Francis Brennan "It's the little things"

Amy and I are big fans of John & Francis Brennan and their TV programme "At your service" . When we heard that Francis Brennan had written a book about manners, a guide to life, we knew we had to buy a copy and also get it signed by Frances himself.

Today at 3pm he was in Easons in O'Connell Street and we lined up about 2.45pm in order to meet him.  Promptly at 3pm (well he was never going to be late given that he is an expert on etiquette!) he arrived and took his place with his silver ink pen to start his book signing.

In no time at all we were up with him where we had a little chat and also got to take a photo with him!

Francis came across as being a lovely man and had time for everyone and was great with the children organizing them in to order for a photo with him.

Here is the front cover of the book.  Amy and I both bought a copy as it was buy one get the second half price.

It's also available on eBook.

And here is what he wrote in our book!

Sick Hot Tub - call the doctor!

We had a problem with our hot tub whereby it was tripping the breaker every time we switched it on.  

I arranged for the Hot Tub Doctor to make a house call this morning.  He quickly was able to diagnose the condition and put in new parts to make it all good.

It is now all fixed up with a new heating element, a new pressure switch (corrosion was starting on this and he reckoned it could go soon and we would need him back out to replace it) and also some new seals.

He also took a look at out filter and reckoned it was good for another 6 months or so.

Currently the hot tub is up at 26 degrees so it will be hot tomorrow ready for us to have a dip.  Having been off for 2 weeks I was concerned that we may have to empty and refill it but the doc said it should be ok - I was thankful for this as it would have been bad timing with the introduction of water charges in Ireland this week!!

The Hot Tub Doctor was not the company that originally supplied our hot tub so I was very happy to hear him comment that a lot of thought had gone in to our set up (all Ciaran's original ideas!).  As you know our hot tub is sunken under our deck and we use a lever mechanism to raise the lid.  All very James Bond!

Here's a picture of the hot tub (being photographed for the Sunday Independent) - you can see the pulley mechanism above the lid.

Christmas crafting

Made a few more Christmas decorations yesterday.  Felt is surprisingly fun to work with!

Funday Sunday

We took it easy this morning with a walk down to the newish Starbucks on Leeson Street (I wish I took a picture as I think it is the nicest Starbucks I have ever been in).  We sat outside - it is so mild for September.  Bones minded the table for us when we went inside to order our coffees.

As we walked home we couldn't help notice this newly painted office!!!  OMG!

It is situated next door to the Portuguese Embassy.  I wonder how they feel about it?!!

At 2pm we went to the Rathmines Omniplex to see Denzel Washington's latest film "The Equalizer" which was very entertaining.  

And then later we finished a great day with dinner picked up from Aussie Burger.  Pulled pork and sweet potato fries - yum!

Felt Christmas Booties

This Christmas Shop is open in Brown Thomas!!  Yay!

I saw this Gisela Graham felt star among all the decorations.  It was cute but not worth the price they were charging.

Would you pay €10 for it???

When I got home I decided to make my own felt star for my tree.  

Hmmm.....I don't know if it was quite a success.  It's very homemade looking (and not in a good way!)

After making the star I decided to continue on making Christmas decorations (I was just in that kind of mood after visiting the Christmas shop).

Next up I made a set of teeny weeny Christmas Booties to hang on the tree.

How cute are these???

I have to say I really enjoyed making these and I will make a few more sets to give to friends as presents.  

If you want to make the booties, here are the instructions I pretty much followed (I made a few alterations - I sewed the snow flake using embroidery thread, rather than using fabric paint)

Visitor's Book

Do you have a visitor's book in your house?

We do!

I have to say, I do enjoy reading the comments of all that sign the book.

I think in years to come we will be glad to have a record of all who visited our house.

I must remember however to ask everyone to sign it!

What are your thoughts on this?  I suppose some people might think it is a little pretentious.  What do you think?!

1 cent cheque - Crazy bank transaction!!!

After closing a bank account it seems that there was a cent due to Ciaran.  So the bank very kindly posted it to him.

The stamp on the envelope cost 60 cents.  I think it costs 25 cents to write a cheque.  I presume there was also a cost to the bank for the two staff who had to sign the cheque.

Who would seriously think it makes business sense to write up this cheque and send it to an ex-customer??!!!

Seriously, have you ever seen anything as silly?!