My good friend Adam Ramsay had a piece in the Guardian the other day about student activism, putting forward his view that the main job of students is to save the world and have fun. Despite what many people think the two are not mutually exclusive.

I credit my time at university, and the people I met in that period of my life, with shaping my politics quite substantially. The groundwork may have been laid earlier – by compassionate parents and dinner table discussions – but uni was the time when I became more able to articulate what I believe in, and why.

People always think I’m joking when I say that I left school still believing that Karl Marx was a member of the Marx brothers comedy act, but sadly it’s true. (Quite how I managed an A in Higher Economics without knowing who wrote The Communist Manifesto, I don’t know, but there you go…)

By the time I graduated four years later, I had learnt so much more – not just about Art History and English Literature – but about the big wide world beyond the campus. Lecture theatres were all well and good, but it was in pubs and student flats, over black coffees and cheap beers where I learned the really important stuff.

The people I met at uni – people like Adam, who now works full time for the campaigning organisation People and Planet – were the ones who introduced me to debates around the Nestlé boycott, the Middle East, climate change, US politics, Fair Trade, trade unions, Scottish Independence and numerous other issues. And when you’re surrounded by people who spend their spare time shimmying up lampposts with campaign placards, or going door-to-door gathering petition signatures, it’s hard not to feel inspired by that. Their enthusiasm and passion were infectious; what a joy it was to be in the company of intelligent people who believed the world could be a fairer and better place, and were prepared to work hard to make that happen.

After graduating I was lucky enough to spend a year as the elected President of my Student Union. It was the hardest I’ve worked in my entire life, but it was also incredible fun. The work I did in that year – representing Edinburgh’s 22,000 students to the university, in the local community, to external bodies like the Scottish Parliament, and in the press – was probably not world-changing stuff, but it was important in its own wee way. We campaigned on issues that were immediately relevant to students in the city – like the cost of travel, accommodation and tuition fees. But we also campaigned on issues that were more about global citizenship; twinning our own union with one in the West Bank, lobbying the University to revoke Robert Mugabe’s honorary degree, and persuading other universities and unions to become Fairtrade.

Adam’s point about making campaigning enjoyable is an important one. No matter how serious the issue is that you’re working on, if you can’t bring some element of joy to the campaign around it, you’re never going to win. Whether that’s something as simple as bringing cake to meetings, heading to the pub after a long debate, or using humour in your tactical approach (one of my favourite campaign stunts involved sending a pair of flipflops to every Lib Dem member of the Scottish Parliament, emblazoned with a picture of their leader’s face, when they kept changing their mind about which side they were on in a crucial tuition fee vote), if you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong.

It’s an attitude that I think is easy to lose, as you get older, and the pressures on your time become more plentiful. Campaigning for or against anything starts to feel like a bit of a drag, just another item to squeeze onto the to-do list. It becomes a lot easier to turn to online activism – signing an e-petition, forwarding a campaign email, or writing a blog post. I am as guilty of it as anyone. But does that kind of slacktivism really achieve much?

Adam’s post has given me a bit of a kick. It has reminded me that campaigning is about building a sense of community, solidarity, and shared purpose. It has reminded me that campaigning is supposed to be fun. It has reminded me that although technology is a wonderful thing, there are a lot of things that can’t be done sitting behind a computer.

So I’m off to bake a cake. Find a meeting of likeminded people. Save the world.

I might even start a conversation about Karl Marx, now that I know who he is.

Who’s with me?

So without further ado.

“One day we will enjoy telling you all about our childhoods and I am sure that my stories about phones with cords and four television channels will make you shriek with laughter and incredulity.” I’ve only just discovered Emma and Isaac, and I loved this post about how childhood has changed.

“You ask me what’s The Wasp Factory about?” he said. “It’s about 180 pages.” I loved this tribute to Iain Banks from Neil Gaiman

“Oh do please man up and dare to say something different.” Sonya at Ramblings Of A Formerly Rock’n’Roll Mum writes an open letter to Ed Miliband.

“NGOs used to speak truth to power – it’s time for us to speak truth to NGOs.” I found this piece about the IF campaign in Red Pepper magazine a fascinating read, and I’ll be interested to see if any of the points raised in it are brought up for discussion at the Bloggers and Charities discussion I’m taking part in at BritMums Live.

“When I broached the subject of maybe taking the dummies away and Moo going to bed without them now, I got what I like to think of as A Top Level Death Stare.” That Motherventing is back blogging again, and she’s still awesome.

“I guess, sometimes you have to leave in order to appreciate what you had. You have to put a place behind you, leave it in the past, before you can look at it with eyes fresh with experience.” Egg Dip Dip has written a very lovely post about the meaning of home, and adjusting to life back in Scotland.

“I’ve got funnier as I’ve got older, I have far more permission to be ridiculous now than I did when I was young. And I have a bosom of Shakespearean barmaid proportions. Proper, bawdy lady bazookas that came free with child-rearing.” Finally, an archive post from Sara Bran, but one that is still relevant – why every ageing woman needs Patti Smith.

A mixed bag as ever, but I hope you find one or two of interest to you in there.

If there are any posts that have been floating your boat recently, leave me the link in a comment below, because I’d love to check them out.

“Mummy,” he said. “Dying doesn’t mean that you go away and never come back, does it?”

I froze.

“I don’t want that to happen to us,” he said. “But it’s more like a rainbow isn’t it, that you go away but then you come back again.”

It was one of those conversations that I knew I should have been better prepared for. I knew it would come up at some point, although there is no obvious reason why it has happened now. We fumbled our way through a ten-minute conversation, in which I tried to find the balance between reassurance and honesty, and attempted a few analogies drawing on what he already knows about nature.

I explained that different people believe different things – some people think we become angels, or stars, or come back to life in another form, or go to a place called heaven – and that we all have to make our own minds up about that.

“Well Grandpa believes in heaven,” he said. “So maybe he knows a bit more about it than you do, and I’ll talk to him.”

We left it there, although I know it will come up again soon.

That was yesterday.

Today, we were doing something similar. I was bustling around doing laundry and dishes, while DorkySon played in the den.

“Mummy,” he said, in that same inquisitive tone of voice.

Oh my, I thought to myself. Here we go again…

“If you decide to grow a baby in your tummy, how does it actually get there?”

This time I was much better prepared.

“It’s pretty simple,” I said. “You can ask Daddy about that when he gets home.”

This week it’s time for us all to write a post reflecting on Spring.

It was a long time coming but now – in the first week of June – it finally feels like Spring is here. It’s a little blustery out, but there has been sunshine for the last four or five days, and it’s meant to carry on into the weekend which is good news because we’re going to our first barbecue of the year. I’m also sporting my first sunburn of the year. Never bloody learn…

Last Sunday we went for a lovely long walk. It was probably about three miles, which is the longest DorykSon has ever managed, and he slept very well afterwards. We headed out of Harpenden along a section of the Nickey Line so that I could show DorkySon and DorkyDad the pigs and donkeys that I’d seen there a few weeks ago. They held DorkySon’s interest for a few minutes, but he was far more interested in the old signals and platforms that remain from when the line was a working railway, along with the prospect of the pub lunch that was waiting for him at the end. It was the first time we’d been in The Silver Cup, and we’ll definitely be heading back.

This week I’ve been continuing my spring clean – DorkyDad has started referring to me as the ‘whirling dervish’ because every time he sees me I’m clutching a mop or a duster or a bag destined for the charity shop. My Mum is down for a few nights next week so I need to make sure the house is looking spick and span.

We’ve been so lucky this Spring to have lots of friends coming to stay with us – most recent was an old school friend who moved to Melbourne a couple of years ago and was back visiting. It was so much fun to catch up with her, and a nice reminder of how comfortable it is to spend time with people who know you well.

Now it is our turn to go and visit people, so we’re busy planning our summer travels – Harris first, then hopefully the States, and then Edinburgh for some of the Festival. I’m going slightly cross-eyed from looking at cheap flight websites, but I think it’s starting to take shape at last.

I’ve even been taking some refresher driving lessons, so that when we are staying with friends we can have a bit more independence and not be reliant on them to chauffeur us round. I passed about twelve years ago, but haven’t driven for the last ten, and was ridiculously nervous about getting back behind the wheel. So far I’ve had two lessons, and have been so pleasantly surprised by how comfortable I’ve found it. Be kind though, if you see a driving instructor’s red Mini stalled at a roundabout in St Albans…. it could well be me.

We had one of those weekends where it didn’t feel like we were doing very much, but we still seemed to pack it in. A lovely lunch and an afternoon at the park with a friend we hadn’t seen for a long time. (‘Jeez,‘ she said. ‘Is this what people do in the suburbs?‘) A drink at the pub in town with a beer garden where, to DorkySon’s delight, there was a bouncy castle set up. A little potter around the farmer’s market to pick up some local honey and strawberries. And some bread and ham. And some cheese and radishes. Oh, and some chicken, and some ribs. And some freshly ground coffee… Wasn’t it Oscar Wilde who wrote ‘I can resist anything but temptation.’

On Sunday afternoon we headed down to the funfair, which had set up shop for the weekend. For the past year or so we have got away with walking round the fair when it hasn’t actually been open. DorkySon has been fascinated enough by the big trucks and caravans that he hasn’t really bothered about the rides. (I know, I know, we are terrible parents…) But this time, for the first time, he realised that those rides we’ve always walked past do actually move. So we stuffed our pockets full of change and paid for him to spend the afternoon whizzing past us on the spinning teacups, honking the horn in a mini truck, and bouncing his way down the inflatable slide. It made me feel dizzy (and old!) just watching him.

DorkySon is having another one of those shocking development leaps that seem to be coming along with more and more frequency. He has started leaving his beloved Binky at home instead of taking him to nursery. He has decided that CBeebies is boring and that he doesn’t really want to watch any television (beyond the odd episode of Top Gear). And after two years of wagging around the house with his bum out, he has started to keep his trousers on more often. I don’t know whether our parenting style of letting him make all these decisions in his own time is the right one, but it certainly seems to be keeping the stress levels down for all of us.

We are trying to plan our summer holidays at the moment; making time to see all the grandparents and Godparents, far flung friends and extended family that are scattered across the globe. I can’t wait, especially as I know they will all see such a huge change in DorkySon since last summer.

I also seem to still be in full on spring clean mode, and have been taking bags of bits and pieces – clothes I no longer wear, toys that DorkySon no longer plays with, books that DorkyDad knows he will not read again – to the charity shop almost weekly. I suppose in order to let nice new things into your life, you have to make space for them.

I can’t wait for June, and hope it brings more sunshine and adventures.

***

I’m linking this post up to the Where I Live: Perfect Bank Holiday linky over at The American Resident.

I love it when nice people do good things. Nothing makes me happier. So when I saw that several of my very favourite children’s writers are backing the latest campaign from Save the Children, it put a huge smile on my face.

More than 25 children’s writers and illustrators, including David Walliams, Oliver Jeffers, Michael Morpugo and Philip Pullman have come together to warn of a global literacy crisis, ahead of the G8 nutrition summit on June 8^th.

‘Eh?’ I can hear you saying. ‘What have literacy and nutrition got to do with each other?’

Well the answer to that is ‘quite a lot, actually’.

Save the Children’s Food for Thought report, released today, shows that chronically malnourished children are 20 percent less literate than those with a healthy diet, and less able to read or write a simple sentence.

165 million children across the world are chronically malnourished. Not only does this cause the death of one child every 15 seconds, it also locks in lifelong problems for millions more.

It affects children like Nguoth in Southern Sudan, who is pictured above. Here is Nguoth’s story in his own words.

***

I was five years old when I started school. Sometimes I had to stop coming because I was hungry. For two years I dropped out because I had to go to the river to fish and to the bush to collect wild fruits for my fanily. I think the situation is getting worse and more children are stopping coming to school to help their family.

I have two brothers and one sister. My sister left school in P2 so she could help our mother by collecting food and firewood. My older brother left this school and went on to finish P7 but then dropped out. My younger brother is still in school with me.

Many of my friends are absent again and again because they’re going to the bush to collect fruits. At the beginning of the year there were 28 children in my class. Now it’s around 21.

Today, most of my schoolmates have gone to fetch water from the river or to work in the market. Some have gone to a school in town where there’s food (a school feeding programme). Most of my friends are in P5 or P6 but I’m still in P3 as I had to repeat some years. This is my second year in P3. When I’m hungry I feel sick and go to the bush to find wold fruits. At least twice a week I stay home and don’t go to school. That’s why I’ve had to repeat some years.

Hunger is very bad in this area. We have no gardens to grow food because the floods destroyed them. The people are angry with each other and there’s no peace (referring to inter-communal conflict and cattle raids affecting the area). People are very sick, malaria is very high and lots of children are absent from school. It’s hard for children to be happy and take part in class because they’re hungry.

***

Despite being one of the most cost effective forms of development assistance, spending on nutrition programmes currently amounts to just 0.3% of global development spending. At the June 8^th summit, world leaders have what children’s laureate Julia Donaldson calls ‘a golden opportunity’ to change that.

She says: “The devastating impact of malnutrition shouldn’t be underestimated. It stunts a child’s development, sapping the strength of their minds as well of their body, depriving them of the chance to be able to read or write a simple sentence.

“Leaders attending this summit have a golden opportunity to stop this.  They must invest more funding to tackle malnutrition if we are to stop a global literacy famine.”

If you’d like to support the Food for Thought campaign there are several ways you can do so.

1. Read and share the full Food for Thought report.

2. Join in with the BritMums Twitter party today – Tuesday 28^th May between 1-2pm. Tweet about the campaign more generally using the hashtag #foodforthought

3. Sign the Enough Food IF Petition urging world leaders to spend more on nutrition programmes.

4. Join other campaigners at the Big IF Event in London on June 8th.

Together we can give every child a life free from hunger.

A lot of bloggers will be taking the weekend off, so I thought it might be nice to do a roundup of some older posts to give you something to read. I asked some of my favourite folk to share a post from their own blog – the one they consider to be their best ever – and these are the ones they chose.

Hope you enjoy them!

‘Double checking my bag, I open the zip to make sure I’ve taken out all my makeup, and something a pale yellow colour catches my eye and I know you all know where this is going.’ – Steph from I’m Counting UFOs chose So Here’s An Amusing Little Anecdote for You.

‘I know you have a training partner in the video who seems lovely, but let me tell you Natalie, you ain’t ever done a workout unless you have done it with a seven year old girl by your side.’ – Jane from Northern Mum chose Dear Natalie Cassidy

‘My sister was born four months before my sixth birthday and if I am being completely honest, it was a shock to my system.’ – Carolin from Mummy Alarm chose What’s the Perfect Age Gap Between Siblings

‘I’m about as far from a yummy mummy as you can be without getting mistaken for a homeless person.’ - Cat from Yellow Days chose Are We Being Unfair to the Yummy Mummies and also a fab post called Why I’m Striking Tomorrow

‘Your graffiti artists have also created a wonderful piece of modern art, right in the centre of your feature wall with yellow crayons, pink pencils and black permanent marker pens.’ – Stacey from Five’s A Fellowship chose 5 Tips for Surviving Twin Toddlers

‘Life in it’s reality is full of inspirational real heroes and fabulous true stories. Who needs Ben 10 when you have a gutsy Grandad who lost an eye under a train and was back at work the next week?’ - Becky over at Baby Budgeting chose a lovely post called My Mum was the Best Storyteller

‘Everyone is acting surprised that someone had the gall to photograph K-Mid’s ta-tas… Let me tell you this; ever since Prince Billy shared his first Pot Noodle with her in his bedsit at St. Andrews, there has been someone, somewhere on CONSTANT ALERT for the opportunity to get a picture of her tits.’ - Jayne at Mums the Word chose Royally Tits Up

‘This is VERY random, possibly reputation tainting shizzle but what the heck – we’re all friends here- yes?’ - Annie at Mammasaurus chose Once Upon A Time I wrote a Book

‘Last night I had a nightmare. I was in the final of Strictly Come Dancing (yes, of course I’m that good).’ - Helen at Actually Mummy chose What a Nightmare

‘Are you tired of living in minimalist hell with clean kitchen work surfaces, cream coloured floors and soft buttermilk sofas?’ - Rebecca from Here Come The Girls chose How to Clutter Your Home

‘I didn’t realise this before I pushed a small person out of my foof, but apparently there’s a secret law that basically states that once you have a kid, you’re a walking invitation for a shitstorm of grannies to accost you daily’ - Cas at Mummy Never Sleeps chose Granny Basher

‘Gran was a tiny, spiky difficult lady with a grip which could crush fingers and a tongue which really hurt but she had a silky soft face and a fiercely loyal heart. She was reliable and I knew exactly where I was with her.’ - Chris at Thinly Spread chose Goodbye Else May (make sure your tissues are handy)

‘I think what I am trying to get across is that sometimes things can look what you see as normal but it isn’t…’ - Angie at Cakes Photos Life chose Has he really got HF Autism?

‘Yesterday I spent the morning trying out nutty fudge recipe and an after eight mints recipe as a practice run for Christmas treats for the hampers I’m making for family.’ - Aly at Plus 2.4 chose her recipe for home made After Eights (tasty AND ethical!)

‘Personally, the only thing which would intimidate me away from a friendship with a woman would be if she was too intellectual.’ - Donna at Mummy Central chose The Samantha Brick Saga – an Ugly Friend’s View

‘Dear Leukemia. You came and turned our world upside down but we are fighting you and you can feel it cant you.’ - Laura at Tired Mummy of Two chose Hospital Related Letters

‘That montage above is me. Big old fat failure of a woman, me. You are looking at a a failure. Look up that word in the dictionary and if Samantha Brick is to be believed, that is what you will find. That picture above.’ – Mummy Barrow chose Being a Big Fat Failure

‘Poor Granny. It soon became clear that this was not her idea of fun.’  – Emma from The Bavarian Sojourn chose A Damsel in Distress

So there you have it. Some favourite posts from some favourite bloggers. If you get ten minutes to yourself this weekend to sit down with a cuppa and your laptop, I hope you’ll pop over and say hello to one or two of them that take your fancy.

Have a good one x

I have a lot to be grateful for this week, and a lot of things making me happy.

A valve broke in our heating system last week, so we went from Friday night to Tuesday afternoon without any hot water in the house. Monday night chez Dorky was like a scene from a comedy film, as we spent an hour boiling saucepans of water on the stovetop to fill up the bath with. Our cruddy old hob is so slow that by the time we got through to the bathroom with a new pan full, the water from the last batch of pans was already cold, but eventually we managed a tepid six inches in the tub, which the three of us shared. Thankfully the plumber managed to get things fixed on Tuesday afternoon, and I have taken a moment to feel very grateful for every lovely hot shower I’ve had since.

Yesterday DorkySon and I headed in to London for a catch up with Penny from Being Mrs C and Emily from The Start Up Wife – two friends who have made that transition from being ‘friends in the computer’ to proper friends. It’s always a delight to see our kids playing nicely with each other – DorkySon and Little Miss C always end up making each other howl with laughter, usually at my expense – and this visit had the added bonus of meeting Emily’s beautiful six week old daughter. Lunch somehow turned into a three and a half hour visit – in the middle of which DorkySon said ‘all you mummies ever do is chat chat chat’. He’s right, that’s exactly what we do, and I am so grateful to have friends who I can do that with!

Finally, I am super grateful this week for YOU! The people who read this blog. It still shocks me that people take time out of their busy lives to read my posts, to comment and to share them with their own friends, but it makes me very happy too. I am so thrilled and honoured to have found out recently that I am a finalist in the Outstanding Category of the MAD Blog Awards, and a finalist in the Commentary category of the BritMums Brilliance in Blogging Awards. Thank you very much indeed to everyone who voted for me, I am chuffed to pieces and have a very big smile on my face. There are some hugely inspiring and very lovely bloggers in both those categories, and I have no expectation of winning either of them, but I am super-duper excited at the thought of going to the award ceremonies and catching up with some more of those fellow bloggers who I now count as ‘real’ friends and not just friends in the computer.

BritMums Live is a month from now, and I can’t wait. I’m speaking on a panel about bloggers and charities working together, which is very exciting, and just a little bit nervewracking. I don’t doubt that there will be plenty more ‘chat chat chat’ at that, so it’s perhaps just as well that DorkySon will be staying at home.

***

CSV, the UK’s Volunteering and Learning charity, have just launched a lovely campaign that I wanted to share with you.

The campaign is called Volunteer Champions, and has been launched to celebrate the people all over the country (and indeed the world) who quietly give up their time to try and make the world a better place.

Volunteering can take so many different forms, and a lot of us probably do it without even realising; helping out in a charity shop, caring for a friend or family member with disabilities, picking up litter from parks or beaches, mentoring young people, manning a cake stand at a local school fair… There are unsung heroes in all our communities who do these things every day for little or no recognition.

CSV wants to change that, with a campaign that really highlights the continued importance of volunteers over the last 50 years – a time of immense political, social and cultural change in society, much of which has been brought about by the work of ordinary folk like you and me giving up their time for causes they believe in. They have a fascinating timeline on their website sharing images and profiles of volunteers and their work from the last 5o years.

Their aim is that by the end of the Volunteer Champions campaign in June they will have celebrated and recognised the work of current volunteers, and hopefully even inspired some new ones. Lovely posts like this one from Premmeditations are exactly the kind of thing they’re hoping for.

If you’d like to get involved with the campaign, there are lots of ways you can do so; both by sharing your own personal experiences of volunteering, and also championing the inspirational volunteers who are active in your community.

1. You could tweet about the campaign, using the hashtag #VolunteerChampions and copying in @CSV_UK

2. You could write a blog post or a Facebook status about the campaign, talking about your own experiences of volunteering or giving thanks to a volunteer who has inspired you. There are some blog resources like photos and badges online here.

3. You can spread the word about the poster competition for young people (age 14-25) which is being organised by CSV and the V&A

If you don’t have a blog, I would love you to share your experiences of volunteering in the comments below. Have you ever volunteered? Do you at the moment? Have you ever been helped or inspired by other volunteers?

Someone I really like a lot is going to be reaching the grand old age of 58.

Can you guess who it is?

It’s MIFFY!

Sweet little Miffy, Dick Bruna’s creation, has been around for nearly sixty years – isn’t that incredible? It brings me no end of joy that the same simple, brightly coloured books that I loved as a little girl were also enjoyed by my Mum before me, and are now being enjoyed by DorkySon too.

We were delighted, then, when we were asked to help celebrate Miffy’s Big Birthday by reviewing the Miffy at School iPad App.

School is on DorkySon’s mind a lot at the moment, as he and most of his nursery friends are due to start after the summer, so we have been making the effort to read a lot of books about it. The Miffy at School App has provided another great opportunity to talk about starting school in a positive way, and to try and reassure DorkySon that it will be a fun and exciting experience rather than a scary one.

The App consists of three games – building with blocks, a memory game, and creating your own e-card – and an interactive book. There is the option to record your own (or your child’s) voices reading the story.

DorkySon’s favourite part was the interactive book. He would listen to the narrator read the story on each page, before moving onto the activities which included tracing a path for Miffy to take to school, counting with an abacus, drawing a picture, and shape recognition using bricks. All the activities were instinctive and he could do them without my help.

Of the three games, he most enjoyed the memory game, which involved tapping cards to turn them over and trying to match up pairs. The make your own e-card option was fun, but as we have removed email from the iPad that DorkySon uses, it would be nice if there was an option to just save the card that you’ve made rather than having to send it right away. We ended up taking a screenshot because he wanted to keep his creation to look at later.

Overall I’d say this is an App worth buying for a toddler or pre-schooler, especially if your children are already fans of Miffy, or if you’re looking for an opportunity to talk about school in a fun way. There is enough to keep them occupied for a good amount of time, and to make this an app that they will return to again and again.

The Miffy at School iPad App costs £2.99 and can be bought in the App Store.

You can also say hello to Miffy on Twitter and Facebook.

Disclosure: I was gifted a copy of the Miffy at School app for the purposes of this review. I received no other payment, and all views are my own.