You may or may not know London Cocktail Week started on Monday. Unfortunately, much as I’d like to, I haven’t been able to drop everything and spend the last few days in a Martini-fueled haze, wheeling around the city and enjoying the festivities. Instead, for much of the first few days of LCW, I’ve been holed up in BBS Towers working on some new projects we’ve got coming up (you’ll just have to wait to find out more) and today I’m en route to Leicester, of all places. Hopefully I’ll be able to get in on the cocktail action in the next few days.
But I’m all about raising awareness of big annual events and as far as I’m concerned there are very few things worth celebrating more! While we’re on the topic of annual events, I should mention that tomorrow is World Sight Day – a genuinely worthy thing to raise awareness of. But London Cocktail Week does look like a lot of fun. It’s offering a pretty good chance to go to some of the city’s swankier venues. You can pay £10 up front for a wristband that entitles you visit over 150 venues in London and try out £4 signature cocktails – pretty good value.
It reminded me that at Blue Badge Style we actually happen to have our own signature cocktail. It is, as you might have guessed, a bright blue concoction. It has a champagne base but other than that I can’t reveal the exact details about how to make it – not because I can’t remember (I can remember) but let’s just say I hope the £4 selection cocktails at LCW venues are a little bit tastier.
We’ll have a guide to some of our favourite London cocktail bars up tomorrow.
By the way, if you think that the idea of Cocktail Week is superfluous you should look out for our article on the strangest national celebratory days that’s coming to Blue Badge Style very shortly.
It also came to my attention this week that the Menier Chocolate Factory theatre in Southwark, a venue I previously thought was ‘out of bounds’ to the less able, has pretty good disabled access. I was very pleased to hear this because it’s supposed to be one of the most fun and creative theatres in London. They put on really interesting stuff and there’s something quite nice about it being in an old chocolate factory – somewhere that brought so much joy to the world in one way, now doing so in another.
As long as you make sure you call ahead and arrive early, wheelchair users are well looked after. They have a step-free entrance and disabled toilet facilities on the same level as the restaurant. A member of staff can assist you with entering the theatre and getting comfortable. Apparently you need to arrive 30 minutes early to sort everything out but I’ve heard good things through the grape vine.
We’ve been having a lot of fun with our pictures of ridiculous ramps, ludicrous loos and generally inept disabled facilities since the last Wrap. Many of them have been almost too stupid to be true – almost but not quite. My approach is that you have to laugh at ridiculous things like this because if you don’t, they will drive you crazy. The pics seem to have been making lots of other people laugh as well so I thought I leave you with one more. Take a look at this ironic setup.
After a trip to that wheelchair foundation I’d feel both shaken and stirred I think.
See you next week!
P.S. if you have a chance, take a look at our fascinating article on the sci-fi future of bionic limbs – it’s amazing and a little bit spooky.