Memories

The other day we exchanged a few words with a couple of lady pensioners at a café at Godshill. In the course of which one of them observed that her memory was getting very bad, that we might tell her something - perhaps the time of the next train - and there was a fair chance that she would have forgotten within minutes if she did not write it down. And even then, there was a fair chance that she would not remember where she had put the writing. The good news was that she no longer cared about it: a few years ago she had, but not now.

We thought no more of it, but the next day we watched episode three of 'Jeeves and Wooster', the episode called 'The village sports day at Twing', inter alia about the perils of betting on country sports.

Now we have owned a box set of these dramas for some years. It is probable that we have watched every episode more than once. It is also probable that we have watched many of them on ITV3 before that. We think that we know some of them quite well. And then, last  night, we watched the whole of this particular episode without remembering anything about it at all, apart from the people that crop up episode after episode, soap-wise. All rather unnerving, as the usual form is that we start out remembering nothing, but as the drama proceeds, at least some of it starts to come back. We start to remember faces, scenes and incidents. But on this occasion, nothing.

But this does lead to more good news. By the time I get to the end of Volume XXVIII of Maigret, one of those noticed at reference 1 and to be started this very evening, I will be able to start at the beginning, at Volume I, and it will be like new. No need to buy works of fiction ever again.

PS: I share another bit of good news about trees. I have now decided that the reason that it is good to sit under trees on hot days is that the leaves on the trees absorb the light from the sun and convert it into sugar, or something like sugar - which is to say that the light from the sun is converted into something other than heat. Whereas, if the light from the sun hits your roof, your awning or your umbrella, a fair proportion of it is converted to heat and a fair proportion of that heat eventually trickles down to you.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/06/breaking-news.html.