Ground Floor: I've been watching a TV programme on and off over the past few weeks in which people move from their homes and jobs in England to their dream location abroad, writes Sheila O'Flanagan.

It's a kind of beefed-up Changing Rooms, I guess, only in this case it's Changing Everything.

The families are given a month to settle into their new life, helped by the presenters, and when the time is up they have to decide whether to stay or go.

Not surprisingly, most of the dream locations are in southern Europe - Spain, France or Italy. More surprising, though, given that the families concerned are talking about a complete change in their lives, is that none of them have done any research into the areas they're moving into, have no real idea of what jobs are available to them and (so far) none of them have a word of the language.

The first few days of their relocation are usually spent wandering around with a phrase book acknowledging that it's hard to get by when the locals don't speak English and that they're going to need to learn Spanish, French or Italian because "it's not like we're on holiday".

But all is well once they're sitting on the verandah of their temporary home, looking at a blazing sun setting behind the mountains.

To keep viewer interest, these relocations seem to take place in the winter months, because there's usually a day when the skies open, the rain pelts down and the once dry and dusty garden area behind the house turns into a mud-bath.

At that point our potential movers show some grit and say that it would be worse at home. And at that point, too, you discover that their master plan for the future is to turn the farmhouse (it's nearly always a farmhouse or a mill) into a B&B offering guests a unique taste of the local culture which has so recently been acquired by the new occupants.

At that stage too we discover that the house is built on a disputed plot of land, or that it doesn't have full planning permission or that the swimming pool is leaking and that the water has undermined the foundations.

But by then the occupants have already set up a website offering authentic Andalucian, Provencal or Tuscan holidays and they're learning how to cook coq au vin.

Most of the relocatees do choose to stay past the first month, although little information is given about whether or not they (and their guests) make it past the first holiday season.

I'm both astonished by and admiring of the concept of jacking it all in to do something you haven't a clue about in a place where you don't speak the language and where you know nothing about the local laws and customs.

In some ways I feel the programmes - and my reaction to them - are kind of patronising; waiting for the couples to fail and being surprised when they don't. I got the exact same feeling watching Arnie Schwarzenegger being elected as governor of California.

Like the relocating couples, he knows a bit about the job because he's seen someone else do it. He's ready for a change in his life and this seems like a good idea.

He's hopeful that he can make it work. And at least the locals are supportive. Plus he does speak the language, more or less.

But will the fact that he has no experience in either politics or economics let him down in the end?

Allowing him to take the helm of the world's fifth-largest economy simply because he looks confident and has a nice line in pithy comebacks is a major gamble.

California has a population of 35.6 million and an unemployment rate of 6.6 per cent, as well as a budget deficit of about $40 billion. Dealing with this is not a movie or TV documentary where you can walk away and leave someone else to pick up the pieces.

Californians have also enacted a number of laws to limit the ability of the state to levy taxes while at the same time obliging it to spend 40 per cent of income on education.

Arnie can't and won't decrease education spending (he was involved in starting an after-school education programme in California) and he has promised to repeal the car tax that had been hiked by Gray Davis.

Capping the means of increasing revenue while at the same time committing to increased spending would make it difficult for anyone.

Davis, despite his tax hike, couldn't deal with the spiralling budget deficit. Silicon Valley, the great Californian money-spinner, is still reeling from the effects of market-implosion.

Spending more money while taking in less is Micawber economics, yet so far Arnie's only plan is to audit the Californian finances and ask Washington for more cash.

Given that George W is hoovering up every last cent for his Iraqi adventure it isn't going to be easy to persuade him to part with funds for the usually left-wing state of California.

It's like the couple who bought the farmhouse with the olive grove and who intended to make their living selling high-quality olive oil suddenly realising that they had two weeks to bring in the entire harvest by hand.

Which was why they ended up working 24/7 in their supposedly laid-back Tuscan idyll.

Maybe optimism can work. Perhaps the career politicians, like the people who originally sold the olive grove, have lost sight of the wood for the trees.

Perhaps there are other ways of making money for the state of California other than getting people to pay higher taxes. If Arnie manages to find them he'll be hailed as more than a stereotypical actor who wants an even bigger stage.

After all he's already managed to amass a fortune in a notoriously unstable industry in a foreign country. So maybe he can last the pace.

It will be interesting to see if he succeeds where the experts have failed.

www.sheilaoflanagan.net