“Can you drink gin all evening? I find it makes me really maudlin.”
Prophetic words from my drinking companion! Unfortunately he should have mentioned this before I started drinking gin rather than when I was six G&Ts into the evening.
“Oh yes easily” I replied taking a gulp of what I thought was the remnants of my previous drink, only to discover it was in fact pure gin.
“And you can drink it neat too?” he quipped.
Actually I don’t like to admit this, but I do quite like neat gin over a single cube of ice. It feels positively ruinous. I acquired the habit after a visit to the Tate’s Hogarth exhibition where I completely missed the point and favoured the chaos of Gin Alley over the ordered calm of Beer Street.
The logic behind my choice of drink was flawless. Don’t try and match your chosen drinking partner beer for beer, I told myself, as it would no doubt end up with you making an utter fool of yourself… and then becoming silent and wanting to go to sleep.
Choose a drink you know you can take – vodka and soda is still dodgy after that agency Christmas party, so G&T it is. Besides G&Ts are nice summer drinks and it occasionally feels like summer.
And I was doing quite well, until he mentioned the M word. Then I suddenly realised that it wasn’t the drink of choice and that I wished I had chosen something else. Hogarth would have suggested beer.
The whimsical world of a girl called Tom 
All alcohol is a depressant so theoretically even beer will make someone maudlin if they’re in the mood. I’m quite happy on gin all evening – vast quantities. The only down feeling comes the next morning with the hangover ;)
Good point. Although I don’t get gin hangovers per se … actually that is probably not true. A triumph of optimism over experience there.
More practice required. That is all.
I’ve given up drinking G&T, a couple of pints and I feel really introspective. Pimm’s is gin-based, but I can happily quaff that until the cows come home.