Showing posts with label gin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gin. Show all posts

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Stirred not Shaken

On the balcony of Somerset house overlooking the Thames is the Bombay Sapphire Dusk bar. Designed by the renown Tom Dixon.
Here you can sip your perfect martini, I'll have mine stirred not shaken thanks (despite what James Bond prefers).
Do you put vermouth in yours? I like a hint. Many don't like any. I've heard of waving the bottle near the glass without removing the cap.
Winston Churchill made his martini by adding gin then bowing towards France for the vermouth.

Cool place , but only open until 18 October. Get yourself over for a bit of cocktail imbibing.

Don't forget my competition that is running at present to win yourself a pair of tickets to Brussels. You can enter as many times as you like.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Water Mill

Water mills and wind mills are hardly what springs to mind when you think of London are they? Well certainly not to me. However thanks to Diamond Geezer who has a link to odd events on each weekend, I learnt that last weekend was national mills open day. Although I made a list and planned to see several, thanks to TFL (transport of London) getting around London was nigh on a miracle last weekend. However I did manage to get to House Mill in Bromley-by-Bow, just a 20 minute trip on the district line.
A rather impressive mill built in 1776, partly restored, in desperate need of more funds to continue the fabulous restoration so any millionaires reading this, £500,000 would just about do it.
In medieval times the mill produced flour for local bakers. It later made gunpowder, but its most successful product was gin. The water of London was not drinkable (I'm not convinced this has changed), however back in the 1700's ale or gin were the chosen liquids. (again not sure this has changed much either).