Grand Designs

I have just stepped away from the TV after having one of the most enjoyable evenings for a long time.

First of all I cooked a stunning steak and chips (with onions, butter fried mushrooms and peas) which was just the perfect meal for how both myself and J were feeling, and then I arranged for my best mate to travel with me for the first part of the drive and THEN I channel hopped until I saw that there were a couple of Grand Designs on.

The first one I kept muted as I was seriously turned off by the site of the people building the modernist monstrosity of a house (with a lovely double-retracting glass door to be fair) smiled as they chainsawed some lovely trees to "improve their view".

*shudder*

But then the next episode started and from the first I found myself transfixed. The couple in question had bought a complete wreck of a castle in Tuscany and started the process of renovating, only to find that their plans and progress was illegal and have to stop and wait for years to resolve everything.

I'll not go into detail as you can follow the link to youtube and watch it yourself but I felt such a buzz of excitement watching as these people took on a challenge that most would walk away from, with a dream and a vision and an energy which most people would look at and go "wow they're insane" and at the end of the day they ended up with the most beautiful of homes, fashioned in THEIR way and with THEIR ideas and THEIR hands.

Very very inspiring.

I would so highly recommend that you do go through and watch this; it is 48 minutes of your life that will be well spent which is exceptionally rare for anything you watch on TV really. You may also get to see in someone else just why I'm so excited about this, and why I don't really feel that worried or stressed.

These people have lived this dream and proven what can be achieved and they did not once take a backward step; every problem was over come and every challenge just presented a new opportunity; like the two years they were waiting for planning permission the man just got stuck in with a shovel and moved many many tonnes of rubble out of the castle and in doing so uncovered what would be their kitchen and dining room. With his bare hands.

Excellent.

Watch it!