Weird!

I’m the weird one, really?

Why is it that when I am sat in a restaurant and you order a coke zero when asked by the waiter/waitress if I am ready to order a drink do I get people looking at me?  I recently had this experience whilst on a works dinner with colleagues in France.  The fact that I ordered a soft drink seemed to give my French female colleague reason to question my choice.  When asked why I wasn’t drinking the wine on the table I simply responded to her saying “I don’t drink alcohol” and watched as her face changed from questioning to utter amazement, “you never drink?”, “no not at all, I used to but I don't now” was my response, she looked across the table to the others within earshot and said “that’s weird”.  

OMG now I am weird?  She questioned my other colleagues on how much they drank in the evening and although they admitted to drinking about a bottle of wine a week I could tell that this was  short of the truth but enough that she was satisfied that not all brits are like me!  She went on to say that in France children from the age of  13 years are encouraged to take a glass of wine with their dinner.  WHY? What is wrong with people?  Kids will go looking for it when they are intrigued anyway, so why, as adults would we be pushing it on our children?  Knowing what I know now and with a 15 year old daughter I would not ever consider giving her alcohol to drink even now never mind at aged 13.  What purpose would it serve?  I'm not naive enough to think she will never drink but she has witnessed and been part of my journey and I hope that she will learn from my experiences and only see the positives from staying sober, time will tell of course.

I don’t feel like I need to explain myself or my personal situation with my French colleague, or anyone else for that matter but it does piss me off when I’m questioned and made to feel like I am hiding something or as she said “just weird”.

I make a choice not to drink, and no matter what the reason, it is no ones business.  Maybe I should turn it around and say “oh you're drinking again tonight are you?  that’s weird, what are you tying to avoid or forget?” imagine!

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