Q. I am in my mid-sixties and have started to suffer from nominal aphasia. At a recent wedding in the Highlands, two very familiar faces came towards me and I couldn’t put a name to either. Worse, at a wake following a funeral, one old friend was very upset when I failed to recognise her, she claimed wrongly that it must have been because she had aged since we’d last met. I seem to have the rest of my faculties intact, so I wouldn’t want it to get around that I am ‘losing it’.
— Name and address withheld
A. As a general rule, at large events you should always make a beeline for the seating plan and scan it thoroughly. You will then be more able to match the familiar names with faces. If you are still at sea when someone comes up to you, greet them warmly, then ask in conspiratorial manner: ‘What’s your news?’ Listen intently. This is such a common dilemma among all age groups that it makes a nonsense of the snobbery against name badges, which are so useful at corporate events and which could also bring huge confidence to a social event. All too often people complain afterwards that they had no idea X or Y was also there and would love to have talked to them had they known.
Q. When at the departure gate waiting to board a seven-hour flight, I was informed I had been upgraded for free to business class. Having just the previous day completed a 17-hour flight, I was delighted. Unfortunately, my wife, who had booked separately, (and had not endured the l7-hour flight) was not upgraded. She took the point of view that if she could not be upgraded, then I should not be either.
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