The major system for remembering numbers

0 - s, z, soft-c - remember as 'z is first letter of zero'
1 - d, t, th - remember as letters with 1 downstroke
2 - n - remember as having 2 downstrokes
3 - m - has three downstrokes
4 - r - imagine a 4 and an R glued together back-to-back
5 - L - imagine the 5 propped up against a book end (L)
6 - j, sh, soft-ch, dg, soft-g - g is 6 rotated 180 degrees.
7 - k, hard-ch, hard-c, hard-g, ng - imagine K as two 7s
rotated and glued together
8 - f, v - imagine the bottom loop of the 8 as an eFfluent
pipe discharging waste (letter image of F in
alphabet system)
9 - p, b - b as 9 rotated 180 degrees.

Boost your memory - My first day at school

http://www.youramazingbrain.org/yourmemory/boostmem.htm

My first day at school.

I was dropped on my head. It was summer, or at least sunny, and I was wearing grey shorts and a cheque blue shirt. I had brown shoes. I cried. My classroom was downstairs in the two storey building. My lovely teacher was Mrs Blowers. The school was called St Joseph's Rockdale. It had hopskotch painted markings on the ground. We had a small patch of grass to play on. I had a back pack, an ugly brown color with the school logo on it. We wore ties, even in winter. The girls wore green cheque dresses. I sat next to Neil Guanlao, who had the coolest calculator ever. We had the letters of the alphabet in large sheets around the top of the wall. It took me a while to realise that there were upper case and lower case letters.

The year I went to primary school was 1982. I was six years old. I had an older sister in the school, as well as two older brothers. Sis was in year 2, Paul was in year 4 and Simon in year 6. It was Simon's friend Paul McCleod who dropped me on my head and I got to see the principle on the first day of school. She was a nun, Sr somebody. I had an egg on my head the size of, well, an egg.

I Vow To Thee My Country

While trekking around Santiago, Spain, my friend sang this song to his 9 month old daughter. Great lyrics and tune.

I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love:
The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,
That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.

And there's another country, I've heard of long ago,
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;
We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;
Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;
And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
And her ways are ways of gentleness and all her paths are peace.