My continuing nemeses are large multi-storey car parks.
….now where did I park the bloomin’ thing!
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I remember a few years ago being with someone who had parked her car in a conference centre car park in Birmingham. We knew it was the third floor and the car park wasn’t that big, but it had various bits so you had to explore to cover the whole floor. Anyway after half an hour, no car. Eventually, in despair, we discovered that there were two identical car parks right next to each other, east and west or something like that. They were identical Birmingham concrete wastelands.
But we were looking in one and her car was parked in the other.
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Once on holiday in Spain, staying in an out of way villa a few miles south of Grenada, coming back from a day trip, four adults and four children in two cars, I think the first time in the dark, we turned off the Grenada road as normal, followed it the three miles or so on the twisting road, then saw our turning on the right conspicuous by effectively starting with a hairpin bend just after a building. Up we went, as normal another hairpin after 50 yards, up a steep hill then levelling off with a bend to right, a couple more bends and we arrived …at nothing! We drove a bit further in case we’d miscounted the bends. Back a bit likewise. Got out and scratched our heads - but the villa had completely disappeared! Retraced our route back to the road at the bottom - yes, definitely the right place, so back up again…
Confused, and with all sorts of ghost stories not quire keeping the younger of the children calm, we retreated to the road at the bottom. We turned right … and there round the next bend was an identical turning - the right one! In the pitch black of night with only car headlights the two turnings had looked identical. Next day in daylight they were plenty of differences apparent, so much so that we had passed it several times and never registered the similarity, That’s two drivers, with an adult passenger in each car!
Not a senior moment at all, but a spooky experience!
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I could post my senior moments, but there have been so many…how long have you got?
Edit: such as I couldn’t find the bl00dy question mark key while posting the above…
Here’s my question: how did you clean the coffee grinder?
What coffee grinder…?
LOL 
I was in Tesco’s a couple of weeks ago to pick up a few beers. Had iPhone and wallet in hand. Beers in trolley, went to Book section for quick browse. After a few minutes heard an announcement asking for me to go to Customer Service desk. I suddenly realised I didn’t have my phone or wallet! Both were waiting for me at the CS desk. I’d put them down on one of the beer shelves and forgotten to pick them up! Thank God for honest people. The finder had left the store without leaving her details so was never able to thank her.
I few years ago I took my then young son on a shopping trip, parking in the multi-story next to the shopping centre. Obviously I made a special effort to make a mental note that I was parked in ‘L3 Purple Zone B2’.
As we made our way back to the car I joked to my son that I had forgotten where we’d parked but I would open the boot remotely to reveal the car’s position - how clever Dad was…
No boot lid popped up… whoops.
Was it stolen…?
Next 20 mins running around… in mild panic…
Eventually find the car in L2 Blue Zone B2… boot open and laptop with sensitive work stuff sitting there…
Oh dear, son pissing himself, it all went downhill after that.
2 days before Christmas went food shopping. Initially went to cafe for coffee that I had sitting down at cafe table. Grabbed black leather wallet on table as I left. Strange, did not think I had left it out of my pocket, but kids pictures inside wallet. Drove 2 kms to flash supermarket. Pulled out wallet to pay at checkout, cards inside wallet different, kids photos unrecognisable, am
I going mad? Checked other coat pocket, correct wallet there, thank God!
Rushed back to cafe, manager had been frantic as wallet had been stolen. Relief all round. Silly season of my life. 59 is the “infancy of old age” according to Ian McEwan. Agreed.
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This reminds me of a recent senior moment. We were giving an old but fully functional Dyson to a friend’s son who was about to move into his first house. I put it in the boot of my estate car and went off to a board meeting in Southampton first. I parked in the visitors’ car park of the science park and locked the car. As I walked away I thought I would fold the mirrors in, which you do by holding the lock button on the remote for a second or two, because the parking spaces are quite narrow. As I was in a rush I just pointed the remote behind me, pressed the button as I walked and went off to my all day meeting.
When I went back to the car six or so hours later, I realised the boot was wide open. You could see it from 100 yards away! I was certain that someone had broken in and stolen the Dyson, but when I came up to the car, I could see it was still there and I realised that what I had done as I left the car was press the boot opening button by mistake instead of the adjacent car locking button. The boot had been open all day. My relief was mixed with a slight sense of irritation that no-one thought it worth taking the Dyson. Don’t people know what these things cost?!
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David - I suspect we all know what these things cost but they also have a history of ceasing to function, which is why trades favour Henrys and alike. Mind you, I changed all the filters in my elderly DC14 a few days ago…amazing difference! Back to thread next…
Increasingly I seem to be reaching for ‘whatchacallit’ and ‘thingamajig’ in conversations. No wonder when I go shopping for baked beans I come back with tins of lentils.
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Clearly you are getting past it if you need an electric boot…
I remember parking the car in Portsmouth once when a heritage open day was on. As we later went past the car on the open topped vintage bus we saw that one of the rear doors was wide open. There wasn’t a lot we could do about it, and when we returned later we found that someone had shut the door and all our stuff was safe inside. I was in my thirties then, and things have only got worse.
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For all the negatives we hear, and some of us may experience, it is heartening to read examples of there being decent people around.
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That’s so true. My son lost his iPod touch in France when he was about 14 and was absolutely devasted. A couple of weeks later we got a call from a lady in Devon asking for his address. She’d picked it up, realised it belonged to a child from the screen picture, brought it back to the UK, contacted Apple and sent it to him. It’s a good job he registered his details with them. So a senior (school) moment for our Henry!
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It happens to me quite a lot that I set my glasses down and can’t find them later on. I am short-sighted so I don’t always need to wear them.
A couple of years ago, on the morning of my father‘s funeral, I could not find my glasses. I turned the house over three times but, as the clock ticked down and the hearse arrived, they had not turned up. In the end I had to leave without them. Fortunately, I did not need them to read the eulogy or chat with family and friends afterwards.
When we got back to the house the search recommenced in earnest. I remembered having had them on to repark the car to give the hearse access so they might have been outside the house… After reparking the car at the neighbour‘s house I had taken a shortcut through some trees. There had been a severe storm the night before and a branch had struck me. The glasses had flown off and my wife found them lying by the drive entrance where the hearse had passed twice narrowy missing them.
Very carefully!
I’ve given up making small talk with the missus.
“What are you doing at the weekend ?”
“I have already told you six times what I’m doing”
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