Caramel colored rum
Today I bought a bottle of rum. I would not be able to do this in my country. That's not to say it is my first time buying alcohol here so far, I bought a six-pack of Victoria Bitter and a bottle of Absolut. However, I've finished those off over the past six weeks of pre-gaming for Saturday nights at Fortitude Valley, campus parties, and chilling with my newfound friends on my floor. I wanted to try something new, so I looked around a bottle-o at a mall in Brisbane.
Now, I could have gotten burbon, whiskey, beer, or prehaps even wine. However, I saw a bottle of Bundaberg Rum, and the color (excuse me, colour) just fascinated me. I couldn't make up my mind as to whether it was the shade of caramel, tree sap, or maple syrup. I needed to look at it in a better light, so I got it.
When I got back to my room it was about two o'clock in the afternoon. I slid my window open with a bit of a struggle, because the notch that I had to pull back was stuck. Like a lot of stuff in my room, it has aged finely: The chair is covered in the patterned doddles of previous students trying to lighten up what would otherwise resemble a prison cell, the landline phone is covered in phone numbers and names (one of the names, Jackie, has little hearts around it), and I found an old shoe in the drawrs under my bed.
Outside my window, which is on the 2nd (3rd by American standards) is a view of the Johnson Path biketrail at the Nathan Campus of Griffith University, the part where the bush starts to segue into the campus itself, and the bush only really gives up once it hits the tunnel that goes underneath the highway. Bush Turkeys silently (I have never heard them make a sound) waddle around, crows crow, and kookaburras cackle. A black cat lives somewhere around here, but I have only seen it at night.
The past few days have been rainy, which is supposed to be a rare occurance for the Brisbane area. It never got that windy though, which seems strange because when I was walking to the tops of the hills by Nathan's stadium before it rained, the clouds were jagged, blackened, and moving in fast. What I feel to be a "strong wind" may be different from a Brisbaner's though. I'm used to wind pulling trees from the ground. Today though, it's bright and sunny, and the birds are back. Although there are hardly and clouds, there are still strong breezes, and earlier they were directed straight into my room. They ripped my James Lee Hooker poster off the, and knocked an empty Lift can onto my head while I was working on a paper that morning.
I placed the bottle of Rum on my windowsill. Not only could I tell it was caramel-colored, but I could see tiny bubble slowing drifting around at it's top. Behind it, the screen mesh looked like honeycombs and the trees looked like swirls in the liquid.
I haven't had the urge or a reason to drink it yet, but I can't stop staring.
See for yourself
Now, I could have gotten burbon, whiskey, beer, or prehaps even wine. However, I saw a bottle of Bundaberg Rum, and the color (excuse me, colour) just fascinated me. I couldn't make up my mind as to whether it was the shade of caramel, tree sap, or maple syrup. I needed to look at it in a better light, so I got it.
When I got back to my room it was about two o'clock in the afternoon. I slid my window open with a bit of a struggle, because the notch that I had to pull back was stuck. Like a lot of stuff in my room, it has aged finely: The chair is covered in the patterned doddles of previous students trying to lighten up what would otherwise resemble a prison cell, the landline phone is covered in phone numbers and names (one of the names, Jackie, has little hearts around it), and I found an old shoe in the drawrs under my bed.
Outside my window, which is on the 2nd (3rd by American standards) is a view of the Johnson Path biketrail at the Nathan Campus of Griffith University, the part where the bush starts to segue into the campus itself, and the bush only really gives up once it hits the tunnel that goes underneath the highway. Bush Turkeys silently (I have never heard them make a sound) waddle around, crows crow, and kookaburras cackle. A black cat lives somewhere around here, but I have only seen it at night.
The past few days have been rainy, which is supposed to be a rare occurance for the Brisbane area. It never got that windy though, which seems strange because when I was walking to the tops of the hills by Nathan's stadium before it rained, the clouds were jagged, blackened, and moving in fast. What I feel to be a "strong wind" may be different from a Brisbaner's though. I'm used to wind pulling trees from the ground. Today though, it's bright and sunny, and the birds are back. Although there are hardly and clouds, there are still strong breezes, and earlier they were directed straight into my room. They ripped my James Lee Hooker poster off the, and knocked an empty Lift can onto my head while I was working on a paper that morning.
I placed the bottle of Rum on my windowsill. Not only could I tell it was caramel-colored, but I could see tiny bubble slowing drifting around at it's top. Behind it, the screen mesh looked like honeycombs and the trees looked like swirls in the liquid.
I haven't had the urge or a reason to drink it yet, but I can't stop staring.
See for yourself