so much for that then

today has not been a successful day for Small. I lost count of the accidents on the floor, he refused point blank to go near the toilet, and thankfully I’d given up and put a pull up on before he proved he is no longer the slightest bit constipated

Big and I haven’t had the best of times either. I really don’t like being screamed at, and being calm, reasonable and just ignoring her takes ages before she gets the message that screaming isn’t working.

But I have worked long and hard. So now I’m going to take the evening off the computer, loom something for a bit, and then get an early night. I’m very tired, and I think that is mainly whats behind my low mood.

But I do have a confession and an apology to make first. A couple of nights ago, I had an unexpectedly pleasant conversation with someone I suspect I’d be quite happy to regard as a friend from now on. That someone was Natascha Engel, my MP. As regular readers will be aware, I’ve written to Natascha lots of times with steadily increasing ire and decreasing optimism about a variety of the legislation being inflicted on us from above. We’ve managed to exchange a few emails, and I’ve received some letters. However on Monday we talked on the phone and it was a bit of a revelation for me. She’s not a Blair babe, parachuted in from the outside to rocket her way to a high profile yes job. She was a trade union worker who stood for selection as a candidate, and never expected to be selected. Now that she is there, she’s doing her best in a ridiculous system, to fit in her family and life and find out what her constituents really want and how best to represent their views. I suspect we will always differ on a few points – I do think there are times MPs should stand against their party, whereas Natascha believes that the work should all be done at committee stage and rebelling during the voting is way too late. Anyway we chatted for a good 40 minutes, and made tentative arrangements for me to take the kids down to London in October time for a tour and to meet for lunch. Oh, and I tried to persuade her to get a blog. Tell you later if it worked