Raising a few glasses... and Jess's eyebrows

I have to confess to having been slightly fuzzy-headed when Radio Devon rang me at 7.45am today for my weekly round-up of news from the North Devon Journal...
Last night I took out the sports team to mark the fact that our sports editor, Chris Rogers, is leaving us for pastures new.
We went to The Boathouse, at Instow, and got there at about half-seven... and then the drinking began. We congregated in the bar as we waited for everybody to arrive, and chatted for a while, and pint No 1 of Doom Bar, which I believe is 4%, soon turned into pint No 2...
Through in the restaurant we ordered our meals and some wine... and over three courses and the next couple of hours I made my way through the best part of a bottle of Muscadet, 12%...
It's a really strange feeling to be scrutinising every drop that passes my lips - never before have I considered the alcohol content of the wine I'm drinking, nor have I looked on the side of a wine glass to see the exact amount I'm imbibing.
But it doesn't end there. I feel embarrassed to admit that we then had coffee and a short - I went for a brandy... and then we sat and chatted more and, sorry liver, we had a second brandy. And I even went and found out the measure of the drinks - they were 35ml.
So in one night I had two pints@ 4%, 660ml of wine at 12% and 70ml of brandy at, I guess, 40%.
All this was over a period of about four hours, and with a very substantial meal, and everybody - except the one person in our midst who was driving, had about the same...
So what about everybody else who is doing this drink diary malarkey? It would seem that last night I drank more than the entire BBC Radio Devon Massive has managed all week. I've been accused of taking after my dear departed footballing uncle, George, by Marc Astley, the editor of the Express & Echo. I notice that on his blog, www.thisisexeter.co.uk/cheers he has made loads of very witty observations about us all, but has not said what he's actually drunk... So let's be having it Marc. Boozer Best he's called me, but we know not whether he's Absinthe Astley or his slightly more effete cousin Advocat
Are my fellow diarists not drinking much because everybody can see? I don't know.
I also told a lie on the radio this morning, saying that I was planning a quiet weekend. The cotton wool in my head made me forgot we've actually got tickets for a concert at the Eden Project tomorrow night, and are staying in a hotel... And while I would often be driving for these types of evenings, my wife is currently expecting a child so she tends to do the honours. So it ain't going to be a teetotal time...

Ho hum. And er Vashi. That's Baluchi, apparently... And who said this boozing lark isn't educational?