Of sound mind? 14 8 14 (15) 25 1 22

To my regular readers of this blog the title I chose today may not come as such a surprise because the things I write about are everyday things but today in a sense it is for the first time certainly in recent times that I can feel a special joy in declaring myself compos mentis...

And why because I am now of an age when such things can no longer be taken for granted like in my life up until yesterday when such a matter was taken on trust. What was so special about yesterday was that I had to take a test to prove it...

Or at least the part of having a passable memory still in order to be able to go on driving an automobile a car and in my case a motor bike..? This is to say it is a requirement of the law in this country that when you get to a certain age you have to begin taking tests to prove that you are still all there..! How awful!

But for my first driving test in UK I had to prove then that I could read the number plate of another vehicle some 25 yards away, say 20 metres, just to prove that my eye-sight was good enough to be in charge of a motor vehicle which at the time sounded perfectly reasonable.

Yesterday however the test began by the nurse in our local health centre telling me the test I was about to take could not be repeated...Really scary stuff was ahead..!

Then there followed all these questions such as “What day is it today?” “What is the date?” “What time of year is it?” “What month are we in?” “Where are we now?” “What floor is it?” And much more difficult questions like: Repeat after me the following (unrelated) words: 3 in a row... All very reasonable except my mother tongue is not the language this interview was being conducted in... And some of the words used I was hearing for the very first time...Then a few questions more and the nurse came back to the same three words which I had to recall yet again..!

Then a maths test: Take 7 away from 100 and continue taking 7 away from the last number you got until I tell you to stop... 93..., 86.., 79..., 72..,65... That's enough! Then reading aloud a short phrase... and reproducing a drawing of one lined regular pentagon sitting astride a second regular one...

Then I had to write down a sentence, anything... when I wrote “This test is more like a language test that a memory test!” To which my nurse agreed saying she would write a note to the doctor whom I am to meet on a later occasion to do the rest of the health checks, etc.

But then she reassured me that my performance had been such that I needn’t be concerned that I would fail this part of the tests arranged, and as she bade me goodbye to her surprise I recalled how she had been the nurse who 3 or 4 weeks ago had been the very same nurse who had removed a spell, a wooden splinter which had deeply penetrated the forth finger of my right hand… surprised perhaps because she didn’t remember me..!? Why would she: she is a pretty young nurse whereas I am… but joyfully still today compos mentis.. hahaha. As you my dear readers no doubt are! Enjoy your good fortune this forth...