IF YOU are a drinker whether a social one or habitual, then this is not an issue with you. However, if you are a non-drinker, it means you can be persuaded by the occasion or by peer pressure.
At the bottom of the totem pole lies the Teetotaller. Why is he so lowly? It's because he's the pariah of all drinking sessions and a disgrace to the Press Corps, so it has been alleged.
In this world of an expanding legion of alcoholics, the teetotaller is someone not welcomed in the company of those whose breath can set the room ablaze with the tiniest spark.
I have been a teetotaller for as long as I know. It has not been an easy journey. My colleagues make fun of me. Some gave me grudging respect but it was fleeting. Women who have daughters of marriageable age cast strange looks in my direction. My friends said to me it could be the "vetting look".
Recently, I was in the company of some drinkers and they were merrily downing one glass after another of some of the finest wines that Australia has to offer. Of course, the experts among twirled the precious liquid with their tongues and sniffed the fragrance of the matured juice with a skill born of much nocturnal sessions.
Opinions were exchanged and the facts and figures of weather, soil and the climatic conditions of the time the grapes were harvested were duly traded to substantiate the rebuttals.
I could have been standing in a room of wine connoisseurs and be totally befuddled by the academic intercourse. It transpired that a number among the small crowd noticed that I adroitly avoided the filled glasses.
One small question revealed that I am a non-member of that esteemed club. They looked at me, not strangely, but a little puzzled. I just told them it was a personal decision made a long time ago. What I had not added was that the decision was made since I was born.
The thing about drinking is if you know you had enough then it will be great but often when the conversation is stimulating and the company you are keeping is so exhilarating, you tend to forget the number of glasses that you have consumed.
If you just happen to be a party animal, your senses will abandon you after the 9 glass, although you will later remember that you only had five. The dangerous consequence of drink driving is that you are clearly not in a position to commandeer any vehicle.
Your sense of judgment has obviously been impaired. If you are unlucky, nobody really cares too much for your health, or the others around you are in a similar situation. The horrible effect of all this is someone may pay with his life for your bad judgment.
This situation has happened so many times, it does not call for an expert opinion.
In countries where society takes a liberal view towards the consumption of alcohol, accidents and tragedies linked to the bottle abound in news reports and television news. Still, people in general are secure in their own beliefs that they are immune from such consequences.
Since time immemorial, homo sapiens have a penchant for drinking themselves to oblivion or walking around with beet root-coloured faces for hours until the effects wore off. Do we really care? No, not really, unless it happens to someone close to us. It's only then our protective behaviour comes into play.
When I was little, I realise for some inexplicable reason that I shouldn't drink. Not that I had any reason to avoid wine, champagne, beer or the illegal moonshine. Nobody in my family has any particular liking for the bottle. We were not known as drinkers. Partly, it's because we couldn't afford to anyway.
In my more mature years, I saw the pitfalls of drinking to excess and the subtle road to personal ruin for some unlucky blokes. A few of my friends ended up as alcoholics without admitting to themselves.
These people began a gradual decline to skid row without any loved ones issuing any warnings or sound advice. All these anecdotes only strengthened my resolve to stick to my course.
So I am a teetotaller. I have no burning ambition to convert anybody to my cause or preference. I only know I do save some money by avoiding alcohol and women colleagues trust me when I drive them home. At least, they know that my hands are steady on the steering wheel. And when I talk, I won't slur or say anything embarrassing to them or embarrassing for myself.
Being a non-drinker spells out to be a journey without the related hitches that could have otherwise complicate my life. It is not a surefire way to a life of everlasting happiness but it is one way of not having an extra burden that could later make my journey of life a troublesome one.
Try this if you're are bored
Call all knife knuts
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