I went down the road the other day to meet up with some friends and family for a bit of Sunday brunch. I was sticking to my diet so I just went for a strawberry milkshake. Part of your five-a-day isn’t it? But one of the party was having a gin and tonic. Oh dear!
Regular readers of the blog will know that I’m just doing a project on gin at the minute for my WSET Diploma. So I asked what gin it was. Their eyes began to roll, but rather than take this as a sign to shut up (I was pretty tired in fairness) I just kept on with a bit about gin and tonics and a chat I ‘d had with this bloke making artisan gin in Hackney and…yeah, I didn’t shut up til they told me they weren’t interested.
I just find it really hard when I have an interest in something. I spent the best part of ten years in a job that was the exact opposite of interesting to me! Everyone I meet these days who finds out I used to be a bond trader gives it the old “wow that must have been stressful” and all that. Truth is, it was boring. Now all of a sudden I’ve found something that I could read about, talk about, and enthuse about until the cows come home.
Sometimes you go the other way. Sometimes you feign ignorance just to avoid the conversation. Especially if you’re out at dinner with friends and you get given the wine list. Or you get chatting with someone and they start asking you what your favourite wine is. You can come over a stand off-ish and fairly rude I guess as well.
I always said to myself when I was getting into this wine gig that I didn’t want to become that guy. But once you get hit by the bug and you get so interesting in it (well anything really) then it’s hard sometimes to reign it in. Your mouth and brain disconnect and you just start talking!
The good thing about having close mates is they don’t mind telling you to shut up. And sometimes you need to be told!
Cheers
Mike
