Thankyou mudlark, but I have words - it was a case of humming the tune and they just apeared from where ever they had been waiting to be called up.

It was only the realisation that my memory was going - I found myself on the wrong road going to a place I have known the way to for over 20 years - and it suddenly hit me like a wall that one day I might not even remember who I am. That was the day I bought the big note books and started to write.

They are actually out of date diaries - dead cheap at 50p each, on my birthday page I wrote the poem 'Warning - when I am an old woman I shall wear purple' and on the last page I wrote Kipling's 'If'.

I thought I might spend some my time writing several copies and then leave them at Sidmouth (this was before its future was in doubt) with an explanatory note that I had no one to hand then on to. I did think of adding a couple of cds of the less well known ones, the ones I made up a tune for, the ones I made up entirely, and maybe a few more - so maybe in a few decades I'd have reserchers visiting me in the nursing home to ask questions and smuggle in rum.

I want to be a legend in my own lifetime, but not make it too obvious - let them think they discovered me and my liking for Lamb's Navy and coke - that is, I mean, cola - I plan to live to be at least 150 and make up for the sobriety of my youth.

If only I could update my own RAM as easily as that of a computer, and install a new hard disk.

Anne