Return To Articles List

Memory

Sitting watching the T.V. last night I said to my mother, “Of course the darts matches start again next Monday for the new season.”
“Are you at home or away?” she questioned.
“Don’t know,” was my reply.
“Didn’t you work out and type up the fixtures for Graham this morning?”
“Yes.”
“And you don’t know where you are playing?”
“No. I did not look at them to see.”
“Go and have a look now and don’t be lazy.”
“I haven’t got a copy to look at because I did not print one for myself. I could look on the internet though. ”
“I suppose you put the fixtures on the Internet.”
I don’t understand it myself but people frequently seem to laugh at the things I say, not that I deliberately tell a lot of jokes.

Other people obviously forget things and some can have very serious consequences though. One such person that made the news this week was a sailor called David Blair who was in charge of a particular key to a cupboard on the ill fated Titanic. Mr Blair had been taken off his duties on the Titanic before it sailed and forgotten to pass on a key to a locker. The said locker held some binoculars meant to be used by the lookout in the crows nest. Perhaps if he had remembered to pass on the key before leaving the ship the lookout might have seen the iceberg before the ship hit it and prevented the collision that sank the ship and killed over 1,500 people.

I often sympathise with others like myself that make the news such as the British Memory Champion. The report in the papers said that he was due to compete in the World Memory Championship with various feats of memory. It went on to say that typically he is able memorize a pack of 52 playing cards in about 26 seconds and 2,000 numbers in an hour. He used to take a lucky hat with him to each competition until he left it on a train and forgot it after last years British event. He regularly goes to work and forgets his papers or briefcase which usually raises more than a few comments. With an IQ of 159 he often gets muddled between his left and right hands as well, so perhaps there is hope for us all when we forget to look at our darts match fixtures and go to the wrong pub.