Day one..

.. of the Journey to Bethlehem. Preparations started early in the morning..

By mid-day the journey was in full swing! Click here for full details of the day's events

The hay arrives..

The hay arrives in anticipation for the opening of the "Journey to Bethlehem" tomorrow at Hilton Church and the Light House!

Guild Christmas Celebration

The Light House was delighted to host Hilton Parish Church Guild Christmas Celebration last Thursday evening. 21 ladies attended an evening of food and fellowship and all enjoyed the occasion very much. God Bless you ladies!

Volunteer's night out

A fantastic night out was had by the Light House volunteers last Saturday... IN the Light House!! An evening of pizza and party games to show our appreciation for our volunteers funded by the generosity of our cafe customers - thank you!


The video below gives a wee taste of the fun and games.. albeit the lighting is a bit dim... Watch out for the "after eight" champions as well as those crazy participants of the coin game!!

Painting the Light House

Our thanks to Craig who is doing a fabulous job of painting the outside walls of the Light House. Here's a view from inside the kitchen of the man hard at work!

Advent at the Light House

Advent begins next week and the Light House will start to take on a definite Christmas feel as the expectation of Christmas builds..
Today Marea treated us to her mouthwateringly light mince pies - hot from the oven! Next week we'll start to see more Christmas fayre as well as the opportunity to purchase Fair Trade Christmas cards, wrapping paper, gifts and sweets.

Welcome Alison!

Introducing Alison Waite as our new member of staff at the Light House. Alison started on 1 November as Cafe Assistant and we're very pleased to have her on board!

Michelle Hamill has also been appointed as Cafe Supervisor, but she won't let me take her photo yet so I'll blog that later :)

Next Alpha course coming up at the Light House

Just to let you know that the next Hilton Church alpha course is starting next Monday morning in the Light House cafe. For more details on alpha and this next course at the Light House click here

Part Time Cafe Assistant post at the Light House

We are still seeking applicants for the part-time post of Café Assistant at the Light House.
This post is for a 6 month period with a salary of £6 per hour.
You can view the job description in full by clicking here
If you are interested or know of anyone interested in applying for this posts please come and speak to me or Iain Ross or contact me on the following details: tel: 01463 224477 or email: gwen@hiltonlighthouse.org

Delicious!

That's what Amy Geddes thinks of the new Light House chips. Amy was our first customer to try the new addition to the menu. Her smiling face says it all!!!

Chips can also be purchased to take out as well as the rest of the items on the Light House menu.


... and our special brand of fairly traded coffee beans can also be bought for use at home or we can grind them for you first!

CHIPS!

Announcing, by popular demand, the arrival of the new chip fryer at the Light House. You can now purchase chips with your lunch at 75p a carton or why not share a bowl with a friend at £1 a time!

Light House Web Site

The Light House web site is now LIVE!

You can visit it by clicking on the picture above and you will see that there is a link on the site back to this blog. There is also a link at the top right hand corner of this blog taking you to the web-site home page. The web site is intended to be dynamic and so do please pay a visit from time to time to check on any updates.

HAPPY BROWSING!

Jobs at the Light House

Hello, Gwen Barlow here to announce that as the Light House moves into the next stage of its development two new job opportunities have arisen.

Café Supervisor and

Café Assistant

Both posts will be for a 6 month period with possibility of a job-share.Salary for the café supervisor is £6.50 per hour and for the café assistant £6 per hour.Working hours are 7 hours a day, 5 days a week. You can view descriptions of the posts in more detail by clicking on the links above.

If you are interested in applying for these posts please come and speak to me or Iain Ross or contact me on the following details: tel: 01463 224477 or email: gwen@hiltonlighthouse.org

Room Lets

The Light House is not just a vibrant cafe but has 3 bookable meeting rooms. If you are ever interested in booking a room for your meeting/function at the Light House or know anyone else who would be interested please don't hesitate to contact me, Gwen, on 01463 224477 or gwen@hiltonlighthouse.org
You can download our latest brochure here which briefly describes the facilities at the Light House.

Below are some of the activities that have been or are still currently going on in the Light House meeting rooms:

· Sunday morning church service in the cafe
· 3 different Sunday school groups
· CrossReach Counselling
· Free Debt management course for the community
· Cairn Housing Association tenant’s forum
· Workers Educational Association (WEA) IT course
· WEA Deaf History training course
· New Craigs Hospital Occupational Health meeting
· SANDS charity meeting for bereaved parents
· Inverness Solicitor’s lunch-time meetings
· Birthday parties
· Birchwood Highland mental health staff and client meetings
· Dunedin Surgery’s joint patient participation group
· Children’s summer-time morning club for the community
· Highland Clarsach Society workshops
· Kirk session “elders time together”
· Alpha course
· Hilton Church Golf Challenge Barbecue

Summer 2009 at the Light House

What with all the various activities going on at the Light House over the summer, blogging has been sparce! So I'm just going to post a few photos taken over the summer period to give you a flavour of what's been going on...

Visitors from Canada

Brian had some help tasting the soup this week! You can see him pictured above with Skylar and Taylor from canada. They are part of a group of folk visiting from Canada as part of the Street Invaders team. You can read about them on the web-site http://www.streetinvaders.ca/2009/ Thanks to all our Canadian friends who came to help us in the Light House... it was really great working with you!

Light House Daily Specials

Announcing a new product at the Light house cafe - the bacon and fried egg roll! Here's a photo of Michelle the chef and Martin the happy customer :)

The soup of the day today was Jock's Brocc! Broccoli soup made by our resident soup master Brian Gunn

Thank you.. thank you.. thank you..

..to the caterers, bakers, cleaners, shoppers and servers.. speech-makers, photographers, musicians and bouncy-castle minders... cinema ushers and computer operators... donators of time or money... face-painters and child-minders... encouragers and pray-ers... everyone who helped and everyone who came to celebrate the official opening of the Light House performed yesterday afternoon by David Sutherland. May the glory be God's!

The video below tells the story of the weekend's events..

Environmental Health Inspection

Yesterday, the Light House Cafe had it's first environmental health inspection (without warning!) since opening it's doors to the public.... and passed with flying colours, I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear, especially if you eat here!! Well done to everyone involved in keeping us straight in these matters at the Light House.

To read more about the Food Standards to which the Light House is required to comply Click here

Staff Profiles

The Light House continues to move on in leaps and bounds! We now have two full time paid members of staff (other than myself!)

Many reading this will already know but just to formally introduce them on this blog....

Susie on the left above is the Cafe Manager. Susie began working at the Light House at the beginning of the year as a volunteer and mid-February took on the full time post of Cafe Manager.

Our newest recruit is Michelle pictured above on the right. Michelle also began working at the cafe as a volunteer and on Friday 1 May started the post of Catering Supervisor.

It's fantastic to have both Susie and Michelle on board and I thank God for them. Permanent staff provide a solid base of continuity and direction for the centre operations. But I need to point out that volunteer staff are also invaluable and we thank God for all our volunteer staff too! If there's anyone out there who would like to volunteer to help at the Light House and hasn't yet done so, please don't hesitate to contact Susie or myself, Gwen.
Blessings!

Happy Easter!

Brian put on his apron again today to produce a new creation... Brian's Breakfasts! A special all day breakfast at the Light House to celebrate Easter. He was joined by Maria baking ducklings and bunnies.. shaped cookies that is!! Also on our hard working and superb staff today were 2 Matts and Eilidh. All wonderfully organised and orchestrated by our Cafe Manager Susie.
Thanks to everyone involved for making this such a special day at the Light House.
Take a look at the video below for some highlights of the day..

Soup of the day!

If you haven't been along to the Light House to try the "Soup of the Day" then I recommend that you do..

Yesterday's was the famous "Brian's Broth"...

...and here's Brian making it...

and Fiona tasting it!!

Then there's Maria's mouthwatering custard creams

..a firm favourite with folk here at the Light House!

We're in the Courier!

Shining a light for the community
By Calum Macleod
Published: 27 February, 2009
HILTON may not be on the coast but it can now boast a Light House of its own — one which it is hoped will provide a beacon for the Inverness community.

For the full article check out this link

Light House Garden Party!

Iain, Lewis, Steve and Ailsa spent much of the day today beginning the landscaping of the Light House garden. Photos below.. shame I didn't get one of Iain driving the digger. Maybe some other time?

Pancake Party

What a fantastic time was had by all at the Light House yesterday evening! About 150 children and their parents attended the Pancake Party, another Susie Fraser Initiative! Thanks to all who helped to organise and make it such a special occasion.

Maria and Christine, our hard working and much appreciated pancake makers,

churning out the pancakes

The famous pancakes themselves

There were children...

and grown-ups...

...and the proof was in the pudding.. or more accurately, the pancake!!

First week of lunches!

Wow what an amazing week at the Light House, its first week of serving lunches!

All was quiet at the start of a new week...

...then Tuesday kicked off with the new menu which you can view by clicking here (then click on your browser's back button to return to the blog) including Susie's Special Soup! The Panini maker also made it's debut...Wednesday morning saw Brian making the soup (Brian's Broth!) and Maria baking mouthwatering scones... our first "Home Baking"! ...and by Thursday we had the new soup kettle on the go!Friday was a particularly busy day and here are some of our dynamic staff preparing the lunches, left to right: Sarah, Fiona, Michelle and Susie..
Then Saturday was Valentine's Day with Love Heart biscuits, heart shaped marshmallows on the Hot chocolate and a special valentine's day atmosphere!! Our deep gratitude to all staff both paid and volunteers who give of their time, energy and sometimes stress levels to this wonderful venture!

Here's leaving you today with a view of a couple of the "Specials" boards..