After a wonderfull couple of weeks I'd reached the point where I was sarcastically-impotent. I couldn't rise to the bait, I wasn't being rude. I managed to drink in moderation. After worrying that I had in fact been replaced by an alien copy a combination of a little coffee-flavoured cake and tiredness has brought back some of the vile and bitriol.
Is that a good thing? I'll think on it later.