Welcome!

was a response to an SMS I sent to my young friend Louis that had me stumped. He’d written . Louis, 19, to whom I sent the text, is a lovelymeans something clever and interesting, I thought? After much head scratching, it dawned on me what IKR stood for. ‘I know, right?’ It got me thinking about other acronyms and was quite a talking point with the team. A few of us had always thought LOL meant Lots of Love, while to others, it’s Laughing out Loud. Although I tend to use LOL (the love version) a lot, I have fortunately never made the mistake of writing it at the end of a sad text, as in . Malloree recalled being just nine when a schoolfriend wrote LMAO in a message to her. Given those letters are all in her name, she asked her friend if that was a new nickname she’d been given. ‘I went bright red when she told me it meant Laughing My A-- Off’, said Malloree. ‘I barely knew what the word meant!’ One of my favourites is TBT for truth be told. But for some of the younger team members that means Throwback Thursday, which I confess I’d never heard of. Apparently it’s when people post old photos of themselves on social media. Amber H said her girls Ellie, 14, and Kate, 12, use them all the time, leaving her scratching her head trying to work out what on earth they’re talking about. ‘Sometimes, I just have to scream IDK (I don’t know)!’ she laughed. Amber W is a big fan of NWS (no worries), while Jude has a whole alphabet of favourites. For most of us, our reality of the last two years has been WFH (work from home) and we are looking forward to when we are together again in real life or, should I say, IRL!