Newstalk ZB's Simon Barnett reveals bizarre bathroom habits

Simon Barnett has revealed he has some odd toiletting habits.

Speaking with his co-host Phil Gifford on their Newstalk ZB Afternoons show yesterday, Barnett fessed up to having "an element of obsessive compulsive disorder with the handwashing thing".

To which Gifford chimed in: "You're not as bad as you used to be." But what Barnett revealed next may have his co-host reconsidering his position.

"No," Barnett said, before admitting that if the urinals at work were occupied and he had to use a cubicle, he used his foot instead of his hands to lift up the toilet seat.

Gifford laughingly said he understood: "That's alright then, 'cos it's got a shoe on it."

But Barnett wasn't done dishing on his bathroom habits.

"Now, at a public toilet," he continued, "I'll be honest with you, I actually will flush with that foot . . . and that's hard."

"Oh come on, you don't do you?" asked Gifford, prompting an in-studio demonstration from Barnett.

"I get my foot right up and I think I've become exceptionally flexible in the inner thigh because I flush with my foot."

"Good God, he can do it too!" said Gifford after witnessing that flexibility first-hand.

Barnett clarified that he didn't worry about germs at home and only engaged in the bathroom gymnastics at public toilets.

"Do you close the door behind you so people can't see this slightly insane thing you're doing inside the cubicle?" Gifford queried.

He probably wishes he hadn't asked, because Barnett wasn't done with his confessions.

"Okay, so now you're going to think I am a bull-burst loony, but I actually close the door with my elbows — because I don't eat with my elbows."

He added that he particularly liked the "old western-style saloon doors" because they just took a quick push to open and conceded that people did give him sideways looks when he attempted to open cubicle door handles with his elbows.