Adventures at London Zoo with big chickens, mummy bloggers and animal poo!

Oh yes, you could say that again! It has most definitely been a case of Animal Adventures. And at London Zoo no less, our destination on a wet and soggy Sunday!

Organised by the P&G site SuperSavvyMe and the British Mummy Bloggers network, a family visit to the zoo was a great opportunity to catch up with some old blogging friends and meet some new ones.

Like this big chicken for instance!



Well that's what Mr A called it when the kids asked what an emu was! And it must be said it was a bit more friendly than the pelicans, who had the body language of my grandmother when she got bored of visitors.


After several attempts at renegotiating the zoo map, we finally found our way to the meet-up, where we were welcomed by three fabulous ladies Susanna aka A Modern Mother, Jen from Alpha Mummy and Nixdminx, who's actually celebrating her first year of blogging.

However, the only photo that I've got of the lively atmosphere was the one taken by my five year old photographer, Little T. Well I suppose it's a perfect snap for any bloggers who might wish to remain anonymous!



It was a great chance to catch up with the very funny Potty Mummy before she disappears off to Moscow as well as Liz from one of my favourite crafting\design blogs Violet Posy. And I finally had the pleasure of meeting Kat from Housewife Confidential, who's busy preparing for the Cumbria Flood Recovery Fund Auction to kick off tomorrow along with Natalie from Bambino Goodies, where the auction will be held.

I also had fun chatting to Clareybabble Clare, Tasha from Wahm-Bam, Sandy from Baby Baby, Emily of Maternal Tales, Zoe from Diary of a Surprise Mum, Perfectly Happy Mum aka as Peggy, Babies who Brunch, and last but not least Mothership, who can normally be found immersed in Motherhood:The Final Frontier. However the event wasn't just for "mummy bloggers", it was for dads too, and it was great to bump into Jules Watkins of the video production and blog site Kidsoup.tv.

For a blogger who's normally attached to a keyboard behind the proverbial closed doors of a suburban home, it makes a welcome change to have a chance to meet up with other bloggers who can normally be found doing the same right across the country.

And having had a good couple of hours to exercise the chin-wag action, it was time to brave the weather and take in some sights around the zoo.

The kids had already gone ahead with Mr A who had decided that having a wife for a blogger was enough to handle. I eventually caught up with them being mesmerised by the Moon Jellyfish.



Then off we went to check out some ropes...



...before entertaining some monkeys who were happily chomping on some popcorn. They stared at the children, while the children stared at them. It turned out the boys were actually eyeing up the popcorn but were also impressed that the monkeys weren't in a cage and were simply sat in a tree right next to us.



Of course it wouldn't be a proper family visit without sussing out the recycling bins, which just so happened to be strategically positioned around the zoo. This smiley bin looks very similar to the chirpy one that I spotted in London only the other week, so it must be a popular design.



Then a stop-off at the cafe revealed that food waste is also processed for separate treatment too. Quite naturally, the zoo takes recycling and other environmental issues very seriously and by promoting fair-trade, organic and local seasonal products as well as working hard to conserve water and energy, it is no surprise that it has won several Green awards in the last couple of years.

And as for animal poo, well no self-respecting zoo would miss the opportunity would they?


All I can say is that's one bin I'm glad I don't have to empty and I promise never, ever, ever ever ever, to complain about cleaning out the hen-house again! And I am also particularly grateful my chickens really aren't the size of an emu!

Big chickens eh! Obviously my husband doesn't remember Rod Hull!

Anyway, thanks again to Susanna, and everyone else who was involved in organising the event. It really was a very fun day indeed and I'm now looking forward to what happens next. If you haven't joined yet and would like to get involved, just drop over to British Mummy Bloggers and sign up.

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What women want...according to the Independent on Sunday

Well, there's never a quiet moment in the Almost Average household, even on Sundays, especially as I woke up this morning to find my face in a double-page-spread of the Independent on Sunday, along with David Cameron, Gordon Brown and three other bloggers, Liz at Violet Posy, Sandy Calico and TwentySomethingMum Claire, all members of the British Mummy Bloggers network.

The feature which discusses the importance of the female vote to the outcome of the next election comes hot on the heels of Tory leader David Cameron's live Mumsnet chat on Thursday. The online version can be read in full by clicking here.

Compared to the length of our interviews, our quotes in the Sunday paper are rather short. In fact I am billed as "Let-down Lady", due to my concerns with the current Labour party after being a long-term voter. And it's true, I don't have faith in Gordon Brown's leadership and if the election happened tomorrow, I am undecided about which party I would vote into government.

In my interview with the reporter, I had commented at length about the current reductions in funding for education and my worries over how this will impact on future generations, as schools are our foundation for the future. I also discussed the issues at the other end of the spectrum, with my worries over the long waiting lists in Wales for my mother to get treatment for her health problems. Neither she or my stepfather are at the age where they would have to sell their property to go into a care-home, but the older they get that is something else we will have to confront and I worry about their future welfare too.

On matters of the environment, I also mentioned that sustainability should be at the heart of government policies, no matter which party is elected as it is paramount that our country's resources are managed effectively across public and private sectors and in our homes.

But I also praised the hard work of the current government on pushing recycling targets and the move towards zero waste, and said if the conservatives came into power, how I hope they would build on this rather than undermine it. The Tory plans on this appear to be pushing the right buttons - and following my last blogpost, I have emailed David Cameron with an invitation for him to provide further comment.

I have to admit that it hasn't been an entirely comfortable experience discussing politics in public. I am normally the kind of person that keeps my opinions in this area firmly to myself, probably for fear of looking an idiot and the assumption that actually everybody else knows better than me. I am not a natural moaner and prefer to offer up-beat praise instead.

However thanks to my recent appearance in the "live commentary box" at the Times Online's Alpha Mummy blog and the publication of today's feature, I feel like I've finally "come out".

Maybe it's also a sign that I have finally grown up, with a desire to provide the best possible future for my children as well as others across the country who need the government's support.

How about you, are you a political animal or someone like me who has traditionally preferred to watch others have their say? Maybe you're a bit of both. I'd love to know.

So what DO women want when it comes to the next election? when I rang my mother this morning to get her position, all she had to say was...

"Well, they're all as bad as each other!"

So it looks like Dave and Gordon will have a tough job getting my mum's vote too.

Politics eh. Well now that I've had my two-penneth, I'm off to empty my bin!

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The Recycle Week Carnival

Well I've been promising it for a couple of weeks and at last it's here, the British Mummy Blogger carnival to mark the end of the Recycle Week challenge, where mothers everywhere (and a dad) - even those far away from the homeland - took their pledges to waste less.

Here's a list of all those who sent me their pledges over the last few weeks. I have a sneaking suspicion that the tag has travelled some distance beyond what you see here. If you want to follow the various tags, just visit those who joined in and follow the links.

In the meantime, it's time to celebrate the achievements and participation of all those who joined in the Recycle Week fun. So to find out why they chose their pledge and discover how they fared, just grab a drink, pull up a chair and say hello to all the fabulous bloggers below.



SO WHO TOOK THE REUSE YOUR CARRIER BAGS PLEDGE?

There were a whole host of bloggers who upon taking this pledge received the news that halving the number of bags we use in a year would mean using around 90,000 fewer tonnes of oil - (leading to a reduction in greenhouse gas production equivalent to taking up to 50,000 cars off the road). This created a wide range of interesting and entertaining posts, highlighting the juggling antics that come with forgetting a plastic bag.

Susanna at A Modern Mother, a fellow blogger for Recycle Now, helped kick off the tag promoting her pledge. She obviously needed a little practice, which you can read about at her beautifully titled post These damn bags are going to be the death of me. To see how she finally got on, pop over to see her at www.amodernmother.com.

Amy at And 1 More Means Four, took her pledge too, with her forfeit never to eat cookies ever again. This was serious. So did she succeed? Look at this post to find out. Something tells me she didn't take this lightly, especially with all those children to look after. Pop over and give her a round of applause at and1moremeansfour.blogspot.com.

Brit in Bosnia, aka Fraught Mummy also challenged herself to reusing all my plastic bags for a week. If you want to know what such a challenge is like over in Bosnia, her post "Of recycling and plastic bags" makes very interesting reading. For further updates, keep checking by her blog at britsinbosnia.blogspot.com.

Emily over at Maternal Tales from the South Coast also took the pledge. The forfeit if she failed was to abstain from computer use for a day. Strange, but Emily's been absent from the Internet today. To see why, read this post. And do go over and give her a virtual hug at emilybassin.blogspot.com, even though she won't be able to read it until tomorrow.

Cartside over at Mummy Do That took the pledge and detailed her ups and downs of the week, which ended up in having to give up chocolate. I think she can be excused though. See what you think when you pop over to read how she got on during the week at mummydothat.blogspot.com.


Peggy at Perfectly Happy Mum also joined in the fun and frolics on Friday with her pledge to remember her carrier bags. To encourage her along and to see how she's doing, drop by and visit at perfectlyhappymum.typepad.com.

Regular reader Antonella aka Lunarossa also took the pledge to reuse her plastic bags. Somehow I don't think she would have had any trouble, because she'd already been busy working on reducing her waste and I recently discovered it's come down as much as 50%. To find out how things are going with her recycling endeavours up in York, drop in and say hello at lunarossa-livingabroad.blogspot.com.


FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD

To help reduce the amount of food that gets wasted - which is still around 1/3 in the UK - bloggers promised to compost their kitchen (and garden) waste or reuse their leftovers for the following meal.


Clareybabble faced the prospect of a week away from the computer when she took her pledge to compost her kitchen and garden waste. Is she still online? Well given that she has also taken to composting her shredded bills and lots more. I think there's a chance that you might still find her in the ethernet. Find out at clareybabble.blogspot.com.

Sparx from Notes inside my head also took up the challenge. And if she failed, she'd be faced with cleaning under the furniture for a whole month - not a nice forfeit unless you're Anthea Turner. Well, she did leave us with a very entertaining account of her challenge of composting without a composter. And the news is there's lots of floor polishing to be done as well as shopping for a proper compost bin. Go and cheer her along at notes-inside-my-head.blogspot.com.

Now you might be surprised that Jo Beaufoix chose composting as her pledge. After all, she managed to reduce her rubbish drastically by buying a bin when she took the Rubbish Diet challenge last year. But she's moved house since and thought she'd sign up for one again, with the threat that if she failed at her pledge, she'd let her daughter do her make-up. Well the news is she'll be posting a photo of her freshly made-up face very soon. Will it be a Picasso classic or a beautiful Rembrandt? Visit www.jobeaufoix.com to find out. One thing's for sure, it will be an original work of art.

Surprised and Excited Mum is a very active recycler and joined in the week with her pledge to use her left-overs for lunch. It's always good to hear about other folk who are constantly taking out reusable bags and recycling everything that drops their way. To find out what else she's up to visit diaryofasurprisemum.blogspot.com.


Caroline over at What's Happening at My House pledged to use up all her leftovers too. If she threw anything away, she promised to donate £3 to charity on each occasion. To find out how she's getting on with her pledge, drop in and visit her at whatshappeningatmyhouse.wordpress.com


Over in the U.S. Michaelle at the Adventurous Women blog helped to spread the word by pledging to commit to more composting. It's great to see the Recycle Week message spreading out of the British Mummy Blogger network across the Atlantic. To find out more about Michaelle's pledge visit adventurouswomenblog.blogspot.com.



SORTING OUT THE TEXTILES

According to Recycle Now, making just one t-shirt uses 800 litres of water ad if every UK household recycled just two this year we'd save as much as 16,000 Olympic sized pools. So it's a good job then that some bloggers pledged to recycle their textiles.

Mum in Chaos over at the Madmuma blog made her pledge, with the promise to use the clothing recycling bank at the end of her road. Being an active recycler, if she failed to make it before the week was out, she promised to go without tea for a day. Find out if she made it over at madmuma.blogspot.com


Zooarchaeologist at Being a Mummy also took the pledge but admitted that recycling her textiles was a bit of a cop-out as she loves sewing and had lots of plans re-crafting old clothes. I can see why she loves it though. You only have to read her update post "Ten ways to re-use your old clothes" to be suitably inspired. For further updates, visit www.beingamummy.co.uk.



RECYCLING YOUR PACKAGING

When life gets busy it's so easy to just bung your packaging in the bin, but the truth is by doing that we're burying a valuable resource in the ground that could otherwise be used to save virgin resources, including bottles, cans and tetra pak cartons.

So it's great to see bloggers taking up a whole range of pledges to recycle what's leftover when the contents have been consumed.

Liz over at Violet Posy, pledged to recycle her glass bottles and almost missed it with a narrow escape. But her husband came to the rescue, leaving Liz plenty of time to take an impromptu pledge to sort out some textiles to take to the Salvation Army. The question is, did she get ever there? Pop over and see at www.violetposy.co.uk.

Tasha aka Codingmamma over at wahm-bam ventured forth to join me in the pledge to recycle Tetra Paks. After doing a postcode search on the Recycle Now website, she discovered that new facilities had been put in place nearby. She also has plans for getting a compost bin. So do drop in to say hello at wahm-bam.blogspot.com


Potty Mummy promised to recycle bottles and cans whilst out and about. She already does most things on the list of pledges with the exception of composting, but living in a flat in Central London ruled that one out. Find out more about Potty Mummy's pledge over at www.potty-diaries.blogspot.com.




WHO DARED THE RUBBISH FREE PLEDGE?

It's a bit of a frightener isn't it? The idea of going rubbish-free for a day but the great news is someone was up for it:


Kat over at Housewife Confidential was prepared to give it a go and took the pledge. Find out how she got on in her update, over at housewifeconfidential.co.uk. Something tells me she won't have trouble attempting it again in the future.

News just in...the Dotterel over at Bringing up Charlie also signed up for the task but somehow Charlie didn't get the message. See what happened at the Dotterel's post Recycle Fail. Follow what else he gets up to (that's both Charlie and the Dotterel) at bringingupcharlie.blogspot.com.



OTHER WONDERFUL PLEDGES

This category is for all those other fabulous and creative ideas that came through as a result of the Recycle Week pledge, which might not have fitted into Recycle Now's list but hold such wonderful merit they deserve sharing.


First up is Rosie Scribble who as well as pledging to recycle her electricals, also committed to educating herself about the importance of recycling and then educating her daughter. I sense this will be a continuous project that reaches far beyond Recycle Week. To follow how Rosie gets on visit her blog at rosiescribble.typepad.com.


Lorna over at Califlorna, a British expat living in California, pledged to use natural cleaning products from now on and even have a go at making her own so that she can use less plastic bottles. Visit her blog at califlorna.com to check out an interesting tale of recycling in a whole new different area.


Half Mum Half Biscuit caught my attention with her idea for recycling time. Oooh how lovely would that be. But in light of potential difficulties, she also pledged to help re-introduce the returnable milk bottle into her neighbourhood, by encouraging other people to have their milk delivered. Find out more at halfmumhalfbiscuit.blogspot.com.


Garden Mum pledged to help promote recycling by offering up three garden recycling ideas, which are all worth a gander. To find out what else she gets up to in her garden visit www.littlegardenhelpers.co.uk


Laura over at Are We Nearly There Yet Mummy made me smile with her pledge to recycle her glass and other things. She cheated slightly because she already did it and was very busy moving house, and I have a sneaking suspicion she was glad to be getting a new neighbour. See how her house move went over at www.arewenearlythereyetmummy.com



SOME VERY WELCOME GUESTS

Although they were unable to make specific pledges the following wonderful folk have submitted some useful posts that might inspire you even further to take the rubbish bag by the horns and reduce your waste forever.

Lisa of Condo Blues confessed she's not British and not a mum so hadn't been tagged, but being a regular reader of The Rubbish Diet and having British heritage and being a dog-owner asked if she could join in the carnival. The answer of course was "Of Course". And for anyone who's interested in cutting back plastic, I recommend you visit her entry entitled: Show us your trash: plastic challenge, which was set by Beth over at Fake Plastic Fish. To find out what other rubbish-related antics Lisa gets up to in her condo visit condo-blues.blogspot.com.


Chloe at BestBen10Toys has sent in suggestions featuring 16 ideas for what to do with unwanted toys, which is always helpful when decluttering the children's bedrooms.


Last but not least, Maria from Fab Mums has a whole range of ideas to help you green up your kids with her reviews of Help George Save the World; Creative Recycling for Kids; Paper has never been greener and the Solar Powered Helicopter Kit.

~X~

And that concludes the British Mummy Bloggers Recycle Week Carnival.

What a great couple of weeks it's been witnessing the pledges come in. All that's left to do now is thank everyone who was involved in making and sharing their commitment to Recycle Week and to thank Susanna at A Modern Mother and founder of British Mummy Bloggers for her enthusiam in taking part from the very start and her encouragement to share the recycling love around the network.

Of course Recycle Week may be over but the message still remains, that recycling works and doesn't have to be boring. You can continue to make pledges and find out what can be recycled in your area. All you need to do is drop over to www.recyclenow.com, where there is lots of information that can help you.

Thanks again to everyone involved. I even think there are a few candidates who might very well join me in my crazy world of mummy garblogging. If you're hooked, I can only apologise.

P.S. I know Zoe at Rekindled might not be a mummy blogger, but she's a regular reader and I just wanted to celebrate her pledge to go rubbish free. If you want to know how she did it, she's got a guest post over at MyZeroWaste. So do pop by for a nosey and check out what Mrs Green has been up to as well.

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British Mummy Bloggers do Recycle Week

Well the Recycle Week plans are about to kick off big-style.

And with exactly one week to go until Recycle Now's big campaign week, I am roping in the help of some of my old blogging friends over at the British Mummy Bloggers network. Well I did pledge that as well as recycling cartons, I would also make it easier for those in my community to waste less and that includes my online community too.

Not many people may know this (ok, that probably means the rest of the world), but before I started blogging about rubbish I was a 100% mummy blogger. These days I suppose I am more of a Mummy Garblogger, juggling the constant demands of the kids with one hand whilst promoting rubbish reducing strategies with the other.

These days my life is often reminiscent of a micro civil war, with the cry of "Mummy, I want, I want, I want" being called from the battlefields, met by the defiance of "Not on your nelly" being launched from an inner stronghold - located somewhere behind the much battered defences, normally known as the recycling bin.

Anyway, I pledged I'd make it easier for folk to waste less and I thought there'd be no better place to start than to spread the word about Recycle Week amongst the British Mummy Blogger network whose talented members are always up for supporting a good cause. Who knows, maybe I can turn them into Mummy Garbloggers too.

So today I am launching a new meme tag, with the challenge to see how many of the 300-or-so BMB members can sign up to a Recycle Week pledge over the next two weeks as well as blog about it!

And the rules are easy:

1. Visit www.recyclenow.com and sign up to one of the pledges to waste less.

2. Share details of your pledge on your own blog.

3. Chose five other bloggers, who will also be up for a bit of recycling fun.

4. Come back to this post at The Rubbish Diet and share your pledge with others, by placing a link to your pledge in the comments field.

5. Optional - as a thank you to all involved The Rubbish Diet will be publishing a British Mummy Bloggers' Recycle Week carnival on Monday 29th June. To be included, simply submit your favourite post revealing the progress of your pledge by Saturday 27th June - email to karen[at]therubbishdiet[dot]co[dot]uk.

I've never launched a blog tag before, so the truth is, this is quite a daunting experience. How many bloggers will take up the Recycle Week pledge and how will they get on?

But with pledges that are as easy as "looking for new recycling labels when going shopping" to more tricky ones such as attempting a "Rubbish-free day", there is something for everyone to get their teeth into. And I expect there will be some funny tales too.

So, to kick off the British Mummy Bloggers' Recycle Week tag, I have the pleasure of tagging five fabulous bloggers, who I think will be up for a recycling challenge.

1. Susanna at A Modern Mother, who not only is fantastic at PR, but is a wonderful creative writer AND is also the founder of the British Mummy Blogger network in the UK. I admit this tag is a bit of a cheat because she has already made her own pledge, which you can find about here.

2. Rosie from Rosie Scribble, a wonderful writer and old blogging buddy who tells the funniest of tales about motherhood and friendships.

3. The fabulous and thrifty Nixdminx, who I know will tackle the mission in a stylish and urbanite way and will have us laughing all the way to the recycling bank.

4. Liz, author of the most beautful blog Violet Posy. She's almost a blogging neighbour, she lives that close. Well, half an hour's train ride to Ely. Who knows, maybe we will finally make it for coffee.

5. And of course Jo, as in the talented Jo Beaufoix who signed up to The Rubbish Diet treatment last year and managed to cut her rubbish in half. I can't wait to see what she does this time for Recycle Week.

So while I leave it to this fabulous group to share the recycling love around the online community, I have got my work cut out figuring out my final plans to help reduce waste in my local community. Do drop by later this week to find out more about what else I'm up to.

And don't forget, if you're a mummy or indeed a dad who blogs (yes, despite the name, men are welcome too) why not join the British Mummy Bloggers network, where there are plenty of opportunities to join in with reviews, PR opportunities and sponsored get-togethers. For more details visit britishmummybloggers.ning.com.

And for those readers who are not part of the BMB network but would like to promote the benefits of Recycle Week, why not launch your own blog tag through your regular network of bloggers and find out what other people are up to.
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