It’s what I use my one walk a day for… to go to the offie,
No. that’s not a misprint… I’ve been isolating from the office for nigh on a year since branching out on my own.
You may know it in your country as the liquor store or the wine store.
I was relieved then to hear that the offie ranks along the chemist and the supermarket as one of the stores that can stay open during the Coronavirus crisis.
Ned in Glasgow and NZ
Now we each do things a little bit differently and, at its rawest, the Glasgow offie is a cultural touchpoint in itself.
Now unsurprisingly I never saw a bottle of this New Zealand Cabernet Sauvignon, The Ned, in my offie when I was growing up.
It has gooseberry tastings don’t you know.
The drink du jour of The Glasgow Ned (the Non-Educated Delinquent) was, and still is, I dare say, Buckfast tonic wine.
Buckie is best drunk from out of the bottle and wrapped in brown paper while sitting on a park bench.
Not perhaps what the monks in the West Country of England had invented it for I should imagine.
The sight of a Ned. or Dublin gurrier, or whatever you call them in your country, swigging booze on a park bench might not be what you’d want to see…
When you’re pushing a pram.
Boston, full of beans
And I was reminded of how the good folk of Boston deal with that dilemma when I was watching the movie Ted 2 the other night.
Mark Wahlberg was drinking his can, which was wrapped in brown paper, with his Teddy bear on Boston Common.
And it took me back to the English guy who had attached himself to our group, Nick, on our post-University summer in Boston.
And didn’t know about the rule about drinking in public and the need to cover it in wrapping which he had some trouble in explaining to the cops.
‘OK to throw tea into the harbour and blame it on the Indians but God help you if you drink a can of beer without the brown paper covering it!’ Officer.
That Boston summer remains a glowing memory and Beantown came back on the radar yesterday when I was invited out for August, COVID-19 allowing.
With a tour of Fenway Park included and the chance to sit on the Boston Red Sox Green Wall. See https://www.boston.gov/visiting-boston and https://www.discovernewengland.org.
South African township
Of course while I say that every country’s off-sales is different my eyes were opened by the familiar grill bars at the South African shebeen.
In the Port Elizabeth New Brighton township in South Africa where we stopped off for a braai Day in the life of a township and https://www.southafrica.net/uk/en/.
And a braai is a barbecue and a shebeen what started out as an illegal Irish drinking den.
More high-brow perhaps is the Tenerife wine shop https://www.visitingtenerife.com on our walking trip with CanariaWays www.CanariaWays.com where we ordered Shakespeare wine…. A walk through the ages… Tenerife
Is that a Malmsey I see before me?
That’s the court wine Malmsey, or Malvasia, which the Bard references in his plays and is still sold there.
Me, I’ve finished off my Ned wine and have resorted to draining the schnapps miniatures in my globe drinks trolley.
From the schnapps shop in Ehrwald in Austria https://www.tyrol.com.
So whether it’s Prost, Failte, Salute, Na zdravi or just Cheers I’m looking you right in the eye and toasting our holiday providers… #DontCancelPostpone.
