Merry Christmas

Featured Blog Post with Phileas Foggs of Ventnor

Who are you? 

Mark Randerson, Married to Lindsay, with two lovely children Charlie (9) and Leila (4). 

I have a passion for all things food and drink related, and my other love is sailing.

What do you do?

Myself and Lindsay are owners of Phileas Fogg's Restaurant, Ventnor. I spend most of my time in the kitchen, slaving over a hot stove. Well at least that's what I tell people :)

Where can people visit you/see your work?

The restaurant is open every evening from 6pm, except Tuesdays when we are closed.

I always come and say hello to our diners every evening, so you will be sure to see me.

On Tuesdays you'll either find me dinghy sailing with Charlie somewhere off Shanklin, or racing with my friend Tony at Cowes in his Yacht. (look for us near the back!! )

Do you have a website?

We love social media and really embrace it. It's a fun way of letting people know exactly what we are doing and when.

Follow us on twitter @Phileas_Foggs

Like us on Facebook

or visit our website

www.phileasfoggsrestaurant.co.uk

You will find we do not always take life to seriously!

Have you always lived on the Island?

No, we've been here for 2 1/2 years now.

It started with a holiday, a serious love for the IOW and Ventnor in particualar soon followed. Our house in Manchester was put on the market, notices handed in, and a serious lifestyle change was on the cards.

I love the Island, Ventnor is a joy, and I see it moving forward every year.

If you could have 1 wish what would you choose?

That I could sing! I would love to be in a rock band!

Stuck on a desert island what 3 items would you choose to have with you?

My I Pod, A corkscrew, and a case of fine wine

If 1 of your 3 items had to be music what album or artist would you choose?

U2, any album. My all time favourite band, some say I am slightly obsessed!

Is there anything you would like to see introduced on #Wighthour?

Quirky Island Business Facts, Intersting things about Island Businesses that peolpe would be intersted to learn about. 

If you could choose the next person to be featured on the #Wighthour blog who would you choose?

I would choose Geoff and Cheryll at Ventnor Fish Haven. One of our suppliers, enabling us to get fresh, local fish daily.

I imagine a fisherman's life is not the easiest or the most glamorous, it would be interesting to hear what they have to say!

-- 

Mark and Lindsay

Phileas Fogg's

11 High Street

Ventnor

PO38 1RZ

01983 855500

www.phileasfoggsrestaurant.co.uk

#Wighthour Giveaway

You can win a pair of tickets to the Wight Island Radios Christmas party with #Wighthour 

Just send a tweet which includes #Wighthour AND #wirstudio and you will be entered into a prize draw to be held on Wednesday 4th December 2013 at 8:30pm 

There are 2 pairs up for grabs!

GOOD LUCK 

to everyone that enters! 

:) 

Featured blog post..with Ventnorartsclub...

Who are you?

Stephen Izatt. I live in Bonchurch with my wife Liz and used to be flabbergasted by people who thought Newport was a long way away. I now pack a suitcase if I absolutely have to go to B&Q. 

What do you do? 

I am a serial meddler. I started in Naval Architecture, became seduced by the then sexy world of advertising, was brainjacked by music and still fall over in awe of creative talent. So I have a brand consultancy which pays the bills, Ventnor Arts Club which generates bills by the hour and, up until recently, was part of a Manchester based record label which was a hole into which I poured whatever money I had left. 

Where can people visit you/see your work?

Our brand work is all over the place, on conveyor belt sushi restaurants, on the chests of Rolling Stones fans and was everywhere in 2012. You can see my slight obsession for Art Deco and my penchant for colour at the Club. The legacy of music which was little to do with me but massively to do with my business partner in the label is heard daily - hourly if you are a BBC 6music listener. 

Do you have a website?

There's a bit of a theme going with our social media addresses;  www.Ventnorartsclub.com   / www.facebook.com/ventnorartsclub   / @ventnorartsclub

Have you always lived on the Island?

No, I was brought up in Surrey, lived abroad a little and in West London  but home has been here for 8 years now. 

If you could have 1 wish what would you choose?

I would dearly like this country to be run by a team of people who I could trust, for a period of time during which they could collaborate and make sustainable improvements. Instead of spending their time point scoring against the other parties trying to ensure they don't loose the next election.

Stuck on a desert island what 3 items would you choose to have with you?

My scuba gear, a nitrox mix air compressor and a wok. 

If 1 of your 3 items had to be music what album or artist would you choose?

Fleetwood Mac's greatest hits. The real Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green at the helm before he took one acid tab too many and got lost on the way home from the studio. 

Is there anything you would like to see introduced on #Wighthour?

Live events, speed networking, where faces can be put to twitter accounts. We can host them if you like.  (Watch this space!) 

If you could choose the next person to be featured on the #Wighthour blog who would you choose?

I think Mark at Philieas Fogg's would be interesting. As long as he doesn't talk about his weird neighbours. 

#Wighthourphotos

As suggested by the lovely @HollyMaslen  I am introducing #wighthourphotos I couldn't decide if I should run this on the blog or on twitter so I have decided to do both ...

Ok the rules...

A random topic will be chosen on roughly a weekly basis and you can submit photos that fit with the chosen subject, I will feature all entries here on the blog and will ask you all to pick your favourite! Please just mention on your tweet if its a photo from the internet or wherever and if its one you have taken let me know and I will put a note that its your image.
It's just a bit of fun - a different way to connect with other #wighthour users.

If entering on twitter please #hashtag your image #wighthourphotos

This weeks random topic is 'always makes me smile'

Have fun!

Sarah (@wighthour)

Featured blog post..with Vintage Vacations...

Who are you? 
I’m Helen Cunningham,living in Ventnor with my husband Frazer and our daughter Faber. 

What do you do? 
I run a holiday business with my husband Frazer … we were the first to bring American Airstream holidays to the UK and have just had our 10th season(which seems unbelievable ….Time flies!)This has grown into our full-­time jobs with the addition of some wonderful buildings that we are lucky to have been able to acquire. I guess our USP is our love of ‘old stuff’, quirky architecture and muchos kitschos that shines through what we do and attracts like-­‐minded folk. 

Where can people visit you/see your work? 
During the summer months we are at out Airstream site over at Ashey most days … we also hold regular ‘events’ throughout the year at the Airstreams or some of our other locations which have proven to be a great way of meeting new ‘Island’ people. Details on the ‘Special Events’ page of our website. 

Do you have a website? 
vintagevacations.co.uk is our website address 
Facebook page is www.facebook.com/pages/vintage-vacations
and I am @vintagehelen on twitter. 

Have you always lived on the Island? 
I’m from London and my husband is from Edinburgh but we have lived on the Island for about 8 years now full time. We first built a small holiday house here that is now our all-­the-‐ time home. 

If you could have 1 wish what would you choose? 
Oooooh *chews pencil* could everyone just play nice please? Failing that could every summer be like summer 2013! 

Stuck on a desert island what 3 items would you choose to have with you? 
My photo albums, trusty sewing machine and an everlasting supply of Montezamas chocolate buttons.

If 1 of your 3 items had to be music what album or artist would you choose? 
The whole Nile Rogers back catalogue. #cheating 

Is there anything you would like to see introduced on #Wighthour? 
Maybe Q&A’s …. On odd things – maybe you have seen a peculiar sign or an interesting house on the Island and would like to know more about it? 

If you could choose the next person to be featured on the #Wighthour blog who would you choose? 
@ventnorartsclub …. I’d expect some interesting answers!

Wighthour

#Wighthour was a huge success this week with more new members joining it is getting more difficult to keep up! :)

This is actually a blogpost to anyone who follows me but who isn't a business taking part - or maybe not even a business at all. I can appreciate that during #wighthour I most probably feature quite heavily in your timeline/twitter feed, I hope this doesn't get too much that you feel the need to unfollow me, I am purely trying to support Island businesses and may just rt an offer or service from someone that may appeal to you! :)

Thank you all for your continued support! :) 

Sarah 

(@wighthour & @loves2crochetuk) 

1st Featured Blog Post - Holly V Maslen

I was recently asked by the lovely Holly V Maslen if I would do featured blog posts and after seeing her lovely work progressing at the Isle of Wight zoo I instantly said yes! So here are a few random questions I emailed her and her great responses!

Who are you?

Hello Wighthour, my name is Holly V Maslen, I live in Bembridge on the Eastern tip of the Isle of Wight with my two teenage sons.

What do you do?

I'm a full time artist working in black and white exclusively.  I absolutely love colour but in my work I like to exclude colour in order to put emphasis on the balance between occupied spaces and the spaces in-between.  When I started out with this line of work I had intended to focus on designing products, such as greeting cards, fabrics, stationary etc but I've been asked twice this year to paint murals and have also designed a few tattoos for people, which has been a pleasant surprise and now, even though I am still working on making various products, I would also really like to expand my mural portfolio.

Where can people visit you/see your work?

I am always available to meet up with a client to discuss a commission (see below for contact details), preferably somewhere which serves good coffee!  My work can be seen at what I call my "outdoor gallery" which is at the Isle of Wight Zoo on Sandown Seafront where I have been working on a series of very large murals.  I have completed 6 so far and have another 8 left to paint.  The murals are painted in the archways of the Napoleonic fort which houses the zoo.  Earlier in the year I painted a wall inside the pop up shop of fashion designer Charlotte Taylor in Sloane Square, but I haven't got round to finding out if the mural is still there or if the new owners of the shop painted over it.

Do you have a website?

Yes, I do indeed.  I thought that it was vitally important to get this in place before I started developing my work further as it's such a brilliant tool to use in showing people what you do.  I really enjoy writing the blog for the website too as it's a record for me personally to keep track of how I'm progressing and it indulges my other passion which is writing.  The IOW Computer Geek built the site for me and they have been fantastic at helping me to keep it up to date as I'm not great with technical stuff. I also use facebook and twitter which is fun for talking to people directly and instantly.

http://www.hollyvmaslen.com/

https://twitter.com/HollyMaslen

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Holly-V-Maslen-Design-Illustration/317925231573736?fref=ts

Have you always lived on the Island?

No I haven't always lived here, I grew up in South London but came to school on the Island when I was 16 for a couple of years and, after I had my children, I decided that the Island would be a great place to bring them up.

If you could have one wish what would you choose?

This is probably a rather boring answer but I guess I'd wish to live for a very long time so that I'd get the chance to create all the things I will probably never have time to create in a normal lifetime.  I would like to have more time to write, to learn an instrument and time to live in different countries and experience them properly.

Stuck on a desert Island what 3 items would you choose to have with you?

Well I'd like to have my sons with me, but they aren't items, and they probably wouldn't be very happy being stuck on a desert island with their Mum, so I'd like to have a piano, a big supply of pens and paper and a phone so I could call my friends and tell them where I was and organise a big party on the desert island!

If one of your three items had to be music what album or artist would you choose?

I can't resist answering this, even though I didn't choose music (you couldn't call my piano playing music!)....I would have all the Led Zeppelin albums as I never get sick of hearing any of them and have been listening to them since I was a teenager.

Is there anything you would like to see introduced on #wighthour?

Hmm, that's an interesting question.  What about #wighthourphotos?  You could designate a theme and people would have to post a photo based around that theme with their tweets.  It could be something quite wacky/funny....I'll leave that thought with you and see what you come up with! (Great idea! Watch this space - wighthour)

If you could choose the next person to be featured on the #wighthour blog who would you choose?

I think I would choose @vintagehelen.  I'm not going to say more than that otherwise I'll spoil the sense of intrigue for your readers as they await the next blog post.

Getting the most out of #Wighthour

I hadn't realised how quickly the weeks had passed doing #Wighthour but we have been going and growing for just over 4 months now slowly but surely getting more people to join each Monday evening with our mostly general chatter.  I spoke to a few members recently and they admitted not using #wighthour to its full potential and I did admit that I felt that at times it feels like it loses its way a bit (I love the fun chat so please don't despair) but that I feel that alot of Island businesses are losing out on a really good chance to promote themselves as much as they could with #wighthour. I appreciate that not everyone is especially twitter or tech minded so I am going to explain my idea behind #wighthour in very simple terms :)

#Wighthour

Using your business twitter account on a Monday evening between 8:30-9:30pm write a tweet describing your business/services/offers you do and somewhere in that tweet include #Wighthour (You don’t have to write the tweet to @Wighthour I will still see it).

I will retweet any business / useful/ informative tweet that includes the #Wighthour hashtag.

If you are promoting your business using #Wighthour then please retweet someone else who is doing the same, the idea being the more people who retweet each other then the more people get to see your original tweet and that will hopefully lead to more business coming your way.

To give you an idea of what I mean:

Imagine you only have 10 followers—you may think #Wighthour is pointless for you as ’who is going to see my tweet?’ but if you include #Wighthour in your tweet even if I am not one of your 10 followers yet then I will see it and retweet it to my 500+ followers  and some of them have 1000’s of followers so if they join in #Wighthour and retweet your tweet that I have retweeted then suddenly the answer to your question of ‘who is going to see my tweet?’ is potentially thousands of people!

I hope that makes some kind of sense! Please just say if you have any questions!

See you at #Wighthour

#wighthour finally goes for that hot chocolate!

 Well today after weeks of promising myself a hot chocolate in the gorgeous 'Chocolate Island' shop at Godshill I finally made it there!
We as a family have visited the shop many times but this was a first visit as '@wighthour' and the first stop in the cafe. I really liked it there its pretty and feels cosy and personal even outside, and the hot chocolate was gorgeous!
@chocol8_island was expecting me as we have spoken many times on twitter during #wighthour and I had asked if they could make me a #wighthour chocolate bar... well they certainly didn't disappoint.....all I have to do now is resist eating it ...well for a while anyway ;) (pic at bottom of post)
Next time you are in Godshill I definitely recommend stopping in for a treat for yourself or someone else :)

Chocolate Island on Facebook



Chocolate Island on Twitter

Do you want to be featured?

I am looking to feature a different island business here on the wighthour blog each week, if you are interested @wighthour or by email @ wighthour@gmail.com
in being featured please contact me either here by leaving a message in the comments box below, on twitter
I will send you a few questions to answer so you can be featured as you wish - in your own words! I will gladly include any images you want (so long as they are yours!)
I look forward to hearing from you all! I will feature people in turn in the order I get their requests!

Sarah @wighthour

Getting to know you..

As a way of getting to know you all I thought I'd start this question and answer session...
Just 5 questions please leave your answers as comments!

Your names (First name and username/twitter name if you have one!):
Name of your business:
Type of business:
How long have you been in business:
Have you told anyone about #Wighthour/Will you?

1st #WightHour

Ok I will admit I did feel like I was waiting for a party to happen that no one was going to turn up to but thankfully in the first ever #wighthour I wasn't alone!!

It was slow going at first but I got a fair few tweets for the first night and I hope now that week on week it will grow with more and more island businesses following, rt'ing' and promoting not only their own business but also other local businesses too, with the idea/hope that they and others will do the same back!

These are the businesses that tweeted with us tonight and promoted us in the build up to #wighthour!
@emswindsor emmawindsor.co.uk
@Treetopthinking treetopthinking.co.uk
@BluelabelleIOW bluelabelle.com
@CareerLovingMum facebook.com/careerlovingmums
@bekenandson http://www.bekenandsoncowes.co.uk/
@iheartbuttonsuk http://www.iheartbuttons.co.uk/

Thank you all and hopefully see you all again next monday!

Don't forget to spread the word to help us all! :)

#WightHour

Hello #WightHour

There are alot of #....hour tags on twitter now, all set up for various groups or niches of people who try to get together once a week (or more) for a set hour to share similar interests, businesses or local areas.

I live on the Isle of Wight, which aside from the geographical obvious seperation also means you are or at least can feel quite seperate from everywhere else.
Most other places and counties have their own area #hour so  I went searching (with thanks to the lovely @emswindsor )to see if there was one based on the Island.. I couldn't find one, so after a few weeks of thinking I thought I'd make one!
So this is basically a shout out to anyone running or starting a small business on the island as a way of promoting ourselves to the rest of twitter by Rt'ing' each other including the #wighthour hashtag during the set hour!
Now as it's only me right now I am going to pick a monday night between 8-9pm (This is subject to change if the need arises).
It doesn't have to be just business tweets either, it can be just general chit chat if you are on or love the Island! :)
If you have any suggestions or comments for or about #WightHour please leave a comment here or tweet me @wighthour