Have you ever had that thing happen, where you’re at a function and someone who quite clearly knows exactly who you are, engages you in conversation while you spend the entire time thinking, ‘Do I know you?’ and ‘What the heck was your name again?’ I can’t work out if it’s something that happens to everyone when they get older, or if it’s just that I’m becoming more forgetful.

Either way, I find it’s happening more and more.

Take the other week. I was at a function with a friend who when I approached him, turned to me and said “You remember Sue don’t you?”

“Yes of course,” she said, complimenting me on my new blonde hair. “That’s new”, she said, “I almost didn’t recognise you”.

I smiled politely as the voice in my head muttered ‘there’s a lot of that going around’.

“How are.. you?” I ask, as I do a quick mental calculation of recent hairstyles and conclude she must be someone I’ve met within the past two years, but haven’t seen for about six months.

“Fine. You’re looking well,” she replies. (Translation: You’ve put on weight. Mental note, must have met closer to two years ago).

Feeling awkward, I turned to my friend hoping to send a silent help signal using my eyes like (just like in spy movies), but alas he was already talking to someone else.

By now her voice had almost become a distant drone as the sound of the wheels grinding in my brain got louder. How the hell was I going to find out her name?

Then I catch a flash of white. Ah, it’s a networking do, and she’s wearing a name tag! Unfortunately though, it’s pinned to her handbag (by the way, if you want to make a fortune, design a name badge that women can actually wear on a dress).

Now, all I need to do is distract her so I can see her name. So utilising my stealth-like James Bond intelligence skills, I comment on the length of the queue for coffee, then as she turns to look, I ‘accidentally’ drop my bag and lean down to pick it up. Success!

Don’t quote me on this, but I think I’ve worked out why remembering names gets worse as we get older (you can almost hear the Oxford University professors moving to the edge of their seats in anticipation can’t you?).

I believe the part of our brains that stores new names has a limit, and having lived in three countries and 14 different cities in the past 25 years, mine has simply run out of storage space.

This of course leaves me with a dilemma, do I just stop meeting new people? Or, do I hope that some of the people I’ve come in to contact with over the past few years, pass away? You know... one in, one out.

I’ll let you know when I decide... if I can remember your name.