Being Mrs C

Digital Postcard from #TeamHonk in Ghana

Since my last post Team Honk have arrived in Ghana and following them on social media is extrodinary, humbling and emotional. They are out there seeing the good work that Comic Relief have done in the last 25 years and so far they have visited the Virtuous Women's Bakery and a school in the slum areas. This morning I am sat watching Jonathan Ross and Davina McCall (yep three bloggers and now on first name terms with them both!) doing a series of live TV link-ups from a vaccination clinic where Comic Relief money has paid for 1 million vaccines for small babies.

As part of their work out there Team Honk have also been sending digital postcards to us bloggers back home and I was delighted to log on to my email this morning and find this in my inbox.

Hello Penny!

This a photo of children in a school on the edge of a slum in Accra. The downstairs of the school is one large room which serves 140 2-4 year olds and when we arrived some of the younger children were sleeping on the floor - amazing considering the loud singing and excitement buzzing around them as visitors arrived!

  

This is a digital postcard sent from TeamHonk (www.mammasaurus.co.uk; www.aresidence.co.uk;www.mummybarrow.com ) during their travels with Comic Relief in Ghana celebrating #goodwork.

For the past 25 years the money raised through Red Nose Day has been changing the lives of the poorest and most disadvantaged people in the UK and Africa. Let’s Keep Up the Good Work. Find out how at rednoseday.com

For other digital postcards please do check out the linky on www.teamhonk.org

If you want to hear more about Comic Relief and the work that they have done then please do follow Team Honk and show them your support. 

Team Honk are Annie (Mammasaurus), T (Mummy Barrow) and Penny (Alexander Residence). You can follow them via their team site, or separately on Twitter (Annie, T and Penny) where they will be using the #GoodWork hashtag.

Honk, honk for Team Honk and Comic Relief!

Blogging is one of those things where some people just don't "get it". They think it a complete waste of time and something that is only done by people that sit at home without enough social skills to go out and interact with the "real" world. Those people who do "get" blogging, and social media more generally, know that it's far more than that and that these days social media really can change the world. Here in the UK there are three particular bloggers who are about to use the power of blogging and social media to help change the world in support of Comic Relief and I'm very proud to support them.

Can you believe that it's 25 years since Comic Relief was born? That means it's twenty-five years since my mum tried to embarrass me by driving me to school whilst wearing a red nose - sorry mum but I still remember! It's also twenty-five years in which Comic Relief have done huge amounts of "good work" both in Africa and here in UK and they're using this anniversary to celebrate the progress that has been made and to highlight the difference made by the money that has been raised. So, where do three bloggers fit into this plan?

For weeks Annie, T and Penny have been teasing us across social media with news of a #SecretThing that they had planned. I've had the honour to meet T and Annie in the past couple of months and knew that the pair of them would be platting something big, but I had no idea just how big this plan of theirs is. Today the three of them are flying off to Ghana with Comic Relief to visit four projects and see for themselves the difference that has been made. They're going to be using their online influence whilst there to tell all of us at home about the fantastic work that Comic Relief has done over the last 25 years and how your donations can help them further going forwards.

It's going to be a hectic few days for the ladies and probably a very emotional journey too. Full details of their schedule are on the Team Honk website. There's also talk of a celebrity or two joining them out there. Apparently there's a "media schedule" too. This is all really happening and you know what - it all started with just one tweet. Well, that and three very determined women.

Make sure that you follow Team Honk over the next few days and keep your eyes peeled on TV too as I'd put nothing past Annie running across the back of some TV interviews to attract attention! Seriously though, this is an excellent opportunity to find out exactly how all the money donated to Comic Relief is being used in Ghana to help and to use social media to spread the news of the good work that Comic Relief are doing across Africa. There are going to be tweets, blog posts, videos and photos throughout their journey. Good luck to you ladies - we're behind you all the way. Safe journey!

Team Honk are Annie (Mammasaurus), T (Mummy Barrow) and Penny (Alexander Residence). You can follow them via their team site, or separately on Twitter (Annie, T and Penny) where they will be using the #GoodWork hashtag.

Child poverty here in the UK?

I struggle a bit to put my finger on quite why, but since I became a parent I've realised just how fortunate my daughter is. I've spent many sleepless nights worrying about children here in the UK that don't have three meals a day, who don't have a safe warm house to live in and toys to play with. I want to provide my daughter with everything she wants and needs - that's a mother's instinct - and I know that the few times I can't give her something (admittedly normally something trivial) it does break my heart.

I was fascinated and pleased therefore (if pleased is the right word to use here) to read yesterday about Save The Children's new campaign to raise money to help UK families in poverty. Their It Shouldn't Happen Here report into child poverty in the UK makes sad reading. You'd have to be pretty heart-less not to be moved by stories of parents going without meals so that their children do not miss out. Children who don't have new shoes that fit for the new school term, or don't have a warm coat for winter.

What has upset me somewhat is this morning's Daily Mail article entitled How can Save The Children equate British families with the starving poor of Africa? Well, for a start I don't believe that Save The Children have tries to equate the two. In everything I've read in the last 24 hours in the online media I have not seen one thing where anyone from STC has said that things here in the UK are like those in Africa. The Daily Mail also seems to use their article to say that it's all a political stunt and complaining that the accompanying TV advert uses actors rather then real children in poverty like the ones for their Africa campaigns do. 

I'm going to leave to one side the political arguments for now - mainly as I just can't be bothered to go into them right now and I'm not sure my brain can argue both sides whilst in this pregnancy fog - and try to concentrate on the children in question. To complain that the TV advert (which I've embedded above) uses actors is silly. So what. Most TV adverts do use actors and I don't see anyone up in arms about the fact that the children in a advert for toys are being paid to be there rather than just taking a video camera round to someone's house to record them playing with something they already own. There are plenty of reasons why some children in genuine poverty should not be used in TV adverts - personal privacy is just one.

The comments left on the Daily Mail article have also left me feeling somewhat exasperated. Lots of the comments talk about how the whole "situation" is due to people being given benefits that they then spend on flat-screen TVs, Sky subscriptions, smart phones, cigarettes and alcohol, rather than on their children. I agree that I have little sympathy for the parents that don't prioritise their children ahead of themselves (and I struggle to understand how they do so), but that is not the children's fault. They should not have to suffer because of their parents.

There are plenty of parents though who don't spend money on luxuries like this and still struggle to make ends meet  and to give their children what they need. This may be because these parents can not find work, or because they can't bring in an income sufficient to meet their outgoings, but whatever the reason I believe that STC is right to help families like this so that the children do not suffer and they have a proper childhood.

Save The Children are planning to use the money raised in two directions: their Families and Schools Together project to use education as a route out of poverty, and Eat, Sleep, Learn, Play which aims to provide families with household essentials. There is one thing that still seems to be missing for me though.

What about those parents who fail to provide for their children because they simply do not know how to. Parents who don't know how to budget with the income that they have to make it go as far as possible. Money management skills are not necessarily taught in schools and aren't obvious to many.

In some cases this may include those parents who prioritise their own cigarette and alcohol costs above those of food for balanced meals for their children. It is a fact that some young adults do not know what their children should have to be eating a balanced diet and they don't understand the health benefits associated with fruit and veg. They don't know about where they can get cheap furniture or clothes, or they may not have access to transport meaning that they can't physically get to the big supermarkets that stock the value ranges of food that mean balanced meals are possible on their budget.  Where is the support for these parents and their children in terms of education and enabling them?

I worry that without this level of support and education we could be in a vicious circle where one generation does not learn from the previous one. Do other charities provide this support? Should STC be doing this too, or maybe they are doing so without realising it? Is this the role of schools or local councils?

Whatever happens, without this being done by someone more children will suffer through no fault of their own and that is something that I'm sure none of us want.

Please don't apologise Team GB

Just in case you haven't noticed I should probably point out that there's a bit of a sporting event going on in London at the moment. Although technically it's not just in London as there are Olympic football matches all over the country and sailing down on the coast and probably a few other events in other places that technically don't fall within the London postcode district.

As long as you're aware of Lord Coe's "sports day" then you must also be aware of how amazingly well Team GB are doing at the moment. Gold medals have been coming in thick and fast, but in addition to the 18 golds that we currently have we also have a pretty spectacular 11 silver and 11 bronze at the time of writing. That's 40 medals in total and others are guaranteed in some sports. It's a spectacular tally and these sportsmen and women are inspiring the next generation of athletes. How refreshing it will be to have children who want to be Jessica Ennis or Bradley Wiggins rather than some "celebrity" from Big Brother or similar.

Not everyone gets a medal though, but that doesn't mean that they've failed in any way. These people have dedicated hours, days, months and years to training for these games and they have proudly represented their country. Every single one of them has made sacrifices and gone through physical torture to wear a Team GB strip and compete on behalf of us all at these home games. Yes obviously everyone out there would like a medal, they'd be lying if they said they didn't, but the fact is that not everyone can.

What has shocked me with these games are the number of athletes who have broken down in tears apologising to everyone when they haven't won a medal, or won the medal that they were expecting to. Being upset is understandable - human nature - but please, please don't apologise. You've gone out there and done something amazing. You've represented your country at a home Olympics. Something that so many of us could never imagine doing and you've done it with pride. We know how much you've put into these games and the sacrifices that you've made. You've all put everything into trying to win and for that you are applauded. You have not let anyone down - not the public, your team or your family. They are all so, so proud of you. You've united the UK in a way that so many thought impossible just a year ago as riots raged in London and elsewhere.

Team GB have excelled themselves these games and the country is rightly proud of them - all of them. Not just those atheletes that ended up on the podium, but all those who started and all the people working "behind the scenes". They are a team in the true meaning of the word. Other sports teams should take note of this moving forwards - yes I'm looking at you footballers - this is how sportsmen and women should behave!

Bookstart 20

I was completely shocked when I today read on twitter say that nearly 60% of families do not own a single baby book. I've seen statistics like this before about things like the average number of books in a UK household being just five, and previously I've never been able to get the facts to back up what I've read. This time though Beachy Books were able to point me in the direction of this article from The Bookseller.

According to the research that has been done, 57% of families do not own a single baby book until they receive their Bookstart early reading packs. These packs are given out in the baby's first year via Health Visitors, often at the baby's one year check. That means these children are not having books shared with them for the first year of their life. I'm just completely in shock still about this.

We started reading to Little Miss C so early - I can't exactly remember when - and she has always loved books. As soon as she could sit up she would happily sit infront of a box of books and go through them. She's always loved listening to the rhythm of books being read outloud to her and still likes nothing more than snuggling up with mummy or daddy to share a book with them. When she was going through her frustrated phase where she wanted to do so much more than she physically could we always used to be able to calm her down by curling up together and working our way through a pile of books. I can't imagine depriving a child of this sort of pleasure.

If there's one thing that these statistics do show it's that the role of Bookstart is such a valuable one. I dare not think how many children might not get any exposure to books at all if the charity behind Bookstart did not do the valuable work that it does in providing the Bookstart packs and also the support for adults to share books with their children.

In 2012 Booktrust (the charity behind Bookstart) is celebrating 20 years of Bookstart and they are asking people to make a simple pledge to support Bookstart by pledging to share 20 books in 2012. There are many ways in which you can share books - reading aloud, either to your own children or at a nursery or library, recommending books or taking part in book swaps, joining a reading group or posting book reviews online. It's very easy to make your pledge on their website and in doing so you will be helping to support Bookstart and also encourage more parents to share books with their children.

I have pledged to support Bookstart and to share 20 books in 2012. I plan to do so by reviewing (at least) 20 children's books here on my blog. Not just books that I am sent by publishers, but books that Little Miss C and I enjoy together - whether they be old classics, new books we have been sent or ones that we have found in the local library.

Why not make your pledge to share 20 books in 2012 and help to change the shocking statistic I started with.

Disclaimer: I have received no payment or other reimbursement for this post.

FoodCycle

Have you ever thought about what happens to food that's still on the shelves of your local supermarket when it reaches its "display until" date? Much of it is still perfectly edible, but as it can no longer be sold it instead often ends up just going in a shop's general rubbish. Wasted food - not nice, but sadly a fact of life in many shops. There are an estimated 400,000 tonnes of surplus food that can reclaimed each year from food retailers here in the UK, but all this food can be turned into healthy and nutritious meals.

Food poverty is another huge problem facing us here in the UK with an estimated 4 million people affected. The current economic situation and rising unemployment is also impacting on this and it is thought that it costs the NHS £13billion a year to deal with malnutrition.

When you look at the above facts it seems staggering to me that both these things are happening here in the UK. A 1st world country, yet food is going to waste at the same time as food poverty and malnutrition. A crazy, crazy situation, but one that FoodCycle is committed to change.

FoodCycle's mission is quite simple: 

"We empower local communities to set up groups of volunteers to collect surplus produce locally and prepare nutritious meals in unused professional kitchen spaces. These delicious meals are then served to those in need in the community."

When you see it written down like that it seems simple, yet it's still not easy without the core of volunteers that FoodCycle are also empowering.

Increased unemployment here in the UK means that there are people out of work, especially young people, who often have no opportunity to learn new skills that would help them get into employment. It's all too easy for people in this situation to feel alienated from the community around them and that's how local communities become fractured and break down. What FoodCycle do is to support volunteers and provide them with the skills and tools they need to help within their communities and to serve nutritious meals to those most in need.

Since they were established in 2008 FoodCycle have set up 14 Hubs and two Community Cafes in the UK. At each of the Hubs FoodCycle has helped local volunteers to find local sources of surplus food and free kitchen spaces in which to prepare and cook meals. They also help to build a group of volunteers and work with the community to find the people to serve these meals too - refugees, homeless people, low income families and the elderly for example. Ongoing support is also then provided to help with practical things like cooking skills, insurance, food safety training and ensuring that the Hub has the support and volunteer engagement that it needs to continue.

The Community Cafes are slightly different in that they sell nutritious and affordable food to the local communities where they are based. After our recent Living Streets Great British Walking Challenge walk, Little Miss C and I were fortunate enough to visit the Pie in the Sky FoodCycle Community Cafe in Bromley-by-Bow in East London. Based at the Bromley-by-Bow Centre this cafe really couldn't be any closer to the heart of the local community.

The centre caters for all community needs including helping residents with health issues, learning new skills, finding employment and providing the tools to help them to create an enterprising community. As we sat there eating a delicious lunch (a yummy vegetarian lasagne in case you're wondering!) we could see a huge range of local people coming in and using both the centre and the cafe; older ladies out for an afternoon cup of tea, a group of people with learning difficulties having lunch before a craft class in a neighbouring room, a local mum passing through on her way to a medical appointment with her small children. This is exactly the kind of place that communities should be centred around - somewhere welcoming and with all the tools and support to help local people to build a community that they can be proud of. 

FoodCycle's role at the centre of places like this is so important, yet many people I've spoken to over the last week don't seem to be aware of them yet. I'm hoping that this post will hope to change that. There are several different ways to keep up with what they are doing:

• The FoodCycle blog,
• like FoodCycle on Facebook, or
• follow @FoodCycle on Twitter.

If you want to find out more about FoodCycle and their work, are interested in volunteering or want to donate to FoodCycle then please just take a look at their website.

Disclaimer: I have received no payment for this blog post, but as part of the Great British Walking Challenge that LMC and I undertook we were bought lunch in the FoodCycle Pie in the Sky Community Cafe.

Set our children free!

You frequently hear people talking about how children of today don't play outside enough. Older generations often use the "in my day" phrases when telling of children only bothering to come home when they knew a meal would be on the table and then spending the rest of their time climbing trees and exploring for miles around where they lived.

The reality is that a lot has changed since "those days". Neary every home now has a TV set and many childrens have one in the bedroom too. There are also games consoles and handheld games which children like to spend time on too. More mothers now work whereas in previously the mother would often have a stay at home role which involved cooking nutritious homecooked meals too. The issue of "stranger danger" also didn't seem to exist in quite the same way as it does today. The press have spoken about how technology and junk food have led us to have more obese children than ever before, a couch-potato generation, yet I've not really seen many proper studies on how life is different for today's children compared to those of their grandparents' generation. That is until now.

In conjunction with the National Trust, naturalist, author and TV producer Stephen Moss has produced a report entitled Natural Childhood in which he looks at the changing relationship between children and the natural world around them. As many would expect, children are sadly spending less and less time outdoors. Some of the statistics are surprising. Three times as many children are taken to hospital each year from falling ot of bed than falling out of trees! Children in Britain also watch 17 hours of television a week - that's a staggering 2.5 hours a day and is up from 2007, despite the increase in internet usage since then. 11-15 years olds spend about half their waking lives in front of a screen - 7.5 hours a day.

That last figure in particular staggers me. That's the same as spending a typical working day infront of a computer. But these are children. Shouldn't they be running around, playing games, playing with toys, reading books, crafting, listening to music, or even just sitting and talking to other people for some of that time? I couldn't find a statistic for the average number of hours that a child spends outside in the fresh air, but I'm sadly guessing it may be very low.

Surely children need to understand and appreciate the natural world around them so that they can play their part in protecting it for future generations. If these children grow up having never seen flowers in the wild, having not spotted wild animals and birds in their natural habitats or having not apprecaited the vast array of plants and trees that we have here in the UK would they care about protecting them? Or would they instead be happy for green zones to be abolished and things to be allowed to become extinct? 

The National Trust is running a two month long inquiry to look at how we can reconnect today's children, and future generations, with the natural world. Parents, teachers and healthcare professionals all say that it should be done, but yet initiatives that are set up to do so have as yet been unsuccessful. I'm fascinated to hear their findings and to see if there is a way to turn things around. I sincerely hope so.

So, do you take your children out to play outdoors? Do you encourage them to build dens and climb trees? And if not, why not? What do you think should be done to help their generation to reconnect with the nature that is all around them? Is the modern day lure of technology too much or do we need to fight back as part of the current aim that many people have of simplifying their lives? I would love to hear your views.

What's twitter ever done for me?

Stephen Fry is probably responsible for a lot of things in life. I think he was the first person I heard talking about twitter on TV and to be honest I didn't really "get it" then. Something that's like writing a blog, but only in 140 characters. What's the point I thought - put it all in a blog post in as many characters as you want. Oh how wrong I was!

When you're new to twitter it can be a bit tricky to see how it all works. You start off following Stephen Fry and wondering why the world seems to be going on about how great this new thing is and instead you're just notified that he's stuck in a lift with some bloke that he's just taken a photograph of. I didn't tweet myself then - why would I when I couldn't see the point. Then I started following a few more people and found myself chuckling away at some of what they had to say. I realised that news organisations and papers had accounts and sent out links to articles and other news stories. I discovered that most of the BBC F1 team are on there telling you about what is going on in the F1 world between races. Then I found some locals on there and boy did things take off from there!

For once I saw people say things that I actually wanted to respond to. People asking questions that I could answer usefully. Little by little I started talking to these people and some of them even started talking directly to me. Suddenly I got it.

There's a fab article been published today in the Herts Advertiser about the Twitterati of St Albans - a group that I'm actually quite proud to be a member of - and it describes twitter as being "a bit like having all your favourite people: authors, sports stars, celebrities and if it suits your fancy, politicians, all in your very own private pub" and I don't think I could sum it up better than Laura Roberts has. You can choose exactly who is in your pub and bar those you don't want in. You can talk to who you want and the pub's open 24 hours a day.

Twitter is my starting point for many things online. I hear about more world events first via there then from television or radio and I understand I'm not alone in that. News spreads fast via twitter and although some of it is false, if you know which sources to trust you can often find out about major things like the plane that landed in the Hudson or the recent Concordia disaster before the news agencies publish their first stories.

As a stay at home mum one of the most important things to me is the local network that I've become part of. St Albans has a huge number of twitter users and I have to say that they are some of the lovliest, friendliest and varied people that I've ever had the pleasure to meet. I've met other local mums who have become genuine "real-life" friends, local business people where I've become one of their customers and loads of people who just know loads about everything. I even managed to find one local mum who is actually married to someone Mr C went to school with!

Very kind people I initially met online have bought me drinks in the pub, given me clothes their children have grown out of for LMC, lent LMC toys and books, given me discounts in local shops and play centres and shared laughter and tears over tea and cake. I have met so many of them in the flesh and really feel like I am part of a local community as a result. I am amazed at how many times people on there ask local questions and get instant responses from people nearby. From questions like why the Abbey flag was flying at half mast one day to what time the local tip was opening. There's always someone who knows the answer and wants to share that with you. We managed to get rid of our old broken washing machine to a local guy who wanted to use the drum to create a fire pit on his allotment site after a quick tweet and I even sorted out the lack of delivery of our local free paper after an online exchange with the editor. A request to find an accordian teacher so I could arrange lessons for Mr C as a Christmas present gave me a name and phone number within 45 minutes of asking.

Years ago people used to talk about being part of a community. People knew their neighbours, the local shop keepers and other families where they live. With people moving away from their hometowns due to work or family reasons and longer working hours these communities died off in many areas, but here in St Albans it is back thanks to twitter. I know more locals now than ever before and whenever I need to find out something it's my first port of call.

I guess I've got a lot to thank Stephen Fry for after all...

If you're on Twitter then you can find me at @BeingMrsC.

What will you do for money?

Don't worry this isn't going to be a post about whether or not you'd sell your body for money or anything like that, but I am wanting to hear what jobs people are prepared to do to get some extra money.

As everyone knows economic times are tough here in the UK and there are plenty of people who have recently been made redundant. It is hard to find a new job, especially if you want to work in a specific sector or on certain days of the week to fit in with childcare. I realise that things will differ widely across the country and that here in Hertfordshire we're fortunate to live in a fairly affluent place which hasn't overall been hit too badly by unemployment, but I'm still noticing a surprising amount of work out there for people if they're just prepared to do certain things.

One of the reasons why this blog has been so quiet for the last couple of weeks is that I've been using my one day when Little Miss C goes to nursery to do a bit of work. It's not a job that I went out looking for, but a friend needed some basic gardening work done and despite asking around for a local teenager who wanted some extra money none came forward. Wanting to both help out a friend and help pay December's credit card bill I happily dug out my gardening gloves and woolly hat and spent a couple of afternoons getting slightly grubby whilst clearing leaves, weeding and chopping things down. It's been really invigorating being out in the fresh air and as I've driven home I've had a real sense of achievement at doing something productive with my time.

Talking to the friend in question and other local people it seems like there is a need for people locally to do gardening jobs like this, or cleaning jobs, yet those people that do the jobs already seem to be so busy that they can't fit in new customers. The going rate of pay is pretty good - admittedly not if you were paying childcare for multiple children, but if kids were already at school or could stay with a relative that wouldn't be a problem - so why don't more people offer themselves up for this kind of thing? Surely if people really need the money then a job is a job and you shouldn't be fussy about what you do? Or are there some people who just won't clean a toilet no matter what? I realise that people who have degrees under their belt might not have planned a job like this when they were sat doing their university finals, but needs must and all that. 

So here's my question - assuming you're physically fit enough - would you be prepared to get your hands dirty in order to earn some money? Or, have I just got the wrong impression about what people are, and are not, prepared to do to make ends meet? Are there variations around the country meaning that in some places people are already filling all these roles? You her some news stories of 600 applicants for one bar job and others in which peole can't fill some roles at all - I'm intrigued to know what it's really like.

Whilst being paid cash for this particular bit of gardening work I should state that I am registered as self-employed so I will be paying tax on this income at the end of the financial year. I'm also not on any kind of Governement benefits that would be affected by this income. Just in case the tax man is reading...

Treasures from Trash

With it being holiday season Little Miss C and I are really doing the days out thing at the moment and our adventures this week took us to Luton and more specifically Stockwood Discovery Centre. 

If you're local and have not been before then it is a lovely free day out. The museum is vast, covering a wide range of exhibits from farming machinery to horse-drawn carriages, and there's also a lovely cafe, playground, grounds and the wider Country Park to explore.

The reason that took me to Stockwood this time was having heard about the Treasures from Trash exhibition that is on at the moment. I always like finding out more about environmental issues, and recycling is something that I'm particularly interested in. The exhibition looks at all the different ways in which new objets are created from what others might throw away. Some of the things featured were recycled objects that I was familiar with - reusable shopping bags from old carrier bags, art objects from old drinks cans and jewellery from bottle tops.

For me though one of the most fascinating parts of the exhibition was the videos showing recycling in some of the poorer parts of Africa. There people take whatever they can find and look to repurpose it, either for their own benefit, or to sell for money to help their families. Watching how hard these people were prepared to work to help their families was inspiring and really made me think again about the recent riots and looting in London and other British cities.

These people in Africa were poor. Properly poor (if you can use that term). Some of them didn't know where their next meal was coming from and their homes were very, very basic - especially by Western standards. However, they were prepared to do whatever it too to try to make their lives and family lives better. Cooking pots were made from old beans cans. A children's cart made from old plastic bottles. Toys made from old car tyres to be sold for money. You certainly didn't see them helping themselves to a new plasma TV or pair of trainers because they felt their Government has let them down. Why can't some people in this country realise that they can't have everything just handed to them. Have we really brought up a generation that isn't prepared to work for things? If so it's a sad state of affairs and I'm not sure how we reverse it...

The Treasures from Trash exhibition is on until 25 September 2011 at Stockwood Discovery Centre in Luton.