El Andalous - Forgetfulness

El Andalous - Order on the Outside

I’m actually running out of things to say in my blog, but maybe it’s connected to the fact that I’m going through a rather forgetful phase and I just can’t remember things to report back on. New mothers talk about “baby brain”, but wait until the menopause, is all I can say!

The main thing I forgot was my yearly maintenance money in Egypt. I’d taken the money out in Switzerland, but when it came to pay it, I couldn’t remember where it was. My memory, for what it’s worth, was that I’d taken it all on the cruise with me, having picked it up en route at my flat in Switzerland. The idea was that if I already had it with me on the cruise, I wouldn’t forget to take it back with me to Egypt.

Then I remember thinking during my holiday that I should hide the money somewhere safe. That’s always fatal. I could recall all the places where I thought I’d hidden it and also the reasons why I thought each place might not be a good hiding place after all. But I couldn’t remember which one I’d chosen in the end. I also had a memory of splitting the money in two, so that if I lost half, I’d still have the other half.

I got back to Egypt and could find only half the money. Well “find” is a bit kind – it turned up unexpectedly, but at least I got it. But it was only half. This left me with the dilemma as to where on earth I’d put the other half. I looked and looked, but to no avail. Had someone found the hiding place while I was on vacation and the money had been stolen? I couldn’t quite believe it, but I couldn’t think of any other explanation.

I remember my sister-in-law telling me, when clearing out my parents’ home after their death, that old people often stash money in peculiar places. I don’t regard myself as old, but I think when I die, someone is going to clear out my place and wonder what on earth was going on.

Anyway, some weeks later, the other half of the money turned up in my flat in a hiding place that I remembered after the fact and was totally unrelated to my cruise. This was good, but it also meant that my memory of dividing the money in two halves during my holiday was completely wrong. I’d obviously, for some reason that’s now obscure to me, decided to bring over the money to Egypt in two halves. Still all’s well that ends well.

I keep on “losing” things and then finding them again. I’ve always been a bit like this, but it’s happening too regularly just now. Recently, I “lost” my bed socks, my nail scissors, my cardigan, and all my socks. It’s not even worth mentioning my keys, which are supposed to be hung up when I come in, but I always forget to do this and then don’t know where they are. My flat isn’t even that big, so I don’t know how it’s so difficult to find things.

One genuine loss was my Suunto Ambit watch that I use to measure my swimming speed. I’m really disappointed about that as it was quite expensive and I haven’t plucked up the courage to buy a new one just yet (maybe it’ll turn up, but I’m losing hope). I think I left it on the beach after taking off my wetsuit from snorkeling.

I went to Paradise Gardens, the apartment complex that owns the beach, but they didn’t have it. It’s pretty empty there, so I was a bit of a novelty for them. The manager kept on calling me “princess” and the security guard told me twice how beautiful I was. This would happen only in Egypt! Still, it’s some compensation for having lost my watch, although I’d prefer to have my watch than the compliments, to be honest.