Over the weekend I phoned my kid sister; we both have ‘free’ calls on the weekend if we natter for under an hour. Is it Saturday already she asked? No, I truthfully replied; it’s Sunday. It was her turn to call, and somehow, she’d lost a day. She’s not working, medically retired, however her partner works so he must know what day it is. How can one lose a day? A whole day? It got me thinking about time. When we natter, I have to keep an eye on the time because if we go over the hour, we get charged. The hour flies by, and sometimes, we’ll hang up within the hour, then the other phones back so we can carry on. Time flies. Conversely, if I have to talk to my middle sister, which I don’t anymore anyway, the time would drag by and I’d be looking for an excuse to hang up.

Time also affects food. You can’t eat dessert for breakfast. It’s just not done is it? I recall one time in work, I wanted a toasted panini to eat. There was nobody queueing, the panini was there, the toaster was there but I couldn’t have it because it wasn’t yet 11.30. Before 11.30, only ‘breakfast’ items were being served. I could have it after 11.30, and not before. Needless to say, I took my business elsewhere. Time affects what we can or can’t eat it seems.

So, time is human construct, designed to help us in our everyday lives, yet we constantly allow it to rule us too. It’s not physical; you can’t touch it, see it, hear it, or smell it. Time drags by, it flies by. We spend time, we waste time. Time affects when we start work, when we leave, when we can have lunch, when we wake, when we sleep. It goes on…

One of the nicest things about retirement I find, is getting up when I want to. Going to bed when I want to; sometimes as late as 10 or 11pm, on rare occasions as early as 8.30pm if I’m feeling exhausted. I eat breakfast much earlier than my son though we do have our ‘evening’ meal together, often as early as 4pm. He doesn’t eat lunch, I have an early lunch due to having an early breakfast, so we often have an early dinner. We don’t care what time it is; if we’re hungry, we’ll have dinner. Once a week we are controlled by time due to his classes, so I eat alone that day but that’s the exception, not the rule.

Right. I need to stop wasting time musing about Time, and spend some time helping my son with pizza dough for dinner. Enjoy the rest of the week.