I woke up feeling optimistic today. I went straight out for a beautiful cold and misty walk with the dog. Her boundless enthusiasm and joy at playing with any other dog she meets are a delight every single day. She’s just happy to be alive.

Yesterday I met Brian Blessed. That’s a bit off topic, but I wanted to say something about him because he was clever and funny and utterly charming. He told interesting stories and everything he said came from the heart. He recited some poetry with so much genuine emotion in his booming voice that it moved me to tears.

The whole of his talk was based on a theme; ‘nature doesn’t cheat’. He kept going back to this, reminding us that we are all unique, we all have something different, some quality or ability only we possess.

When we left the auditorium I was full of admiration and respect for this incredible, warm man. His thirst for adventure was infectious. At the age of 79, he has just qualified as a cosmonaut. He’s going into space next year. He’s climbed every single one of the earth’s highest peaks. He made me feel like anything is possible. I wanted to go straight home and plan what mountain I will climb next. I can’t remember feeling so inspired and motivated by a single person.

I don’t usually want to meet celebrities. I don’t see the point. I feel like I would have nothing to say to them, other than gushing about how fabulous I think they are. And anyway, why would they want to talk to me? Putting all this aside, I bought a book and joined the queue to meet the big guy himself and get him to sign it. He was so wonderfully humble, he asked every person about themselves and was genuinely interested in hearing about how his talk had impacted them. I told him that hearing his stories made me want to take on a big mountain. He looked me in the eyes and just said, ‘You can!’. And I believed him.

So there we go – my first ever optimistic blog post.