caddyman: (smoke)
caddyman ([personal profile] caddyman) wrote2003-09-21 01:01 pm

Didn't we have a lovely time the day we went to....

...Croydon.

Hmmm. Yesterday was up, done and dusted before I got used to it.

Took the train down to Croydon to meet a friend and then off to Caterham where lives the Modellersloft. So, a couple of purchases and back to Croydon. A couple of cups of tea and a natter and home.

By which time it was 10pm and I was knackered. Where did the day go? Croydon is little more than an hour's journey door-to-door even with the tube-train-tram combo journey.

The only thing I am really sure of is that I am clearly getting old. On the train back up to Victoria, and then at Voctoria itself, there were increasing hoards of young people meeting up to go on to what I assume was a do organised by the school disco mob. Well, of course, the way some of tyhe young ladies were dressed, my initial reaction was Phwoar, blimey and such.

And then it occurred to me that some of them were only four or five years older than my eldest niece, and I suddenly felt more like sitting on a porch with a shotgun demanding assurances from prospective suitors.

And suddenly it wasn't so much fun any more.

Grumble.

[identity profile] mollpeartree.livejournal.com 2003-09-22 06:25 am (UTC)(link)
The University where I work recently admitted a 12-year-old boy to its med school, and reading the startled local news coverage of it, I kept thinking, "What, they aren't all 12?" They look younger every year. September is the cruellest month around here.

[identity profile] pauln.livejournal.com 2003-09-23 01:24 am (UTC)(link)
I get that with the 18 year olds coming to the one I work for.

We're not letting anybody below 17 (I think) in at all these days. There's too much Child Protection Legislation to comply with to make it worthwhile, police and other checks on staff in contact with the kids to start with.

[identity profile] mollpeartree.livejournal.com 2003-09-23 06:31 am (UTC)(link)
I don't think we have any specific legislation to comply with here (in the U.S.); another area where our insane litigiousness is supposed to prevent anything very off from happening, probably.

Still, it cannot be a good idea. This University has a long tradition of admitting younger students, and I've met at least one who was kind of messed up by it. A case of the wonderboy finally meeting his Waterloo and being thoroughly demoralized.