NEW YEAR SIPS

if i ever needed a character reference from a friend of over 10 years, Helga Trim would be one of the people that would immediately come to mind. so when she asked me to contribute to her Wine & Spirits article in the Sunday Newsday’s Good Living section, the only real delay was the time it took to open my laptop and boot it up. (which reminds me, i think i need a new laptop). anyway, her article asks “what do you drink to welcome the new year?” this was my response (with a few visuals thrown in because daz how we do it on a blog):

What I end up sipping on while the notes of Auld Lang Syne fill the air has been dictated by the context of the limes I attended over the years.

For example, one year I hopped around Tobago hotels storming their formal Old Year’s Night festivities. That year, twelve found me sipping the formal champagne, trying to blend in with the rest of the paying crowd.

Last year the stroke of twelve caught me heading to a lime by some friends that I never spent New Years with before. I joined them in an after-the-stroke-of-twelve toast when I arrived, and to facilitate it, we had shots of Patrone tequila… a drink I never had before. That also led to a new type of disaster for me, unfortunately unsuitable to mention in such a lighthearted article.

But the closest thing to a consistent New Year’s drink for me is what you’re sure to find whenever I get together with my inner circle of friends either at my place in Aranguez, by Ma in Barataria, or up on the block in Laventille by Jo. That’s Johnnie Walker Black, which we usually have in 2L bottles affectionately called “De Man Wit De Handle” because of the handle worked into the bottle design. There’s just something comforting to me about sipping a Johnnie on the rocks with some good friends on Old Year’s Night that makes the 365 days to come look a lot less challenging.

feel free to post what you drink to welcome the new year. i’d like to know. and don’t forget to get yourself a newsday on sunday december 27th to see who else drinks what else while the ball drops.

leh we bubble