In the north-west corner of Charterhouse Square sits the Malmaison hotel, the venue for this event. Malmaison are offering a menu of 6 different cocktails all of which are meant to reflect some aspect of the Olympic games. The bar itself is cozy and dark, with strategically placed TV screens ready to screen as many of the 302 events that will be contested during the course of the next few weeks.

Want to Wok harder, better, faster? Then you need School of Wok. Nick Harman takes the 1 hour Quickfire class and emerges a Wok god with awesome flipping skills, literally.

Want to learn how to forage like the pros without the hospital visits? We tried out a Woodland Ways foraging course to see how easy it really is – and avoid any dodgy tummies

Unsure of her sea legs, Anita Pati finds she doesn’t need them when she spends a day ashore with Frédéric Camonin executive chef of Azamara Club Cruises. She then gets a taste of luxury liner living without leaving dock.

It’s graphic art. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. Metallic gold leaf, once adorning my chocolate martini, is now sticking firmly to my red lipstick. It’s anything but subtle, as several of my compatriots have pointed out. Cocoa loco, indeed.

If you’re nose doesn’t lead you there, just follow the yellow-bulbs literally lighting the way. Stands and centrepieces packed with colourful displays beckon and row and after row of brightly boxed sweeties make the new store hard to resist.

The best Italian food in the UK is to be found in the North, according to an award campaign to find Britain’s favourite Italian delis and trattorias.

Once a Victorian eye hospital, this Exeter landmark is now a blindingly cool hotel where there are no reception desks, every guest gets an iPad and Simon Hopkinson heads up the creative controls of the restaurant.

Down in London’s Covent Garden, a curtain swish from the grand theatres of Drury Lane, lies a shy canoodling couple up for a bit of exhibitionism. Champagne and fromage are being served together in a little shop-cum-bistro, and they’re unashamed of their curious pairing.

Ancient and wonderful behind the facade that the cruise day-trippers never see, Malta is much more than an island Benidorm. A place physically and metaphorically between Italy and the Middle East, yet always very much itself and totally comfortable with it.