Bottles in Bot Gardens

by Renier Cronje
For my final Journalism and Media Studies tutorial we were given the assignment of documneting ourselves engaging in something new and completetly different to our regular everyday activities. We were told to do something adventurous and exciting as to resemble what a qualified journalist may encounter in their career. I decided that since I had never been to The Botanical Gardens in Grahamstown and being a Saturday night, why not take a bottle of something and experience it while becoming mildly intoxicated. I managed to round up to of my closest friends to join to me at dusk at the Bot Gardens equipped with two bottles of Crackling and a bottle of Old Brown Sherry. The weather forecast had said to expect late afternoon thunderstorms so I thought I would get lucky and get to experience this upon my first experience of Bot Gardens. This drinknig session was of specific value to me as It was my last night of driniking at Rhodes-I am leaving Rhodes next year and with Exams around the corner I have to buckle down and study.The afternoon light had dissappeared into darkness and we were alone in the Bot Gardens. After a cheers or two and a drinking game later, it was safe to say that we were all experiencing the glorious effects of alcohol upon the body. Being students with promiscious lives and lower morales and values than a self proclaimed prostitute, we were all going through rough patches in our lives. Before I could look again, my fairwell drinks party and Journalism assignment had turned into an “Emo, slit-my-wrists party” which found us all crying to each other and seeking salvation from the non-judgemental bottle of alcohol resting on our tear drenched lips.