I’m singing. I guess this is a good sign. Not for anyone listening of course…but it means my brain is finally turning away from sadness to….singing. John Denver..Country Roads Take me Home. Husband Jay and I were at a Gin Festival last night…held at our old stomping ground of Tobacco Dock, Wapping in London’s East End. I didn’t want to go…’cos, truth be told, I’m not really a drinker. Neither is Jay..but he does like messing about with gin and liqueurs and such. And since friend Susie suggested it, I decided to do what I do not normally do and say yes. You know…take a risk and go along! We sampled a lot of interestingly flavoured gins..black tomato gin, Bathtub gin, Tinker gin and Zymurgorium Quince and Jamaican Ginger Gin. The best thing about it was not the gin…it was the (mostly young) guys making the gin. Guys getting really excited about the ‘botanicals’ they were using to pop into their gin-making distillery machines. Cardamom, jasmine, cinnamon, pepper, lime, ginger. Even celery. Guys who really knew their gin history and were running micro-distilleries (with mum and dad’s cash?)…and challenging the Gordon’s Gin giants…(OK maybe not). Guys doing stuff with their hands and crafting something they were really proud of. Infectious enthusiasm…I’m really up for that. And it’s really lovely to see it…even in hipster types with long wispy beards.
And to top off a very jolly evening, a band called Northern Epidemic from Bradford in Yorkshire, who had the lovely mix of youngsters and oldsters singing and bopping away. I only heard their last 3 songs.. covers of (Deep Blue Somethings’) Breakfast at Tiffany’s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ClCpfeIELw, (the Mavericks) Dance the Night Away and…Take me home Country Roads…which Jay and I sang pretty much all the way home on the DLR (Docklands Light Railway). Pity we only knew the chorus….or maybe it’s just as well.
Thank you London, for all the fun…and the Dry Gin.
jx
Ain't we got it made? 