I have often said that Time is slippery.  Sometimes we can get up in the morning and suddenly realise that it’s late evening and we wonder where on earth the day went to.  Other days Time seems to drag on forever.  We feel as if we have put in a full day’s work, chasing our tails and never getting any time to rest, and then we realise that it’s not even lunch time.

This morning was one of those ‘slippery’ days.  I have a dodgy memory and poor executive function so my journal is an important element of my life.  It’s ALWAYS open on my laptop and just about everything is written in there – and time-stamped.  In the mornings I make myself a cup of coffee and open the laptop and plan my day around the basic stuff I need to remind myself about such as showering, meditating, eating…  Most things I’d do even if they were not written in my journal, but I like to tick them off as DONE!  Then I get into noting the weather and my level of pain the previous night.  I went to make another cup of coffee and came back to my laptop to discover that it was three hours later. 

I sat down with my coffee and had a really good think – what had I done?  I’d spoken on the phone for over an hour with a friend; I’d made breakfast and eaten it whilst reading a book; I’d picked up 23 half-chewed mangoes that the cockatoos had left and three mangos that were still human edible.  I’d emptied all the rubbish bins and sorted out some accounting; I’d made my bed and tidied the living area…  basically, I’d done a whole heap of stuff and just ‘lost’ that time!

The day continued like that.  It’s now 8.30pm and I’ve still not eaten.  I have no idea where the time went, nor could I tell you what I have been doing because there was not one thing that stands out above anything else other than I taught a meditation class and picked up even more half-chewed mangos, getting half-chewed by mosquitos in the process.  I remember that because I am still itching and my back-scratcher is my favourite thing in the world right now!

These are the everyday time slips that we all experience from time to time, but what about the really weird time slips? 

There are a few of those that stand out for me and they often happen when I am driving.  For example:  on a good day it takes about 30 minutes to drive to the next town from where I live, but on ‘slippery-time days’ I can get there in 16 minutes – without speeding.  That doesn’t seem possible, it’s 64km of twisting forestry road.  Maybe I’d read the time incorrectly when I started?  That could have happened except that I’ve had this happen before so I take specific note of the time when I get in the car. 

And then there was the time – over 40 years ago now – where I am convinced I saw a UFO that I describe as a huge metallic Toblerone, parked in a field around lunch time and the next thing I knew the sun was setting and I was about 50 miles away from that place! 

In my home town, we hold the Southern Hemisphere’s only UFO Festival and I had an opportunity to chat with a Forensic Ufologist about that incidence.  He reckoned I was abducted. 

Maybe that is why I am frequently called ‘weird’ by my sister!

And that’s what these time-slips are… just weird.  There’s probably all kinds of science about what is happening in the brain, but I’m not a scientific person.  Actually, I rather enjoy the mystery!

Feel free to mention, in the comments, any weird things you have experienced with time.

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Auri’An Lay

Life through a neuro-divergent mind