My Week In Media: TV presenter Melanie Sykes

Sykes says she finds culinary inspiration by watching Jamie At Home © PA

Last week I watched...

Jamie At Home. I've been glued to the programme. I find him inspiring, and not just in the kitchen – the new thing he's doing is growing his own veg, and it's made me want to have a vegetable patch of my own. Jamie puts it in such a way that you feel you can achieve it. I also watched Desperate Housewives. I came to it quite late and watched the box sets to catch up. It is pure escapism and the writing is fabulous.

Last week I listened to...

Jonathan Ross. I try to listen to him every Saturday morning. I was coming back from the Cotswolds last week and he was interviewing Eartha Kitt. Even if an interview is dying, he still manages to say something that turns it around. I think he's very clever, but on his chat show he's a bit over-the-top, and on the radio he has to rein it in a bit. I listen to Capital Radio while I'm doing the school run.

Last week I read...

I don't read many newspapers, but I do read The Week. I subscribe to Coast magazine. It was a Christmas present. It sounds rather sad but I have a fantasy about living by the sea, and the magazine helps me get that little bit closer to the possibly of doing it. It has pieces about people that live there, properties that are available and ideas for interiors. It inspires me to get cracking and live in London for the week and then escape to the coast for the weekend. I feel different when I'm by the sea.

Last week I surfed...

Amazon.co.uk, to find a book by Harold Robbins. I'm on a writing course and doing a piece about my teenage years. My friend and I used to read the naughty bits from his book The Betsy. Mt new copy arrived with exactly the same cover that I remembered, and all afternoon I was looking through for all the dirty bits to put in my article. I had to read it in front of the class, so I made sure I picked a tamer quote which didn't say "nipple". I would have died saying that in front of my classmates!

Melanie Sykes presents Grand Designs Today, every day this week at 5pm on Channel 4.