My brilliant year without supermarkets.

So the insomnia has kicked in again and I have to tell you I'm not really feeling very brilliant. I feel tired, run-down, washed-out and basically just a bit pants. I woke up at the crack of dawn after another late night - not helped by the fact that after going to bed I was woken by a distress call and then spent the small hours chasing a baby mouse around the living room (part of the cat's ongoing captive breeding project).

It's at times like these when the vow to avoid the supermarkets becomes particularly hard, because actually shopping local does take a teeny bit more effort.

That's the thing with the supermarkets. I've said it before and I'll say it again - they're just so damn convenient. And I really do think it's that level of one-stop-shop convenience that has allowed them to get such a strangle-hold over our lives in the 21st century. After all, we're all so busy multi-tasking, juggling work with families, working longer hours, checking our emails in bed at night and being bombarded with a million new ways to spend any spare time we do have - from books (which of course can also now be read on-screen) to that must-see show, crazes like zumba, running clubs, hundreds of TV channels and so on.... life is busy and we're always finding new ways to fill every single second of our time.

It's no wonder that at the end of the day we really can't be bothered to do much more than drag ourselves round the nearest supermarket - and to hell with the horse meat stories or the fact that it's doing our local greengrocer out of business.

Sometimes we need a bit of inspiration to go that extra mile. Which in my case means heading out to my local high street or farm shop rather than just slopping off to Tesco.

There was a book floating round the newsroom the other day that caught my eye. We're often sent freebies and other bits to review. This book was called 'The Art of Being Brilliant' and was written by two Andys - Andy Cope and Andy Whittaker. The reason it ended up in the Derby Telegraph newsroom was because Andy Cope is a local lad - a former teacher who runs a training company and has written a series of books for children. He is also currently doing great things in schools by running 'Brilliant Derby' workshops to teach children the art of positive thinking and aiming high. There's a story about it on our website if you want to know more.

Now I usually view personal development books with a good deal of skepticism, but as I'm not feeling particularly brilliant right now, something about the title pricked at my imagination and I thought I'd give it a go, so I borrowed it.

I'm about halfway through it right now and I have to say, I'm really enjoying it. For a start, it's pretty funny. These guys clearly have a sense of humour. It's also nice and British; there's still an undercurrent of reassuring stoicism along with all the positive messages, which I do think we English need. I can't cope with all that American, happy-clappy, think-positive-and-you-could-be-the-first-woman-on-the-moon nonsense that the US self-help gurus seem to specialise in. I mean, lets be realistic here. I'm probably never going to own a sports car (red Ferrari would be the dream), become a vet (childhood dream) or marry Johnny Depp (his loss).

Inspiring stuff from the Andys

But it does say some really very cheery things about opening your mind, being more creative and changing your way of thinking, and more often than not a little bit of positive thinking is really all we need to make the day brighter.

So this morning I'm putting a brave face on things. Rather than saying I didn't sleep well last night, I'm going to say that at least I got four hours, which is much better than nothing. And waking up early meant that I've just been able to go for a lovely early morning ride in bright sunshine, enjoying the traffic-free Sunday morning roads. 

I'm not tired. I'm just energetically-challenged. And I'm relishing my supermarket-free challenge. And on the off chance that Johnny Depp does come knocking, I'm sure I could muster up a bit of enthusiasm for him too!