Appetites Quality Foods

Located In the Heart of Douglas's financial and business hub, Appetites is an extremely popular destination for all your lunchtime needs.

Daryl Williams established Appetites in 1995 when he recognised that with his passion for high quality food he could tap into a niche market providing the people of the Island with 'fast' lunchtime food that was made from fresh ingredients and tasted delicious.

Over the years Appetites has become extremely popular and has seen its trade increase steadily and there are now many local customers who regard themselves as loyal fans of the one stop lunch time shop.

Daryl along with his team at Appetites works hard every day in order to meet the challenge of supplying their customers with delicious foods made from the very best fresh local ingredients.
Every week a new menu is produced with different options for each day,there is a great variety ranging from delicious home-made soup of the day to the hot dish, baguette and salad of the day.

Appetites also operate an office delivery service which allows their customers to purchase one of their delicious sandwiches from the comfort and ease of their own office, allowing you to enjoy their variety of fresh sandwiches even if your time is limited.

Appetites also has a wealth of experience in providing superb delicious food for all your special events and outside catering needs. the team can adapt their services to suit your requests offering a wide variety of options ranging from full breakfasts and lunches to working lunches providing a choice of finger buffets and canapes. The success of this outside catering service as well as the shop itself has meant that Appetites now has an Island wide reputation for delivering and providing high quality food of an excellent standard.

VLM Airlines withdraw Island Route

As i was driving along the promenade this morning on the way to the Energy FM building where I am currently doing some work experience, I thought back to how I meant to write about VLM Airlines and had not got round to it.
I often hear people on the Isle of Man saying -'The Island is great...as long as you can get off it every few weeks' .

I could not agree more with this. However, since the collapse of EuroManx and the subsequent takeover of BA Connect by Fly Be the island's passengers have had to deal with less then reliable services as well as putting up with other issues and complaints with regards to Fly Be, or as a local travel agent recently referred to the airline 'Fly maybe'.

More often than not there are delays on flights both to and from the island on Fly Be's principle routes to the island, Manchester and London Gatwick. If you want to change your ticket you will pay at least £80.00 and if you arrive early you will not be allowed to change on to an earlier flight. - A change from the good old days of Manx Airlines and EuroManx.

A couple of months ago i booked with VLM airlines on their route from the Isle of Man to London City airport which i feel is by far the most convenient airport for accessing the city. The DLR is on your doorstep and there is no messing about with the Gatwick Express. I unfortunately had to change my plans and called VLM to reschedule my flight. I was told they do not fly that route on a Sunday (which was the day i needed to fly) so immediately thought 'Great I'll have to buy a whole new ticket'. However VLM actually apologised to me and offered me either a full refund or to book me on to another flight for no extra charge!! The best was yet to come... 'You can use the ticket up to a year from now' .

Today whilst in the news room at Energy FM a press release came in about 'Another airline withdrawing from the Island' It was VLM. Turns out that after ceasing their London City - IOM routes during the summer months due to the lack of business passengers they realised that it was not worth them resuming the service from September. Whilst Air Arran will still be covering this route it is a great shame and loss to the Manx travellers - both business and pleasure that VLM have pulled out...Will anyone actually realise this or will it be another case of hindsight?

Sudanese War Child

Please watch this till the end :



http://www.ted.com/talks/emmanuel_jal_the_music_of_a_war_child.html

Isle of Man- Swine Flu And Your Business Seminar

Living on an island which is perceived by many as being somewhat identical to Alcatraz has it's ups and downs. One of the obvious benefits of the Isle of Man is it's well known status Internationally primarily in the Business World as being a 'Tax haven' . The Economic Recession? There is much talk on the island that we have not been hit in the same way as the U.K however how true this is i am not sure of.

The outbreak of the Influenza / H1N1 virus more commonly known to the public as 'Swine Flu' has now been categorised by the World Health Organisation as being at the level of a pandemic. With over 100,000 suspected cases in the U.K it is no surprise that panic has set in. This public panic is not helped by the frenzy which has been created by the media.

Yesterday morning i attended a seminar delivered by the Director of Public Health on the Isle of Man who outlined steps and precautions that businesses should be taking to ensure that they are adequately prepared (as far as possible) for when - notice it is When? the pandemic reaches the island and not if?... Currently there are 12 confirmed cases on the island and there has yet to be patient to patient spreading of the disease.

However once this occurs 1.4 - 1.8 out of ten infected people can then go on to infect 14-18 others. Adults are not infectious unless they are showing syptoms. Once these levels occur on the Island it is almost certain that there will be border closures and therefore the importation levels of goods will be dramatically reduced as a result. It has been confirmed that at least one ferry a day will arrive into the Island's ferry terminal primarily bringing food and drug supplies to the island. This to many may be a worrying thought. However, the Isle of Man's population will be able to receive a diagnosis from a trained health professional unlike in the UK - untrained staff are manning the call centres there. The autumn - winter period is likely to see 30-40% of the Manx population affected by the pandemic. However, i reiterated that it was made clear that the media generation of paroxysmal public panic is of no benefit to anyone. There is no need to use Tamiflu as a preventative measure , it is only of benefit to those who have actually contracted the virus. Buying bogus Tamiflu on the internet is not going to help you. Consumers doing this have already aided tamiflu to overtake viagra as the number one selling product on the internet. The main message from the seminar was do not panic, there is no need. Instead, ensure you are prepared as far as possible for the outbreak this is done by implementing the relevant policies, registering bank staff and of course designating a flu buddy (to collect your Tamiflu from a flu centre.

One Year On

''Dear Katie,On behalf of all the staff at Cross-Cultural Solutions I would like to express our appreciation for your time spent in South Africa. As of today’s date, it has been 1 year since you began your Volunteer Abroad program. During your time in South Africa, you became a part of the local community, sharing your culture with the people you met while learning from them about a culture different from your own.Your work has touched lives and opened minds. Our local staff and the community where you worked will remember you as a caring individual who gave your time to understand a different culture and create positive change. We are touched by the schools, orphanages, and other local initiatives who continually tell us about the positive impact of CCS volunteers.We hope you returned home with a new perspective of your place in the global community and feel closer to the community in which you served. ''

I feel that that email which i received today sums up everything i gained from my volunteer experience in Cape Town. Annie my roomate at 3 hermitage and partner in crime is a fellow blogger and writes amazing posts, here is her latest one... 'One Year On' :

On Friday night, we decided to go out. We called a cab and told the driver to take us to Oblivion, a wine bar that the volunteers frequent. Everything started out fine, until we realized that it was taking much too long and that we were driving around in circles. We were a little nervous, because we were driving down narrow streets in pitch dark in an area we didn’t know. Katie, who is good at directions, tried to help the cabbie from the backseat. Leslie was getting a little agitated, and suggested that the driver call base and ask for directions. Thirty rand later, he acquiesced. He got the address from dispatch, but evidently still did not know how to get to that particular street. Instead of risking looking stupid by calling back, he chose to waste more of our time and money, and was getting frustrated. He slowed down and started following a teenage girl, who was walking on the sidewalk, and yelled at her for directions. She did what any smart girl would do: shrugged, picked up the pace and ignored him. "Your mother's a puss!" he shouted at her angrily. Things were getting tense, and Leslie would. not. shut. up. She was spewing contempt, and getting hysterical about our rapidly increasing fare. Katie and I kept shooting each other looks, wide-eyed. I was saying stupid shit like, "It's probably right up here," in an attempt to de-escalate the situation so we wouldn't end up on Dateline. Eventually, the crazy cabbie actually hit another car. Not hard - it was more like a scrape - but he just kept going. He drove to a little store, put the car in park and hopped out to go in and ask for directions. In doing this, he committed a cardinal sin. He left three females sitting in an unlocked, running car with an open door, in South Africa. He was probably praying that someone would jack it and put him out of his misery.
By some miracle, we eventually got to Oblivion. Thanks to Leslie, I am pretty sure that we only paid half the amount that was displayed on the meter. We ended up meeting a couple of guys that night, one of which was the son of a reverend. Leslie made out with him, and for the next few weeks we would frequently burst into, “The only one who could ever reach me, was the son of a preacher man!” Katie got a little drunk and grilled the other guy on race relations, which was pretty entertaining.

There was so much more to come. There would be a wine tasting excursion, trips to the mall, an overnight in a township, African dance parties in the Afrikaans room, a night that Katie and I never came home and thought we would be kicked out of the program, and many conversations that centered around Leslie doubting my judgment, but laughing at me anyway. After that weekend, we would go on to share a friendship with Tom, a special place in our hearts for Western Province rugby, and more nights at Oblivion and the Dubliner. We would share countless meals of chicken and carbs on the porch, Leslie’s hair dryer, secrets, cabs to Rondebosch for chocolate, inside jokes, our love for the staff, a penthouse suite at the Mandela Rhodes, and tearful goodbyes. Most importantly we share a bond with each other and memories that will undoubtedly last a lifetime. And it all started because of that one little weekend.
Posted by Annie http://annielost.blogspot.com/

Its been an amazing year, I would do anything for a reunion right now...I am also graduating this week so off to Leeds tomorrow morning. So very excited to see everyone in Leeds again...

Tamil Tigers Protest, London

On Tuesday 19th May, I joined Emilia (partner in crime since the age of 3) qualified radio journalist/presenter to be in London on her final news day. The Tamil tigers were protesting in Parliament Square, Westminster in an attempt to raise awareness of their plight and to get the UK and American Governement to take action and allow International Media, NGO's and International aid to enter Sri Lanka-Tamil. We ended up in a tent meeting women who had been on hunger strike for 168 hours and Emilia interviewed a man who had been on a hunger strike for 24 days. These people were so passionate about what they where fighting for and some of them had been camping there since April 6th. Overall the protest was peaceful and the Tamil people were there to show their support to their 'brothers and sisters'. It was definately an eye opener and once again made me realise that so often we ignore things right infront of us, especially if we are not directly affected by it...without thinking too much about the consequences for those involed. Watching Emilia and seeing what she had to do was great experience for me especially with my mad obsession with the News and reporting.