I go through phases with drinking. Not just beer and wine but tea and coffee too.

I’ll go three years drinking only black coffee and then, suddenly, I can’t stand it and I switch to tea. My current routine is a cup of tea in the bog before work, a coffee or two when I get there and then another nice cup o’ tea when I get home.

BTW we have this ridiculously complex, Rube Goldberg coffee machine at work that takes about about 15 minutes to make a freshly ground, freshly brewed cup of coffee. Coffee at work should be served from big buckets. Just dunk your cup in to fill it up and go. You shouldn’t have to stand in line for coffee.

After many years of drinking beer almost exclusively for many years, I switched to wine about four years ago. I go through phases with the wine too. Mostly cheap plonk but, very occasionally, I fancy some expensive plonk.

I have had a Sangiovese phase, a cab phase, a Pinot Grigio phase and, since I-don’t-know-when, Sauvignon Blanc.

Strangest of all, in recent years, I have found that red wine tastes quite unpleasant when I drink alone thus giving rise to the famous rule:

Only drink red wine with company

This is a real problem when you live in a tiny studio apartment hundreds of miles from *anyone who might want to drink with you. It’s getting worse too now because now Sauvignon Blanc is starting to taste bad, I can’t bear cheap Chardonnay and I can’t afford the expensive kind.

I tried drinking the Islay malt whisky I found in the cupboard – but malt whisky needs company too. Occasionally I’ll try a little of the Blue Sapphire that has been a special friend since I first met her a couple of years back. The trouble with gin, though, is you have a little bit in a glass with some ice and some orange juice and it tastes so good and you have another and it tastes even better and, before you know it, you wake up with a hangover and your underpants on backwards. No, gin is just not right.

Anyhoo. Last night I found the solution.

Georgina went to Richard and Judy’s without me for the first time last night and the Krinklies took a laptop to place in my spot and they Skyped me. Since I was with company I could open a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon (cheap) and it tasted wonderful. It was just like being there and I had a marvellous time until Tom’s battery ran out.

* almost anyone. I have one faithful friend who will drink wine with me but he has in-laws.