Why Ella and I never get drunk

Neither Ella and I have drunk more than tiny amounts of alcohol for many years and the back-story behind this decision is rather curious.

Ella and I arrived at the Children's Home a few weeks before the start of year 10 at school. People who think of us as an indivisible pair are always surprised to learn that it was only by complete chance that we arrived at the Home so close together in time. Even more surprising with hindsight is that Ella's promised move into foster care never happened and that she was allowed to continue sharing a room in the Home with me.

We were too young to drink legally but there was a local pub that routinely served residents of the Home so had we wanted to get drunk we could have. We had more sense - you very much needed to keep your wits about you in the Home if you wanted to avoid the attentions of the hormonal lads who shared the Home with us and the lustful desires of the local low-life. Smuggling of drink into the Home went on all the time, as did smuggling of tobacco products, but, strangely, we saw little evidence of drug abuse.

At 18 we had to move into 2 separate flats (a long story that I have shared before) and money was so tight that paying bills and having enough food to eat left us nothing spare for luxuries like alcohol. Then it was off to university for me and into employment for Ella. Money was still tight so again drinking - and smoking - just didn't happen.

The post marriage but pre children era was probably the first time we could have afforded to drink large quantities of alcohol but we didn't. Neither husband was more than an occasional social drinker so there was no tradition in either household of large scale consumption of booze. Some of our friends did drink too much and I still remember the Big Boss Lady (my employer) getting spectacularly drunk in a hotel in New Zealand when I was on an overseas trip with her.

Then we got pregnant - common sense and medical advice dictated that neither of us should drink at all for those 9 months, so we didn't, and by the time we became parents we were so used to not drinking to excess that we never bothered to acquire that particular vice!

Boring aren't we!