Shibboleth

I actually used the word "shibboleth" the other day.

Gotta love that profile. And the hair - wish he'd stop letting himself be scalped.

Time to get up already?

The London Zoo tiger cubs and their mum spent most of a very warm and summery Halloween asleep on a wall behind some trees, showing barely a stripe to the visitors.

When the day was getting close to its end, they appeared.

Look, mum, I'm awake, mum, MUM!

I caught this giant yellow worm, but I can't get it out of the ground.

It's mine now. Damn, dropped it!

 

Got it back! Now to turn a hose into a sprinkler!

 

While those immature idiots play, I think I'll take a drink from mum and dad's bath.

 

I think this is my best side.

 

At last, I've got rid of them so I can have a preen. Honestly, a mother's work is never done.

I remember

Yes, I do. I am not losing my marbles. Yet. Not all of them anyway.

I volunteered to take part in a memory and dementia study for Imperial College, London. On Monday I had an interview with the researcher, and the was put through my paces by a psychologist.

When my mother's memory started to get suspect, I remember sitting through an interview she had with her doctor, so I thought I knew what to expect. But it was so much more. To name a few:

Count back in 7s from 100.
Repeat back stories.
Copy diagrams.
Draw line drawings from memory.
Repeat lists of nouns.
Repeat ever-lengthening lists of numbers; then repeat them backwards!

I did pretty well in most categories, though repeating six or seven numbers backwards got a bit difficult. But she had to stop me repeating the 100-minus-seven numbers because she'd never had someone do it so fast, and she didn't have enough of them written down to check against!

My main problem continues to be names. When I think about it, though, that's a skill I've never been great at. So I guess I'm not coming down with Alzheimer's yet. I'll just wait and see how the genetic test comes out, and whether they want me to have an MRI scan.

Very interesting.