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

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. 

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!

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

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