The speed of time

I have always been fascinated by the apparent speed of time. Sometimes, time flies by very quickly. Sometimes, I might look at my watch 100 times and it would have passed perhaps 30 seconds.

I notice that when I program, time flies by quickly. When I read, time flies by quickly. When I watch TV, time simply disappears. But when I am waiting for the bus, then ten minutes feel like an eternity. For me, flight time and airport waiting time are the two activities that have the slowest time. If the flight takes 14 hours, then it will be hell for me to count the seconds, trying to sleep all the time. To wait for a flight in an airport feels like the same. Actually, I prefer in the sky than in an airport. At least, I know the plane is going somewhere. In an airport waiting for a flight is like waiting for the beginning of something, something dreadful. That makes it doubly dreadful. The combination of both is what I have to endure every time I go back home.

Of course, the passing of time is really a metaphor. Time is just there. The temporal dimension is simply out of our grasp.