But all is not lost! Gaynor French has set up a Yahoo! Group for cross stitchers in Ireland called Emerald Isle Cross Stitchers. It is just getting going at the moment, but already I have found out about a cheap online Australian cross stitch magazine, The Gift of Stitching, and great lightweight frames from the US called Q-snaps. So if you are in Ireland, and into cross stitch in any way, pop along and join the group - the more the merrier!

I know I slagged off the Movies at Dundrum cinema website a couple of years back, but sadly it still leaves a lot to be desired. However, I must commend them for keeping it up to date and topical, which is more than can be said for this blog. They have even gone all out and created a special Batman theme for the site. The only trouble is that the crude, madcap graffiti that pays homage to the Joker is so authentic, that some people got the impression that the site had been hacked. So, they had to add a message to the top of each page a few days back explaining that “This is a promotion for “THE DARK KNIGHT”, our website has not been hacked and is completely secure. Your Credit Card details are safe as always and we assure you the Joker will not steal your number”. Oh dear! Step away from Microsoft Paint lads, or whatever graphics program helped you create this:

As usual, I’m raging that I didn’t think up this get rich quick scheme myself. It’s a gimmick but I love the idea and I dare you to resist buying a word! It’s impossible not to click on a couple of words just to see where you end up. Then you try out a few searches just to see if a word that means something special to you is still available. Then, you find one that is, and silly though it may be, it’s just so cheap to claim your very own word that you’re sold there and then. Genius.

A lot of web dev monkeys got in there before us, so the best I could get was "coders" but since our work site is tidy.ie we had to splurge $4 on "tidy" as well. It has great gift potential too: I couldn’t resist buying "foxy" for my sister, and my boyfriend suggested buying "couple" for us. Aw, who said romance was dead?

1. I’m a big fan of ice cream, even though I hate anything creamy. Hence, while normal people take a tub out of the freezer and let it melt a while before eating, I’m straight in there hacking away while my fingers get frostbite, and won’t touch it once it goes runny. My favourite flavour at the moment is Häagen Dazs Raspberry and Meringue. I know it’s limited edition, but I’m finding it nigh impossible to feed my habit around Dublin 6. No matter, for tonight I tried Murphy’s Raspberry Sorbet and discovered that’s the bit I really like. Half the calories and it’s available around the corner in Fothergills - this could get expensive.
2. I tend to use a lot of words. I meant this to be a short post with 6 one-liners and point 1 was practically an essay! I may have come close to breaking the record for the longest ever e-mail in the past, but I’m in recovery these days.
3. I don’t watch many TV shows religiously, but ER is one exception. Why, I don’t know, because it has really gone downhill since the glory days of Greene and Carter. Somehow, despite the episode each season when there is yet another boring hostage at gunpoint scenario, the pointless episodes where nothing happens, and the low, fast mumbling when you haven’t a clue who said what, I keep watching. I’ll miss it when it finally ends after the next series. Last night’s season finale on RTE ended on a typical cliff hanger where several cast members could have died when an ambulance exploded. Knowing ER, the next series will probably start with all of them in the middle of a trauma as if nothing ever happened!
4. I am absolutely rubbish at all sports. Getting the Wii Fit has confirmed that I have next to no balance and co-ordination, so that’s my excuse. If I could be good at any sport, I’d love to be a snooker player. While this year’s world championship final was a bit of a let down, you just can’t beat a bit (or even 35 frames) of snooker.
5. I can’t drive and I may never learn. Until the Wii Fit seriously improves my co-ordination, It’s probably a good idea for me to stay off the road!
6. I have all 465 standard DMC thread colours used for cross-stitch embroidery. That’s 11 km of thread altogether. I’m not sure I’ll ever get through it all. Maybe by the time I’m old and grey, still stitching in my pink rocking chair, cross stitch will finally be cool?

Given that I am probably the only blogger (that’s if monthly posting constitutes blogging!) on earth who has not done this meme already, I don’t think there’s any need to tag anybody else…

So, I was delighted to hear that Ulster Bank are bringing back Henri Hippo! Even more exciting is that the money boxes are supposed to look the same as they did in the 80s, although only blue ones are available. I was hoping that I could finally replace my moneybox by opening an account with them, but it seems you can only get one when you open a bank account for a child under 12. They won’t even sell me one (yes, I did write and ask!) - I suppose the idea of a bank not wanting more money is novel. I’m not sure what today’s high tech kids will make of him, but they may well be fighting with their parents over who gets the money box anyway! I guess I’ll just have to keep my eye out on Ebay for any mini entrepreneurs who want to cash in on Henri.

Reminiscing about Henri also brought back fond memories of my Trustee Rusty the fox money box from Trustee Savings Bank. I can’t find any evidence that he ever existed on Google, but surely I’m not the only one who remembers him? Since the bank merged to become permanent tsb many years ago, I doubt we will ever see poor old Trusty Rusty again, but I might start a campaign one of these days. He would be much less annoying than that guy from The Sopranos!

At least Cyril the Squirrel is still going strong for An Post. I don’t think that Cyril has ever been immortalised as a money box. Perhaps keeping a lower profile is the secret of his longevity? I see from his website that you can even contact him directly, so maybe I’ll write and ask him.

I wandered around Airfield farm and gardens yesterday. It’s very strange that you can get off the Luas at Balally in the midst of motorways and massive apartment blocks, and feel like you are in the middle of the country a short walk later! The 6 euro admission fee is a bit steep for what you get, but it is worth it every so often for the feeling of getting away from it all. After yesterday’s showers, it was fairly muddy and I was raging at missing an opportunity to finally wear the size 9 pink Hunter wellies I bought years ago in TK Maxx.

Our muddle through the mud was rewarded with getting close to the little lambs. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me, but hopefully the small white blobs in the camera phone pic above still look like lambs! There are better photos on the Airfield Trust website.

The shop is located on the top floor of the shopping centre. It is painted purple and is beside the black Wrestling Mania shop, about half way down the same side as The Laptop Shop (the opposite side to the art gallery and toilets).

Cinderella Shoes opened a concession in Arnotts a few years ago, but whenever I visited, all I found was a couple of small shelves right at the back of their massive shoe department. So, I am thrilled to see a proper shop at long last dedicated solely to ladies with large feet (sorry about the pun there!). I dropped in last weekend to have a look and enjoyed the novelty of just being able to pick up shoes on the shelves and put my foot straight into them. My size 9 foot is extremely wide, and I was even able to even get into a couple of size 8s. They still have some Winter styles on sale, mainly boots, with knee high boots for only 60 euro in some cases. The Spring/Summer stock is arriving daily at the moment, and there were already some colourful sandals in the shop when I visited. They also stock a lot of more formal evening shoes, which is the trickiest type to find in large sizes.

Before you start hyperventilating, you won’t see anything Manolo-esque there and it’s not exactly Faith or Office either. Nevertheless, when you struggle to find even one shoe in your size in most other Dublin shoe shops, you should still feel like me in a sweet shop here. It’s one small step for mankind, but one giant leap forward for Dublin women blessed with big feet. Hopefully the Cinderella Shoes store will get plenty of promotion ensuring that they finally have a shop where they can find shoes to fit them.

The Luas smart card machines are feeling a bit peculiar too. It seems that they don’t know about leap years, so they overcharged some people this morning when they tagged off. I heard on the radio that the machines have therefore been turned off for the day and smart card users can travel for free. I may just go wild and head all the way to the ends of the earth, otherwise known as Sandyford. I’m sure that would cure my giddiness in no time!

It’s nice that the shiny new, if rather black, Hosting 365 site is fully aware of the day that is in it though. It’s a bit confusing that register365.com is now the brand for all their standard shared hosting plans, but the clever logo change made me smile:

Finally, it’s Work Life Balance day today. Perhaps they picked today because we don’t normally have the luxury of this day, so if you can’t get a bit of “me time” today there is no hope! Separating life and work, and getting them in proportion, has been my biggest challenge since I started freelancing. When you are self-employed, you have far more flexibility and control over when and how you work than employees, but despite this, it can be extremely tricky to get the work life balance right. That balance is different for everyone, and this is something that I think I will always have to work on, since I have always tended to let work invade my life too much regardless of the job! However, I have been working from home for over a year now and have learned lots along the way. The crazy days of all work and no play are much rarer now. However much you love your work, make sure you don’t let life pass you by.

I have had a good read of some chapters already, and I think that it’s a handy book to have. It’s well laid out with sections on buying, what you own, management, day to day life, finance, legal matters and insurance. There is a helpful glossary at the back too. The author has both a legal and property management background, which makes for a good mix - the book is very thorough, but it focuses on the practical issues. So while it explains all about management agencies etc, it also has helpful advice on how to deal with troublesome neighbours. Best of all, it is written in plain English, despite the somewhat complex nature of the legal aspects of apartment living.

I’ve already picked up a few things I was not aware of. I’ll be checking that I have my management company membership certificate for a start. Other points that I had a vague understanding of are much clearer now. While the material is not the most fascinating, the tone is quite down-to-earth throughout and it makes for lighter reading than I thought. The author shares his own view from time to time. Perhaps that’s not a great idea for a factual book like this, but it makes it a bit more entertaining. He informs us that there are “thousands of unreasonable people living all around us” and, therefore, “inevitably” “these individuals” will be in your apartment development. He finds that tenants do not “have as much regard for the considerations of their neighbours”, an opinion based on his own experience of 90% of House Rule breaches involving tenants.

Diversions like these may be better suited to a blog, and I discovered tonight that the book has an entire website to go along with it complete with forum, guestbook (how quaint!) and blog. It seems that you have to register to comment which I don’t like, but I think they are still working on the website, so that may change. While I know that neighbours.ie is great for individual developments, this is the first site I know of devoted to apartment living in Ireland in general, despite it being such a big niche. I’m increasingly out of the loop these days, so there are probably dozens of other websites already! Holler if you know any.

TurboCASH was the first program I tried. On the plus side, TurboCASH is the kind of program that will suit people with an accounts background. You enter your transactions in journals, and then click a button to post to the ledger. There is also a double-entry T-account viewer available for each account that I found very handy. This use of traditional accounts terminology etc means that there is quite a learning curve for anyone without a basic knowledge of accounting. I still have a good grasp of accounts from school, but having been away from it all for a few years, I found I had to buy the TurboCASH Accounting Made Easy e-book for £14.95 to really get to grips with the program. The book goes into lots of detail on setting up TurboCASH and keeping accounts for both typical retail and service businesses. Once I worked through the tutorials, the program made a lot more sense. I also found the forum helpful when I was not sure how to treat unusual items in my accounts.

The interface does not look very slick, but I would not mind that if it did the job. My main problem with TurboCASH was that mistakes started creeping into the reports over time, particularly relating to transactions I had previously edited. Luckily, I had so few transactions that I was able to spot when reports did not look quite right and go back and fix things. When this happened a third time within 9 months, I stopped using the program, because accounting software that produces inaccurate figures is worse than having no software at all! The site does state that the software is in beta, so I realise that bugs are to be expected and that I used it at my own risk.

Before resorting to paper ledgers and red pens, I googled for alternative software and I came across QuickBooks Simple Start. Oddly, this software costs 72 euro + VAT + P&P if you look at the Irish QuickBooks site, even though it is available as a free download here at QuickBooks.com. The free version has been made with US users in mind, but the program is so basic that international users don’t really miss out on anything. Perhaps QuickBooks Ireland have added some fancy localised features for Irish users that justifies the price tag?!

Unlike TurboCASH, Simple Start is suitable for anyone to use, even if you have never kept any accounts before. The interface is a lot more visual and intuitive. The main screen is a diagram showing the path of money through your business, and you just click on the icon that you want to record something for (invoices, bank account, expense etc). There is no mention of posting, contra entries or other accounting lingo here. It’s plain English all the way - just money in and money out. There is very good help within the program, although it is so straightforward and intuitive that I have not needed to call on it much. Despite the easy interface, I like the way that you can still look under the hood at the raw ledger accounts and transactions by viewing ‘Accountant Reports’. You can also quickly run profit and loss and balance sheets for each month, the year so far, last year etc which is very handy. Backing up your accounts is also very quick (less than a minute), whereas after a few months of using TurboCash it used to take about 10 minutes!

I have been using QuickBooks Simple Start for about 2 months now and so far the only disappointment has been the lack of a cash flow report. I know that the whole idea of Simple Start is to just give you the basic features and reports that you need starting off, but a cash flow report is often the key report for a start-up. A minor niggle is that you don’t seem to be able to tag certain expenses as being part of cost of sales either. If you upgrade to QuickBooks Pro, you get cash flow reports and a ton more bells and whistles that I will probably never need as a freelancer. Again, there is a big price difference between buying the Irish version (370 euro + VAT + P&P) and the US version ($199.95 or $179.95 if you upgrade from Simple Start) of QuickBooks Pro. The US price is becoming more tempting as my business grows, but I will have to find out what I will miss out on if I don’t buy the Irish version. I do my own accounts at the moment, but if I ever start handing them over to an accountant, it could be false economy buying the US version if the accountants can’t work with those files or there are other issues. All that’s a bit down the line - for now the free version of QuickBooks does the job very well and my bank balance is happy with it too.