Posts Tagged ‘charity events’

After 6 fabulous years, Rob has finally taken the jump and is moving on to pastures new! So Rob leaves Tara and Andy to take on the Personal Training in The Dragon Hotel in Swansea to the next level and look forward to welcoming Natalie and Louise to the Team!!

As with any celebration (we are sad that rob is leaving us….honest!), there has to be some celebratory drinks.

Many of the staff from The Dragon Health Club and Hotel met up on Saturday for a day of Sport and Socialising. Naturally, some of the boys had to start celebrations after a large cooked breakfast so the partying started at 12pm. Then it was a few drinks whilst watching Swansea vs Arsenal (we lost L ) and then a few more to watch Wales vs England! Woo Hoo!!! We won!!!

So there was more celebrating! This lasted into the early hours of the morning. Needless to say, after a shift of partying in excess of 12 hours (Rob struggles putting hard work in for 8 hours) Rob was a little sleepy, and managed a bit of shut eye before actually getting to bed!!

We all partied hard to make sure Rob had a good send off and we wish him all the very best of luck in his new job!!

Good Luck Rob, We’ll miss you!!

From everyone at The Dragon Hotel

xx

Shrove Tuesday will be upon us so we thought we’d get in really early and make sure that not only are you prepared for some flipping good fun, but you’re also having a healthy pancake day this year!

Tara Hammett, our Health Club Manager and one of Swansea and South Wales’ top Personal Trainers (Did we mention finalist in the National Fitness Awards Personal Trainer of the Year 2012?) has shared her healthy pancake recipe that will keep your mid week healthy nutrition in check! It’s gluten free, high in fibre and massive on taste!

Ingredients: (for one pancake, increase ingredients accordingly)

For the pancake:

1 Tablespoon Coconut Flour

2 Egg Whites

¼ Cup Coconut Milk

For cooking in the pan:

Coconut Oil

For adding at the end (optional):

¼ teaspoon Truvia

Lemon

Mix all your pancake ingredients together. Firstly I whisked my egg whites up, then I added the flour and milk to a nice little batter.

Add ½ teaspoon of coconut oil to the pan and swish it around.

Add your pancake batter to the pan and cook on one side for about a minute whilst swishing (said that twice now) the batter evenly around the edges.

Then…..the next move is your shout….what will it be??

A Flip????

Or

Risk a toss???

Well…..I’m gonna put it out there – I flipped!! Which I must say is medium on the adventurous scale, because sometimes I totally bail out and cook the other side under the grill (top tip).

Cook the other side for about another 30 seconds, then slide it out onto your plate, sprinkle with a bit of truvia and squeeze some fresh lemon and tuck in!!

NOM!!

So, you’ve had fun, you feel like you’ve indulged and you can enjoy the rest of your evening guilt free!!

Macros per pancake:

139 kCals

9g Protein

6g Carbs

3g Fibre

9g Fat

Enjoy!!!

Tara x

Well it has been a very coooold one in Swansea!

The snow certainly came and made its mark and it’s been getting to the health club staff as outdoor training has been a no go and it’s been quiet as many of the team’s personal training clients from Swansea have been snowed in, even though Swansea City Centre was still moving.  Although residential areas certainly resembled more of a winter wonderland!

Andrew hasn’t been out on his bike for a week – which is unheard of! Tara had to sleep in the hotel (not that she’s moaning) on Thursday night. Rob has put on a few pounds as he’s not been able to go out running and believes ‘comfort eating’ will protect him from the cold. James has also missed a few gym sessions but luckily, we all have Tara’s home HIIT workout video’s to follow to make sure the snow doesn’t sabotage our fitness to much!

But…we’re hopeful that the big melt is on its way and getting back to fitness and healthy eating is high on the agenda!

Tara has kicked off the Diet Tribe with Badger & Claire on 96.4fm The Wave and we’re all looking forward to seeing how much weight the tribe will lose over the next 6 weeks! Listen out to Tara on air for all her top fitness and nutrition tips.

You can also download her FREE E-book and join in with the journey on Facebook.

We hope you’re keeping safe & warm and continuing with your healthy 2013 goals!!

This weekend I took part in the most INCREDIBLE experience of my life. Strictly Swansea was the most magnificent event and I feel so lucky to have been part of it. The journey was so emotional, I was nervous, scared, anxious but also very very excited!

Many months ago Blanche Sainsbury, the Managing Director of SWWMedia had a lightbulb moment about a Strictly event and I was so excited that I was asked to dance. Taking on a challenge and learning a new skill is right up my street, but never in my life would I have predicted that it would soon become one of the biggest highlights of my life.

Mario and Rebekah from DeMarco’s Dance School in  Swansea have been amazing. They are the most incredible instructors and now wonderful friends and I can’t thank them enough for all the effort they have put in to teaching me, and all the others who were dancing on the night. My new Strictly family!

I also feel like the luckiest girl to have been teamed up with the amazing Blair Crewther. We got on like a house on fire from day 1. Blair had a hard task of putting up with me over the months, but he is the most patient, professional and fabulous person (and an amazing dancer btw) and with the help of Mario and Rebekah, somehow managed to turn me into a dancer! We have had so much fun along the way and have become brilliant friends.

The night was a huge success and I was over the moon with my Rumba performance with Blair.

We had the highest score of the night with an amazing 10 from Mark Jermin, 9 from Camilla Dallerup and 10 from Kevin Sacre! Wowweee!

I was so happy to get to the final with the lovely Melanie Walters and along with Lara Johnson, who was so fab the judges decided to choose her with a wild card; we had a really tough Jive in the dance off. It was one of the hardest workouts even for me as a Personal Trainer in Swansea but the best fun too!! Melanie was the winner of the night, and I was proud to have come second and delighted to have raised £300 for my chosen charity Tan Yr Allt Service Users Fund.

Now my amazing journey is over I have the Post-Strictly Blues. I want to go back in time. (In fact, Blair is also amazing by day and is a scientist – so I’m putting all my faith in him to invent me a time machine pronto!!) I miss my lessons, I miss Mario & Rebekah, I miss my new friends that also went through the same journey as me and I miss Blair. Sooooooo…that can only mean one thing!!! I’ve got to keep at it.

Strictly Swansea may be over for me now, but the journey was too amazing to leave there. The dancing shoes are with me to stay and I can’t wait to see what exciting memories they will see me through in the future!!

Keeeeeep Dancing!

Tara xxxx

Festive Greetings avid readers!!

We are once again honouring a team member..the one person that has stood out as contributing that little bit extra, and I am delighted to announce that the winner of this pretegious accolade is once again the lovely Tanisha Williams – Conference & Banqueting Supervisor!

Tanisha is one of our long serving employees and works tirelessly along side the Conference & Banqueting Manager Antonio, making sure that everyone attending functions, be it Birthday party, wedding reception, hen night etc has the very best of service.  Her attention to detail is seconf to none!  Her favourite time of the year at the hotel is trimming up ready for Christmas and it’s fair to say that there is never a bauble out of place or a piece of tinsel trailing!  So once again join me in a celebratory toast to Tanisha…may your Christmas lights glow brightly and your festive functions go with a bang!

As detailed in The South Wales Evening Post on Wednesday, 16th February 2011(right), February 14th saw The Dragon Health & Fitness Club staff and members take part in an organised event celebrating 50 years of the British Heart Foundation. Along with other gyms and health clubs in the Swansea area, The Dragon had to promote an event with the 50 theme in mind. Some discarded ideas included 50km on the treadmill, bike and rower but we finally set the challenge of swimming a combined effort of 50km in one day, it took a lot of hard effort and some long hours in the pool, in fact 2,777 lengths in total, but we managed to hit the target at 9.30pm! We would like to thank everyone who took part and sponsored the team for this great cause, the final sum of money raised is still unknown but appears to be over £350.

Completing this challenge now frees up the team to put their heart and soul into celebrating 50 years of The Dragon Hotel – I somehow don’t think that 50km on the treadmill is going to be included in those celebrations either!

Suzanne Spiller has been Conference Sales Manager at The Dragon Hotel for the past 3 years. Suzanne’s background has always been within the Hotel Industry and since joining an independent hotel in 2007 has found Swansea a very friendly and rewarding place to work. Outside of work Suzanne’s keen interest is running and raising money for some fantastic charities.

Let’s now introduce you to Suzanne’s team:

Sian Owen, Conference Sales Co-ordinator, also joined the team in 2007 and is the Wedding Co-ordinator. Sian herself got engaged in New York in January and has a sparkling rock on her left hand. But the love of her life is her beloved dog Lottie!

Last but certainly not least, Gethyn John, Conference Sales Co-ordinator, has worked at The Dragon Hotel for the past 5 years, where he began his role as Operations Manager. He then made the transition to the Conference Sales Office in 2008. Gethyn is the most green fingered amongst us and when he isn’t working he is in the garden.

Choose The Dragon Hotel for your Charity Fudraising Dinner

Looking for somewhere special to host a Charity Event? Well, look no further. The Dragon Hotel has everything you will need for that all important fundraising event… (more…)