Can One Bring A Bottle of Gin To A Street Party?

I am not so much in the mood for a street party right now. It seems to celebrate little I truly care about. It seems to be about connecting to your neighbours: but I fail to understand how that can work after 6 months of battling it out with them over fences; or failing to motivate them to trim more than a couple of feet along one half or their hedge between you. Clearly one wouldn't want to bring up such subjects at the party. So what does one talk about?

There is a street party going on in my little street. A huddle at one end, for which we all had to move our vehicles (half a mile away where there might still be a space behind a skip about to spill over, or a cherry tree about to fall over, or a drunk already fallen over). There is some mirth to be heard as children scream and shout and race about. Mirth? More like they need another top up on Risperdol and Ritalin.

I bought a bottle of gin, yesterday, with the idea to take this to the party. There will be wine enough. I have a bottle of elderberry and apple juice, too – sugar free, but still, those fruitsugars will keep up my neighbours’ children, till around midnight, notwithstanding, I fear. I could throw in a bottle of fizzy water, and maybe dig up some cheese straws from the larder. What does one bring to a street-party actually? Coleslaw? Plastic forks? Paper plates? They rented one coctail table with a red cloth over it. I guess the budget to promote community spirit has run dry.

I have never been to a street party in my street. My son preferred us to stay indoors. But he’s no longer here. Ought I not to act normal, now, and socialise congenially? Where did my old life go? Where is my new life going? I hope nobody has any questions for me. If I don’t go they’ll make up stories. If I do go they’ll twist my stories. It is tempting to have my fizzy water in the comfort of my own home. It has been a clear day, but it’s getting chilly out, already. Who has a street party towards the end of September in a north Northern-Hemisphere country?

There is something about that cobalt blue bottle of gin that worries me about going at all. I try to avoid the metaphysical readings or social tags that come with it. I try to brush my issues with casual alcohol consumption away by concentrating on the product. Judge not the people but the liquor.

Gin Tasting

It would not be my type of gin (too floral and not dry enough), if gin would still be my poison. Gin seems to have made a revival and is on trend, but all I know about gin is from a Gordon’s sales rep who came to relieve us from our duties (and our sadistic boss), with a crash course in the distilling, botanicals and mixing of gin, complete with a taste test, early one morning before breakfast, in a rural pub outside London where I worked with two Kiwis and a Tulip and a couple from up North, who anually crossed the Channel back and forth (barely setting foot on French soil) a few days before Christmas to stock up on tax-free booze.

The guy from Leeds would always use his free drink on December Quiz Nights, to get a bottle of Tizer, as instructed by his 21 year old wife, since this had a screw cap and several of such empty receptacles would proove useful on the drive to the ferry and back up to Leeds, for collecting urine, since his better half would not allow for pit-stops with the hectic agenda she had the days before Christmas.

I must say the guy from Gordon’s made for the most memorable day at that slave-labour pub and I remained loyal to Gordons for many years after, before I switched to wine (initially with an interest in viticulture) yet, eventually becoming too dependent on the warm glow of full bodied reds for a pain killer, and slowly drying out in 2012.

I have been tea-total for seven years now, and much has changed, it seems when it comes to gin. They come now in all flavours and are mixed with a variety of tonics (also in many flavours). I only knew Schweppes, but I have listened carefully to the description of the tonics by my off-license and selected three kinds.

One wouldn't want to cause a stir.

I am all set to go, dressed in scarlet and white - since when else am I going to get any use out of my outfit? Madly over-dressed, and insufficiently layered up I am tempted to slip into a long woolly cardigan – since the Mater and trend-setter of the street is also billowing a lot of wool behind her every time she goes back up her garden path to fetch something new to drink or nibble on. I pity the little girls in their sleeveless summer dresses who will have earache tomorrow, or pneumonia, or at least a bladder infection.

I could change and casually stroll over to make a modern impression, as the mother of a boy who has left home. They’ll all ask after him, knowing his name, and maybe one or two will know which house I’ve come out of, but does anyone know my name? Which name shall I use?! What impression will my gin make? Will I run the risk of being called a raging drunk the moment I turn about on my heels and bid everyone a (sober) good-night? The ones who believe my son had to have been neglected for being that slim and somewhat skittish are still amongst the crowd. I don’t stand a chance of putting in a “fresh” appearance.

I ought to get going now, and put in an appearance, anyway; just to own the right to party, perhaps? But I know from the Gordon’s man that ice is required to fill up the highball glass, and the tonic too has to be chilled. I haven’t done the latter, nor got more than a few cubes of the former.

To be honest, I just need to get rid of the bottle with no room to store it, keeping it only on stand-by in the event of an unlikely visitor popping in and asking for a G&T. I am not sure this qualifies for a good reason to attend the party....

The contrast with the love that could be made, the bliss and joy there is to be had on a totally divine drink of I am that I am in the presence of the other, is actually, quite intolerable to me today. To sip and nibble, while I really want to dive and sponge the whole sea up is not something I think I can manage right now. Maybe next year?

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Photos from the video on how to make the perfect Bombay Gin and Tonic website