Making a splash in Bondi

So we shopped. Two trains took us quickly, without incident, to Bondi Junction where we turned left rather than right in the station. That meant Spike had to push my dead weight round three steep sides of a bus station square. In search of a cheap suit (maybe), blue shoes to complement a yellow frock, books from Borders and maybe some spectacles we managed to establish that suits don't really go with me and my wheelchair (so the $1,500 Paul Smith number wasn't coming home with me today) and didn't have enough time to check to the bookshop but Spike did by two pairs of glasses for the price of one (for less than the price of one pair offered at her eye test last week) and a $10 pair of pink pumps. Go figure.

We ate noodles at one of the Ich Ban Boshi chain. Spike ordered Japanese Cider but something got lost in translation. She received a bottle of Ramune, Japanese soda. It come in a codd-neck bottle (see below). We couldn't quite see at first how it opened. I said, well it has screw top beneath the plastic ... try that. Spike tried, resting the bottle on her lap, on the table; holding it up before her. No luck. Then a light came on in Spike's memory. She found the plunger in the cap, pressed down on the marble held under pressure in the bottle neck then .... whooooooooooooooosh .... Japanese soda everywhere, including Spike.

I know when it's best to say nothing so I kept my mouth firmly shut ... for about a nanosecond.


Codd neck bottle (from Wiki)


In 1872, British soft drink maker Hiram Codd of Camberwell, south east London, designed and patented a bottle designed specifically for carbonated drinks. The Codd-neck bottle, as it was called, was designed and manufactured to enclose a marble and a rubber washer/gasket in the neck. The bottles were filled upside down, and pressure of the gas in the bottle forced the marble against the washer, sealing in the carbonation. The bottle was pinched into a special shape, as can be seen in the photo to the right, to provide a chamber into which the marble was pushed to open the bottle. This prevented the marble from blocking the neck as the drink was poured

Soon after its introduction, the bottle became extremely popular with the soft drink and brewing industries mainly in Europe, Asia and Australasia, though some alcohol drinkers disdained the use of the bottle. One etymology of the term codswallop originates from beer sold in Codd bottles.[3]

The bottles were regularly produced for many decades, but gradually declined in usage. Since children smashed the bottles to retrieve the marbles, they are relatively rare and have become collector items; particularly in the UK. A cobalt coloured Codd bottle today fetches thousands of British pounds at auction[citation needed]. The Codd-neck design is still used for the Japanese soft drink Ramune and in the Indian drink called Banta.
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