I'm back! How r u?

The words (if you can even call them that) “How r u?” are always going to be upsetting to a journalist. I hate hate HATE the abomination of the English language that is text speak. It makes me shudder, and with the advent of smart phones and the abolition of character limits there’s just not excuse for it any more.

So who is it sending me these messages? A teenager perhaps? Or someone who missed out on English classes in school?

Nope, it is in fact my own mother - a well-spoken woman with neat handwriting who normally wouldn’t even allow herself a spelling mistake on her own shopping list. But put her behind a mobile phone and she reels off the “txtese” like a 13-year-old schoolgirl arranging to meet her mates outside the corner shop for a sneaky fag, telling me “c u l8r” and “thats gd”.

And unfortunately, right now, she’s texting me quite a lot. The reason being that I’ve not been blogging as much recently so she’s no longer getting her little daily diary entries telling her what I’ve been up to.

So I’m returning to the blog quick-sharp!

And joking aside (sorry mum) I do need to make a little apology, because a few people have asked me recently why I’ve not been blogging as often. I set out to do it every day and for the most part I’ve succeeded, but over the last few weeks life has been so hectic that things have run away with me a bit, I’ve not been shopping much, and My Year Without Supermarkets has taken a bit of a back seat.

I’ve still not actually been anywhere near a supermarket. I’m eight months in and doing fine. In fact I was in Baked, Derby’s brilliant bakery, the other day and owner Victoria was asking me whether I’ll continue avoiding the supermarkets once the year is done. I told her yes - to be honest I really can’t see myself going back to the likes of Tesco. There’s just no need when you can find much nicer food elsewhere and support local business owners into the bargain.

So I’ve not given up - quite the contrary. And I’m going to try to blog more often again too.