They say that time is relative. That is true, depending on the value you put into it. Five minutes can make the world of difference to someone who's just missed the plane. Being stuck in a traffic can seem forever if you're late for a meeting with an important client. While a week is a mere wink of the eye when you're enjoying a holiday of a lifetime.

As a matter of fact time (that is to say, reality) according to Einstein's theory, is relative, in that it requires a subject that enables the probable to become the particular, through conscious attention. Light is both a wave and a particle, depending on the circumstance. A universe of countless rubber balls has no meaning unless there is an observer that focuses on a one particular ball. That ball becomes real.

I remembered when I was sick in bed one day and had to miss school. There was a virus going round that time and for some reason or another I caught it. Being unwell and having to skip classes was not something that often happened to me, as I was generally a pretty healthy child and a good schoolgirl who actually enjoyed school and learning new things!

However, what made this insignificant incident stick in my mind was not the fact that I got sick but what my father said to me as I lay stretched on my back feeling poorly and a little sorry for myself. In his kind voice, though somewhat more pragmatic than sympathetic, he said something along this line: ‘try not to be sick because when you’re sick you’re very selfish. People who get themselves sick means they can’t look after themselves and it’s unfair and a bother to other people who have to make time and effort to look after them.’