People: Lucky 7s festival offers chance to meet Olympian

WHAT’s not to like about the Edinburgh 7s Festival that kicks off at Meggetland Sports Complex on Friday?
Grace Kennedy is to take the top job at Triage after Kate Carnegie  steps downGrace Kennedy is to take the top job at Triage after Kate Carnegie  steps down
Grace Kennedy is to take the top job at Triage after Kate Carnegie steps down

The afternoon is set aside for corporate events and businesses are entering teams for beach volleyball, football sevens, touch rugby or fancy dress dodgeball starting at 2pm.

Estate agent Rettie & Co has already signalled it is attending.

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The fun gets even better, as the winning team in the corporate beach volleyball event gets to play against Shauna Mullin – one-half of Britain’s top beach volleyball team, who played at the London 2012 Olympics – and other UK players later that day.

Shauna Mullin, left (with beach volleyball partner, Zara Dampney) will be in Edinburgh this weekendShauna Mullin, left (with beach volleyball partner, Zara Dampney) will be in Edinburgh this weekend
Shauna Mullin, left (with beach volleyball partner, Zara Dampney) will be in Edinburgh this weekend

Kennedy succeeds Carnegie

It’s all change at Triage Central, the welfare-to-work specialist operating in the Forth Valley, Fife and Tayside. Triage has been expanding its presence in Aberdeen and the North of England.

Its founder, Kate Carnegie – awarded an MBE in the 2011 New Year Honours list for services to unemployed people – is stepping back from the work placement she founded back in 1998.

Her efforts in landing the right person for the job as her successor as managing director have been rewarded, with the recruitment of Grace Kennedy, who joined the firm as operations director in December.

Triage is a big player in the UK government’s flagship £5 billion back-to-work scheme, which aims to help 2.4 million unemployed people find jobs – though it is not without its critics, it must be said. Best of luck, Grace.

Wine bar’s clientele helps fund owner’s charity work

Virginie Brouard is one of the best-known faces in Edinburgh’s West End due to her ownership of both the after-work hotspot Le Di-Vin, the refurbished Polish church-turned-wine bar, and La P’tite Folie, the restaurant next door.

Despite working hard at the coalface of Edinburgh’s food and beverage industry, the restaurateur and mother of three “doesn’t do holidays”. Instead she uses any spare time and money to support an order of nuns in their charity work. Brouard will next be doing a bit of plumbing on her latest trip to Ethiopia. She has already visited the country five times – last time she ended up having wheelchairs flown out from Scotland to an orphanage run by the Daughters of Charity.

Next on the agenda are new toilets, which though expensive would make a big difference to the orphanage. She is planning to travel back to Ethiopia soon, having recently raised £2,000 at a charity night attended by her well-watered Edinburgh clientele.

Battle of the island beers

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AT CAMRA’s 27th Great Grampian Beer Festival, Isle of Skye Brewing company’s Young Pretender ale pipped Arran Brewery’s Red Squirrel to win the title of Champion Bitter of Scotland.

But Arran’s managing director Gerald Michaluk was gracious in defeat. He said: “It was great that Skye brewery won. Of course we would have liked our Red Squirrel to have won, but on the night they delivered the better beer in the judges’ opinion. There are just so many fantastic ales in Scotland and to get in the Camra top list is an achievement in itself.”

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