Another gold star for 4 Morningside Place

I stayed over for part of this last week at 4 Morningside Place, Edinburgh.

Lovely warm welcome as usual from Bob and Jill.

What impressed me most of all was that, even though it's 3 months since I last stayed there, Jill remembered what I like for breakfast (poached egg on toast) and how I like it (no butter on the toast).

Marvellous service.

The egg, from Jill's friend's hens, was delicious too.

Now that's what I call a good B&B.

Sticky toffee pudding rocks!

My foodie weakness is puddings. Real old-fashioned British puddings.

Nothing too sweet, nor something that'll leave me feeling queasy afterwards, but something tasty and just sweet enough to be satisfying. Rhubarb crumble and custard... apple pie and real vanilla ice-cream (not that icky synthetic stuff that might have come out of a Mr Whippy van)... you get the idea.

And if it's a fruit pudding, like those, I can even kid myself I've had one of my 5-a-day at pudding time. Couldn't be better.

But when I go to a restaurant, I have to exercise a great deal of willpower if there's sticky toffee pudding on the menu and I'm trying to have a don't-eat-too-much sort of day.

Because there's hardly anything to beat a good sticky toffee pud.

What do I mean by a "good" sticky toffee pud? Well, here's what makes it for me:

• A sponge that's sweet but not too sweet, and light enough not to lie like a brick on the stomach afterwards.
• Plenty of fat juicy dates in the sponge.
• Butterscotch sauce poured over, again not too sweet and it's best if made with dark muscovado sugar.
• And a generous blob of good-quality vanilla ice cream on top. No pouring cream (yuck) and no trying to be clever by serving it with chocolate or strawberry ice cream. It's got to be either vanilla, or something like toffee fudge or honeycomb ice cream.

Mmm. I'm hungry now. Perhaps I'll postpone the home-grown-blackcurrant crumble I'd planned for this weekend and try making a sticky toffee pud instead...

Perhaps it was the velvet trousers!

Further to my mid-January post, I did WeightWatchers religiously through January, then tried my velvet trousers on again.

I could do them up... but only just.

This despite eating carefully, walking about 2 hours a day with a heavy rucksack, and feeling fitter and healthier than I've done in years.

Something doesn't add up, says the accountant.

So I tried on just about the tightest-fitting garment I own, the skirt of a bridesmaid's dress... and lo and behold it fitted just fine.

I think the velvet trousers must have shrunk in the wash :-)

New B&B to write up - 4 Morningside Place, Edinburgh

A near-the-office place to stay as recommended by a FreeAgent colleague; 4 Morningside Place, run by Bob and Jill Knox.

I tried it out a couple of weeks back, when the weather was just about at its coldest.

A comfortable and friendly B&B with some little touches that really put the icing on the cake for me.

Firstly, an electric underblanket on the bed, with a setting to warm the bed up and another to keep it warm overnight. Getting into a warm bed, and one that stayed warm, on such a bitterly cold night, was sheer bliss.

Secondly, a bathroom with the most amazing large thick fluffy towels I've ever seen. One of my pet B&B hates is small, thin towels that are sopping wet as soon as you've dried your hair. None of that here.

Thirdly, a breakfast tailored to meet my low-fat needs. Jill offered fresh fruit and willingly poached me an egg served on butter-free toast (and didn't commit the cardinal sin of putting margarine on instead).

I'm staying there again next week :-)

Dust off the old WeightWatchers books!

Before going down to my parents in Wales for Christmas for a week of yummy home-cooked food courtesy of my mum, and strong home-brewed beer courtesy of my dad (that's if he'll let me have some to make a shandy), I decided just to make sure I could get into my best velvet trouser suit.

Uh-oh.

I couldn't do up the trousers.

Time to dig out and dust off my old WeightWatchers books from when I lost 2 stone there some 9 (crumbs) years ago.

Back to finding that low-fat doesn't have to equal low-taste. Muller Light yoghurts are surprisingly creamy.

And, if I simply can't resist something (such as my mum's sticky toffee pudding), then I have a small portion.

Let's see how much I can lose by the end of January if I follow the WeightWatchers regime and stick to walking across Edinburgh twice a day when I'm working there. With a heavy backpack.

Updates will follow.