To Downing Street... surely not?

I could have been in any old meeting this morning as I shared the things I'd seen in Bangladesh, but I wasn't. I was sitting amongst a room full of fellow Save the Children Ambassadors, as a cabinet meeting took place in a room below us at 10 Downing Street.

What a whirl-wind of a year it's been. 

From blogger to conference organiser to campaigner to ambassador to being on the guest list at world's most famous address. 

If anyone ever questioned the validity or reach of the parent blogging community - here's the proof.

I'm so proud that Blogladesh reached out to so many people and that it was the inspiration for Save the Children's amazing new 'Born To' campaign. 

You see.... we really can change the world.

And get your pic taken by loads of tourists while you are at it!

The Gallery.....Red

There was only ever one pic for the Red theme of this weeks Gallery. I love, love, love this pic of FunnyGirl, way back when she was only about 9 months old. If you have ever stopped by my business website you will have seen it before - but what a perfect image to promote my company?

Not so horror but cute beyond words.

If you have just stumbled across this post - do head over to Tara's blog for The Gallery linky, that will go live on Wednesday morning. You will find some amazing blogs for sure.

and don't get me started on school dinners.....

Granted I have been a tad busy over the last few weeks as I juggle my family and business with the stuff I have been doing for Save the Children.

But I am getting increasingly peeved with the letters requesting voluntary contributions for school activities that clearly aren't voluntary at all.

Take last week.

On Friday a letter came home with ModelGirl about a Roman Day that was happening the following Monday. I had two days to deck her out in Roman gear, I had to pay £5 for the privilege and I was off to New York.

After a frank discussion regarding timings and the merits of Roman fashion model girl decided that we didn't need to stress and that school uniform was good for her.

So off I went to New York and on Monday Roman day happened. Lucky for all the losers parents like me - they had plenty of spare costumes so that everyone could join in.

The following day I had a text from school asking me to pay my 'voluntary' £5 contribution. Two days later I had another text reminding me that I still hadn't paid my 'voluntary' contribution and then today I got a third text. 

Clearly the contribution is not so voluntary after all.

Is this normal primary school stuff? Does this happen at your child's school?

And then don't even get me started on school dinners...... Jamie might have made them trendy but I think that our school is way off the mark.

My children all attend a state church aided school in a beautiful rural village setting. The food is pretty rank in my own personal opinion but there is no way I'm entertaining making 3 packed lunches every day. So school dinners it is. The issue here is that they cost £1.90 a day. So with three in school that's nearly £30 a week and £354 for the term. The children who qualify for free school meals can be counted on one hand and there is a real negativity around the fact that us parents feel that the education authority are over charging us to make up the deficit in schools where free school meals are the norm.

I would love to know how much your school meals cost - and if you think they are worth it.

Blogladesh... Behind the scenes at the BMB web chat

We were a bit rowdy due to the fact that we'd been able to take our first semi normal shower in three days but this is us  - as we were talking to you all courtesy of my CyberMummy partners Susanna and Jen of British Mummy Bloggers.
Don't know about you but I think their web chats are a million times better than mumsnet.

Blogladesh road trip

A glimpse of our road trip from Barisal back to Dhaka.

Blogladesh

If you follow me on Twitter you will probably have seen my stream kick in with mentions of #Blogladesh this afternoon. But what's it all about?

Along with two other bloggers Eva (@nixdminx) and Josie (@porridgebrain) I will be travelling to Bangladesh with Save the Children Fund to highlight the work they are doing in line with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

In Bangladesh, 36% of the population live on less than US$1 (64p) a day and 83% live on less than US$2 (£1.28) a day. Extremely poor households are often dependent on income from their young children and around 7.4 million children are engaged in child labour.

These children miss out on the basics that we couldn't imagine not being a part of our own lives, such as food, education, access to medicine and security.

Almost 50% of Bangladeshi children under five years old are underweight or too small for their age. Approximately 2.4 million children aged 6-10, are not enrolled in primary school and the number of street children is estimated to be over 7, 00,000.

Every year around 250,000 children die in Bangladesh before reaching their fifth birthday. They die from things that can be easily prevented or treated like diarrhea, pneumonia and infections and from lack of proper maternity care. Things we take for granted.

We are going to be reporting from the field, tears and all and all we ask of you is to get behind us. Follow us all so that you can feel our trip from every angle. We are all very different bloggers and we will all have a different take on things. RT using our #Blogladesh hashtag, follow our pics on our Flickr stream (details to follow) and make as much noise as possible - because you know what? We can make a difference.

I already linked at the start of this post but if you are not already following Josie and Eva, here is where you can find them.

Josie, Sleep is for the Weak or on twitter @porridgebrain

Eva, Nixdminx or on twitter @nixdminx

If you really, really want to show your support please do use our badge on your site. Your can get the code here.

I will be sure to follow everyone who follows, RT's or shows support for this amazing project and if you do mention our trip on your blog please do add it to the Linky below.