Binge drinker!

Last night I tackled the last boxout of my Boozy Brain feature for BBC Mindgames magazine. This was the one that saw me attempting to complete Sudoku puzzles in various stages of inebriation. It was also the night that mum, dad and Lou came round for a Chinese, but thankfully they were spared the ignomy of my getting pissed in front of them! Here's how the night went (based on my scribbled notes from the time):

9.10 (2 glasses in): finished one puzzle and motoring through. Although relaxed, able to focus mind on the numbers
9.20 (3 glasses): slightly harder, but still able to spot where a number should be by deduction
9.25 (3.5 glasses): still able to focus, but more easily distracted
9.37 (4 glasses): harder to focus, but still able to make deductions on a local (ie single block of squares) level. Second puzzle complete at 9.45pm when everything falls into place
9.50 (5 glasses): mistakes creeping in. Mentally still feel okayish, but knock over opened can of baked beans in fridge when getting another bottle out of the fridge (5.5 glasses). More mistakes
(6 glasses): despite slowdown, still able to spot stuff (proof you're pissed, I wrote at this point, being unable to think of a suitable alternative to "stuff"), still able to spot the odd connection "from afar"
10.10 (6.5 glasses): reduced to checking answers for mistakes
(7 glasses): difficult to remember what I've done so far
10.25 (7 glasses): basic mistakes, but still able to finish boxes (or so I thought at the time!)
10.20 (brain must have lost the plot at this point): difficult to focus
(7.5 glasses): mistakes have been inked on to the page! But still getting there and able to compensate (hah!)

10.30 (8 glasses): bolloxed. Unable to complete correctly and don't care!

My thanks to The Shadows for providing the instrumental accompanient to this feature. Surprisingly I don't feel too bad this morning - I tend to have my hangovers during the night, bleurgh - but an interesting exercise I have no desire to repeat any time soon. Although I did enjoy the Sudoku...

EDIT: the stuff about not feeling too bad was hogwash, merely a short-term fix delivered by a cup of tea. Shortly after publishing the above post I was back in bed for another two hours, before gingerly going through the day feeling less than perfect.