Confined Cocktails #50 (...possibly?) - and SAVE THE DATE 20th advance info

I think I've miscounted #ConfinedCocktails and it's probably the 51st Saturday of cocktailing, except where I wasn't around on Boxing Day and I vaguely remember having some kind of social activity in... was it August... which kept me out another evening so really who knows but BASICALLY we must be around a half-century now so hurrah for us. I have expanded my cocktail expectations very substantially in this time. I now have fully three online cocktail dealers for investment whims, and also own two kinds of rum which is 100% more rum than I've ever owned before. 

I'm soaking banana chips in the dark rum today, which will not surprise those of you wise folk who, like me, check in with The Spirits weekly. Banana Old Fashioned it is, tonight. Which after two hours of lockdown yoga workshop immediately before, should be interesting. I will keep you updated. 

I do hope that this is the last of the absolutely properly locked down weekends we all face, but I know we won't immediately burst into busyness as things ease up slooooowly in the next few months (fingers crossed, touch wood, turn three times and spit, sacrifice a pigeon to Wotan, the usual signifiers of hoping for the best in tricky moments). 

So as trailed, the 20th March, which is definitely One Year of Confined Kitchen, Confined Cocktails, Jacobin Day and generally keeping each other sane online through whatever goddamn hashtag we can muster, will be a time to have a bit of a party. You make your own food - I am planning a #ConfinedCookalong that afternoon, but since my inner party-thrower is a child in the early 1980s you will be cooking along with me making some lime jelly and some cocktail sausages and I'm fairly sure you are all aware how those work. 

What there also will be is Vanessa's storytime. I will add the link to this post a couple of days before the event so you're not tied to Cocktail Hour and can sit back and enjoy a storytelling whenever you please that afternoon or evening. [now added] Do feel free to share the link with your family/friends if you'd like to do a shared watchalong. It's a family-friendly tale, for all but the smallest. In fact, it's a fairy story. 

I thought I'd explain why I chose this story rather than one of Vanessa's more obscure, fabulous tales of London lore and history (which I v much recommend too). It's partly that I wanted you all to be able to share it, with kids or otherwise. It's also because we wanted to find a story that worked with the things that have brought us together: time passing, the seasons changing, food to eat and things to drink. 

*And* when Vanessa mentioned she had a story which has sections and interactive options for each, I was intrigued - because we can't all listen to this in the same place, how great to have something that involves more than just looking at a screen. 

If you DO want to participate actively like this, scour your cupboards or charge your shopping lists for the following:

• For part one: something strawberry, which evokes the taste or smell or sight of berries in sunshine. I know it isn't the right season for the fresh ones, but it will be someday. Promise yourselves.
• For part two: something vanilla, especially something sweet and a bit special. Is it a good idea to indulge in this, no matter who's offering? You'll find out when you listen...
• For the third and final part: you may want to start with something cold in your hands. Evoke the cold of winter, which we're just leaving. But your main task is to have a hot drink ready for the end of the story. Tea, infusion, maybe even a hot toddy?

And that's all I'm going to tell you about the story. Except to say that the real reason I picked it, even though all these are good reasons, is that I have heard Vanessa tell it live, and it's one of those events you never forget.

 

It was April, and we met near Regents Park, and processed to our storytelling location under a huge arching beech tree in the park - such a huge tree that we could all sit under it. It was cool early spring but the leaves were out of bud, and were just protection enough as soft rain pattered down outside the tree-room. There were lots of us in the group, and we sat slightly too close together, and I had damson gin in a hipflask (...bottle in my pocket, very classy...) and it was a good day. 

Spring is coming, my friends. And we will get to sit slightly too close together in groups someday. Maybe even indoors, but this feels more achievable. Meanwhile, have a lovely cocktail tonight, and feel free to start your party planning.

ETA I forgot to say, I'd like our "party" to have some toasts. Would you like to nominate a lockdown joy you'd want to boost? Or a charity you'd like to elevate? Will be asking on twitter this week and next.