Tech Support Drone

My alcohol consumption is very limited. In recent years, I only indulged in some wine when I was in France, or when I got to travel business class on an intercontinental flight. (And then there was this one night in a hotel in Thailand, but that’s another story.) As a teenager, I never drank any alcohol at all. This is easily explained: There was a case of alcoholism in my family (an uncle), so I had a good close-up view of what alcoholism does to people. And my fellow pupils at school served as another negative example.

Anyway, since I have now lived in Munich for half a year, I thought it was time I should at least give beer a try. Since I already know I will not become addicted - I can barely force myself to drink the stuff - and don’t get drunk too easily, I figured I might as well integrate into the local Bavarian culture and at least see if I would like beer at all. People look at you a bit oddly here when you tell them you don’t drink beer.

So last week I bought two bottles of beer. Picked random brands, but something I knew to be Bavarian. Today I considered drinking one of them. And found out I had accidentally bought alcohol-free beer.

Can you spell “fail”?

I still didn’t drink the stuff. It’s amazing how deep old habits run.