How to have a night out without alcohol

I was prompted to do this after a discussion with my work colleagues. They were talking about how boring it was to go out with friends while they were pregnant and not drink, as if you can't have fun without alcohol. This is fine if you are used to drinking but if you are like me then you don't need to drink to have a good time.

For many years I was the designated driver for two reasons. One was that I was living with my parents miles from anywhere with no way of travelling by public transport. The last bus home was 18.30 and taxis were too expensive going that far from a town to home. The other reason was that I was the only one of my friends for a long time who could drive. As a result I would become the taxi service and they would buy me drinks or food in payment.

The other thing with me is that I have never been a big drinker. I was really drunk until I was sick when I was 18 and I hated being drunk and I hated the hangover the next day and said never again. I am no the first person to say that but I truly have stuck to it over the last 11 years. I never want to be that sick with alcohol again. Also, I find that I don't like the taste of most alcohol. Red wine with a nice meal can be good sometimes and I like the odd gin and tonic or Guinness but we are talking one or two at a time. This would not be enough to get really drunk but it would be enough to stop you driving I would say (on those nights I would of course not be driving).

There are advantages to not drinking of course. I can remember the embarrassing behaviour of others and I can laugh at them at the time. The next day I am the one who tells them what they got up to and watches them squirm. The other good thing is not having to suffer a hangover so I am bright eyed and bushy tailed come the morning and, again, I can laugh at those suffering. You don't have to feel awkward either. If you want to dance you can and if you want to mess about you can because the others around you are too drunk to care about what you do. In fact, I have been able to lead people astray (not in a nasty way) on a night out and have a lot of fun because I was sober and able to come up with some awesome ideas of things to do that were way funnier when my drunk friends attempted them. I almost become the leader on a night out and have done everything from preventing people getting arrested to going on club crawls until 4am.

Talking to a good friend on twitter though we agreed that although you don't have to drink to have a good time you should still have things for non-drinkers to do. I had a chat with my friend about some of these and some I have come up with off the top of my head:

• Alcohol free clubs. Yes there is still a large variety of drinks, but they are all non-alcoholic.
• Late night coffee shops. There are bars open almost all night now so why not coffee shops that could be open until something like 2am or later. I am sure these places exist somewhere like London but it would be good to have a few more outside of London.
• Discounts for designated drivers. You would have to prove this of course and maybe have your hand stamped or a wrist band but you could then have cheaper soft drinks. There are often deals on alcoholic drinks to make them cheaper but there is rarely anything on soft drinks so a non-drinker could spend more and get less in a night than a drinker.
• Less pressure to drink. Clubs and pubs emphasize the importance of drinking alcohol in their establishments but it would be good to promote soft drinks too.

There are things you can do though on a night out to make non-drinkers feel more comfortable. Some of my colleagues said they felt like they were seen as boring on night's out when they didn't drink but maybe we should change that attitude. I think it is dangerous if one or more parties feel like that as it means that there is an over dependence on alcohol. Include non-drinkers on a night out and just relax around them. We can still be fun and we still want to go out and have fun with you, we just don't feel the need to have alcohol to have a good time, that's all.

The vlog of this blog is below.