Friday 16 March 2012

Thoughts from the Washing Line: Funny Things People Do

[source] - it's not my garden, but I wish I lived there...

The sun was shining yesterday, for the first time since Sunday.  It was a perfect drying day, so I was out with my basket of clean clothes, pegging away.  And I was thinking about the Funny Habits that People Have.

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The other day someone (and I can't remember who - if it was You, please remind me!!).... posted on their blog about a strange habit she has.  She wondered if she was weird/strange etc.  I remember adding a comment along the lines of - no, she is quite normal, others have even odder habits. 

Such as my friend, who waggled his head while cleaning his teeth (and the toothbrush stayed still).  He put his back out one morning and had to crawl back to his bedroom.  Then, once he could actually stagger to a taxi, he endured a series of bone-cracking osteopath visits, to put him straight again!  

And then, the friend whose mouth made "cutting" movements, as he manipulated the scissors to cut - mouth and scissors in perfect harmony - "cuuuuut, cuuuut, cuuuuut....". 

The Register of Things that People Do, ranges from the very "normal"
- such as nail-biting; or always doing up your buttons wrong (you know, you miss one part-way up your shirt/cardigan, then wander round with a gap over your tummy for the rest of the day?)

 - through the mildly obsessive - always stacking the dishwasher in the same way (guilty!); matching the colour of the pegs on the clothesline (guilty again!); or always eating the same meal on a Monday evening (errr....)

- to the mildly irritating - always leaving something in the gangway, forgetting to shut doors, switch off lights etc (teenager at home, anyone?); or sniffing (I hate sniffing!) - not just because they have a cold, but always, as a habit - sniff, sniff, snifffff  

- to the very irritating and really rather OCD - like having to check the windows are closed, Yourself, even though someone else just did it, or else you can't go out;  or eating things in a certain order, always, because you have to;  or cleaning their teeth every time they eat (I mean Every Time or they might explode...)

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And then there are the "normal side of weird" and the "just plain weird" things.  With a fairly fine dividing line between them...  

A Boy I Know, "has to" go up the stairs in multiples of 2 steps - two, four or eight steps. He goes up two stairs together, to make the number of steps up a 13-step staircase into an even number.


A gentleman in our town used to run a second-hand and antiquarian bookshop.  The shop was small, but it probably contained more books than the local library.  Floor to ceiling books.  Packed on the shelves, two or three deep. Piled on the floor, in corners.  Stacked up the staircase on both sides.  He knew Every Book that he had in that shop.  You could say "Have you got such-and-such-a-book, please?" and he'd answer, "Yes, it's just... here." - and there it was, just there. 


A lady in our town dresses like an Edwardian lady. She wears a straw hat, trimmed with ribbon and flowers, a long skirt, short jacket with leg-o-mutton sleeves. She rides an old-fashioned "sit-up-&-beg" green bicycle, with a wicker basket on the front, trimmed with artificial flowers. She used to catch the bus to Cambridge quite regularly - pretty much every time that I was going with my BF, to visit his parents in Suffolk. She always looked the same. As if she'd stepped out of a novel, or through a time-warp. Even her umbrella was old-fashioned. I saw her again recently. She looks much the same, just a little bit older.
* * *

People waggle their hands when describing something, they click their fingers in the air when trying to remember something, or blink disbelievingly and slap a hand over their face when confronted with a case of utter stupidity.

James' friend buys a coffee from the common room.  He drinks about half, then says "But I don't even Like coffee". 

* * *

It's Normal to Do Odd Things... people who don't have any odd habits, are really a bit spooky and strange.  We don't like them.   
People Do Odd Things. They really do. And that's what makes everyone so interesting really.

What about You?  What do you do (or someone you know)? 

12 comments:

  1. I'm not sharing my wierd habits!! But yep, some of them belong here

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  2. Awww, Kirsty... not in the spirit of the story! You must have a weird habit that isn't so embarrassing? ;-)

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  3. I love the washing line. I'm a definite nail biter and have other oddities as well, I'm sure.
    Rinda

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  4. I count. I don't mean to but it just happens. Going up or down stairs, watching the microwave I count down the seconds. When my printer does its cleaning thing it makes the same noise 25 times and I find myself counting. The number of paces from my front door to the school across the road where I collect my granddaughter......... I won't go on but you can see that I am borderline OCD - except that I would have to be CDO as I like things in alphabetical order..

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  5. I count things too - in my head without realising I'm doing it. I hang my washing in order of length (love that photo of the washing line). I'm sure there are others that I'll remember over the next week

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  6. ooo, you could open a can of worms here Lizzie lol! As for not liking coffee...I dont like pink!!!! Go figure.
    Weird habits, hmmm, so many to choose from. I found out yesterday that I cannot stand to see a scruffy pile of nestabilities, oh my word it drove me nuts & I had to put them tidy each time I walked past.

    I like putting things in order/groups & having complete collections. This has rubbed onto the kids, Kai has organised pencils into colour order since he was tiny, & its only recently, out of lazyness, that he will allow pens, crayons & pencils in the same tub.
    When Zack was into his Dr Who figures it was me who was quite obsessive at trying to collect the whole set, now with Kai its Ben 10 figures ... even though this goes totally against my thrifty side. I did manage to get a bargain lot of ben 10 figures off ebay for his birthday this year.

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  7. what a lovely collection of oddities and wouldn't life be boring if we weren't all odd! I have too many oddities but I have noticed that both my son and I cannot hang a piece of washing on the line with odd pegs, we will search the bag and house for matching pegs! thank you for your lovely comment on my blog xx

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  8. Gosh Lilipopo, I don't go quite as far as searching the house... the peg bag will do!
    Loved your blog - and keep up the gorgeous creating!

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  9. catching up on everyone who visited me for WOYWW 141. It's been a very very busy month!
    love the washing line and teh view from behind it
    caroline

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  10. I am all in favour of quirkiness and eccentricity! Though not about to own up to more than the scissors and mouth-moving at present!

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  11. mini eggs! i have a mini egg habit that seems perfectly normal to me...?
    14 every night in a tiny white bowl which i pick at while i'm knitting. i have to start with the purple ones, then pink, then yellow, so that only the white ones are left.
    and then i think about how pretty it looks before i eat them too.

    my smarties habit is embarrassing though...

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  12. Oh my - I am not sure I want to investigate this one. I do way too many odd things to air my foibles in public. People who think i am crazy would know for sure that I am!

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