Perfection In Nature
Debbie and I watched an episode of Grand Designs this afternoon, a guy who runs a cleaning company was building a new (huge) house to replace a perfectly good existing house that he’d only built a couple of years ago. He was never satisfied, seeking out perfection and getting in my view a huge, cold, expensive, lonely, folly of a house, for close to £2M. I’d have preferred Hugh’s modest River Cottage for sure, especially if it came with the polly tunnel and animals. It’s strange because this guy and I have something important in common, we like things to be clean and tidy, but my obsession ends if it interferes with a relaxed, easy and enjoyable life, his obsession seemed to be verging on OCD, definitely damaging his wellbeing and family life. Funnily enough after spending all that money, he only spent a ‘paltry’ £40K on a swimming pool that was too short to swim in, I’d have spent the extra £10k for a 20M pool; well I would if I’d been stupid enough to spend the £40K in the first place. I personally find perfection only in nature, and it’s a lot easier to find and much cheaper!
It’s been raining for most of the day, I walked into Nero’s nice and early and in full rain gear so I was quite happy. I’m drinking milk every day, now that I’ve given up fizzy drinks, and today I got to unload the van and deliver the crates into the shop. It was raining too hard to let the milkman do all the work and I enjoyed it. I also got to chat to the new barista, who’s not really enjoying her new job – “all I do is serve coffee all day” – she’s quietly amused that I drink milk in a coffee shop.
When I got home it was still pretty grim outside, so I’d scheduled my cleaning well and did the bathroom, the toilets and the kitchen as well as a quick vacuum, I also made a second attempt at fixing the soap dispenser in the toilet. I still had plenty of time to watch a few TV shows; the first episode of ‘A cook in the wild side’ with HFW, which I’ve never seen before; ‘Madame Secretary’ which I watched on my exercise bike; the excellent BBC series Harvest, about farming in the UK; and Grand Designs with Debbie. There are lots of people who sneer at TV, but I’m not ashamed to say that I’m a fan! I punctuated the TV watching with a nap, a walk along the prom and three quarters of an hour on my bike, so I’m hardly a couch potato.
I cooked my own dinner tonight, but Debbie and Anna had fish and chips from the shop and Tess made her own. Jennie and Jon are in Manchester, shopping in the rain.
Now it’s time for Sleepy Hollow, followed by reading in the bath, and probably an episode of Beyond River Cottage before bed. I will be finishing my current fiction book tonight too, I’m pretty excited!
