London Links
Come with us now on a journey through Time and Space . . .
The MET outfits have crowded up the internet this week but instead of linking to the charming photos taken by Humans of New York (a blog I highly recommend), here are some sketches of the dresses themselves.
This piece on charm bracelets makes me fall a little bit more in love with J. K. Rowling and charm bracelets.
As the weather gets warmer and our thoughts all turn to planning summer hols, take a gander at these strange locations – As a bit of a random traveller I can confirm quite a few of these places exist!
Pimms season officially started with our sunny bank holiday last week and here are lovely little cups for your own English tea party [note: English tea party basically tiny cakes, finger sandwiches and lots of fruit accompanied by tea and/or Pimms]!
Tiara Tuesday:
Why stop at one tiara when TIME has down a roundup of some of the world’s most beautiful tiaras?
Cocktail of the Month:
To make up for missing last week I am imparting a gem of a cocktail that requires very little, is stupidly easy to make and, if gin isn’t your thing, you can switch it for vodka!
West Indian Cocktail
This month’s cocktail is a recent favourite of mine, discovered in the Savoy Cocktail Book during a bout of early summer sunshine. Given my northern travels this week I thought Edinburgh Gin would be appropriate, but you could go cheap as chips or rich as Crassus and this would be as refreshing.
What You’ll Need
First put your gin in the freezer and ice your glass, either by putting in the freezer or filling it with ice and cold water. Serious bar tending tip that actually makes all the difference on a hot summer’s day. Assemble a lemon, angostura bitters (shake the bottle as it often settles), Gin and sugar. I used golden caster sugar here but really any pale sugar will do. Another helpful hint is to grind any sugar used in a cocktail that is stirred as it will help the sugar dissolve, rather than sink to the bottom.
Shakalaka baby!
Juice half the lemon, four dashes of the bitters and a teaspoon of sugar either into your cocktail shaker or into your emptied glass. I was feeling fancy with my Partner in Crime’s shiny new shaker so decided to use that, but if you want to just use a glass then it works just as well (remember to grind/crush the sugar if using a glass). Add 100ml of Gin and ice. Shake well and pour into a glass of fresh ice or simply stir, garnish* and drink up!
One word of warning; this is basically drinking gin. Limit yourself to small glasses, wait for the ice to melt a little or add soda water for a fizzy version to help you last the night.
Cheers!
*I used a very sharp knife to cut a thick slice in a circle around a lemon.
