Time Travel

Time Travel is not an example of something that I think a lot about. However: A friend suggested that it would be more interesting than the planned 'Why I like Friends' and it is also a good excuse to scan in some old holiday photographs.

From reading novels where time travel is central to the plot (e.g. The Time Traveler's Wife, The Thursday Next series, and Cross Stitch) it becomes evident that going backwards (or forwards) in time can have a large impact on the events in the present. Therefore: A set of rules/conditions would have to be obeyed/met in order for the conscious, safe travel of a member of the general public. It is, for example, important that the researcher (or holiday-maker) is not able to interact with anything in the time spent outside of the 'absolute-present' (unless of course to avert the destruction of all life on earth!). Ideally both the person and the means of transport (capsule) should be invisible and massless. And, in order for the exercise to have any point at all, either the person or the capsule must be able to remember the experience. The consequences of leaving the 'absolute-present' and returning with these memories are unfortunately unavoidable.

Time travel would enable us to answer a lot of questions, some unique and personal, and others of more general interest. For example, I am curious to know what my parents were like before they met each other. I would like to walk alongside the life of Moses to see how the description in the Bible matches with the reality the Israelites experienced.

And: What was the character and motivation of the people who arranged the standing stones?

Travel activities for adults: The Train

The time we spend traveling from one place to the next is unavoidable and from childhood we are taught to fill this dead-time with some sort of activity. Here are two examples of websites dedicated to this:

Travel Games for Families and Kids
"Experienced traveling parents know to pack a bag of toys and activities for kids for car trips and air travel boredom. The trick is to keep the bag's contents a surprise! Then, pull out a new activity or surprise along the way to prevent whining and boredom."
http://childparenting.about.com/od/familytravel/a/travelgames.htm

Travel Activities for Children Ages 6-10
"These fun activities for children are perfect for traveling, or for passing the time in waiting rooms or on bad-weather days."
This site is interesting as it has a whole separate category for 'Waiting Activities'
http://fun.familyeducation.com/travel/family-travel/33401.html

Every workday I commute, by train, between Woking and London. At the stations, I am offered three different, free newspapers to ensure that I do not become bored and badly behaved.

So, I suppose this brings me to the first on-train activity: 'Reading the newspaper'. I will try now to give you a semi-exhaustive list of the things that I have seen people do on the train.

• Reading newspapers and storybooks.
• Check emails (lap-top; Blackberry) and text messages
• Phone work-colleagues (morning travel - usually to explain why late*), spouse (evening travel - usually to explain why late*) and friends (the absolutely most interesting conversations to overhear!).
• Doing puzzles (most commonly wordsearches, Sudoku or crosswords)
• Sleeping (one of my work colleagues tells me that on her morning train about 85 % of the people just sit down and shut their eyes!)
• Listening to music? on iPods or mp3 players
• Eating, buying food from the refreshment trolley, entering and exiting the toilets.
• Applying make-up (only seen this once, and the lady was putting on !silver! mascara)
• Reading/scribbling on work-related papers
• Drawing cartoons (only seen this once)
• Taking down shorthand notes in a shorthand book while listening to a tape-recorder with headphones (only seen once, male, surreal)
• Taking photographs out of the window (rarely seen on the commute, but frequently seen on weekend excursions)
• Watching DVDs (on the home-journey - incidentally watched my first and only 'Buffy' episode over someone shoulder one evening when I could not get a seat)
• Playing computer games
• Chatting
• Changing shoes
• Cleaning out pockets or handbag (okay, this is something that I do - never actually seen anyone else doing it...)
• Just sitting

*Interesting in that these are the only times in my everyday-life that I ever hear people saying things that I know are untrue.

Piano apologetics

What are the benefits of playing the piano?

Because this is the type of question that might be the topic of an essay on why children should be encouraged to learn to play a musical instrument, it is tempting to think of it as being answered-already. But why should I continue to practice?

These are the ideas that come to mind:

• playing Bach, Mozart or Debussy enables my mind to relax so that I can think through the day without getting too involved (intellectually/emotionally) in the memories
• playing Beethoven or Chopin allows me to express my emotions and this process of self-expression helps to relieve stress
• a beautiful melody is aesthetically pleasing
• intellectually or technically challenging pieces can be a form of escape
• maintaining my technique and ability to sightread keeps me in a state of readiness for a time when music may play a larger role in my working or social life

At the moment, I am playing 'Dr Gradus ad Parnassum' from Debussy's Children's Corner Suite in the mornings. It is like a meditation with an invitation to 'come outside and play' at the end and puts me in a really good mood!

My Bookshelf

Whenever I go to other people's homes, I stare at their bookshelves looking for books that I have read and approved of; and anything that might give me a clue as to the owner's tastes, interests or personality.

It occurred to me recently, though, that my own bookshelf might not be a good reflection of who I am and what I like. Half of the novels have not been read yet and there are an awful lot of recipe books, but there are authors whom I admire that are not represented.

Why should this be?

Part of the answer is that while I love reading, I seldom buy books, favouring the public library or loans from friends. The only exception to this is the circumstance where due to bad planning I find myself at a train station or an airport without a storybook. Now, the kinds of books to read on a plane are not necessarily the same books that you would chose to collect, so some of these I keep and some of them I give away. The thing is, that the ones that I give away are usually the good ones ( 'How to be good' by Nick Hornby is the book that I have transiently owned the most copies of) so the less interesting stuff seems to accumlate and collect dust.

Small sidetrack: Other authors that are good to read while travelling are: JK Rowling, Agatha Christie, Jeffrey Archer; Joanne Harris; Trudi Canavan.

Apart from the recipe books (my strengths do not lie in the kitchen!), there also seem to be a disproportionate number of religious books. This is perhaps logical as for many years Christianity was an important part of my life and, despite a quite ruthless cleanout in 2003, it has been difficult to part with some of the more insightful or beautifully written books on the subject. Perhaps on some level, I think that I will return to them when the next phase of my development begins.

And finally. The bookshelf may not represent my literary taste, because the books that I re-read accumulate under my bed!