A columnist in the New York Times this week observed that, whilst people still drink at parties, nobody seems to get visibly drunk any longer: apparently it's gone out of fashion. Only, apparently, somebody forgot to tell my friends.

First, the good stuff goes ('Grey Goose tonic, please'); then what's nearest ('a vodka tonic's good'); and then what's left ('is that Whisky Dyc?'). If they can remember too much of what happened the next morning, then it wasn't really a memorable night.

So come New Year's Eve, by midnight things will already be delicate, just when it's time to pull out the mobile and, as one does in this modern age, get texting. When fingers, still sticky from the grapes, hammer out wishes of "harry new wear" and worse by the hundreds. Clearly some help is needed. And thankfully it's now being offered by the guys at Great Works.