teetotal Discussion thread

[Slick]

I've never really understood the reliance on drink to have a good time. I not a teetotaler as I enjoy a beer from time to time it even a nice malt but I have always hated the feeling when you overindulge. I like a few beers and a laugh and a joke with friends and know when to call it a day and go home.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

I've never been a great drinker, two glasses of wine make me sleepy, the third makes me ill!
When I was younger I used to drink softs, tell my pals it was whisky and coke.
Since I've been cycling everywhere, I have the perfect excuse to stick to fresh orange
I don't go out very often anyway, pub conversations bore me.
I work in catering, don't want to see another catering establishment in my time off.

 

[Cavalol]

Lost count how many ‘big’ drinkers I’ve know, worked with or been related to.

I don’t care if you can drink 15/20/25 pints a night, if you only want to fight people or get nasty, then you clearly can’t handle your ale at all.
We’ll all see drinking differently, to me it’s just about getting out of the house and having a laugh.
The moment I want to fight someone because I’ve been on the sauce is the moment I stop drinking.

 

[Kempstonian]

I've just realised how little I drink these days. Its not because I don't like beer - I do - but I rarely even think about it these days. I bought four cans of beer sometime this last summer (when it was hot) and I still have two of them!

 

[Fab Foodie]

Even a number of social cycle rides become tedious excuses for people to talk about and drink alcohol. If you want to, fair enough, but it often becomes the primary focus and the ride is secondary.

You say that like it's a bad thing....

 

[Markymark]

You say that like it's a bad thing....

It is. It means that many social activities are lost and replaced by alcohol. Fine if it’s your passion, but if it isn’t it means the primary activity is lost and superseded by booze, drinking booze, talking about booze. And it can be desperately boring.

 

[Fab Foodie]

It is. It means that many social activities are lost and replaced by alcohol. Fine if it’s your passion, but if it isn’t it means the primary activity is lost and superseded by booze, drinking booze, talking about booze. And it can be desperately boring.

FWIW, I almost agree with you, having once been part of what's started out as a good-fun 'Dad's cycling week' morph into 'lets take our bikes somewhere cheap and shitty' primarily to get pissed for the week.
But a FNRttC without a few beers for brekkie wouldn't be quite the same....

 

[Markymark]

FWIW, I almost agree with you, having once been part of what's started out as a good-fun 'Dad's cycling week' morph into 'lets take our bikes somewhere cheap and shitty' primarily to get pissed for the week.
But a FNRttC without a few beers for brekkie wouldn't be quite the same....

It’s all about priorities. I have no issue with a ride and a beer. But if the ride is compromised to enable drinking then it gets dull. So does meeting up being dominated by booze.

 

[oldwheels]

I worked in the whisky industry for 25 years and started in the days when the working day ended with a free large dram for anyone who wanted it. That has now been long stopped. In management I was expected to socialise and dispense free whisky on many occasions. I found that lucosade looks very like whisky and a glass of that was always to hand. On conference events it was more difficult but possible to not get legless. The licensed trade in general is a very dangerous working environment particularly at management level as booze is often too freely available. Nowadays several of my medications say “ avoid alcohol” so I just trot out that as a reason not to take any. In any case nowadays with low drink driving limits most of my rural friends abstain.

 

[Fab Foodie]

It’s all about priorities. I have no issue with a ride and a beer. But if the ride is compromised to enable drinking then it gets dull. So does meeting up being dominated by booze.

To be fair a boozy meet-up is fine with me as long as it’s promoted as such....

 

[Rusty Nails]

I have found that as I have got older my alcohol intake has dropped without even trying. I go for a drink with a bunch of friends a couple of times a week and am now quite happy with no more than three pints, often just the two. My friends, apart from one who drives to the pub, have around five pints each and I used to get jokes about my reduced intake but now it is not even mentioned.

I like a beer, but enjoy the company, the laughs and the arguments more. It doesn't matter if my friends are more 'merry' than I am. None of them are idiots in drink.

At home I hardly ever drink, but oddly have a full drinks cabinet, for visitors. I could easily go teetotal but at the moment it's not important enough for me to do so.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

There is one thing I don’t miss from entering drinking establishments: The bar flies. The regular drunks who sidle up to you and begin with their wise old lectures and the meaning of life. Why am I going to take any advice or wisdom away from these wasters?

I never did get on with drunks. In a past life, when undergoing a hotel management course, I ended up on the wrong side of 2 drunks in one day. The 1st went off on one because he was adamant I would never become a rally driver because I wasn’t aggressive enough. The 2nd drunk decked me from his side of the bar because I was serving someone else first which wasn’t quick enough to quench his thirst. The head barman sent me home and I had to work in the Room Service bar from then on.

I also got decked by a biker at a beer fest because I refused an offer of an ouzo and coke.

Tut.

 

[theclaud]

To be fair a boozy meet-up is fine with me...

 

[vickster]

I avoid 'old mans pubs' with regulars . My drinking would more likely be at a leaving do or whatever with colleagues, or for one with friends before going for a meal (where I might have a couple more if not driving)

 

[srw]

So does meeting up being dominated by booze.

Not as dull as lots of people going on about how wonderful not drinking is.

It's like the old vegan joke: How can tell if someone doesn't drink very much. Don't worry, they'll tell you.