Hello from Caterer's Guide,

Your June update with the emergency budget highlights included direct from the House of Commons......

Introducing Aquamara - Highland Sea Water!

Fresh Scottish sea water goes on sale to gourmets of the world. It is the cheekiest idea since Del Boy attempted to bottle tap water and sell it as Peckham Spring: Acquamara, fresh Atlantic seawater, filtered at source and packaged for culinary use.
Founded by former international aid worker Andy Inglis, Acquamara aims to revive the ancient Scottish tradition of cooking with seawater as well as creating jobs and wealth in the Western Isles, one of the unemployment blackspots of the UK.
Acquamara comes in two sizes, three litre boxes for the retail  market (RRP £4.95)
and 20 litre boxes for trade customers. These can be delivered anywhere in Scotland for £22.50 or bought online and delivered  anywhere else for £27.90.

It is collected off Berneray, in the Western Isles of Scotland, during optimum tidal conditions using a movable pipeline and pump. The seawater passes through high-spec filters,  directly into a 1,000 litre cubic tank, which is then security tagged and sealed before being trucked directly to a cider brewery  in East Lothian, where it is bagged,  then boxed.
Acquamara is the purest seawater available. It has passed European drinking water standards. One of its key selling points is its safety.
In the early days of his career Rick Stein sent the kitchen brigade down to the harbour with buckets, to bring back the water to boil the lobsters. No need to do that any more (even if it was allowed in these health and safety conscious days). And now restaurants which are nowhere near a harbour can have ready access to fresh sea water.
Top flight professionals are already raving about Acquamara. The product’s industry champion is Scottish chef of the Year Roy Brett. He has redesigned the menu at Ondine, his elegant Edinburgh restaurant, around the product. “For the first time in a city fish restaurant wecan get the taste of the sea,” he says. “It’s tangible in our kitchen.”

Brett launched Accquamara at a demonstration at the Taste festival in the Scottish capital last month, and created a wave of interest among other chefs as well as the dinner party-giving public.
Michelin-starred Edinburgh chef Tom Kitchin has also experimented with the product, which is a perfect fit with his kitchen’s ethos. “We have an appreciation of the best ingredients available from Scotland’s outstanding natural larder, and seafood features strongly on our menus at The Kitchin.  Our restaurant philosophy is 'from nature to plate', which means the produce we serve at The Kitchin is always fresh and always seasonal.  We have such an array of the highest quality seafood and shellfish in Scotland and what could be fresher than storing and cooking with natural sea water from our Scottish shores." The time is perfect for Acquamara to launch. Noma in Copenhagen, recently named the best restaurant in the world, has langoustines cooked in seawater on the menu. The level of interest in the product in the UK and all over the world - Inglis has appeared on Radio 4, Radio 5 Live and the World Service, among other media outlets - suggest that this is an ancient tradition that is ripe for revival.
To find out more visit the website at: www.acquamara.com

Care for your team - Life Coaching & more - Catalyst for Direction.

Health screening for the small to medium sized employer
You may be reading this either as an individual, or as an employer who wants to do the best he can for the well being of his employees.
You will undoubtedly  be aware that as well as the legal requirement on the employer  to protect the health of the employee,  genuine  care for the  health and well being of employee  in the workplace  can have a positive effect on morale and also in the long term  on the productivity of the company.  
If you are seeking a personalised health screening or health management programme then this could be the service that you have been looking for.
Catalyst for Direction is a small specialist company that offers an individual service of health screening and occupational health. Additional to many years of varied health related experience, you will be offered a counselling service based on contemporary and innovative therapies which can give amazingly fast results for the client, and have proven to be very acceptable to most clients for a variety of conditions, both physical and emotional. Clients are helped to overcome their own challenges as quickly as possible by using the most appropriate technique, and one that is adapted to each particular individual.
Other companies have  found that the specialist independent counselling service  provided has been invaluable for employees returning to work after a sickness absence, or for employees experiencing  difficulties either at home or at work. Usually one session is all that is needed for the employee and typically the client leaves a session feeling calm and peaceful but also energised. For further information on the counselling techniques that may be used please go to www.catalystfordirection.com

The practitioner is a Registered Nurse with many years experience in occupational health,  has trained in Gestalt psychotherapy and is an NLP Practitioner. Further studies are also being undertaken on a regular basis with The Centre for Contemporary Therapies in London.
If your company has not previously used the services of an occupational health company then it is usually best to start with a  general health screening. The employees  then come to value and trust the service as an outside agency which they can confidentially use as and when needed.

The health screenings the company requires will be based on the individual health risks associated with the relevant industry, and may include a selection of the following:
General health screening
Hearing tests – usually recommended annually to start with
Lung Function Tests
Skin surveillance
Work station and keyboard assessments
Other specialised tests such as drug testing
Visits to companies are typically a visit for one day a month, but may be a one off visit or visits on an occasional basis. This can be during the day or at different times to accommodate shift workers. Sometimes  a fast efficient health screening service may be  required due to pressures of the workplace, whilst at other times a more leisurely and more relaxed  approach may be agreed for a particular company. Both can be accommodated within the service provided, and each company’s particular needs will be fully discussed and planned beforehand.
For further information please contact Sarah Adams on 07932 101780, or go to www.catalystfordirection.com, and thank you for your interest in our individualised health screening and health counselling service for the concerned employer.

Physio Bench - Treat Yourself in the Work Place Online.

Physiobench is a physiotherapy practice pioneering the use of the internet to provide online treatment. For help in the self management of injury, it provides free advice on all types of injury with the option to select a physio to provide a personalised exercise programme.
It is run by Physiotherapist Martyn Hodgson in Huddersfield and for this issue of the Caterer's guide Update has provided a few tips to protect your body in the catering environment, in this case the Kitchen:

Tips on Avoiding Back Pain Whilst Working in a Kitchen

The sustained postures used when working at the sink or worktop, combined with repeated bending and stretching for food and utensils, plus frequent heavy lifting can be a source of back pain. Try these simple tips avoid back pain:

1. Food preparation:

Standing for sustained periods of time bent over a work surface is a common cause of back pain:

• Ensure the worktop is the correct height. Too low and the resultant stooping creates back pain. Too high and the arms have to be elevated, increasing the risk of shoulder pain.

2. Food and utensil storage:

To avoid unnecessary bending and stretching, it’s worth checking storage systems and reorganizing where necessary. Try storing in the following way:

• Most frequently used light goods between elbow and shoulder height.
• Infrequently used light goods at the higher levels.
• Frequently used heavy goods at waist level.
• Infrequently used heavy goods at the base of cupboards. Remember when you do need these items to lift by bending your knees, keeping your back straight.

3. Vary your task

The most important way to prevent back pain is to frequently change postures

• Any posture sustained for a prolonged period of time is poor for the health of your spine
• Frequently alternate between one task and another.

4. Strengthen the core
Deep postural core stability muscles are the main stabilizer of the spine. Strengthening the deep abdominal muscles helps the spine to withstand the pressures of daily life.
More articles and advice written by the author and Chartered Physiotherapist, Jane Hodgson, MCSP, MSc, HPC can be found on her website http://physiobench.com

Driving you Forward - 1CaresCars.

We all want something special for our customers and if you are in the SouthWest of Britain then you are very lucky as you are in the operating area of 1CaresCars, a small independant private car service operated by Paul Furzey.
Paul offers something special indeed with top range 4 and 6 seater vehicles capable of towing trailers for extra luggage, mobility scooters, exhibition materials or anything you may need.The Mistsubishi Grandis is a top of the range vehicle, it has onboard CD and DVD players and full leather trim so that you can arrive from Somerset and Dorset in style.
Honestly I have never met a more caring, polite and professional driver and would let him loose on my clients with confidence assured in the knowledge of a perfect job, on time, accurate and fast!
So, whether you have clients to be collected from the airports at London or the southwest or want to be driven in style, 1carescars fits the bill all the way!
See the website: www.1carescars.co.uk for more details or call: for more details or email for a quote here!
Article by Dr D. Sweetlove PhD, MSc (Nutr), BSc (Hons).

Do you have relatives in Tasmania? - Geneology Services.

Do you have a convict in your family….. or relative or ancestor who went to Tasmania many years ago? 

Do you want to find out what happened to them?

Genealogical Photography – Tasmania may be able to help you find the answers, or people, you are looking for.

Tasmania is an island to the south of Australia with a current population of around 500,000 people. Originally called Van Diemen’s Land, it was colonised in 1803 by the British and many offenders from the British penal system were sent here as convicts to serve their sentences. Some were sent to the infamous Port Arthur and Sarah Island penal settlements while others just became part of the Tasmanian community.

Many free settlers came as well, attracted by the promise of a new life in a completely new land. Many were given free grants of land.

The hard work of both the convict and free settlers were the building blocks of life for today’s Tasmania and it is now considered almost an honour to have a convict or original free settler as an ancestor.

We are a small organization that specialises in Tasmanian genealogical research and resources.

We will attempt to find out what happened to your person of interest. We can travel to where they lived and photograph the area or even maybe the house they lived in or the churchyard or grave they are buried in.

We have several genealogical resource projects currently under way. One of these is to photograph every headstone on the island of Tasmania and to make them available to genealogists and family researchers on CD ROM. So far, our database covers the whole of southern Tasmania.

Another is to compile a database of patients at the Willow Court Asylum in New Norfolk in Southern Tasmania. This institution started around 1828 and was finally closed in 1999. Many thousands of patients were incarcerated there and many of their records are available for research.

Please contact us for your Tasmanian person of interest or ancestor.

www.genphotography.com.au
mail@genphotography.com.au

Ida Bay Cemetery, Tasmania.

Saltwater River Convict Ruins.

Willow Court Asylum - Tasmania.

Caterer's Guide Emergency Budget As It Happened - Direct from the House of Commoms.

SPENDING:
Current spending will rise to £711bn in 2015/16, thanks largely to a rapidly rising bill for debt interest, which Mr Osborne calls "the price of economic failure".

There will be no further reductions in capital spending in this Budget, Mr Osborne says, explaining that he has learned lessons from government actions of the early 1990s.

George Osborne will please business by not making steeper cuts in capital spending - this will be seen as helpful for job creation in the construction industry - but this means probably deeper cuts elsewhere, Iain Watson says.

ROYAL LIST:
Expenditure on Royal activities through the civil list will remain static at £7.9m a year, says Mr Osborne. It will be scrutinised by the National Audit Office in future, he adds.
freezing cash for the Royal Family - via the civil list - is designed to underline the government message that "we are all in this together"

PUBLIC SECTOR PAY:
There will be a two-year pay freeze for public sector workers, says Mr Osborne, although the 1.7 million lowest paid will get a flat £250 pay rise.
A two-year pay freeze public sector pay freeze is twice as long as was envisaged before the election, though only for those on incomes over £21,000. This is, however, less than the four-year freeze that had been discussed privately,

WELFARE:
"It is simply not possible to deal with a budget deficit of this size without undertaking lasting reform of welfare," says Mr Osborne.

TAX CREDITS:
From next year, with the exception of pension and pension credit, benefits, tax credits and public service pensions will rise in line with consumer prices rather than retail prices - saving over £6bn a year by the end of the parliament, the chancellor says

LONE PARENTS:
"We will expect lone parents to look for work when their first child goes to school," says Mr Osborne.
Child benefit will be frozen for the next three years, says the chancellor.

DISABILITY LIVING ALLOWANCE:
A medical assessment will be applied to new disabilities living allowance claimants from 2013, says Mr Osborne.

CHILD BENEFIT:
Freezing child benefit for three years will be portrayed by the opposition as hitting the poorest hardest, but George Osborne has resisted pressure to tax or means test the benefit, says Iain Watson. This might cut across the work of Labour's former welfare minister Frank Field's work on child poverty, commissioned by the coalition government

HOUSING BENEFIT:
Housing benefit will be limited to a maximum of £400 per week for a four-bedroom house under radical reforms, Mr Osborne says.

CORPORATION TAX:
Corporation tax will be cut by 1% per year for four years from next year, bringing it down to 24%, while the employers' National Insurance threshold is to rise

SMALL COMPANIES TAX:
Small companies' corporation tax will be cut to 20% next year, says the chancellor.

Corporation tax cuts are quite modest - the right of the Conservative Party would have liked to see the tax cut overall to 18 or 20%, not just 24% over four years, says the BBC's Iain Watson. Meanwhile, Labour will say that specific allowances for investment are more important than a headline tax cut.

Mr Osborne is planning to "over-achieve" his target of balancing the structural current deficit by 2015/16. The forecast is for a surplus on the structural current deficit of 0.8% in that year, which is roughly the margin for error that Mr Darling used to employ. That is probably why the OBR can say they have a more than 50% chance of hitting their goal.

PHONE DUTY SCRAPPED:
A duty on landline phones, proposed by Labour with the aim of funding universal broadband internet access, is to be scrapped, the chancellor confirms.

BANK LEVIES
A bank levy is likely to be one tax which is popular - though perhaps only outside the City of London, . The chancellor can say Labour would have fought shy of this measure without prior international backing. It will also help him argue that bankers - and not just benefit recipients - will shoulder some of the burden of deficit reduction

From January 2011, a levy will be imposed on UK banks and the UK operations of foreign banks which will generate more than £2bn in annual revenue. The French and Germans have also agreed to impose levies, George Osborne says.

NEW BUSINESSES:
Anyone who sets up a new business outside London, the south-east and east of England will be exempt from £5,000 of National Insurance contributions for each of first 10 employees they hire, the chancellor announces

VAT RISE:
Uproar on the opposition benches over the VAT increase. It's a big rise but delayed to help stimulate spending during the rest of this year, says Iain Watson. It's also challenging for the Lib Dems, who campaigned against a Conservative "VAT bombshell" during the election campaign but now have agreed jointly to detonate it in government.

VAT is to rise from 17.5% to 20% from 4 January next year, the chancellor announces.
There will be no new increases in duties on alcohol, tobacco or fuel, Mr Osborne says. He adds that he will report back in the autumn on possible health-related measures on alcohol and on the possible per-plane, rather than per-passenger, levies on flights.

INCOME TAX:
From midnight, higher-rate taxpayers will pay 28% on their capital gains.

The tax-free personal allowance on income tax will be increased by £1,000 in April, giving 23 million people up to an extra £170 per year and taking 880,000 out of the tax system altogether, the chancellor says.

The higher rate income tax threshold will remain frozen to 2013/14, with a long-term objective to increase the personal allowance to £10,000 - that was one of the Liberal Democrats' key election pledges.

The increase in the income tax threshold is crucial for the Lib Dems in return for support for a VAT increase - this was a key plank of their manifesto, says Iain Watson. The fact that any benefit will be clawed back from higher rate taxpayers means the government can argue that the poorest - or at least the poorly paid, rather than those on welfare - will be protected from the worst of the cuts.

CIDER DUTY REDUCED:
Good news for cider drinkers but many other goods will cost more due to the VAT increase, Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes previously criticised any VAT increase as "regressive". But the Lib Dems' policy on aviation taxation has been adopted and the chancellor is going atl east some way to satisfying Lib Dem demands for an increase in capital gains tax.

Budget Commended to the house.

Advertising Statistics from Caterers Guide - What are They?

When you advertise with Caterers Guide your advert whether you provide one to us or, our graphics team designs one for you, are served from our dedicated marketing server in the US, Located in a secure data centre the process is split over two servers on two seperate domains: webmarketgroup.com actually serves your advert and is the domain you log into to see the statistics report. Webmarketgroup.eu carries the administration functionality of the program that serves all of the adverts in the web market group and is located on what is known as SSL or, secure socket layer, a secure server level similar to that for online shops and banking services. We do this for security purposes and for speed of serving so tat the administration or clients viewing their statisitics do not slow down the servingoperations of the .com server, your statistics log on is then very secure too.

OK so far? Every week you will receive a statistics email detailing the number of impressions your advert has had. An impression is the number of times a page carrying your advert has been loaded by a browser viewing a page where it is located.

When a viewer actually clicks on the advert to go through to the destination website this iis recorded as well, as a click. You can use these statistics to manage where and what websites in the Web Market Group, of which Caterers Guide is a member, your advert can be placed. There are many different types of website in the group from sport to health proffessionals to catering, hotels and jewelry, to name a few.

You can contact us at anytime after viewing your weekly statistics and ask for your advert to be extended to other websites free of charge. The contact email for this is admin@webmarketgroup.com. Obviously the more websites your advert is on the more impressions and click throughs there will be. f you have any questions regarding advertising with Caterers guide or, Web Market group please see the relevant contact details at the bottom of this email.