BarCraft Brandy Warmer Gift Set with Glass and Stand, Metal - 12 March 2020

This post is part of a series about the things I've bought on Amazon since opening my account in September 1998. For more details about my Amazon purchases and the book I've been working on, have a read of this post.

2020 was the year that a whole swathe of friends turned fifty and on Friday 13th March a group of us were planning to meet in Soho to celebrate the first of these occasions. A table had been booked at Lobos Meat and Tapas and friends were travelling from Bristol and Cambridge and even from South London for an afternoon of art and food followed by an evening of drinking.

For a couple of weeks before the outing there had been talk about the virus on our group chat. I’d mentioned ‘prepping’ on March 2nd to much ridicule, though I did feel vindicated over the next few days when friends started sharing photos of empty shelves in their local supermarkets. One of us overheard the waiters in a local restaurant talking about the head chef who had been isolated with a terrible cough. Another was wondering whether a holiday to Ukraine would go ahead the following week. A third friend was working from home as his company stressed-tested their capacity to keep the business going if people couldn’t make it into the office. 

At 9.35am on 12th March 2020 I ordered a BarCraft Brandy Warmer Gift set, choosing priority next day delivery so that it would arrive in time for me to wrap it and take it to lunch along with an appropriate bottle. Half an hour later, the first of the group cancelled, worried about travelling into London before visiting elderly relatives over the weekend. The rest of us were still planning on meeting up, anticipating that it might be easier to get seats in pubs which were bound to be quieter this week than on a ‘normal’ Friday afternoon. ‘Better make the most of tomorrow’s lunch,’ wrote Rob. ‘It could be the last time we are allowed out.’

By eight o’clock on the morning of the lunch, all but 2 of us had withdrawn from the day, including the birthday boy himself. At home I put the Brandy Warmer Set on a shelf, where it waited to be gifted in better times. The next time we would get together for lunch followed by drinks would be 617 days and nine fiftieth birthdays later.