h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My sister had that ritual with my dads chocolate!

Mel

I have a sleeping ritual involving pillows:

A big tri-pillow, used for sitting up in bed (eg while reading), goes to the end of the bed. Not only does it keep my feet warm(er), but on cold nights I can stick the next morning's clothes under it to warm them up.

Nothing is a ruder shock on a cold morning than putting on clothes (especially trousers ) that are stone cold.

*I just found this lovely topic in "Ask..." so excuse me but I just have to act on a few things in the backlog...*

Yeah, steps on stairs should be counted! I must admit to a further peculiarity - I feel much better when I arrive on the landing(s) with my right foot first....

And then Abi said, back in post 19:

"Another ritual of mine, is that I always put on my make up on the train in the morning on the way to work"

Abi - how much lipstick does it take before that sleepy train looks ready for the day? And do you do that while the train is still at the station or do you poke your head out and smear along while it's driving?

(sorry - ing - couldn't resist it)

I don't usually wear makeup, never can be bothered with it in the mornings

Mel

Me neither.

I love it but as with so much in life less is most definitely more!

And now a tale of my brother. When my parents first divorced, my Dad moved into a flat just off Piccadilly and we went to live with him for a couple of weeks at a time. Any way I was about 13 and Bill was 8 and like all 8 year olds, he had set ways that had to be adhered to. He would only eat two things; brown sauce sandwiches and MacDonalds hamburgers.

But not just any McDonald's hamburger. Oh no. We had to go to his 'special' McDonalds on Haymarket. And it had to be without dill pickles. It was not enough to take the little green rubbery blighters out, it actually had to be freshly prepared without them. He then would eat the meal in a special order. One bite of the hamburger, the all the chips and then the rest of the hamburger.

All this was invested with a piety that would do the strictest anchorite proud.

8 yr olds are great

Mel

My daughter just turned 8 -- I might have things to look forward to

Nice weekend, y'all!

yeah it is just a shame that they don't stay 8

Some do, a part of me is always 8!

Mel

Rituals, eh? I've got a ton of them.

Emptying out and washing my ashtray after every cigarette even though it won't be long before I smoke another one (another cigarette that is, not an ashtray).

Re-reading every single thing I type over and over to be quite sure that it's free of typos and gramatical errors (it's great being English).

Not being able to sleep without fresh air blasting around my room like a hurricane, even in winter, which invariably means that I can't sleep because of the cold.

Not switching on lights unless I strictly need them. If I can get to the kitchen without flicking on a light, I will, regardless of the damage to my shins and knees in the process. My dear old Dad and Jim Royle, they sure knew how to raise electricity conserving children.

Always drinking a full cup of coffee, never throwing even a drop away. Which means drinking bowel-clenchingly cold ceffeine the morning after the night I brewed it.

Never going anywhere without my coat, even during a heatwave. Because you never know.

And so on and so on.

That paragraph about the typos - I assume it's a deliberate mistake that you have written 'grammatical' with only one 'm'?

I have one daily ritual which the rest of my family somehow seem to find amusing. It occurs each day just before I leave for work and involves five frantic minutes of clattering about the house, rapidly opening and shutting drawers and cupboards, and searching all of my pockets up to seventeen times. This is all accompanied by shouting and huffing until I find my lost keys and/or wallet. Can't seem to do without that ritual.

Yes. Well, erm... yes. I'll agree with you and say it was sarcasm, and not just a pointlessly stupid slip up on my behalf.

Salutations to each!

I have a Welsh nephew who, until he was c.9 years old, existed on a diet which consisted in the main of brown sauce, plain chrisps and one, difficult to obtain, type of baked beans!

The result of this fibre and carbohydrate-loaded lifestyle? He now spends most of his time snow-boarding (in Vail). Isn't life strange?

Personally, I feel that I have carry TWO handkerchiefs when I go out (presumably, I must have lost a single handkerchief at some critical time or other).

Before leaving for work in the morning I have to check the rings on my electric cooker are all firmly switched to zero, even though I never actually use it to cook anything first thing - I just have cereal for breakfast. I also have to remove any saucepans that are on it and put them on the worktop instead, just to be *absolutely* sure...

I used to do the ashtray thing too (post 72) when I was a smoker, obsessively emptying it after every cigarette. Sometimes I even used to get up and empty it in the middle of a smoke, every time I tapped ash into the the thing. Now, older and wiser, I understand that I was probably trying to inconvenience myself to the point where smoking became so absurd that I had no choice but to give it up. Cunning, eh? Unfortunately, I enjoy absurdity - it's my favourite subject - so the exercise just ended up making me laugh.

At the moment I'm carrying an umbrella around everywhere I go, even though it's hardly rained all month in London. But I suppose that's pretty rational, actually. Everyone knows it only rains when you forget your brolly...

at Subway i always have to get doritos with my sandwich, so that i can put the chips on the sandwich and eat it all together like that. it's actually very good if you try it, better than you'd think if you haven't.
how about the ritual of small children where they always ask for candy no matter that it's never worked before in the grocery store?

subway the semi-(because it's not exactly fast food, tho it is speedy)fast food resteraunt, not subway as in trains, underground, indecipherable announcements, etc.

Have to agree with peakdistrict (post 76) about 2 handkerchiefs. Left pocket for cleaning eye fat off glasses, right for nose. Don't mix them up. Cleaning glasses with wrong handkerchief results in snot smears all over the glasses.

PP