Okay, okay.. I am middle-aged and I can't deny it


... but WEIRD things keep happening to my brain!


I nearly put a fork in the bin yesterday instead of the sink. I find a bag of flour sitting in the cupboard beside the jam (where it definitely does NOT normally go).

... and the amount of times I settle the dogs, leave the house, lock the door, close the gate.... and the car keys are still in the house... and yes, once they were in the fridge


So does it happen to you lot or should I see a psychiatrist/neurologist???

Definitely happens here! Also, my mother-in-law was very prone to putting things into the fridge by mistake...

W

Maybe it's not you. I believe that there are invisible mischievous gremlins that do these things. I often search everyone for something and suddenly find it in a place where I have already looked. The weirdest thing happened a few days ago. I went to make some tea and the kettle had gone! Yes, completely vanished! It was absolutely nowhere to be found in the kitchen. Only my mother and I live in the house and she had not seen it. Anyhow, I gave up on the tea and had a cold drink instead. A few hours later, going to make some lunch ....... yes, there was the kettle proudly sitting in it's usual place on top of the stove, but I am absolutely sure it was not there when I looked earlier.

It happens to me when I have way, way too much on my brain and I am too stressed. Every time it happens, I panic that I have early symptoms of dementia as there is a strong run of it in my family (my mum has late stages dementia and my Dad's sister had it) but when the stress subsides, I don't do it - so it's stress! I heard a radio programme about it and it said that it happens when we have too much going on in our brain and we do things without thinking......

I have been doing things like this since I was 15. I can reliably confirm that my sister also does, and she is 5 years younger than me. My mum does all of these things and thinks she is losing it due to age, but she has been like this since she was 35.

It's the continuity elves. We had a power cut late one evening and I went to look for the torch which hangs on the key rack. It wasn't there. My husband came and looked and he couldn't find it either. So I fetched the big flashlight from the car and used that instead. In the morning, there was the torch - hanging on the key rack

I think my one was more worrying. I poured a glass of wine nipped upstairs then couldn't find it but the bottle was on my mat. I'd put the glass in the fridge and kept the bottle. Worrying I know especially as there was more wine in the glass than in the bottle

Apparently, doctors are seeing an upsurge in the number of people with "normal forgetfulness" who are coming in worried that they are starting to develop dementia.

In all seriousness, as with most things - I wouldn't worry about it until it starts impacting on your life. So if you put one of the dogs in the fridge, or you are continually putting flour on your toast and butter, and jam in your Yorkshire pudding batter, or if it gets to the point that you don't remember that the fridge is the place to look for things you have put down and can't find - that's when you can worry. Until then, I'm afraid you just have understand that you are a mere mortal human being

Such a relief to find out that I'm normal too!!!

Yes, this frequently happens to me and I'm sure it is the gremlins. Only when one sewed a button back on my skirt was I certain of this!

It certainly is. When I was small my Mum often talked of "that little man" who moved things around (it wasn't me).

I have a hanging rack in my kitchen and all my most frequently used pans and implements are kept there. However, the one that I want to use next frequently becomes temporarily invisible and I have to call another member of the family to find it. The potato masher is the worst offender.


I like the sound of MNW?s gremlin. I wouldn?t mind if a mysterious being followed me round doing little jobs?.

I have put my purse in the freezer twice and regularly pour the wrong thing into my breakfast tea. The old red wine that I'd left on the shelf for cooking with was the worst. I drank some and then became convinced I smelled of drink for the rest of the morning - I was leading a Bible study course

I try not to worry about it. My Nana had Alzheimers and so now my mum is a bit obsessive about forgetting things. She doesn't seem to remember that she was always dotty. I can remember her signing cheques in her maiden name dozens of times when we were kids - and, my personal favourite, when she started a letter to our Headteacher ... "Dear Miss Hitler ..."

I once put my office keys in the fridge. They were there for several days before I found them.

I also tried to put the dishwasher tablets in the freezer last week while we were putting shopping away.

The other things that always go missing are the music books lent to me by teachers and currently the acceptance forms to RCM!

There's an irony there somewhere...!

When I lose my keys they are often on top of the toilet cistern !

Nothing wrong with the fridge.
At least your car should be safe from burglars if you ever get an unexpected visit!

Not just keys that I leave in the loo. I went to collect my daughter's new violin and only realised when I'd got home that I'd left it the public lavatory in town! The lavatory attendant is her friend's Dad and he'd 'phoned the school to let them know he'd found it!

I have stood on a number of occasions outside our office door at work wondering why I couldn't get in, before I realised I was waving my train season pass and not my electronic door pass at the little black box on the wall....

Oh thank goodness I'm not alone!!!


So there's an unofficial CLUB specifically for putting car keys in the fridge... almost as good as joining an orchestra!!

In my clinical experience, it's rather more worrying when people forget to worry about having been forgetful...those attending to tell me they're doing dotty things generally are suffering from lapses of concentration rather than senility. Now if their relatives tell tales on them.... that's a different matter .

....what was the original question?

I'm also at that age, but I hate the term "senior moment". My friend refers to her adventures in this field as "craft moments" It stands for "can't remember a f*** thing!!"

I have an (OCD?) habit of writing children's initials on sight-reading pieces I give them to do, so I know not to give them the same one again. I sometimes get a bit worried when I have to ask the child standing patiently next to me: "Um....what was your name again?"

My teacher does that.
She has lots of names written at the top of her sight reading material.

I once spent ages trying to log on to a utility company website to pay my gas bill getting more and more irritated that i couldn't remember the username and password. Then I thought to check the bill- wrong company.

If it is any comfort to anyone else I am oh SO comforted.

I've forgotten to feed the dog again. Fortunately she is quite capable of reminding me. Or did I feed her and is she having me on?
STRESS!!!!

I went to an orchestra rehearsal + concert on Monday evening, got there and realised I had forgotten my music stand. I went home, got the music stand, went back and .... realised I had forgotten the lamp to go on the music stand

I turned up at a Christmas concert ... minus my oboe!

The worst thing was that I had made careful arrangements in the morning to put everything I needed near the front door to take with me after work because two or three months before I had managed to pick up the wrong folder of music just before an Independence Day concert and had to do a 200 yard dash to collect the right one, through the crowds as the inaugural torch was coming in... I was sweating so much I could hardly hold the oboe. So for the Christmas concert I was extra careful to check everything beforehand... and still left the oboe on the stair. Thank goodness the one and only oboe owned by our cultural centre wasn't on loan and actually had a reed in the case...

Pa and Bagpuss and I have a saying which we use with increasing regularity..

IT'S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE!!!

And it is...while I was away with Pa last week I found him contentedly talking to his new walking stick and turning it round so that it could see the view...

I've been talking to inanimate objects for years


I also have a tendency to pat my car.....

It's funny, I'd never understood the attachment people have to cars. Some other things, yes, but not cars.

And then, last June, I got my lovely new bike. She's so lovely. And I understand now

Piano, yes. Car, no.

Don't worry about it, Lottie. I'm 28 and have the same trouble

I regularly talk to Buzz, my car - and pat his headlights when I walk past...

W

I was going to write something but I seem to have forgotten what....... this laptop has ice on it and is making my knee's cold.....mmm, wonder where the cat has got to.

My partner says that no so called inanimate object is actually inanimate. They are all really alive and that modern physics proves this. I have no idea if this is true or not but I have a friend who cannot bear to throw old pens away in case they feel unwanted!

And I can't possibly leave the last chocolate in the box/cake on the plate in case it feels lonely!

How right you are!!

Lottie putting your car keys in the fridge is fine. Locking them in the car along with your handbag containing your mobile phone is not. Guess who did that today?

You have my sympathy.

Not today, but have been there and done that.

Or rather, started the car engine, got out to scrape the ice off it, heard the door swing shut again and then an ominous click as the central locking engaged itself.

But then I've also had the same car lock me in.

This is not a car I own any more.


Oh in answer to the original question, Misterjay says putting the keys in the fridge would be ok, but it would make driving the car a trifle tricky....

Trifle? Get it? Groan......

It's a great pun, and it's going in my collection