What's the Time?

Time is a funny thing.  The ten minutes spent standing in the rain awaiting a bus might feel like an hour.  The ten minutes awaiting a dentist dealing with your toothache might feel even longer.  An ice cream or box of chocolates disappears in seconds I find however, at least it does in this house.  The conception of time is a wonder and it is worth contemplating how it operates around the world.

Late Sunday evening around 7 O'clock, I read the latest post from young Grace  and discovered she was heading off into Monday!  Monday?  We had not finished Sunday yet!  It's the same tonight, here it is 7:44 pm, in Perth it is 2:42 am according to The World Clock.  Yet our Lee over in Queensland is watching the sun rise at 4:42!  Actually now I think about it I doubt she is watching the sun rise.  The time gap is an amazing thing to contemplate as is the time gap across that continent itself!  Two whole hours between the west coast and the east!
As I type I am interrupted by watching the Confederations Cup football on TV. This takes place in Brazil where the game kicked of at 4 pm. It's now ten minutes past eight here and we have that strange phenomena of the world turning.  As it turns some Texans are earning huge amounts of dollars returning to work at 2:pm, after a lunch that ought to have been longer.  That smile may be forced while the obnoxious customers/staff are dealt with.  In Missouri however it is still 1864!

The world is a smaller place today.  When I was a lad Brazil was on the other side of the world.  To get there meant ten days or more aboard a boat, weather permitting.  The USA could be reached much quicker, five days as long as no icebergs intervened.  Today however people spend a weekend in New York shopping!  Plane travel is so fast it enables women to visit shops worldwide to waste their mans money.  To visit the football in Brazil a plane can take you there in a dozen hours, how small the world is today.
Did peoples in times past appreciate that it was night time over in Australia while they ate supper?  Did the Mid West know we were putting lights on while they finished long lunches?  Could they comprehend the time differences without the internet?  I am amazed daily that I can watch live football from Brazil on TV yet by using the laptop I can talk to someone in New Zealand (a somewhat grumpy someone I expect!) is this not marvellous?  We can overcome time in a way previous generations may never have imagined.  Unless we fall asleep of course....  

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