Do you remember what's-her-name?

I am sure that most women of a certain age will have given a nod of recognition at the title of this post. As we get older, and our short-term memory deteriorates, we do start forgetting names and losing things for the simple reason that we can't remember where we put them. In our house we have a small bowl on the table near the front door, which is where we always deposit our keys when we come in - apart from 50% of the time when we forget to do so.

Walking home today after meeting a few friends for coffee, we bumped into a friend of a friend and had a brief chat with him. As we continued on our way home, I asked my husband John what the man's name was.

"I was going to ask you the same thing!" was his helpful reply.

We carried on walking, with me trying hard to think who it was, when I suddenly remembered that his first name was the same name as a local musician - if only I could remember what he was called! Then the name popped into my head and I proudly announced "Andrés!"

As we were getting close to home I had a bright idea for the subject of today's post . The only problem was that by the time I got home and sat down at the computer the bright idea had gone. Hopefully I will have remembered it in time for tomorrow's post.

Although he is over three years older than me, my husband is generally far more aware of what's going on than I am. He will spot one of our neighbours when we're out shopping, for example, when I've just walked straight past her. I'm not sure whether this is really an age thing, as I have always been a bit scatter-brained and at times I have been totally unaware of my surroundings. I put this down to my creativity: my head is constantly full of ideas for writing articles or blog posts, as well as scenes for a crime novel that I am planning to write one day. I do warn friends that if I walk straight past them without saying anything, it's not that I'm deliberately ignoring them, it's just that my mind's on other things.

I remember when I was a child being told to tie a knot in a handkerchief as a reminder of anything important, but I don't think it would work quite as well with the paper tissues that most people seem to carry nowadays. For many of us, we already know that we've forgotten something, so a knotted hankie wouldn't help to solve the problem of what it is that we can't remember.

Being forgetful isn't restricted to over 60s though. A friend of ours who is just over 40 had a "senior" moment a few days ago and we had to remind her what was happening this week. I would go into the incident in a lot more detail if only I was able to remember the actual details.

Having got this far with my post, I suddenly remembered that I had written something on a similar subject last year. Oh dear! Have I repeated myself? I've had a quick look and it's not exactly the same, so hopefully regular readers won't mind:  http://over60andoverhere.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/use-it-or-lose-it-part-1.html

How's your memory? Have you got any tricks to make up for your bad memory? If so, can you remember what they are?