Always forgetful

When I was still working with Acer Inc Taiwan, I had a superb memory. Whenever I had a meeting with a client, I did not need to take along any pen or papers to record the details. Upon finishing the meeting, the meeting minutes or the report findings would be out within a short period of time, without leaving any important details. My boss Eugene Cheng always marveled at the way I could memorize and remember all the details to such extent.

I really had a good memory! Remember during the higher secondary school days when I first switched to 100% English medium of instruction from a Pei Yuan Chinese school to a pure ACS English school. I was able to re-generate my answers in examination papers strictly according to the same format as the teacher's notes, even to the extent of maintaining its active or passive voices. Was this not something incredible? This was because I did not have a good enough command of English then, I had no choice but to memorize them sentence by sentence in order not to make any mistake with the language.

Nowadays and I could not really understand the reason why I always become so forgetful. Sometimes I think of a subject to write on the blog, and I had told myself repeatedly that this is going to be the topic for the day! But when I finally sat down and thought about what to write in front of the computer, no matter how hard I tried to recall, and I had no inkling as to which topic I supposed to write! This had happened too many times!

I have the habit of washing my face and to leave my spectacles on a place which I could remember. Most of the time I ended up in searching for it all over the house! I took out my mountain bike ready for a ride, and then I forget my helmet! I warmed up the car in the morning ready to go to work, after putting on my socks and wearing my shoes, I forgot to bring along my bag and computer.

I used to remember the names and faces very well of old friends and acquaintances even after getting to know them for a brief period of time. I could call out the names of all my coursemates in Engineering faculty in Universtiy Malaya just after meeting them for about a week or so, but nowadays I could hardly recognize or remember any person just after one week of meeting them. After my transfer back from China operation to Malaysia just about 8 months, I always have to try very hard to refresh the names of some of my Chinese colleagues!

It is clearly a sign of getting old and I think I have to carry a note book around anywhere I go and immediately jot down everything before I forget. Look like this is the only way for me to overcome this problem!

You could exercise or even to dress up yourself to appear younger but the effect of aging takes a toll on the other aspects of your life, memory is just one of them. Sigh!