Not sure it’s me or my age or
being a man. In certain situations I’m
losing my memory. In these situations I
am absolutely convinced that I am losing the plot. For instance every time I go shopping I leave
the supermarket thinking, “where did I leave my car?”
I find myself drifting around the
car park trying to look inconspicuous flicking my key fob in the hope that I
see my car lights flash. Every time the
East European car washers, who are permanently staged at my local Sainsburys, see
me they must be taking bets on how long it will take me to find the car. Its got to a point now that my son has
advised me to press the button that raises the boot (the trunk for those in
USA) so that the car stands out from the rest.
Embarrassingly, I have tried it a couple of times.
I’m not sure it’s my memory or my
sense of direction or lack of concentration.
And its not all circumstances. It
may be a combination of all three. Whatever it is I know it has never been good
but I could always would rely on Caroline.
I remember a few years ago I had
been late night shopping for Caroline’s Christmas present. When I left the Mall I couldn’t find my
car. I paced around the car park for about
20 minutes and finally convinced myself that the car had been stolen. I strode forthrightly up to customer services.
“I would like to report my car
stolen”
The lady just looked at me and
told me
“Sir, we have never had a car
stolen from here”
“Ok! I can’t find my car”
Her smile was very telling about
what she thought of me.
After telling her the make of the
car, she relayed the details to security.
Within 30 seconds she looked at me and said
“Sir, we have found your car”
“Great. Where is it?”
“Well if you like Sir I will take
you to it”
How small did I feel? How humiliating! There I was trying to make small talk as I
walked with this lady who must have thought I had just come from another
planet. The worse thing was even after
she had taken me to the car I still couldn’t remember leaving it there. This was 3 years ago.
I feel that recently this loss in
memory has gotten worse. I thought it might
be the stress of everything that’s gone before me. I started to be concerned that Alzheimer’s or
similar was starting to set in.
I started to discuss these bouts of
memory loss with my mates. Well to my
surprise they all had their own stories.
One of my mates told me that he uses Google Maps on his I-Phone to
locate his car in the car park for when he returns. He does this by dropping a pin on the map
when he gets out of the car. Ingenious! Wow! When
discussing my memory issues with my brother he told me how he had got
dis-orientated jogging from his house.
He had only run a mile! So it’s
not just me!
My concern is not just about not
finding the car, but remembering peoples’ names, what to buy when shopping etc. I do joke about the matter but I don’t want
it to get any worse. Some handy tips
that I have just found are:
1.
Don’t skimp
on exercise or sleep
2.
Healthy time
for friends and fun. Relationships
stimulate the brain. Look for more ways
to bring laughter to your life
3.
Keep stress
in check. Meditation can improve focus,
concentration, creativity, and learning and reasoning skills.
4.
Eat a brain boosting diet. Eat
your omega 3s, limit your calories and saturated fat, eat more fruit and
vegetables, drink green tea. The best
bit is to come. Drink wine – in
moderation.
5.
Give your brain a workout. The
best brain activities needs to be: new, challenging and fun!
I often joked with the kids
telling them that in a few years time to expect calls from the police, which
would sketch like this
“Is that Georgina [or Joe]
Watson? We’ve found him again wandering
around the shopping centre. We’ve given
him a cup of tea, pick him up when you’re ready. Usual place”
How we laugh! Many a truth said in jest!
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