I’d like if I may, to tell a little tale about the conscientious environmentally aware parent and their hunt for a more environmentally friendly method of poo disposal for their little one.

When Little Penguin came along I’ll be the first to admit that we as parents probably did exactly what the vast majority of parents do. It was a whiz around Mothercare for various items followed by the steady routine of purchasing the various paraphernalia of associated accessories that go along with the rearing of small persons in modern day Britain.

Part and parcel of these is the procurement of nappies. I’ll be the first to admit it was a straight choice between disposables and terry towels of which Mrs Penguin certainly didn’t fancy the prospect of the terry towel option so like millions of other parents it was off for some disposables. Sometimes Huggies, sometimes Pampers but there really isn’t a great deal of choice out there spare the few own-brand versions.

About 18 months down the line having contributed no end to our countries ever increasing landfill problems I by chance came across the the Real Nappies Campaign and I started a bit of a personal crusade. It wasn’t going to affect Little Penguin but were a Littler Penguin to come along then the desire was definitely there to do something different second time around.

When Littler Penguin popped out last month there really wasn’t much choice, being premature and relatively tiny there was only the option of those ’size 0′ disposable nappies which worried me that we were going down the same path once again.

So a couple of weeks ago I took it upon myself to undertake a bit of a mission. Checked out the Real Nappy Campaign website for local stockists of reusable nappy solutions and headed off to Wolverhampton. The likely contenders listed were the obvious Mothercare, Boots and Waitrose.

First stop was Mothercare who do their own line in reusable nappies. It’s a complete system but having done a bit of totting up in my head the prices didn’t seem any more favourable than using disposables and much as I’d like to think it was purely an environmental concern at heart, I’d rather have preferred there to be a financial payoff as well. That said and this purely my own personal opinion, I didn’t much like the look of the Mothercare system either but it was all they had to offer.

So off I trundled to Boots who had nothing more than a couple of terry towels which wasn’t going to fly with the missus. Thinking that my last option was Waitrose and not being particularly up for a hike up the Penn Road I decided to get on the phone.

There are times in life when an internet enabled phone coupled with Google Search/Maps comes in very handy and this was one such time.

I spoke to a few of the other people listed on the Real Nappy Campaign site who mainly seemed to be home based suppliers but got some good advice, some of which was not to bother hiking to Waitrose. I talked a bit and finally came up with the kind of system I had in mind and was advised that the Bambino Mio range was probably my best option.

Sadly though no one knew a local outlet but going through the list I came across a store in Walsall called Kiddisave which for those with local knowledge is the place behind Woolworths with all the prams in the window.

Gave them a call and they had the Bambino Mio range in so off I toddled to Walsall very much to the annoyance of Mrs Penguin who I’d promised I’d only be out for an hour or so but t’was a trip worth making it was.

In the end I opted for one of the packs that contain three nappy outers, 12 cotton nappies and picked up a pack of the wraps and anti-bacterial washing stuff to boot. Cost about £50 all together which is a bit of a psychological barrier but when you consider the only part that needs buying again, the wraps, which are a fiver for 200. (the washing stuff will also need purchasing again but by the looks of it will last for a year).

The wraps also comprise the only disposable element of the system and are fully biodegradable and toilet flushable which is what we wanted.

So now we’re on to Bambino Mio’s which despite the name sounding decidedly Italian are actually a company from Northamptonshire so we can be equally content that we’re buying British as well. (to be precise the outers say made in the EU, and the wraps say ‘converted in the UK’ but to be fair, we don’t exactly grow much cotton in the UK so somewhere along the line something comes from afar but that’s good enough for me as it’s a UK based company that’s making the profit)

We’re not totally converted as of yet, it took a bit of learning and trial and error to get the folding and wrapping right and at nights we’ll still use some disposables for reasons that fellow parents will now but the principle is there and the bin is considerably less full on collection day than it was a few weeks ago.

If anything though, this little episode has taught me something. We’re using this kind of reusable system, not because there was a big fanfare of marketing aimed at us. Not because there was information about it in those packs that they give you at hospital when you’re going through the whole pregnancy thing (although there’s plenty of marketing in those packs for Pampers) but because out of pure bloody-mindedness it was something that we wanted to try. The problem is that to get to that point it took effort, research, asking around which I’m going to hazard a guess that most parents won’t be bothered with on the arrival of a little one as there’s far more important stuff to do.

When local authorities consider the cost of landfill tax then it would surely follow that they would have a strong vested interest in trying to make people aware of how they can use something other than disposables and it also figures that as at some point every parent has to visit said local authority to register the birth then some sort of information pack or even voucher scheme handed out at this point seems the most logical.

I’ll just add that yes, some local authorities do runs schemes along the lines of giving one-off payments of anything up to £70 on production of receipts for the purchase of reusable nappy systems. The only local one to these parts is Wolverhampton although we’ll see how long that lasts under the new Tory/LibDem alliance.

That personal thing I mentioned.

Regular readers and friends will know that the Penguin household is expecting the pitter patter of little flippers in the near future. The second instance of this in our case and an arrival date being the hideously inconvenient date (for someone actively involved in politics) of May 1st (being polling day for this year’s local elections).

Pretty much everything was sorted, people who I know would be looking for my campaigning help had been informed that Mrs Penguin would kill me if I went out knocking doors on the day she was due to go into labour so that along with going to any counts had all been canceled.

Then last Thursday we went for what should have been our last scan and no going into details, there are a few problems. These have meant that some time in the very near future Mrs Penguin will have to spend some time in hospital along with the new arrival, I’ll have to take care of Little Penguin on my own for a week or two, or maybe longer alongside doing all the stuff that pays the bills and making daily visits to the hospital.

There’s a lot I’d like to write about, in particular how things are going with this whole Phorm thing but if anything, the last week has focused my mind on what’s truly important in life and much as I love it, this blog comes much lower in the order of priorities than other things right now.

I’m not off for good but if I don’t post anything after tonight for a month or so then you’ll know why.

Tata for now.

Note:

I’m actually going to post something tonight to try and clear up a few things I meant to do if I get the time, if not, well, see you all sometime in the future.

Been a bit quiet on the blog front lately - with good reason. The ongoing development of the latest Littler Penguin is making Mrs Penguin very sick. Being the loving caring kindof guy I am, I’ve been taking up a lot of the responsibility for many of the things that Mrs Penguin usually attends to not to mention the rather considerable number of DIY jobs required before the arrival of Littler Penguin.

This unfortunately has meant that I’ve had to let a few things slide, the blog being one of them but for the next couple of days I’ve been let out. I’m off to the Annual Co-operative Party Conference in London so excluding time taken up by debates and socialising, I hope to get back up to date on a number of different issues and have a little bash at blogging a bit about conference.

The Co-operative Party doesn’t get a great deal of attention in the national media but it remains the fourth largest political party in Britain. This year is particularly important as it marks the 90th Anniversary of the founding of the Co-operative Party. I enjoy the Co-operative Party Conference, it tends to be more policy orientated and I’ll try to cover a few of the debates on the blog if I can, you never know they may have net access in the conference hall.

On a personal note it feels strange to be leaving Mrs Penguin alone for a few days. I don’t go away much but I’m actually looking forward to a slight change of scenery - if exchanging living in the second largest urban area in the country for the largest can be truly considered a change of scenery.

On a side note, she won’t be lonely, looks like we’ve got another mouse in the house. Mrs Penguin mentioned that she thought she heard something the other day but it wasn’t until yesterday when I noticed a distinctly nibbled packet of Ginger Nuts on my desk that I believed her. Anyway, last night I spotted the little bugger so definitely a mouse, thankfully not a rat but unlike the last one, this one’s cheaky. He’s going for everything and is so noisy he actually woke me up at 4.00am rustling about. Must devise a method of catching him.

Yesterday I mentioned that I’d had a bit of news that if it was confirmed would make me very happy.

Well today it’s been pretty much confirmed. Mrs Penguin did a second pregnancy test and it was positive like the one yesterday. On top of that she’s feeling sick and has no appetite for chocolate that probably is more of a reliable indicator than any test from the chemist.

Strangely I feel quite relaxed about it. First time around I worried quite a bit, mainly about making sure we got all the various bits of paraphernalia that go with having children. We’ve got all that now and apart from doing some rather major, not to mention expensive work on the house to accommodate a larger family, things seem rather sanguine.

We’ve even sorted out the names already so there’s hardly anything to think about. I just hope the next nine months go by quite quickly really.

I’m sure all parents wish that their offspring become cleverer than themselves that they do more and learn more than we do. However and although I wish this for Little Penguin I didn’t expect that it would come after only 18 months of him being around.

Here was the plan. I don’t speak German but would like to learn so as we are bringing up Little Penguin bilingually the theory was that I would learn with him.

That was the theory but the little sod’s capacity for picking up words is unbelievable and far outstrips my own. Not only is he learning the English for things but also the German and he now knows what a whole raft of things are in German that I don’t. I’m rather miffed and feeling distinctly humbled.

[Timestamp altered]

I realised that it is far overdue to introduce Little Penguin to the wonders of crayons and allow him to express his artistic interpretations.

However I am torn on one issue. We have plenty of paper in the house and obviously a desire that he concentrates his energy with crayons on that but what about the walls? Is it right to encourage him to concentrate wholly on paper or surrender the first couple of foot of the walls to crayonial expression?

We don’t have any wallpaper so that’s not an issue and most of the walls are painted white so wholloping them afterwards with white paint when he’s out of that stage isn’t a problem.

Thoughts appreciated.

I’ve not posted much for the last few days. Actually nothing as I’ve been doing a few other things so I thought I’d do a little bit of a round up of events/issues.

On Tuesday the Penguin household braved the border patrols and sneaked into the Sandwell Borough to attend the launch of the Jon Cruddas Deputy Leadership campaign. Bob Piper did a good summing up of the event and in truly photographic genius style, managed to get the backs of the whole Penguin household in the frame. I learned one thing from that; I need a hair cut.

On the serious side it was refreshing to see Cruddas talk about issues that seem to have not got the attention they deserve in recent years, primarily that of social housing. The problems have been brewing for a generation but even if the debate is finally up there where it belongs, then perhaps we can start address an issue that affects many on lower incomes.

Following on from that, and it does beg the question: “where do we get these people from”, the comments made by Margaret Hodge. Short of making a play for the Leadership of the BNP, it makes you wonder how some people get to where they are on the basis of such awful political nouse. Perhaps it’s a lack of imagination but her comments have been rightfully condemned by many as they should. If she is concerned about the gains made by the BNP in her own constituency, not helped of course by her own last rash of daft comments then she should learn at least one thing of which I would have thought someone who has got the position of being an MP should already know.

You cannot win on the basis of using the argument of the opposition. Especially when that opposition are the horrid bunch of toe-rags that the BNP are. You cannot appropriate the blame for a lack of social housing by accepting the arguments from the far-right that it’s all these naughty East Europeans invading the country. She should know, unless Barking is a very strange place indeed that migrants rarely end up in council houses. The vast majority end up in low quality private sector accommodation or the equivalent of shared dorms of workers. They’re not holed up in nice 3 and 4 bedroom council semi’s because although if they are in the UK, earning and paying tax then they should be entitled, there’s a shitload more people ahead of them on the waiting lists who’ve been there for years and short of a very exceptional circumstance, they ain’t going to be able to jump the queues.

She would have been far more productive in addressing the reasons for this lack of housing and it’s underlying causes, rather than effectively writing the BNP’s next leaflet campaign in Barking for them.

I spotted this during the week too. I just have a few thoughts on this, none of them complimentary towards Microsoft as regular readers will have probably guessed. So here’s the scenario, Microsoft want there to be a professional body for IT people in the UK because there’s too many out there doing dodgy fixes or bodged jobs on systems.

First point being that this is a bit rich given the output of Microsoft in terms of ‘good’ programming is laughable. They release software with bugs in them, highly unsecure systems and quite frankly are not the people to lecture others about high levels of competence.

Secondly, they’ve helpfully inferred that their own Microsoft accreditation programme would be very useful in assessing and registering IT ‘professionals’. Well, no it woudn’t, it would tell people that they know how to use one of a myriad of different systems available, and the poorest of those to boot. Are they seriously thinking that the UK Government would fall for what is patently an attempt to sew up the market by being supplier and effective registrar of those who work in the industry. Come on, no Government Minister is going to fall for that one. On the other hand this is IT so it’s always possible, but thankfully it appears the Government is very cool to this idea of a professional body anyway.

Thirdly, and finally, I’ll admit it, I’m a bodger. Not so much these days but in a past life of being surrounded by Microsoft’s products at work. There’s two reasons you have to bodge around with systems. It has nothing to do with your level of expertise and everything to do with Microsoft. Apart from the software they produce being unstable and a complete security nightmare at times (yes I do remember manually having to hack a rather pernicious virus of computers across the UK via remote access and manually having to do every machines registry system because none of the tools that were supposed to work did, or they allowed the machines to re-infect each other before you could isolate them) but as with everything with Microsoft, you never 100% know what you’re dealing with. I can happily mess about the registry of a system, that thing they tell you never to touch because a character in the wrong place can happily kill a machine but despite this knowledge, I still don’t know exactly how Windows works. Why? Well, because they don’t release the code, it’s all secret so at best you’re dealing with educated guesswork or previous experience. You can never know exactly what’s going on because it doesn’t get outside of a building in Redmond.

I think that’s pretty much it for the weekly review. Apart from Mrs Penguin has nicked my ‘good’ computer, I’ve spent a lot of time enjoying watching my son learn to run and I’m looking forward to my first trip to the cinema to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 since I went to see Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith, from which you can deduce I don’t go to the cinema very often. I’ve also took advantage of the brief bit of good weather to do some of the jobs I haven’t been able to do outside or that require sunshine. Sadly this opportunity seems short-lived as it’s decidedly pissing it down again. Good night to one and all.

This whole blogging thing is starting to get slightly out of hand in our household. Little Penguin’s at it and now Mrs Penguin’s at it as well. However thankfully I’ve convinced her to have a proper site a ditch that MySpace crap. Duly added to blogroll or I’ll get it in the neck.

Who knows, might even be able to coax her away from her crappy Windows operating system and get her on to Linux. Well, we can live in hope.

Little Penguin has finally got round to rebuilding his website. Drop by, take a gander, say hi. He’s a little smarty pants trying to upstage his father by sticking bits of AJAX (that’s a technical web thing not the cleaner) in his site.

sticking to the family related posts tonight.

I don’t know if other fathers go through this but following on from the birth of my son I have a strange urge to garden. It wasn’t there before to any large extent but now the garden is turned over to the production of wholesome food for the family.

What is more exciting is when the first shoots of the plants break through the surface of the soil and you know they’re on their way. So just to share my own amazement at the wonderment of nature here’s the radishes:

and the peas:

I think I should take a bit of a rest now. Been in the garden all day and might have picked up a little heat stroke.