Janet And John

Accountants R Us in Oz

I was driving to work this morning. Terry Wogan was prattling on to his togs and his team were sniggering and giggling I only had half a mind on the show, luckily that's all you need. A chartered accountant from Australia emailed him. he was an expat who was not the slightest bit homesick especially since he could listen in to Terry's show online.

As the day wore on the Australian and the accountant theme was recurrent. I was searching for tax advice and came across accountantsrus. It is a network of qualified accountants (chartered and certified). It also offers a referral service so you can find the best possible financial advice on how to handle any aspect of your income. It offers a broad range of services for businesses. Australian based with its head office in Sydney. If you are in need of tax accountants in Sydney or need the advice from a chartered accountant check out accountantsrus.com.au

Clements For Coffee

If you find yourself in Botanic Avenue in Belfast call in to Clements for a coffee. (You'll find it about 50-100 yards away from Starbucks). It's claim is that they're 'religious about their coffee and serve hellishly good food').

Clements is named after Pope Clement V111 who apparently loved his coffee...(Not sure how religious he was though)!

Their coffee is gorgeous, much nicer than Starbucks, the staff are friendly and at times entertaining (this morning one was dancing in the aisles). The music ranges from experimental to jazz - blues to pop. There is a smattering of accents and languages drifting through the air as people chat. It has a relaxed ambiance and is a good place to kick start your day even if you aren't that religious about your coffee.

I love my coffee and I love Clems!

Ikea Ikea ....I Can

If you can, it is better to go to Ikea than to visit their website for not everything is available online and if you are looking for something in particular Sod's Law will ensure that your item is only available in the shops.

I am ruled by Murphy's Law (which is the Irish equivalent of Sod's Law). So I found myself tottering off to my nearest Ikea with a mission in mind and it came this close (thumb & forefinger an inch apart...you get the picture)? It came this close to becoming a mission impossible.

Ikea is wonderful it has super ideas and it is affordable but if you don't make a beeline to the department where you will get your items; if you don't blinker yourself from everything around you, you will find yourself in a shopping 'one way' sort of system and in an ever increasing zombified state of mind you will start to wander in circles.

By the time you have reached the collection area you will be wondering "What am I doing, what did I come for?" And you'll probably be collecting something completely different to what you set out for promising yourself to "Come back next week" but hoping to God something else comes up to keep you away!

Ikea is a great place for ideas for the home, to get lost, to forget who you are! So make sure to bring someone with you to remind you who you are. Someone not easily sucked into all the smart stuff they have, someone who probably has a trail of breadcrumbs to follow out (or a good sense of direction). They are also handy when it comes to collecting the flatpacks (which are a ton weight).

Finally having managed to get your items home the next task is to put them together....I have heard that assembling Ikea furniture is easy compared to other manufactures of flatpacks. My mantra at the moment is Ikea Ikea I Can!....but that remains to be seen.

Thanks Icy

Today I decided to change my template, I thought I'd try to be a bit more up to date. Course being the technophobe that I am I soon got myself into botheration and started to panic and worry and fret when blogger was telling me there were errors.

Icy Doan came to my rescue which was a stroke of luck I was on the verge of pulling my hair out...If I'd been left a little longer to my own devices I'd have probably lost my blog to one of those internet black holes ....and I would have been baldy.

Icy pointed out the blog is not very functional as some of the elements don't work but for now it will do fine....& it's a change and Icy Thankyou so much for sorting it out it looks well. Your a good friend

Reduce- Reuse- Recycle:

My granda (a farm labourer) used to say "There's money in muck" he was right then and probably even more so now...though today the muck is waste. Waste management and recycling is big business the world over.

The Reduce-Reuse-Recycle slogan is worldwide and finding greener solutions is an ever expanding business. Modern waste management companies throw a different light on the old song 'My Old Man's A Dustman'.

During the war people had bins attached to lamp posts in every street to collect food waste (to feed pigs) as part of the war effort. Now households are starting to separate their food waste from their household waste and companies are exploring ways in which they can turn that waste into energy. It's a kind of magic! Check out the FT.Com story here

Dreamsweaver's Shop at Etsy

Peanut Butter and banana or peanut butter and jam? Pink umbrella or something more unique? I can't say as that I have always made good choices or the right choices in life but today I am giving myself simple pleasant choices.

I have been visiting Dreamsweaver's Shop She has a small selection of beautiful photographs of different plants and flowers for sale you can buy them as a print or as a greeting card. Every so often we should treat ourselves and today is one of those days for me. I have stuffed myself with sweet stuff peanut butter, smokey joes (ice cream & coke) midget gems 'Yumm' slobbed about the house......and to finish my 'spoil myself day' a visit to Dreamsweaver's shop where the only choice I will have to make will be a pleasant choice.

Going on Vacation Try Seaside Resort

Because of the circumstances of our family life we haven't had a proper holiday since 2002. Now my kids are getting older and I know over the next few years the dynamics of our family unit will change as they strike out on their own, so obviously my thoughts have turned to one final family holiday, one that for us would be a holiday of a lifetime that would leave us with unforgettable memories

Possibilities that have been discussed are New York for Christmas or Paris or Spain. The world holds endless possibilities for me at the moment because I have refused to price anything ...yet. Yesterday while surfing I came across Myrtle beach resorts

I come from Ireland, a small Island, it has been described as a pimple on the backside of Europe but it has some of the most dramatic coastline that you can find anywhere in Europe and can boost The Cliffs of Moher, The Burren and the Giants Causeway to begin with alongside some beautiful beaches; so you would wonder why Myrtle beach resort caught my eye...(Afterall I am just fifteen miles from my nearest beach).

America is a grand and vast Country and there is something about the way Americans do things that will always make you want to go back. They probably wrote the book on hospitality and making you feel welcome and their hotels and condos may for some people look like the height of decadence and for others look like the perfect opportunity to relax and feel slightly pampered (without being smothered or breaking the bank).

The Myrtle Beach Hotels are typical of what you would expect from 3 Diamond Award hotel and Myrtle Beach offers plenty in the way of attraction. Golfing, Shopping, Sailing, Amusements ...(The other side of the Atlantic from where we are now) ;0)

KEYLESS LOCKS

I am definitely spending far too much time online! surfing here and surfing there. Today I found a company that sells keyless locks. Locks that you use your fingerprint to open. It sounded to me like something out of a James Bond film but it is as we say here true bill, and it is the latest fashion in the new property market.


I had never heard of this sort of keyless locks I imagined fingerprint opening systems being more for the likes of M15 not for ordinary residential areas. Axxis Biometrics have a selection of keyless locks if you are interested in having a look


I am a person that is by nature suspicious of technology (all technology). Cars that have automatic handbrakes are a no no for me! I worry about things like identity fraud and too many cctvs. I worry that we heading towards a more Orwellian society than Orwell imagined. How keyless locks fit into these concerns I am not sure.

Rationally speaking I know that they are probably as secure or maybe even more secure than the traditional key. For a start it's unlikely that you will misplace your fingers and for children it is bound to be better than a key. (I am thinking of the ammount of keys that my kids have lost over the years).

In saying all that I can't help feeling that it is our increasing reliance on technology that does not rest easy with me so I think I will follow my gut and carryon carrying around and occassionally misplacing my bunch of keys.

DirectTV Offers plenty of Choice

The t.v. that I have at the moment is a really good t.v. but technologically speaking it is not a modern one. I was searching online hoping to buy a cable that would plug into my laptop's avg port with an Svideo at the other end. I have dreams of watching movies from my laptop on my larger t.v. screen. I am not sure if this will work but so far I have had no luck in finding what I have in mind.


While surfing I came across Direct Tv I know it has nothing to do with what I am looking for and I won't find any electrical cables and goodies for old fashioned t.v.s but i'm having a 'blonde day'. DirectTV has plenty of different t.v. packages (Starting at $29.00). This is the Family Package and it has over 45 channels plus all the local stations. Directtv boasts that it's service offers the most HD channels. I would pick the directv plus HD DVR package. Why? because it is not just about how many channels you can get from your provider it is also about the technologies or systems that they use


You can have a basic Directtv system which includes things like advanced programming, customized guide, schedule and timer (an excellent deal if your on a budget) or you can have a HD or HD DVR system. I would opt for the HD DVR System that has far too many features to list, but if your looking for picture and sound quality with the freedom of recording all in one small box I think HD DVR is the way to go. DirectTV offers choice and service and a lowest price gaurantee.

But the best fun I had was when I stumbled across their video ad campaigns with Ed Begley Jnr..
link their video adverts alone beat the cable companies hands down......they made me laugh out loud.

And Todays rant? More of the Same

I should be as happy as Larry having plenty to rant about lately. I believe it helps my blood circulation when I get myself worked up into a mouth foaming spitting harridan. My blood pumps through me reaches my brain and bingo lights go on I get ideas.

I am raging! I am raging that here in Northern Ireland a man was beaten to death and his wife was beaten up trying to help him; and they try to tell us things are different now! Try scratching the surface you will find our politicians fall back on sectarian fears and ideas at every election so how will we ever get beyond the 'them and us' syndrome when we have jerks like that in Stormont...And don't believe them when they try to say they are whiter that white where expenses are concerned. They are all a pack of greedy no good feckers.

I am raging at every single politician in British politics! Someone said in an interview this morning that 'if politicians were paid a decent wage they would not have taken advantage of the system' (I am laughing out loud). The average politician earns between 62-68k a year (and they claim for heating electric food you name it they have claimed for it. Compare that to the approximate 11k earned by a person caring for a family member who is disabled.

All this ranting and raging and blood boiling is almost as good as exercise (my heart's thumping) though not so good for the soul. I can't help thinking "shoot the politicians!" I know...too extreme but God I wish we could hold them to account.

Enlightenment and Inspirations

I am dreaming of a traditional table lamp and a desk light


My daughter has at last flown the coop and 'hip hip hoorays!' have been replaced by quiet smiles from time to time. I have plans.


Rather than make the room into just another bedroom I plan to make it into an office/bolt hole just for me. Every piece of furniture in it is being dumped and I am going to sand down the floorboards and varnish them. Then walls and ceiling will get a lick of paint; my grandmother's butterfly table safely stored away is going to help me set the ambiance of the room. It is a very old table, four generations of my family have sat around it for dinners (and worked on homeworks). It is a table that has been well used and at times abused. I have a strong sentimental attachment to it and I am dreaming of having a traditional table lamp to set on it to enhance the warmth and richness of the varnish...It will also be the perfect spot for the flowers my kids get me from time to time.


The desk where I will do my work will be quite at home with this ancient relic (even if I have to search high and low to find just the right one. In the meantime I am dreaming of lamps.

I checked out Farreys.com They have a massive range of indoor and outdoor lights and plenty of brands to choose from. I was very impressed and half way through purchasing this cute ipod dock desk lamp I realized I am on the wrong side of the pond which is a shame. American electrical goods are not much use here and on even further reflection I don't have an ipod anyway.

I can't resist perusing some more of what Farreys have to offer (even if they are of no use to me..I like beautiful classic things). Discovering the floor lamps I can't help thinking a chaise longue and a floor lamp will set the tone. Farreys have been enlightening and inspiring. I think I am going to have the perfect room and it is all in the small details ...Like the lighting.