Wednesday, November 01, 2006

1 November: Memory Lane

It started with garden plants.

Not being able to remember their names, that is. The Latin names never used to be any problem till a couple of years ago, when I realised that some of those names were sliding away from the edges of my memory. Put it down to the brain being full, and as something new came in the front, something dropped out the back.

But it's spread to people now. At work, I see someone come in - good suit, armful of papers, and instantly I can remember that I once bumped into him in an up-market shop, all the intimate details of an embarrassing ailment, I can remember his first name, but his surname? No.

Another arrival - slightly eccentric manner, I can remember the drinking habits, marital status, vehicle and pet, but his name? No.

Why can I remember all the details - who always wants a pen or a hankie, things they've told me like their new deep-fat fryer, their motorbike or their pet chinchilla, or they've never eaten quiche; but names? No.

It's getting difficult.

Thank goodness I'll have to cope with it for only another six weeks.

This has been a knitting-free posting. Thank you.

5 comments:

KAZ said...

It's called. AAADD Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder. Honestly - I didn't make it up.

Hey - does this mean that you'll be a free spirit in 6 weeks?
Great.

I'd love to be able to say I miss the knitting - but - I'll restrain myself.

Anonymous said...

How odd. I was going to write on a similar subject this evening. But it's not a new thing to me, I've always been hopeless with names.

stitchwort said...

Kaz - yes, birthday just before Christmas, and a few days' leave to get, so another six weeks, and I don't have to go to work any more.

Z - I've always been quite good at remembering things - awfully useful for doing crosswords - but recently the brain seems to have gone to mush. Could be the stress of looming retirement, I suppose.

David said...

I find calling people 'Thingy' a common occurence....

The Editor said...

Different areas of the brain handle different tasks. The whole brain is like Windows 98. Names, is that in Excel? some people don't have i-tunes etc cetc...