Dazzling Prince Philip RCS Launch Night

Through my work, I was lucky enough to be invited, with a colleague, to the launch night of the new Royal College of Surgeons venue, namely the Prince Philip Building.

Those of you who know Edinburgh will likely know the main RSC building. It is on Nicolson Street, with the new building, the Prince Philip, diagonally behind it looking onto Hill Street. The new building, apparently, was a snooker hall in the 1970s, then was part of the University of Edinburgh School of Languages, and is now a lovely venue for conferences, weddings, or whatever you fancy really!

The event invite promised drinks and canapes on arrival followed by a short tour. The champagne served was lovely and everyone got a bottle to take home with them. The canapes were lovely too, and included treats such as lobster, asparagus and haggis.

The short tour took the format of a treasure hunt! I admit I was cynical upon hearing this, but it was actually very fun and my competitive side kicked in. It was also a very clever way of letting you get to see all the RSC buildings without being dictated to on a walking tour where you hear information you will forget as soon as you leave. And my friend and I won (finished first), so I was happy.

We weren't expecting to be treated to more food and champagne after the treasure hunt, but we were. And what a spread! The caterers, Heritage Portfolio, pulled out all the stops on a delicious buffet for us. They put out samples of their four menus, namely Hot Plate, Working Lunch, Finger Food and Sandwich Platter. We tried everything, of course. We tried so much, in fact, that we were planning to go for dinner afterwards but couldn't actually stomach anything else. Corney & Barrow, who supply RSC wines, also deserve a shout out.

It was a brilliant evening, and I feel inspired to book the new beautiful new venue for a work function or fancy party.

Rumour has it Prince Philip is going to officially open the venue. I'll be looking out for my invite..!

An oh so serious shot in the main hall on our treasure hunt

Main hall

Upstairs in the new building, with beautiful buffet by Heritage Portfolio

New bar

A selection of delicious desserts by Heritage Portfolio

All this food means I have to fight the flab, somehow...

In less than a fortnight, my best friend and I are going on quite a luxurious holiday to Turkey. I don't really feel that I can lose much more weight on healthy eating alone, so I made the decision nearly two weeks ago to join the gym.

I joined PureGym in Edinburgh's Quartermile. Given it is so close to holiday time, I have been nearly every day since joining in a last ditch attempt to get my "bikini body." I decided to join PureGym for four main reasons:

1. it is close to my flat.

2. it is cheap.

3. the classes looked great.

4. it is contract-free and user-friendly.

I've not been disappointed. There are lots of machines to choose from and they are all clean, well-maintained and modern. The classes are great too. So far I've tried Fat Burn (muscle exercises with some cardiovascular stuff too) and Fast Core (a 15 minute session for your abs). I've been to two different instructors for Fat Burn - one used barbells and one didn't. The girl who did my induction, Romana, was extremely helpful and gave me exercises to do in order to tone up the areas I want to focus on. It is well worth getting a session with a trainer, I reckon.

I'm not a lazy person, but I'm not the fittest either. I can't deny I am finding it tough at times, but when I push myself and try to go one step further with my workout, I start to feel the adrenaline pumping and I already feel better for it. I can safely say I have a little more get up and go, have been sleeping better and look forward to my next workout.

You all know that I like my grub, as well as running my dinner party group, so the biggest challenge is going to be not over-indulging food-wise. I've done well so far; I've had salads every night this week and only had a drink on Friday evening. I'm currently a size 10, and although I don't want to be mega-thin, I'd like to be a curvy and slightly toned size 8, or maybe even a slightly smaller 10. I know I'm not fat, but I wouldn't mind my wobbly bits being a little less wobbly.

Enough own body-shaming - onwards and upwards!

Latest easy bakes

Another few weeks of attending dinner parties and baking sweet treats for people allows me to bring you the following two easy-peasy recipes. One is for coconut and lime sponge bites which I made to take to a canape and champagne party. The other is simple Mars brownies which I made for friends and colleagues.

I hope you enjoy. Suggestions for improvement and comments welcome :)

Coconut and lime sponge bites

Coconut and lime sponge bites

Ingredients for around 15 moon shaped rounds

• 100g plain flour
• 75g desiccated coconut and a little extra for dusting
• 3 teaspoons of baking powder
• 70g butter
• 60g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon of golden syrup
• 150ml coconut milk
• juice and rind of 1 lime
• around 30g icing sugar

Method

1. preheat the oven to 170 fan and line your round baking tin.
2. cream together the butter and sugar with the syrup.
3. gradually sift in the flour, baking powder and dry coconut and add a little of the coconut milk.
4. keep doing so while stirring until the mixture is well combined.
5. bake for around 35 minutes.
6. once the cake is cool, you can now make your icing by mixing together the lime juice and icing sugar.
7. drizzle liberally over the cake and decorate with the lime zest as you please.
8. cut into the shape of your choice and enjoy!

Mars Brownies

Mars brownies

Ingredients - to make 20 squares

• 400g caster sugar
• 225g melted butter
• 4 Mars bars
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 4 medium eggs
• 225g plain flour
• half a teaspoon of baking powder
• half a teaspoon of salt

Method

It really is simple and I don't have to give a 1, 2, 3 order. Simply mix all the ingredients in the order listed above, pour into a greased dish, bake at 180 fan for around 40 mins (this is because I used a narrow tray, if you're using a wide and shallow tray bake for 20-25 minutes), cool, slice then serve!