It’s not strictly accurate to say that I don’t drink as I’ve never been a fan of living by and believing in absolutes. I continue to have a pint on the anniversary of my fathers birth and death and very rarely I will enjoy a glass of wine to celebrate a significant event but for the most part I don’t consume alcohol, and this is why.

ONE_ Its killed to many people close to me

I have know 3 people of varying degrees of closeness who have dyed of Alcohol related deaths. The first being a fellow student who got extremely plastered in our student union bar (A port-a-cabin in the corner of a field in the Cotswolds) and we all would take a shortcut over the stream and through the neighboring high schools playing field. Well he left before us blind drunk and fell in the stream then he must have clawed up the bank and fell asleep on the playing field as on returning to the campus the next morning there was a little police tent in the field. It transpires that he froze to death and the weird groans that we heard when we past where not the ramblings of a crazed Cheltenham lunatic (of which there seamed to be a disproportionate amount) but where in fact his desperate drunken cries for help.

The second was about a year later and was a flat mate who had gone back to his home town for a 21’st birthday party. He was never to return as in a drunken state he decide to drop his pants and flash his arse at two of his friends returning home. This would not normally have caused injury except to his pride apart from the fact that his friends where in there car and traveling at roughly 30 miles an hour. His friends had the dignity to pull up his pants before the ambulance arrived whilst his head lay cracked an bleeding.

The third and closest was my own father who for all the time I can remember was a functioning alcoholic. At home and almost every day at 7 there was to be heard the cry “Time to go and get my medicine” and my father would wander 4 doors down the road to the local pub. It would be unfair to totally blame the alcohol as a poor meat based diet was also a contributing factor but it a hard thing to do to ingest something that contributed to you holding your fathers head whist he turned from pink to grey and drew his last breath in a clinical morphine induced haze as a result of a Pancreatic Carcinoma.

TWO_ It makes people hideous

A couple of years ago I had the displeasure of going out into Peterborough town centre with some friends for a meal and witnessed what I can only describe as a living Hieronymus Bosh painting, deformed misshapen folks who have abused there forms with excesses of poor diet, excessive alcohol consumption and a lack of imagination falling over each other in a swamp of piss, vomit and take away kebabs in an attempt to brawl and fornicate in the streets of a medium sized English town.

THREE_ Diminished responsibility and children do not mix

I have a lot of responsibilities in my life like running my business and most importantly being there for my wife and 3 beautiful children. Alcohol impairs your judgement, takes money out of your pocket and leads to an early grave if mistreated. I enjoy a drink but am aware of its addictive nature and I am more addicted to spending my money, spare time and attention on my family.

FOUR_ It makes me flakey

I suffer from fairly bad eczema at times and I find that its the times where i have a few pints on a regular basis that it gets worse.

FIVE_ I don’t have as good a time

The last thing I would want people to think is that I do not have any fun and that I’m a bit awkward to go out for a night with. I find the opposite is true in that my mind is always on and its always on the playful setting its just part of who I am and what I do, its probaly the reason I run so many web sites in that I always want to be playing with some thing constructive. Alchol and social situations just makes me paranoid and introverted.

SIX_ Drink is a bloody expensive luxury

Alcoholic drinks when you add up the amount of tax we pay and the profits to the pushers is disproportionally expensive. When to take into account that some folks can easily spend £40 to £100 a weekend on going out and drinking thats a hell of a lot of money that I need to spend elsewhere like on food and entertainments for my family or my own addiction of a couple of CD’s.

SEVEN_ Life is short enough to not experience it.

I never got into drugs in the 5 years I was at Art Colleges, it was always around and I was quite accustomed to being around people smoking things, dropping things and shooting up things, OK not so comfortable about the shooting up thing but that is more to do with a needle phobia I have. But drugs never really appealed to me in much the same way that homosexual sex and house music has never really appealed to me, I acknowledge it exists and am happy enough for others to get involved in it but its just not part of my make up. I suppose what I am beating at the bush about is that I never got my head into the idea of experiencing life through the tinted visor of alcohol and am happy in the mind that my experiences are raw and untainted as are my judgments, they are mine and mine alone I don’t share them with alcohol or drugs. By Christ its hard enough controlling my rambling mind as this posting is probably testament… perhaps I should lighten up and have a glass of wine, although I’ll probably just go to bed and dream of creating something beautiful instead.