Tag Archives: numbers

and the answer is ….a lemon….

30 Oct

I think all of you beyond the age of 40 will relate to the occasional lapse of memory …you know… the  struggle to remember why you walked into the room, or what you were looking for.

I know MY brain sometimes feels like a jam packed hard drive that desperately needs de-fragging… So sometimes retrieving the pertinent facts can mean a bit of mental gymnastics. But I was struck by the effort it took today to retain a head full of numbers and regurgitate them in the right order.numbers

Having filled the petrol tank, I needed to get in a queue to pay the cashier. While reciting the pump number, the odometer number and the PIN number for the fuel card…over and over, I inched closer … but not quick enough. The line was long and I was afraid someone would distract or speak to me and the numbers would fall out of my head,. never to be seen again.

Now I know you are probably thinking …‘why on earth didn’t you just write them down?’  but I was determined to challenge myself, thinking I can do it …I can do it…I CAN DO IT…. (but what if I get to the counter and lose the lot …..eeek)

P1000955I played games in my head and tried visualising the ‘look’ of the numbers …as the queue moved slowly in the right direction ….FINALLY when I got there the attendant wanted to engage in some small talk, and all I could think was ‘please no ….let me spit my numbers out first’ … and anyway I don’t ‘do small talk’. Next minute the lovely woman asked if I had lost my voice, so rather that try to explain, I smiled and nodded yes, to which she replied … ‘oh don’t worry I have lots of mute customers’ ... what the ??? ….please just let me punch these numbers out and get out of here.

Fortunately all the repetition paid off and I was able to perform when the keypad was put in front of me, but it certainly was a stressful 7 minutes.

 

 

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it’s all in the numbers

18 Jan

numbersThere is no doubt it’s hot… in fact one could say REALLY bloody hot. But what is it with the need to know the actual ‘number’ that tells us how hot it is?

I admit that I am not a ‘numbers girl’ … I hate sudoko but love crosswords, hated maths but loved english. There is no way I could tell you the price per kilo of any meat or vegetable… (if I need it, then it’s the right price). Nor could I tell you exactly how much I weigh; if (like now) the muffin top begins to appear, then it’s time to stop eating. I prefer to not think about the number of years I have been around, and I struggle with having way too many numbers to choose from in order to find the right TV station.

On the other hand, Mr ‘50 Something’ is like The Rainman…give him a measurement or phone number and he can retain and recall it forever..In some ways I’m envious, but the thought of cluttering my brain with all those meaningless digits (then maybe needing to find them again) just freaks me.

With this numbers skill comes a fascination with all kinds of measurement…the speed of sound, the speed of light….the speed of speed !!! But then there is the temperature, ‘how hot is it going to be?’… ‘how hot is it now?’… ‘how cold was it?’.  For him it’s all about the numbers, whereas for me it’s simple…. ‘do I feel hot?’, will I get cold?’, ‘do I think I’ll need to take a jacket, and if so, what colour?P1120574’.

It wouldn’t do for us all to be the same … (as he says, between us we can count AND write) but watching the outside temperature gauge in the car flick up or down by a degree is not really enough to capture my imagination (on the other hand, if there was a scrabble board built into the dashboard …. I’d be there in a heartbeat).

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