A team of four “Gurkha Girls”, all wives of soldiers currently serving in Afghanistan are putting their stamina and fitness to the test to take part in the Trailwalker 2010. This is a 100km run/walk across the arduous terrain of the South Downs to be completed within 30 hours on the 17/18th July. The money they raise will be split equally between the Gurkha Welfare Trust and Oxfam, who organise the event.

40km in One Weekend!

Training has started and they completed easily 40km last weekend and when their feet began to hurt, they appreciated the need to train hard, but felt no room for moaning with the realisation that their husbands’ tasks in Afghanistan include at least that distance daily while carrying all their heavy kit and body armour in serious heat.

100km in under 21 Hours and 27 Minutes!

This I have no doubt will motivate this team to the bitter end and will certainly be an enormous achievement if we can raise significant funds to support both charities, which we firmly believe will make all of those within the Gurkha community enormously proud and if running or walking 100km in 30 hours were not already challenging enough, the “Gurkha Girls” are hoping to beat last year’s fastest women’s team time of 21 hours and 27 minutes.

The Gurkha Welfare Trust

The Gurkha Welfare Trust works to provide necessities such as water and sanitation facilities, schools, medical assistance and financial help to Gurkha communities. The Trust also gives educational grants and provides vocational training to the children of the Gurkha regiment. A welfare pension and medical treatment is also provided to around 10,000 Gurkha ex-servicemen and widows living in Nepal who face destitution.

Can You Support the Charity?

We would be delighted if you are able to support the “Gurkha Girls” in their challenge. The website for donations http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/team/gurkhagirls alternatively donations can be sent to (cheques made payable to Mrs. Cathy Strickland) The Gurkha Girls Trailwalker 2010, c/o Engineer House, West Road, Folkestone Kent CT20 3HH (cheques made payable to Mrs. Cathy Strickland)

Counterpoint Networking member Jane Unsworth is kindly running this workshop to help to raise money for the group charity. The group is raising £1000 for an observation tower for the Iberian Wolves at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park.

It is the opportunity to discover more about one of the most ‘talked about’ techniques currently used in modern psychology, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) or Tapping, which enables people to experience a relatively quick-change in quick-time. EFT helps:

Learn How To Overcome Whatever Stops You From Having It All …

After a couple of hours people may notice a difference – so come along with something you’d like to feel differently around – in order to test its authenticity for yourself. But nothing too major for this one-off taster due to the time allotted and its group setting (a good gauge is to consider how long you’ve wanted to be free of ‘it’ – the shorter the time the quicker its likely to be dealt with).

The only other things to bring are your curiosity and a willingness to participate. To paraphrase the Henry Ford saying, which has become a bit of a Life Coach mantra:

Whether you think it will or you think it won’t – you’re probably right …

Please support the group and the charity by Booking Here for £20 plus VAT.

Jane’s (Adv Hypnotherapist, Life Coach, EFT and NLP Practitioner) business ABC Simple As … works from practices in Folkestone, Hythe and Whitstable, Kent – for more information please call 01303 223233 / 07951 522829 or check out the website at www.abcsimpleas.co.uk.

Come & Quiz the Conservative, Lib Dem and UKIP candidates.

Breakfast ‘Question Time’

FREE to members and guests
Thursday 15 April
Burlington Hotel
Folkestone
CT20 2HR

Michael Howard is standing down at the next election. He will be a hard act to follow. The FSB and the Channel Chamber are joining together to arrange a meeting with his potential successor.

Three prospective parliamentary candidates for the Folkestone and Hythe constituency – Conservative, Liberal Democrat and UKIP – have agreed to attend a ‘Question Time’ with an audience from the local business community. Come and hear how they propose to support business and economic growth if elected as MP.

Candidates
Damian Collins (Conservative)
Lynne Beaumant (Liberal Democrat)
Frank McKenna (UKIP)

7.00am Registration & light breakfast
7.30am Prompt Start
9.30am Finish

This event is FREE to FSB and Channel Chamber members and
guests, so bring a colleague!

Book now as places are limited: online NOW at: -
www.fsb.org.uk/Shepway15April

OR: -
email: office.kent@fsb.org.uk
tel: 01622 688134
fax: 01622 761126 or
post: FSB Kent Region, Allington Library,
Castle Road, Maidstone ME16 0PU
A display table will be provided for Business Literature

Come to Port Lympne Wild Animal Park for this meeting of Counterpoint Networking in conjunction with Aspinall Business Club and hear from Mel, the keeper, speak about Drills and see the Drills. An opportunity to do some networking with other small businesses in the beautiful surroundings of the Port Lympne Mansion, near Hythe, Kent.

Timing: 6-9pm

Food will be supplied.

To book please follow this link

Come to Port Lympne Wild Animal Park for this meeting of Counterpoint Networking in conjunction with Aspinall Business Club and hear from Carl, the keeper, speak about Tapirs. He will also explain to us the devastating changes that are happening in the wild due to the worldwide desire for palm oil. An opportunity to do some networking with other small businesses in the beautiful surroundings of the Port Lympne Mansion, near Hythe, Kent.

Timing: 6-9pm

Food will be supplied.

To book please follow this link

Another good night of business networking and socialising was had by all (from what I remember but after all that sparkling wine it was all a bit hazy by the end of the night!) at Tim’s Vinos y Tapas in Folkestone.

Alan Noake of The Icelab and Gordon Haining our resident Toastmaster were both driving and both on my table so I hold them fully responsible for how much of the wine I drank! Jaci Godman Irvine of Estate Legacy Services was very well behaved with a BNI meeting early the next morning. Trevor Cobb of the Microwave Service Company said he felt a bit poorly the next day, so he must have gone down with something!!

Nicole of Sureslim brought her husband, who’s promised to come to another meeting soon (he may be a bit disappointed when we don’t roll out the champagne next time!). Julie of Hestia Property Services won the bottle that Tim put up as the prize for the quiz and David Harris, our newest member, of The Harris Foundation said we were all very noisy!!

I think that’s the main highlights!

Microwave Service Company specialises in servicing and repairing commercial and domestic microwaves, associated cookware and other kitchen appliances.

Personal Profile – Trevor Cobb, Company Background & Area Covered for Service.

I am an Incorporated Engineer registered with the Engineering Council. I used to repair guns in the Army for 15 years. When I decided to leave I wanted to work for myself so diversified slightly to repairing microwave ovens. I guessed I would have more customers with microwaves than guns! I started the Microwave Service Company in 1993 working from home in Folkestone. When the owner of my main competitor ABC Microwave decided to retire, I bought his business in Sellindge as a way of expanding.

Our shop / workshop is located on the main road through Sellindge. We offer an in home service or customers can bring their microwave oven into us for an estimate for a small refundable deposit. We cover all of Kent and customers bring their ovens from as far afield as Hampshire and Essex. We have an Engineer in a van who covers most of Kent for in home repairs and site visits for commercial customers.

Repairing Microwaves, Brands / Makes Covered, Domestic & Commercial Microwaves, Local Service Agents, warranty repairs.

We can repair most makes of Microwave Oven. We can regularly get spares for the leading brands such as Panasonic, Sharp, Sanyo, Daewoo and Samsung. We are Authorised service agents for several brands so we also carry out warranty repairs for microwaves that are still under the manufacturer’s guarantee. We also carry out  repairs on Merrychef, Amana, Sharp, Samsung, Sanyo and Panasonic commercial microwaves. We work closely with manufacturers who recommend us to their customers. Most manufacturers offer an in home repair as part of the guarantee and we are able to offer a prompt service on their behalf.

Repair or replace a Microwave? The benefits of using Microwave Service Company, Spare parts for Microwaves.

At present it would appear to be more economical to replace a basic microwave with a new one as Supermarkets sell very basic ovens very cheaply. However, if accessories and / or spares are required they are virtually impossible to source. For example, the oven may have to be written off simply because a replacement glass tray is unavailable. We find that customers who spend a little more and buy a well respected brand such as Panasonic or Sharp get a much better product overall and also get the service and support you would expect from a large company. Supermarkets offer no follow up support. A combination Microwave on the other hand, that is well specified and expensive to buy in the first place would certainly be worth looking at if it broke down. Often repairs in such instances are much cheaper than replacement. Additonally, commercial microwaves can cost thousands so are invariably worth repairing.

Other Services offered at Microwave Service Company.

As well as repairing microwaves we also repair Kenwood and Magimix food processing equipment and Dualit Toasters .

We carry out leakage testing for commercial microwave owners to help them comply with Health and Safety legislation. We supply and repair 12 and 24 volt microwave ovens for motorhome and truck drivers. We also supply new microwave ovens specifically suited for caravan use in that they draw less power on the caravan site.

We have an ecommerce shop selling spares and cookware at www.kitchenwareonline.com. All the products we display in our shop are available to buy online and our other website www.microwaveservice.co.uk describes our products and services.

Contact details for Microwave Service Company.

The shop is open 6 days a week so contact can be made by dropping by or by calling the shop on 01303 813 530 or through the websites detailed above.

This video was shared on Facebook earlier this week and it is so beautiful and promotes Folkestone in Kent so well that I thought I would post it here as we are a local business and love to promote the local area.

The photographer says in his entry on YouTube:

“In response to an earlier video slating Folkestone and then the local press publishing it i thought i would share some of the beauty that our town has to offer though my images. Picture quality is not good on here but if you go to http://www.dandesborough.co.uk you can see the pictures in better quality.
I look forward to hearing your comments.

Also, My photography work will be on permenant exibition in the new Googies art cafe in the lanterns in Folkestone which opens this weekend. Please pop in and say hello and help to promote local art and business.”

What do you think?

Estate Legacy Service specialises in Wills, Trusts, Lasting Powers of Attorney and Probate.

Personal Profile – Jaci Godman Irvine

I trained at the Cordon Bleu, worked in the city for 8 years for Linklaters & Paines one of the largest firms of solicitors. I spent almost 20 years in the States working in the hospitality industry then started my own inbound tour company and also put together fly/drive programmes for Kuoni and Travel 4 amongst others. I became the UK representative for Coastal South Carolina for a couple of years and ended up moving back to the UK. I worked for a bulk transportation company arranging their travel and exhibitions, was made redundant and decided on a change. I have been a will writer for 5 years.  I am based in Folkestone and cover all of Kent, Sussex, London and part of Essex.

The importance of writing a will, problems with Will writing, Executors, Trustees.

When writing a Will, people should think about what it is they would like to achieve with their Will, what concerns or problems do they think they have and are the people they are choosing to be executors and trustees fully aware of the responsibility they are agreeing to take on.

How a Will is produced

Depending upon the complexity of the Will the meeting to put together the document would normally last an hour to an hour and a half as long as the client has most of the information necessary at hand at the meeting. The signing of the Will would normally take place about three and a half weeks later, depending upon how long it takes the client to come back to me after I have emailed a draft to check over.

How to get your Will written, Considerations when making a Will.

A Will is a powerful document that should be completed with the correct advice and followed through all the way to the signing. Preparing one’s own Will via the internet can mean mistakes are easily made that could render it invalid; also various aspects may not get taken in to consideration resulting in challenges such as unnecessary tax being paid, family homes being forcibly sold, children of previous relationships losing out and surviving spouses finding themselves in financial hardship. Using a solicitor is fine as long as they are members of STEP and specialise in Will writing. 

Benefits of using Estate Legacy Services.

The benefits of using Estate Legacy Services over and above producing a Will from internet services or with a solicitor is that I am able to visit my clients in the comfort and privacy of their own homes at a time convenient to them.

Other Services offered

As well as Will writing, we also offer all the various types of Trusts that can be incorporated into a Will as well as Lifetime Trusts for the protection of property, Lasting Powers of Attorney and Probate.

 Contact Details for Estate Legacy Services.

www.estatelegacyservices.co.uk

or by phone 01303 773178

cforms contact form by delicious:days

I have been remiss in reporting back about the July meeting that was hosted for us at the South Kent Gateway offices in Folkestone.

As usual it was quite a noisy meeting with a number of members and quite a few guests too, especially those from the Gateway who joined us for the meeting. One day I will remember to take our camera and post up some photos!

Jason Martin welcomed everyone to the South Kent Gateway and explained what they do. They are government funded, as a service provided by Business Link. The Gateway exists to provide support for people wanting to start a business who perhaps lack the confidence, work background, qualifications or financial stability to start a business. They help people to get their business planning, structure, marketing and financial management up and running.

We had a great buffet including some gorgeous African food provided Rosa Jenson; as usual there were a few people who had already eaten before coming out – who still managed to eat as the food smelt so good!

We will also be holding our January meeting at the South Kent Gateway office. Our next meeting in August is at the Hythe Imperial.