I managed to poison myself by eating leftovers this week, hence no posts since Wednesday. I had recovered enough by today to go into town and to do a bit of filing and shredding at home. I'm still trying to work out what is useful and needs to be kept, and as I am a bit of a hoarder anyway, what might be useful at some point in the future and where to file it. After only eight months on the Council, I can see that I'm going to have to get ruthless about this in the future unless I want to be walled in by paper in the next couple of years.

Thursday, I went to an event hosted by Base K/S, the youth information shop which covers Kingstanding and Oscott wards. They have been running a young mothers group for several months, and this event was to launch a calendar they have produced, and to try and address some of the misconceptions about young women with children. It was very thought provoking - we talk a lot, especially in Kingstanding, about reducing teenage pregnancy, but maybe not enough about how young women are affected by having children and the sort of support that they need. It's easy to think of teenage pregnancy as a problem to be solved, or another statistic to be reduced, so it was a revelation to me to hear some of the members of the group talk about their experiences - good and bad  - and about their children. 

On a different note, has anyone else seen a large yellow poster which says 'Arthur Balfour was the 33rd Prime Minister', and if so do you know what it is for? Someone mentioned this to me the other day, and I've seen three of them on the way out of Birmingham today. There's no mention of who or what they are advertising, and I'm curious. Any ideas?