Anything you've done all your life out of simple force of habit?

I am a 'left first' person - foot, sock, shoe. sleeve etc. No idea why as I write with my right hand.

I also stir anti clockwise and it doesn't make any difference which hand I use.

I can tell you why I used to go upstairs on a double decker: it was because when I travelled downstairs I felt constrained to offer my seat to older people and upstairs I could sit undisturbed. The new design of the double decker with a rather quirky angle on the stairs makes me hesitate to go upstairs now!

The thing I always do is heat the pot when preparing tea. This is because when I was a Brownie I nearly failed to win an important badge because I omitted to do so and I had to go back and start all over again.

I always went upstairs too, usually so I could have a ciggy. Now however, smoke on a bus and you get 10 years. It's become a more despicable crime than murder.

Now though, I'm too creaky and decrepit to get up the stairs. I have enough trouble getting on a single-decker these days.

Other habits. I have always tied my shoelaces with a double knot and wear my wristwatch on my right wrist, even though I am right-handed. I also always put my left leg in my trousers first and never sit with my back to a room, door or window. I like to see my enemies coming.

Same as you,upstairs on a bus & preferably in a front seat even though there are occasions when it is a struggle to get up the stairs as drivers don't wait for you to be seated anymore before they whizz away from the bus stop.My husband feels the same about buses so then it is a question about which of us sits nearest the side window & gets the best view !

I started this habit early in life in that I could wear the same sweater, shirt and slacks day after day for a couple of months if someone lets me. I start work (indoors) without combing my hair, it's like I don't care at all about certain things. I know geniuses do this but I'm no genius so haven't figured out yet why I'm that way.

I have to say I am a person who fights habits. If I see myself getting into one, I change routines. But having said that, I will say that the past few years I've noticed the rare times I dust my house I leave the dust rag out laying wherever and never put it away. I leave my shoes by the door where I take them off.

Sir Matthew and I have similar habits. I wear my watch on my left wrist even though I am left handed. I always put on left sock, left shoe, right sock, right shoe. Left pant leg first or left part of the panty hose when I wore them. There are lots more but some of them are related to superstitions when my favorite sports teams are in the play offs.

I love double-decker buses.

Every morning I open all the blinds and curtains. I hate a dark house.

I'm ashamed to say I've picked at the skin at the side of my thumbnail when I'm stressed or bored, ever since Mum bribed me to stop biting my nails ( I was eight and she bought me a bottle of clear Cutex polish and a nail file ! )

Grit my teeth. It used to bother me that I did it, but now, I really don't care anymore.

Also, I have a habit of carrying too many things in my hands and arms. I guess, so that I won't have to make many trips, but sometimes it's not so smart.