Welsh draw a blank
By Effective Communication
Lottery Survey says the Welsh forget their keys, tea and loo roll – but never a birthday
A quarter of people in Wales consider themselves to be very forgetful, and struggle to remember basics such as putting the washing out, PIN numbers and switching off electrical items, according to research by National-Lottery.co.uk released today.
Swansea is a hotbed for memory blanks, with 30 percent admitting to possessing a bad memory, compared to 26 per cent of people in Cardiff, and just 16 per cent in Aberystwyth. In fact, people in Aberystwyth are the least forgetful in the whole of the UK, compared to 44 percent of people in Wolverhampton and 41 per cent in Aberdeen.
The poll of 2,000 adults nationwide also revealed 1 in 4 people in Wales regularly spend time hunting for lost keys, compared to East Anglia, where only 21 per cent forget where they put theirs.
The Welsh are named and shamed as the worst in the UK at wasting a cup of tea – with a huge 60 per cent of people in Swansea saying they regularly forget to drink their tea and let it go cold.
More than a quarter of people living in Wales get to the shops and then forget what they went for, nearly as many forget to replace the loo roll in the toilet and a staggering 15 percent can’t even remember how old they are.
In one of the most ironic findings of the survey, nearly half of those questioned in Wales said they use mobile phone reminders to help them remember things – but almost one in four regularly forget to charge their phones!
However, the Welsh are the least likely to let their memories get them in trouble with the law; 97 percent have never forgotten to tax, MOT or insure their car.
It seems that people in Wales are burning the candle at both ends, with 74 per cent saying their memory problems are caused by lack of sleep.
It’s not all bad news though; relationships are unlikely to suffer from the nation’s forgetful nature, as 98 per cent of people in Wales say remember their partner’s birthday and wedding anniversaries.
But 16 percent risk missing out on a fortune by regularly forgetting to buy their lottery ticket.
A National-Lottery.co.uk spokesperson said: “With the busy lives we lead today, it’s little wonder people in Wales get a bit forgetful. There’s nothing worse than that sinking feeling of forgetting to put on your lottery numbers. Playing on National-Lottery.co.uk means there are no tickets to misplace and you don’t even need to remember to check your numbers as players are automatically sent an email telling them when they have some good news.”
National-Lottery.co.uk provides a simple and easy way to play any of the lottery’s draw-based games, including Lotto, Dream Number and Euromillions, as well as a range of interactive Instant Win Games.
Memory expert and eight-time World Memory Champion, Dominic O’Brien, can recall every number one record since the charts began in 1952 and remember the correct sequence of forty decks of cards. Dominic said: “There are many ways to help people remember things.
“One of my favourite techniques is thinking of numbers as pictures. Numbers, such as lottery numbers, in isolation are difficult to remember unless we attach meaning to them. So to remember your preferred lottery lines try making associations with them to get a mental picture. For example, the shape of an 8 looks like a snowman, 4 resembles a sailboat, and 21 could be a key. I picture Alistair Darling when I see the number 11 as that’s where he lives.”
Tags: Dominic O’Brien, Forgetful survey, National-Lottery.co.uk
