Before I started this role at Paul Fraser Collectibles, I’d never tasted a drop of single malt whisky.

Three years on, and that has all changed. It’s what this job does to you, I’m afraid.

It’s not the tight deadlines, you understand, that have me reaching for the hard stuff.

It’s the immersion in the collectibles business.

When, week after week, you’re researching, writing and proof-reading articles on the world’s finest whiskies, gaining an understanding of the distilling methods, learning how the combination of the malt, the peats, the barrels, the water and the ageing process combine to produce unique tasting whiskies, I think it’s only natural that one might be tempted to try a dram or two.

Jura, The Macallan, Laphroaig …

“Full nose,” I may now be heard to remark of a Saturday evening. “Hmm, caramel undertones.”

In essence, I’ve become a whisky bore.

Somebody slap him.

It’s a process that I’ve recognised in other areas that our news service covers, too.

The other day saw me jumping off the bus in London so that I could take a look at an Inverted Jenny (that’s a stamp) in the British Library, while not so long ago I took myself off to view a collection of paintings by the Group of Seven (there’s eight of them really).

An Inverted Jenny: well worth getting off the bus a stop early for…

Would I have been doing this four years ago?

Would I heck.

I’ve always been fascinated by both history and the collecting world, but before this job I had never involved myself with the minutiae of any one subject.

That’s all changed.

“How many signed Beatles albums exist in the world?

“Who is the world’s most valuable living artist?

What year did Neil Armstrong stop signing autographs?

I now know the answer to all three questions, and so could you, if you become a regular reader of our news site.

So thank you Paul Fraser Collectibles for making me the man I am today.

Dan