h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Last night I went to a cashpoint, inserted my card as usual, keyed in the PIN... only to have it rejected, because I'd got the PIN wrong. I paused for thought, felt confused... ...and suddenly realised to my horror that I couldn't remember the correct number.

I was tired, and the last few weeks have been mentally and emotionally exhausting for a variety of reasons. But still, this beggared belief. I'd had that number for years. I'd keyed it in so many times that I no longer thought consciously about the number: it was as if my fingers knew what to do.

So I walked away, stunned. Then I thought that I'd remembered the number, came to another cashpoint, tried it... nope. Wrong again.
I realised at this point that I was in the last-chance saloon, and that another failure would mean my card being confiscated. I came to my home branch of my building society, the one that's a few yards from my front door. I thought again... yes, of course! THAT was it!

I inserted the card. I keyed in the number. The machine did its impression of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.

It was too late to do anything about it last night. By scraping together my change, I just about found enough money to go ahead with my plan for yesterday evening, which was to go to the movies ('Kinsey', since you ask. Rather good, too. ). But today I had to go back to the building society armed with some ID and explain the situation. My card was quickly returned. Again, I thought I'd remembered the number at last. Went outside. Tried it. The cashpoint went 'slurp' again...

The folks at the building society were very humane and patient about it. They let me have some cash to tide me over, and they've ordered me a new PIN to go with the card, which can be returned again tomorrow. But I just can't understand how I've managed to forget a number that I must have used hundreds if not thousands of times.

Admittedly, some worrying signs of dementia had been setting in for a while. I watched 'Coronation Street' the other week and quite enjoyed it. Worse, in the rehearsals for BUSOM's latest concert tonight, I've been singing an Andrew Lloyd Webber song ('All I Ask Of You') and enjoying that too. So if my mind erodes completely and I start wanting to watch reality TV shows, download novelty ringtones or vote Conservative, please don't judge me too harshly. It seems as if my marbles are rolling away through the grating of time and down the drain of oblivion.

That's quite perturbing... I remember after I got hit on the head around Christmas I had all sorts of memory problems - there's nothing more frustrating than not being able to remember stuff.

It'll pop back into your head when you least expect it, believe me

You're not the only one Ormy, and that sort of thing used to happen to me in my 20s I used to advertise my pine bed business in the Grauniad, and I always dealt with the same classified ads rep. One day I phoned to repeat the ad, got as far as the switchboard and couldn't for the life of me remember the name of the woman I'd been dealing with every two weeks for the past 18 months or so. My mind had completely gone blank.

That sort of thing is even scarier when you're driving at speed down a side street you know like the back of your hand, which I used to do each week during my overnight magazine delivery route. There I was, barrelling down this little street in Walthamstow when my mind suddenly wiped itself. I couldn't remember where I'd just been or where my next drop was, and more worryingly I couldn't remember anything about this road I was driving on, which I later came to realise is important information when you're shifting along a side street at 3am at about 50mph with no idea of where to expect another street (and therefore another vehicle) coming out from the left or from the right.

Scared the pants off me it did. And then it happened again a few months later

i lost a card the same way. keyed in the number... wrong. surprised, i thought, gee, not xxxx? must be xxxx then. wrong again. panic walks in the door, memory flies out the window, like a lunk i try again and have to come back the next day for the card.

the fellow who got my card out of the machine told me to clear my mind and let my FINGERS do the code. bingo. turns out the first number was right all along, there was nothing wrong with my memory after all, i'd only convinced myself there was.

always look at the screen and make sure the four little X's come up. those keypads aren't always as sensitive as they might be!

I'm sure the 3 strike rule (albeit an understandable necessity for security) only adds to the stress. I used to be with a bank who gave you 3 goes full stop per pin number. When I first opened the account, I had about 4 different pin numbers inside 2 months. I kept accidently using my old one at first and lost one - by which time I'd just about got used to the new one. Then had to learn a replacement one and so the saga went on. In the end I moved bank account. But while it was going on it did my ing head in.

I've done it as well, when I was much younger and my natural hair colour so I couldn't even blame a senior, blonde moment

I am sure there is something I wanted to post



But I cant remember what it is ...


I wish I was better at remebering things And if its a sign of age I must be getting seriously old

Thanks for the moral support, all.

I have now been reunited with my card, and they've ordered me a new PIN number. My anxiety over my sanity has been eased by young friends of mine who've told me about similar lapses of memory that they've had. I'll be fine for a few years yet, or my name's not... er... hold on, I know it begins with 'O'...

* giggles *

Now I know why Gosho had to change his name to whatsamacallhim!

I've misplaced my pin number many times, now I keep it specialy encoded on the back of the card and only I can understand what it says, not the best solution but damn usefull it your mind does a uturn.

I find meditating helps, I find branching to be a great aid to memory, because even if one nuron gets killed off the memory has other routes. (although less efficient so you can't remember as much detail and I also sacrifice initialisational memory so I never remember planed evens or things I've promised to do drat.)

I know there was a study done about how when a memory is in constant use, combined with cronic stress particulaly in males it prunes the nuron receptor branches and then when a key nuron dies the memory is lost instantly. interesting read, this compares to when you've not used a memory for a while and the nuron connections arn't strong enough and are faded.

poor kim deal and ormy... if they give you NEW pin's ("pin number" being a pleonasm ) it only makes things worse. how many secret numbers that we mustn't write down or tell anyone are we supposed to keep track of for crying out loud? i have the same number for all cards. only one place imposed a number, the others very intelligently let one choose, so i chose that particular number. makes life easier!

aloth of cards will now let you change your pin at a cach machine.

Senior moment? I've just had one


Ormy will know exactly what I'm talking about when he opens up his e-mail in the morning...

OK I am curious - what email did you send him


Or actually should I comment on the lack of emails on my inbox ...

In the last month, I've lost two mobile phones, a watch, two mobile phones, two girls, and most of my marbles. I was 30-and-a-half today...

You've 'lost' two girls, Number Six? Do you know where you saw them last?

- GD's e-mail apologised for the fact that he'd forgetten to send me the h2g2 mat I'd won as champion of the h2g2 Fantasy Football League, which GD runs very successfully. However, the omission has now been rectified, and I got my prize yesterday.

I tried looking behind the fridge and between the sofa cushions, but no dice...

What about the 4 mobile phones you mention?

It's only two phones... I inadvertently mentioned them twice. I really must be getting old!

In all likelihood, I put both of them down somewhere at work and they got swiped. My office is huge, and there's an awful lot of through traffic.

It's certainly possible with the second one that I left it on the Central Line - I fell asleep as usual, woke up at White City and leapt out without time to conduct the usual personal inventory. Yet the first bloke to see me at work that day swears I was carrying something, and it could only have been the phone as I had no bag on Monday.

The first of the phones I lost had already been lost at work once - it turned up months later under a desk. So there's hope.

I'd like to put all of this down to getting old, or the after-effects of being attacked in the street before Christmas and all the memory problems I had as a result of that - but the truth is that I've always been a bit of a dipstick.