public loos - sit or crouch?

KateK I'm a bit more fussy about handrails. Going down the steps to platforms 4 & 5 at Exeter St David's station most people hold onto the rail. One could then walk straight into the coffee shop and indulge in a cinnamon whirl, with no hand washing in between the 2 actions. A small bottle of the sanitising gel in the handbag is useful.

Rowantree I didn't say it was OCD, but I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of the population don't do it.

I haven't had cystitis for years and years (probably more than 25) and I agree it's horrid.

I do however always wipe from front to back.

I never touch door handles-I either use my cardigan pocket to open/close loo doors or else pull my sleeve down over my hand. I use hand gel as well once I'm outside the toilets.

jingl it's actually CDO, similar to OCD but with all the letters in the right order!

The bottle-washing isn't OCD. When you've had as much cystitis as I have, you do your homework well. I suffered for years and tried every remedy in the book. I decided that prevention was better than cure if at all possible. In some women the e-coli bacteria travel quite quickly from the back passage to the urinary tract and set up infection in those who are susceptible. Angela Kilmartin's book is extremely helpful and though the bottle-washing can be tedious when I'm out somewhere, it really doesn't take long at home and I incorporate it into my daily ablutions just as someone else might pluck their eyebrows or shave their armpits.
It's definitely reduced the frequency of infections I've had, so please don't be so hasty to dismiss it as OCD.

I remember trying to get my bike from the school bike sheds and it involved a walk down an alley past the boys' outside toilets, which had a wall, but no ceiling, so the dear boys used to station one outside to warn when an unsuspecting cyclist was passing to collect their machine and then the boys inside would aim a jet neatly over the wall and shower their victims. Nasty things little boys!

That was a long sentence!

I remember the awful smell from the outside boys loo at my first school when I was 5 - a horrible fishy smell. I expect the girls loo was as bad I just don't remember.

I'm not OCD from the 'catching things' perspective it's just the off-putting odours. I'm fine with loos in stores, it's the ones in car parks etc.

There do seem to be quite a few GN members with a disproportionate anxiety about germs and bacteria attaching to their persons during a visit to a public toilet!

I think a lot more people suffer a form of OCD than we realise. Perhaps try exposure therapy? You will not get ill.

Going back a bit, to Rowantrees bottle washing do dah, I think it's a bit OTT, but it might be just me.

Wasn't there a post a while back on the "other side" about someones husband/partner having a glass of water into which he plunged/dangled his willie/penis immediately after the act? What on earth did he think might happen if he didn't do it?

(Numpty disclaimer rule 5 applies)

Luckily I have good bladder control and, if needs must, can hang on. Probably isn't a good thing for my bladder!
I hate public loos in general

I am horrified at how many people don't wash their hands after using the loo, which means they leave a trail of fecal bacteria wherever they go and pose a risk to others. EUGH.

I always wash my hands thoroughly but it's not always possible NOT to touch the exit handle. Or any other handle, for that matter.

If you wash your hands thoroughly after using a public loo and don't touch the exit door with your bare hands why should you get gastroenteritis?

I bought myself a She-Wee several years ago but didn't dare use it until one time we were in the Outer Hebrides with no toilet for miles and I was desperate. Even then I made OH drive to an even more remote spot and then park with the door open as a shield while I struggled to place the She-Wee in the - er, correct position. It wasn't a great success and I STILL got slightly soggy knickers. I chickened out after that - I suppose I should have practised in the shower as advised....

And that's all very well, but it's no use at all for Number Two, is it? And I for one cannot hover for that.....
I shudder to think what excrementitious nastiness lurks on public loo seats, the cubicle handles and so on. Sisters - and brothers- you might not have had UTIs, but what about gastroenteritis? Ever wonder how you got it?

well Harrigrans ok shes been to the palace already,and Ive been round her house at Sandringham which is just up the road so to speak

and always a Royal flush and a wipe round with the loo brush

That's us lot well and truly crossed of the Birthday Honours List!

And I expect Camillla is pretty adept at hovering being horsey... I always think of riding lessons and the 'jumping position' !!

I have had the honour of having had a wee in Buckingham Palace and I still hovered as it was a very old fashioned wooden seat. I feel that plastic can be wiped down but wood might just hang on to the nasties.

is it likely if Ma,am needs a royal wee on the way home, that we may find her skirt hitched up relieving herself behind a tree on the M25,have heard that the royals are quite thrifty,charles may be more that likely to have Tesco economy

What a shame - I have a great image in my head of Charles heading off to the loos, his seat under one arm and a role of luxury toilet roll in the other hand

I wonder if the Queen puts loo paper on the seat anyway...?

I believe it has been debunked that Charles does - one of those meeja myths that won't die. Toilets are regularly redecorated and renovated where royalty is likely to go for a royal wee, and out-of-bounds to everyone else once they have been titivated up, so they don't neeed to take their own.