represent the official view of my employer. My experiences are also not necessarily reflective across all UK universities, and represent my time at one particular university.

My experience of Clearing as an applicant

So, confession time: I never went through Clearing as an applicant myself. I applied through the main UCAS scheme at the end of 2021 to six universities (you can only choose five nowadays) and got offers from five of them. My first choice was UMIST, which is now part of the University of Manchester, and my insurance (second) choice was the University of Bradford. I didn’t get the grades for UMIST, but was accepted by Bradford, and so went there and graduated three years later. Now, I work there.

Because I was accepted by my insurance choice, and was happy with it, I didn’t have to go through Clearing. Had my results been worse, or I’d had a change of heart and wanted to go elsewhere, then I would have needed to apply through Clearing for whatever courses were available.

Clearing course listings

Nowadays, the UCAS web site has a centralised list of courses with vacancies in Clearing. When courses fill up, universities can simply close the course on the UCAS portal, and it no longer shows in the results.

Back in the early 2000s, things weren’t so straightforward. Instead, starting from Results Day, newspapers would print listings of courses each day which had vacancies, along with the phone number for each university. UCAS provided data for official listings in The Independent, and one of the tabloids (I’m going to say the Daily Mirror but I might be wrong). However, for some years The Guardian also printed their own listings, presumably combing university web sites for course availability.

Applying for a place

If you wanted a place in Clearing in the 2000s, then you needed to phone the university in question. There was pretty much no other way, although I remember some people (usually with their parents) travelling to the university to ask about places in person.

The first Clearing I helped out with was as a student call handler in 2004 – my first experience of working in what was essentially a call centre. We would enter callers’ details onto our IT system – we use a newer version of the same software nowadays but it’s changed a lot over the years. This would include basic details like name, date of birth, contact details, including a full address, their grades and chosen course. This could then be passed to someone more senior to make a decision or conduct an interview over the phone.

I understand that even some of the bigger universities were not yet using computerised systems for taking Clearing calls at that time, and instead relying on handwritten forms that were passed around.

Two decades on, and most universities will now allow you to apply online. Some may take enquiries via live chat, on social media, or even using your smart speaker in the case of Leeds Beckett University. However, phone calls seem to still be the main way people enquire about places.

Clearing offers

If you have the grades a university is looking for, then they may be able to verbally offer you a place over the phone. Such offers are usually heavily caveated; some callers lie and tell universities that their grades are better than they really are, but sometimes data can be inputted incorrectly. The letters ‘D’ and ‘B’ can sound very similar on a phone call, but are very different grades. We’re encouraged to use the phonetic alphabet, just to be sure.

Early on, we would have to print out offer letters which would be hastily stuffed into envelopes and posted first class, to arrive the following day. Nowadays, offers are made by email, often with the email being triggered automatically during the phone call. These then give instructions for how to accept the offer, and how to provide proof of the stated qualifications if needed.

Number caps

In years gone by, Clearing mostly had an end date for most universities, usually by early September. That’s because there were fewer universities in the UK, and there were caps on the numbers of students that could be recruited by those universities. Any university that went significantly over the cap would get fined, and would essentially be teaching those extra students for free, or at a loss.

Student number caps are mostly a thing of the past. Popular courses will still fill up and close, though, for one or more reasons:

If the course includes work placements (such as Nursing, Medicine or another course that trains you to become a healthcare professional) then there will be a limit on how many placements are available each year.
Courses with significant practical elements may also have limits due to lab space or equipment availability.
Numbers may also be imposed to ensure that the students on the course have a good experience – especially for popular courses that could otherwise go way over their targets.

But nowadays, some courses may remain open well into September, perhaps still recruiting students after the course has officially started. Late enrollers will, of course, need to catch up, but we sometimes get students who have started a course elsewhere, not liked it, and wanted to enrol onto something else rather than waste a year.

What else has changed

A big change that has happened over the years is that (many) universities now accept a wide variety of vocational qualifications, besides the traditional A-levels. The common ones are BTECs, Cambridge Technicals, T-Levels and NCFE CACHE qualifications, but there are hundreds on the UCAS tariff which can, at least theoretically, be used towards university admission. There are also International Baccalaureate qualifications, and Access to HE Diplomas taken mainly by adults wanting to return to education after a break or career change.

Incidentally, the UK is unusual, compared to many other countries, as the vast majority of our university courses don’t have an entrance exam. Those courses that do tend to be dentistry, medicine and veterinary science, and the entrance exams tend to focus more on aptitude rather than knowledge. Instead, we use qualifications as a de-facto entrance exam, with higher grades generally allowing access to the more demanding and prestigious courses.

Another change that I’ve noticed is the core Clearing period becoming compressed over time. Results Day has felt like a bigger and busier day each year, and then enquiries have trailed off more quickly. In the 2000s, we could expect to still be busy during the week after Results Day, as some applicants sometimes didn’t hear back from their firm and insurance choices until after the weekend (Results Day is always a Thursday). Now, even the Friday after Results Day is significantly quieter than in previous years.

If you’re receiving your A-level result today, then I hope you have done well, and got a place at the university that you want to go to. If not, and we have places on the course you want, why not give my lovely colleagues a call?

Our 2026 holiday: Penrhyn Castle

August 11, 2026 by Neil Turner

A photo of the outside of Penrhyn Castle

As National Trust members, it’s inevitable that we would end up at a National Trust property in Wales. We didn’t manage to squeeze in Pehrhyn Castle on last year’s holiday, but we made an afternoon visit this year.

If you approach Bangor going west on the A55 North Wales Expressway, you get a decent view of Penrhyn Castle on your right. Unlike the other castles in North Wales that make up the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Penrhyn Castle isn’t a fortified castle and mostly dates from the early 19th Century.

History of Penrhyn Castle

There has been a country house on the site of Penrhyn Castle at least since the 15th Century, built by Gwilym ap Griffith who assisted Owain Glyndŵr in the Glyndŵr rebellion. By the 18th Century, the estate had come into the ownership of the Pennant family, and Richard Pennant commissioned an architect to remodel the house as a Gothic villa.

In the early 19th Century, Richard’s heir George Hay Dawkins-Pennant went further and commissioned the castle we see today. On the outside, it resembles the aforementioned fortified castles, but inside it is a very opulent country house with intricately carved stonework, plasterwork and wood carvings. At the time, this cost £123,000, which is equivalent to over £100 million today, and it shows.

The Pennant family earned their vast fortunes primarily via two means: slate, and slavery. The slate came from the nearby Penrhyn Quarry, now also a Zip World attraction like the Llechwedd Slate Caverns. It, and almost all the surrounding land viewable from the castle, were owned by the Pennant family, many of whom spent time as representatives in the Houses of Parliament as either MPs or Lords.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic Ocean, the Pennant family owned multiple slave plantations in Jamaica. Slavery was abolished in 1834, against the Pennants’ wishes who were outspoken against abolition. Compensation was paid to the slave owners (not the now-freed slaves themselves); the Pennants owned 764 slaves, and received £14,683 compensation (around £18 million today). In 1951, ownership of Penrhyn Castle passed to the National Trust, so it has been in their care for 75 years.

It’s the National Trust’s largest property in Wales, and has been heated by biomass since 2016.

A photo taken inside the Great Hall at Penrhyn Castle

Inside Penrhyn Castle

A visit to the castle itself starts off in the Great Hall, which is huge and resembles a church, thanks to its stained glass windows, vaulted ceilings and stone carving. It’s very much a show of wealth and power, and indicative of the sorts of guests that the Pennant family sought to entertain. Queen Victoria stayed there in 1832, before the castle was completely finished, and in later years, William Gladstone visited.

You also get to see the library, with its carved wooden ceilings as an entertaining space primarily for male guests. There’s a huge dining room, and an opportunity to see many of the bedrooms.

It’s perhaps unsurprising that the castle became Grade I listed in 1966.

The castle also used to house a small museum about narrow gauge railways, which are common in Wales. That has now closed, but one of the steam locomotives remains, and the space is due to be redeveloped into a museum that has a wider focus on North Wales’ industrial past.

The Gardens

I would love to tell you about the gardens at Penrhyn Castle, but our visit was just in the afternoon and so we didn’t have time to see them. After we had been around the house, and given our ten-year-old time to burn off energy in the adventure playground, there wasn’t time.

The walled garden is a short walk from the castle itself, and you can read about it on the National Trust’s web site.

Accessibility

Penrhyn Castle is mostly on flat ground, and there is step free access to the ground floor of the castle and the rest of the grounds – presumably including the gardens. The upper floors of the castle are only accessible by climbing stairs; visitors unable to manage these can instead watch a video tour. Standard disabled toilets are available; the nearest Changing Places toilet is a short distance away at Bangor University.

There’s a large, free car park on site, which includes four Standard-Plus AC chargers for electric vehicles, on the RAW Power network. The half-hourly number 5 bus from Llandudno to Bangor calls at the end of the driveway, from which it’s a mostly flat one mile walk to the main entrance. The nearest railway station is in Bangor, which to the south of the city centre and is around 500 metres from the bus station.

Being one of the National Trust’s upper tier properties, entry prices are a little higher than some (currently £18 per adult) but National Trust members get in free. If you’re not a member, it’s worth keeping an eye on Money Saving Expert’s Deals Page, as you can sometimes get free or discounted day passes, and Octopus Energy often give away discounted passes to their customers through their Octoplus Rewards programme.

There’s a café in the castle – again, we didn’t visit, but I imagine it’ll be standard National Trust café food, including their Scone of the Month. I also didn’t check for Wi-Fi, as I had a decent enough phone signal, but usually this is available in National Trust cafés and ticket kiosks and is typically free.

Playlist of the month: Countries

August 9, 2026 by Neil Turner

Screenshot of the Countries playlist on Spotify

This month’s playlist is all songs about countries. Broadly speaking.

As per usual, you can follow the playlist on Spotify.

Athlete – “El Salvador”. This is Athlete’s second single from their Mercury Music prize nominated first album, Vehicles and Animals. Admittedly, the lyrics are “Fly to El Salvador, I don’t know why and I don’t know what for”.
Sash! – “Ecuador”. This is the third time a Sash! song has appeared in a Playlist of the Month. This may have something to do with me running an unofficial Sash! web site on Geocities back at the turn of the millennium. There’s an old Jon Richardson joke about the Ecuadorian Embassy in London having sash windows.
Rammstein – “Amerika”. Rammstein famously sing primarily in German, but this incorporates some Denglisch. It’s also not particularly complementary about the USA.
Madonna – “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina”. Madonna sung this version when she starred in the film adaptation of the musical Evita in 1996, and as such it’s more well-known than the 1976 original by Julie Covington.
Kim Wilde – “Cambodia”. I actually know the song better as the 2001 cover by Pulsedriver, but Kim Wilde released the original as her fourth single in 1981.
David Bowie – “China Girl”. Not one of Bowie’s better known singles, but it’s typical Bowie with a smooth guitar solo.
Men at Work – “Down Under”. Whilst this doesn’t specifically mention Australia in its title, it’s all about an Australian travelling across Europe and Asia.
Alestorm – “Mexico”. Alestorm is another band that has appeared before in these playlists (unsurprisingly in the Alcohol playlist). This is from one of their later albums and isn’t among their best songs, in my opinion, but it fits the theme.
Bangles – “Walk Like An Egyptian”. This is also a song that I know more from a cover version – specifically, a novelty 1998 Christmas single featuring Yo-Hans, a professional yo-yo champion, called Walk (The Dog) Like An Egyptian. There’s a YouTube video.
Monty Python – “Finland”. Every time someone talks about Finland in the presence of me or Christine, the chorus of this song normally gets sung.

Our 2026 holiday: Welsh Mountain Zoo

August 7, 2026 by Neil Turner

A photo of a zookeeper holding a kookaburra on her hand at the Welsh Mountain Zoo

Our second day out following our trip to the Llechwedd Slate Caverns was to the Welsh Mountain Zoo, located in the hills above Colwyn Bay and just a short drive from where we were staying in Conwy.

Despite the name, the Welsh Mountain Zoo isn’t atop a mountain; it’s actually on a hill that’s only around 100 metres above sea level. But, as it’s right by the sea, it feels like it’s atop a mountain. You certainly get some nice views across Colwyn Bay, and to the west towards Conwy.

The Welsh Mountain Zoo is actually the national zoo for Wales, and is run by the Zoological Society of Wales. I would have expected the Welsh national zoo to be on the south coast closer to Cardiff, but no, it’s on the north coast. It’s a medium-sized zoo, and similar to Dudley Zoo (which we visited in 2024) in size and layout as they’re both on hills. That means there’s no really big animals like elephants and giraffes, but you can see some big cats, great apes and larger mammals.

A photo of a pair of snow leopards, asleep, at the Welsh Mountain Zoo

Animal highlights at the Welsh Mountain Zoo

In 2021, the Welsh Mountain Zoo became home to some snow leopards, which are classed as vulnerable on the IUCN red list. When we visited, the snow leopards were asleep, but had the good manners to be asleep next to a window where visitors can see them.

There are also red pandas, pretty much next to the snow leopards, and Asian small-clawed otters next to them as well. That’s two of my favourite species of animal next to each other.

In terms of aquatic animals, there are sea-lions and Humboldt penguins. When we visited, the penguins were going through a catastrophic moult where they lose all of their feathers very quickly. It’s natural and happens annually, but means they’re nor waterproof until their feathers regrow after a couple of weeks. Consequently, most were sunbathing on land, rather than swimming.

There’s also a large Eurasian Brown Bear, which was awake when we visited. I think that’s the first time I’ve seen that species of bear in a zoo. New this year is a small butterfly house, the Papilio Forest, which also includes a new habitat for the ring-tailed lemurs.

Shows and talks

Like most zoos, there are shows and talks throughout the day. We only attended one: the birds of prey demonstration, which takes place in a grassy area in the middle of the zoo next to the penguins. I’ll be honest, I was slightly disappointed as there were only two birds on display, which were a Kookaburra and a Barn Owl, and where we were sat, we couldn’t hear the commentary very well. By comparison, Knowsley Safari Park (most recently visited last year) has a better birds of prey show.

The programme of talks changes throughout the year, but in peak season, some of the talks such as the sea-lion demonstration are repeated. The talks also often coincide with the animals being fed, so it’s a good opportunity to see the sleepier animals.

Breeding to release

One recurring criticism of zoos is that the animals should really be back in the wild where they belong. However, zoos have an important role in ensuring the survival of endangered species, especially those already extinct in the wild. If every zoo in the world was closed down and all the animals released into their native habitats, we would probably see several more species go extinct very quickly.

That being said, at the Welsh Mountain Zoo, there are a couple of species of animal which are bred there specifically for release into the wild in the UK: red squirrels and pine martens.

I’ve never seen a pine marten before, but there were four at the Welsh Mountain Zoo and they were very active when we saw them. They’re mustelids, so related to ferrets, stoats and otters, and are about the same size as ferrets. They were very endearing and we’re glad we went to see them in their quieter corner of the zoo.

We didn’t get to see the red squirrels, but these are released in Ynys Môn (Anglesey) where grey squirrels were eradicated about ten years ago.

Accessibility

As mentioned, the Welsh Mountain Zoo is atop a hill, and so there are slopes involved. Some paths have steps, but there should be step-free routes to see most (if not all) the animals, albeit with some steeper slopes in some cases. The main car park is a little walk from the entrance, so if you have a blue badge, follow the directions to the smaller car park next to the entrance. There are no electric car chargers nearby; there are some Standard AC chargers in Rhos-on-Sea and the nearest rapid chargers are in Llandudno Junction.

The Welsh Mountain Zoo isn’t particularly well-served by public transport either. There are regular bus and train services to Colwyn Bay and the railway station is about 1.5 miles away, but it’s a steep climb to the zoo entrance. Even though our accommodation in Conwy was only a 12 minute drive away, it would take almost two hours to walk there.

Standard disabled toilets are available on-site, but you’ll need to head back down the hill into Colwyn Bay for the nearest Changing Places toilet, which is at the local council offices and is open during office hours on weekdays.

If you can book online at least two days beforehand, prices are about 15% cheaper than on the gate. We had lunch at the Safari Restaurant, one of two eateries on site (the other is the Penguin Café), and the food is good by zoo standards. Christine and I had bao buns with salad, which were nice. Free Wi-Fi is available across the site.

Overall

Overall, we enjoyed our visit to the Welsh Mountain Zoo. Being smaller and a little more spread out meant that it was relatively quiet and peaceful, and there’s a good mix of animals. Some bits of the zoo looked a little run down, and I did note in my post visit survey that they should consider taller fencing to hide the closed off areas of the zoo. The tickets felt like good value for what was almost a full day out.

If you’re interested, the Welsh word for zoo is ‘sŵ‘ – the letter ‘w’ is a vowel in Welsh, pronounced like ‘oo’ in English, and the Welsh alphabet doesn’t have the letter ‘z’.

CSSC – the Civil Service Sports Council

August 5, 2026 by Neil Turner

If you work for the Civil Service, armed forces, or a whole range of public sector organisations, then you may be able to join the CSSC, and get access to discounted sports and leisure activities.

I joined the CSSC last month, primarily because one of its perks is free entry to all Cadw properties which would come in useful in Wales. Free entry is also available to properties run by English Heritage, Historic Scotland, National Trust for Scotland and Kew Gardens. And, in many cases, the free entry doesn’t just apply to you, but any kids as well and sometimes even an accompanying adult.

Trips and shows

However, it’s worth digging further into the CSSC’s membership offering, as there are other discounts available. I’m guessing the CSSC books group tickets for various shows and trips to then sell onto its members at a discount. For example, there were tickets for Operation Mincemeat (which we saw in Bradford in April) at the Leeds Grand Theatre for around £30 for members, compared to over £50 at the regular price. As well as saving money, you get to sit on a row with other public sector and civil service workers in your area, so it’s a good way of networking across organisations and industries.

Other trips include a ‘mini-cruise’ to Amsterdam or Rotterdam (like the ‘mini-cruise’ we took to Bruges in 2014) where 80 places were pre-booked for members of CSSC and offered at a big discount. However, it’s worth noting that these all sold out months in advance, and so it’s worth checking regularly to see what comes up. You can sign up for updates on new offers in your region – being as we are in the Pennines, I’ve signed up for both the Yorkshire & North East region, and the North West.

For other leisure activities and days out, CSSC can offer discount codes when booking online – you don’t always need to book to be part of a group.

Sport, Health and Wellbeing

CSSC tends not to use its full name anymore, but sports are a large part of their offering. All members get access to an app called CSSC Life that is supposed to help with your wellbeing – I haven’t tried it as yet as I’m currently using Fitbit and Google Health already. And the whole recovering from two broken arms and seizures thing.

CSSC also offers discounted rates on membership for several gym brands, such as Everlast, Puregym and Better. There are also various sports events that you can sign up for.

Everyday savings

CSSC offers discounted gift cards, for use at a wide range of shops including the major supermarkets. You pay the standard price for the gift card, but then a percentage is held back (typically 3-4%) which you can put towards future gift card purchases, or can withdraw into your bank account. I already get a similar perk through work, so I haven’t tried this myself.

There are also regular competitions and giveaways that you can enter.

Membership of CSSC costs £6 per month (so £72 per year), and they reckon that members can save up to £300 per year. Everything is done through the web site or CSSC’s apps, so there’s no physical membership card – instead, you get a barcode that you can add to Apple or Google Wallet. Indeed, I haven’t had anything through the post – everything has been by email. Based on our recent trip to Wales, I’, pretty sure I’ll get a good return on investment, but we’ll see. If you work in the civil service, public sector (including the NHS) or armed forces, or are retired from an occupation in those sectors, then joining CSSC may well be worth your while.

Our 2026 holiday: Llechwedd Slate Caverns

August 3, 2026 by Neil Turner

A photo of the inside of the Llechwedd Slate Caverns

Although we arrived in Wales on the Saturday, we had a slow day on the Sunday with just a little stroll around Conwy (which I wrote about last year). The first big thing we did was head to Zip World in Llechwedd, home to the Llechwedd Slate Caverns.

A brief history of the Llechwedd Slate Caverns

In the 19th century, a deep mine was dug at the Llechwedd slate quarry, to access slate deep underground. The mine expanded significantly over the years, and eventually reached 25 miles of tunnels with caverns hundreds of metres below the surface. By the 1970s, demand for Welsh slate was falling, and so it was converted into a tourist attraction.

To improve access to the deep mine, now known as the Llechwedd Slate Caverns, a cable-hauled narrow-gauge railway was built, on a 30º incline.

I last visited with my parents in 1999, when we stayed for a week in the area. Back then, the slate caverns were the only attraction at the Llechwedd site, but in recent years it has expanded. There are now two zip lines – one below ground, one above ground – the ‘Bounce Below’ which is an underground trampoline park, and an underground mini-golf course. We just went for the slate cavern tour; Christine had also been before but it was our ten-year-old’s first time.

The entrance to the Llechwedd Slate Caverns

Down the mine

Some tours include a train ride up and down (and this is also how you access the mini-golf course); on our tour, we walked down and got the train back up at the end. Which, considering it’s a 150 metre (500 feet) climb back up, is very welcome. Your tour guide talks you through the history of the site, how slate was mined, and how the pieces of slate were broken up and shaped into roof tiles to be sold on. There are some audio-visual bits, and a demonstration of what it might have looked like when gunpowder was detonated to break the rocks apart.

A highlight is a cavern with an underwater lake, which is illuminated and looks amazing. It’s quite a different tour from what I remember from when I was 15, and is a good balance of history, education and entertainment. Whilst our guide wasn’t a miner himself, his ancestors worked in the mine, and he was able to tell us some of the stories.

The mine is located near Blaenau Ffestiniog, home to the northern terminus of the Ffestiniog Railway. This was partly built to transport the finished slate products to Porthmadog, for onward distribution by boat.

Accessibility

As you would expect from a 19th century mine, accessibility is restricted to people able to walk and handle low ceilings. And even on a warm July day like when we visited, the mine is cold so bring warm clothing. When you book, you’ll be asked to sign a waiver, and it highlights any medical conditions that would preclude you from entering, or that you need to make staff aware of. Some of the walking surfaces can be slippery and there are uneven steps in places.

There are disabled toilets, but no Changing Places toilet. In fact, the nearest Changing Places toilet is in Caernafon which is over 17 miles away. I suppose if you require a Changing Places toilet, then you’re not going to get much out of the activities at Zip World, but I was surprised that there wasn’t anywhere closer.

Car parking is available on site, at a cost of £3 per car – if you book in advance, you can pre-pay, or use the RingGo app on arrival. There aren’t any electric car chargers in the Zip World car parks, but there is an InstaVolt Rapid charger nearby with two CCS2 and one CHAdeMO plugs, just on the way in.

It’s a two mile uphill walk from Blaenau Ffestiniog railway station, which has trains every two hours from Llandudno Junction, or narrow-gauge heritage trains from Porthmadog. You can also get to Blaenau Ffestiniog on the T22 Transcymru bus service, but you’ll have the same two mile uphill walk.

Booking online is cheaper, and as it’s underground, it’s good for a rainy day. I was also able to get an additional 10% discount through one of my employee benefit schemes at work. There is a café which sells the sort of food you would expect from an outdoor activities centre. Above ground, music is played at a moderate volume across the site; I didn’t mind this as it was mostly 1990s and 2000s music which I listen to anyway, but my probably-but-undiagnosed autistic mother found it a bit much. There’s free Wi-Fi available across the site – handy if you need to pay for parking.

Augustly Advancing into August

August 1, 2026August 1, 2026 by Neil Turner

A photo of York Minster, taken in April 2005, to represent Yorkshire Day which is August 1st.

Happy Yorkshire Day! The region where I was born and still live celebrates its identity and history today, and for probably only the second time this decade, I’ll be spending all day in it. Indeed, this weekend is very much the calm before the storm, as for the next two weeks I’ll be working six-day weeks (Monday-Saturday) ahead of Results Day next Thursday and Clearing. It’s our busiest time of year in university admissions.

As such, this weekend is likely to be a quiet one. Besides work, we have no firm plans for the rest of the month, but we may squeeze the odd day out – especially closer to the August Bank Holiday weekend. Which is especially late this year as the 31st August falls on a Monday.

I guess there will be some time spent preparing our ten-year-old for their final year at primary school. They’ve put on a growth spurt recently and so it looks like we’ll need to buy all new school uniform, as their clothes were getting a little small when they finished last month. And then we’ll have to repeat it all over again next year when they move up to secondary school and have a completely different uniform.

Most of this month’s blog posts were written last month, and include several about our holiday in Wales – the first of which will be ready to read on Monday.