'Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.'

Good old Groucho Marx putting life into comedic perspective. He has got one thing correct, time does definitely fly and let me tell you not always when you're having fun.

I think time plays on our subconscious. It has a little game with our mind. This could be when we are so scared we may run out of time and suddenly four hours have passed in what feels like three minutes. Or when we cannot wait for the day to be over and every minute feels like an hour, dragging away, slowly stripping away our souls. Okay slightly dramatic, but time does play an extremely important part in our everyday lives. How we make use of it can affect what the future holds. 'You may delay, but time will not' Benjamin Franklin reminds us of how we avoid things, pretend to forget important tasks and fill our lives with endless futile but instantly gratifying pastimes to prolong the inevitable. Procrastination is a clear example of this. Some people cannot live without this pointless and time consuming activity, while others have the strength and will power to avoid the temptation to sway from what is planned. 'She spent her evenings making poetry, I spent my nights making time.' The Portrait - Amanda Mcbroom.

Bad decisions on how to use our time can often produce deep feelings of regret. Of course any time spent worrying for time lost is further time wastage. A never-ending loop occurs and we are stuck in our own groundhog day. Many films depict this idea in a fantastical light showing how we can change and better ourselves by repeating a certain day over and over leading to greater fulfilment. Fictional stories of time machines have become family favourites over the years as the idea of humans controlling time themselves is thrilling and exciting to watch. This is simply as because to date no human has found a way to control it. (I am of course not counting plastic surgery as way to postpone time)

I found myself recently reminiscing about a Children's TV programme I used to watch as a child, Bernard's Watch. Thinking back now it was a very simple show, where a boy had a watch that could stop time and we followed him on his daily activities where he used the watch to solve problems and create peace and harmony for himself and others. An idyllic and naive concept to us cynical adults but extremely appropriate for imaginative children. In complete irony the same day I thought of this programme, a negative situation occurred that made we utterly wish for that magical watch so I could go and erase it. Now a believer in fate and signs myself, I thought this situation occurred for a reason,(though I cannot seem to discover it yet) therefore If I was to stop time I would be disturbing the natural order of things and the consequences of that could be even worse. This all sounds rather like the prophetic words of an evil character in a Disney film, but surely those stories must have been based on some truth!

People often say there is so much to do and not enough hours in the day to do it. Oscar Levant disagrees, 'So little time and so little to do.' I'm guessing he means that if we used our time wisely we would find there is more than enough to spare. In a society where everyone is busy, everything is rushed, and every day is sped through, time is travelling fast and our chosen pace is all that can slow it down. If time is playing a game with us, why not take a back seat and allow the game to unfold? If we stop fighting time, accept that the clock will chime every hour and the sun will set ever day, we may find that we subconsciously have more time. We are better to sit back and enjoy the game rather than sit watching the second hand as it ticks away wasting the few precious seconds we have to plan our next strategic move. 'This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But, it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.' Winston Churchill.