I got a call from the car-door repairer, who had come to fix the automatic window-opener on my neighbour’s car. I went down to the basement, and took the car to the outside parking lot to get it done. While I was there, I received a couple of calls to do with an article that I am writing.

I explained that I was not at home, and would call back (these were patients undergoing dialysis!) as soon as I was done with the work.

When I got into the car to take it back to the basement, I realized that when I had taken my neighbour’s father to the doctor a couple of days ago, I had forgotten my binoculars in the car! So, I carefully took the binoculars and came home. I also picked up the post from the basement post box.

All fine. I came back, put things away, and sat down in front of the laptop, to call the patients and write down their responses. …but I couldn’t find my phone. I felt I must, this time, have left my phone in the car.

So I looked for the car key to go down and get the phone. No car keys. I hunted high and low for it, and finally (15 min) remembered that I had gone to put my binoculars into my “birding” bag. I finally located the car key in the bag.

I went down to the basement, repeating “phone! phone!” to myself, so that I should not forget, once I went downstairs, what I had gone for. I didn’t repeat it quite to myself as I thought, because I got a strange look from a maid who was coming up the stairs.

I went down to the basement, I could not find car. Then I realized that I had carefully taken the binocs and left the car in the outside parking lot.

I went there, and could not find my phone. But having repeated “must take car back to basement” several times, I remembered to park the car back in its proper parking spot. Then I came up, and realized that I had taken the letters I’d got in the post…and left them in the car. I went back again and retrieved them.

I then came back, and finally remembered the simple fact that I could call my cell phone from my landline and locate it by the ring. Then I realized I had switched it off a while ago…and had forgotten to switch it on again. I reached into my handbag, I found my cell phone.

This is the state of affairs when I am by myself. When I have someone next to me, talking to me, things deteriorate even further. I seem to spend half my life hunting for things….I still can’t remember what I did with my passport….or whether it was KM who took it for something and kept it somewhere else….

Do not, as you are tempted to do, laugh. Have sympathy for this AA….not Alchoholics Anonmyous, but Absolute Amnesiac!

Here’s what I wrote….3 years ago… about my memory, you can read it

here

And that date…I never realized it, the next day was the birthday of the person mentioned in the post! I am not always as happy a person as I generally seem to be….