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Thursday 26 July 2012

Catalog number

Out shopping with our recent visitors I was despatched to purchase something from a catalog showroom.

My sister-in-law showed me the seven-digit number and said she would write it down.

I immediately said I woud remember it.

I don't think this process of remembering every day that passes has given me a photographic memory, but certainly in the past I would not have had the confidence to remember a number without writing it down or endlessly repeating it to myself.

Funny thing is, I still remember the number now.

Sunday 22 July 2012

Where did the money go?

We had a relative and her friend visit from my wife's country and were showing them around, including some of the sights in the capital.

They gave me some money for their hotel room, which I paid for on my credit card so as to have the cash.

By the next day most of it had gone and that night I had the horrible thought that I had left some of the money in the envelope, which I had discarded without double checking.

However, I thought if I am able to remember each of the past 218 days since I began this process, then surely I could remember the every time I had spent money over the past two days and add it up.

And so it proved.

Which left me feeling like the guy who runs into a pub and rushes over to the landlady.

"Did I come in here yesterday, get drunk and then offer to buy drinks for everyone until the 500 bucks I'd just been paid had run out?"

"Yes, you did," replied the landlady, with a fond smile at the business.

"Thank goodness," he replied. "I thought I'd lost it."

Saturday 21 July 2012

The day I die

I believe that being angry, annoyed or stressed is more often than not counterproductive.

When a negative recurring thought distracts me from either enjoying life or getting on with what I need to be doing (or both) then I sometimes try to put it aside by telling myself I will think about this on the day I die.

I imagine spending a moment on that day – if I have the opportunity to reflect – being grateful that soon I will no longer have to suffer such injustices, annoyances and stress.

In truth, if the situation allows, I would rather remember all the good times, perhaps with a run through all the memory tags pinned to my internal calendar.

But I find the idea comforting all the same.