Editor’s Letter.

AND SO the end of the year is almost upon us. Is it as shocking to you as it is to me? As I start to (mentally) prepare for the silly season, I’m having a similar conversation over and again. You know the one. Where did the year go? How is it November already? And why is time passing so fast?

I decided to do a little research on the latter query. After all, it wasn’t always this way. I remember how time dragged as a child. The interminable wait for Christmas. How long a car journey felt (“Are we there yet?”). The stre-e-e-e-tch of a school term.

So why does time seem to stand still for a child and speed up for an adult? In a quick trawl of the internet, I came across several theories. 1. Life is too busy and we’re moving far more quickly these days. 2. Our internal body clock slows, giving us a warped sense of time. 3. We pay less attention to time as we age. 4. We’re all stressed.

There’s also a mathematical theory, first proposed by French philosopher Paul Janet way back in the late 1800s. At the age of five, a year is 20 per cent of our lives. At the age of 18, a year is 5.56 per cent of our lives. At 50, it’s two per cent. You get the picture.

And familiarity can breed speed (as well as contempt). The older we get, the fewer memorable moments – or “firsts” – we have in our life. “There is a remedy,” writes Claudia Hammond, the author of Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries

of Time Perception. “If you want the weekend to go slowly, don’t spend time resting and watching TV. Instead, fill it with new experiences and by Sunday night you will look back and the weekend will seem long.”

I suspect you know where I’m going with this. If you want the world to stop, start seeing some of it. Travelling is the best way I know to create memorable moments. And who doesn’t want a holiday that seems to go on forever?