Set in your ways? Adaptable? Eccentric?

Lol! I will have ponder your questions during the morning Jess but in the meantime do please tell us more about the neck exercise - what effect do they have and how do you do them?

OK, my nose is against a wall. Now what do I do?

Please tell us, Jess!

Bags I am impressed that you can use a keyboard with your nose pressed against a wall. Touch typing os one thing but…

Well, we all know that Bags is capable of many things, but I agree this is outstanding. Flexible or what?!

Multi-talented, that's me!

I removed my nose from the wall to post that. Hurry up, jess. The tip of my nose is getting cold!

Thinking about telepathic typing now....

I am reluctant to label myself eccentric, but certainly my lifestyle is rather unusual. I am not keen on people who call themselves zany, wacky or bubbly as I usually find them a pain in the butt - like the ones who have a sign saying 'You don't have to be mad to work here....' on their desks.

I spent twenty years doing what was expected of me - Stepford wife and schoolteacher. When I got divorced, I suppose I went off the rails for a time and did all the things I should have done in my teens before I tied myself down with the most conventional (boring!) man in the world. Some things were silly and some downright dangerous, but I have no regrets. As far as I remember (a lot of alcohol was involved) I had a very good time
I did have to bear in mind the effect my actions might have on my teenaged daughters, but now I don't have to worry about anyone else I can happily live my unconventional life.

Sometimes eccentricity can be a real pain in the butt, we went on holiday for a week with a couple that we knew quite well (or so we thought), only to discover that the woman does a solid 2 hours of undisturbed yoga exercise every morning "a discipline set in stone" - her poor husband too henpecked to object and we were all expected to sit around waiting for her to finish before we could get on with our plans for the day. Well that lasted about 2 days before DH and I went about our own business enjoying our holiday! And it ruined a friendship. greatnan I know what you mean as soon as I see a film review with the word 'kooky' in it, I run a mile.

I once announced to my sister that once I retired I planned to become eccentric whereupon she looked at me and said, 'You already are eccentric'. Perhaps by her very conventional suburban standards I was! However, I haven't really managed the eccentricity thing - I'm not sure what I intended in the first place.

I'm a bit of both. I can be stuck in a rut for ages quite happily, but I can usually adapt to whatever life chucks at me.
I lived with only a sofa and a tv, with most of my clothes in bin liners for a while, and it was fine.

I'd love to be a true eccentric.

As we get older I think it is important that we try different things so we don't stagnate (sp). I would never drive anywhere except a few places where I knew the route and parking. Now, if I did that I would never go anywhere and I find myself driving to lots of different places and finding my way around my home city! (My sat nav is my new best friend!)

I read an article where someone decided they would say yes to everything that was suggested to them (provided it was legal). He ended up doing so many things which he would never have tried left to his own devices. Whilst I don't go that far I do agree to try things now whereas in the past I would have said no.

I am flexible and adaptable...if I don't fancy doing the housework and want to go out I say s*d the housework and go out,when I worked I used to like working strange hours because it meant that I didn't have routine as such,as long as I have space to do what I have to do housework wise am quite happy to be cleaning at either end of the day at no set time....works well in my home with different ages and different requirements I hate being bored..and boring routine.

I don't think you can decide to become eccentric - you either are or you are not!
I always have half my clothes in bin liners in a cupboard, as I don't have room for more than one season's clothes at a time. It is quite a big day when I decide it is time to put away the winter weight trousers and get out the light cotton stuff.
I have never fitted in easily to any group, starting at about five years old. I have always felt that I was dropped into a play where everybody else knew the script. I now have self-diagnosed and come to the conclusion that I am mildly autistic but I have found things easier as I have got older. I am now more outgoing and interested in other people, even though I often don't have personal contact with anybody for several weeks. I find forums such as this, a couple of ex-pat forums and Facebook are excellent ways of getting involved in other people's lives and taking part in discussions.

Me too Ella but presumably, if we were, we wouldn't know so it would be a
waste really.

I am really rather conventional, I suppose, but I am endlessly adaptable and cope with most changes fairly easily but that must be a product of having 5 children, 4 s/din-laws, 8 grandchildren and a mother. Or did they happen because I am adaptable?

I'd love to know about the neck thing, too, Jess, one of the worst things about aging is the loss of flexibility especially round the neck and shoulders.

I have to agree with you all about people who call themselves zany etc. I think that is why i won't join the red hat ladies, because their 'eccentricities' seem to me (from the outside) to be somewhat staged.

I'm not mainstream where I live, because I'm an immigrant with a funny accent, a very left wing Labour party member unafraid to voice my opinions, completely indifferent to fashion, and utterly indifferent to two important Australian issues - cars and sport. I don't drive - that is worse than being illiterate here. Also, I have nerdish tastes in entertainment - Doctor Who (I have a photo here of me with the Tardis), Star Trek, Harry Potter, Scandinavian crime drama, Big Bang Theory, and most good British drama.

I love to meet people who are different in some way - I was brought up to welcome diversity and now I feel threatened by massed mainstream society. I was once persuaded into a charismatic church's Christmas Pageant put on by Assemblies of God. It was a lovely production - costumes, camels, choral music etc, but something bothered me all the time I was there. Couldn't put my finger on it till I realised everyone there was white establishment! Not a dark face anywhere! Not a poor person to be seen. Not a handicapped person, not a gay person - no-one who was not utterly mainstream. It was WASP central. Scary!

Me too Greatnan. I always feel as if I am writing my life in black and white but some b****r is filming it in colour.

JessM Do own up. I am getting worried about Bags's nose.

ella haha. I gave all my possessions away (apart from 2 suitcases of stuff I really couldn't part with) - when I was in my early 50s. Does that make me an eccentric? It was great by the way.

Me too , Grannyknot. I have changed my country of abode several times and each time I have given all my possessions, apart from my clothes, books and photographs, to my two daughters and started again from scratch. I have bought/rented fully furnished apartments - it doesn't bother me in the least to live with somebody else's choices.

OK Came to the cafe to do some work, but you have lured me back.
The exercise is a safe kind of neck stretch learned from my QiGong obsessed son. Keeping your face forward, raise one ear towards the ceiling then return to mid line and raise the other one. It is an upwards movement, not letting your head flop over . It stretches and strengthens the sides of the neck.
The tricky bit is keeping your face in the same plane while you do the movement. So stand with the tip of your nose touching the wall and your knees slightly flexed (or the edge of a door frame is better) and do the movement while maintaining that light contact between nose and wall/doorframe.
I think I a fairly adaptable - as evidence I offer coping with prolonged stays in the DSs homes in S hemisphere. Including the 6 month stint as flatmate to 2 "lads" in NZ when DS2 was ill. The hardest bit I find is cooking in other people's kitchens. (what you mean you haven't got a spoon with holes in?)
I agree about some people who present themselves as "scatty" or zany - it is sometimes an excuse for considerable failings or child like behaviour. Maybe true eccentricity is having the confidence to do just what you blooming well want without worrying about what others will think?
You would be most likely to think i am eccentric if you spotted me somewhere like HK airport, home of lots of flash shops - Gucci etc. Most people just waiting to get back on another plane.
I'd be the one sitting on the floor doing yoga.

I can't raise my ears independently Grace can, but she's a dog. I am sitting here pulling weird faces and wondering what the other people in the cafe are thinking as they watch you doing this exercise, jessM. It reminds me of trying to do my pelvic floor exercises while waiting for a bus - as recommended by midwife - DH thought I just needed the loo

Anyone tried the tennis ball trick in a cafe?
For pain in the lower back, legs or shoulders.
Stand with your back against a wall and put the ball where the pain is. Then roll the ball around between you and the wall by wriggling.
You can also do it while sitting on the floor.
I only do it at home, never in a cafe. It works.
Ken was told this trick by a chiropractor.

Yes well your whole head moves smart****.
But your face stays facing the front.
ho hum.
It has to be done. i have to try to get the car valeted. I promised. There is a local company that employs lots of eastern european men that don't speak English. They work very hard. i assume employment legal as the business is very visible. They have a waiting room where i can surreptiously do both neck and p. floor exercises.