natjtan On an unexpected day off yesterday and extended beach siesta, I finally got around to reading National Geographic’s March 2014 black holes issue. They’re fascinating stuff. No one really knows what happens when you get sucked into one, apart from you probably won’t ever come back in one piece. Where does everything go that it consumes? Does it make a new universe the other side? We know our universe came from nothing. Something small and then it was everything. What was the nothing it came from? Was it from the other side of a black hole? It’s a great article if you ever get the chance to read it, especially if you look up from the beach and see the moon at 5pm. Then you really know, that we’re smaller than ants, spinning round and round in gases.
If our sun was to implode, it’s diameter would be 4 miles, yet still retain it’s weight.
One thing I picked up from the article is that time is relative. Time doesn’t move at the same speed for everyone. Time as discovered by Albert Einstein is affected by gravity (If you were to stand on the horizon of a black hole for one minute, a 1000 years will have passed on Earth thanks the the gravitational pull of the black hole. Einstein felt it was unnatural to believe gravity was more powerful than nuclear and electromagnetics. It’s a great article). If you place extremely accurate clocks on every floor in a skyscraper, the higher ones will tick quicker (The difference is so small, you wouldn’t notice) than the lower floor ones where gravity has a greater affect. GPS satellites are set to tick slighter slower than on Earth to offset this, for them to be accurate for us in our cars miles below. Crazy stuff!
For me at the moment, time is a little all over the place. I can’t seem to get a routine going. Well, I have, it’s not working for me and old habits are creeping back in. I get a little overwhelmed sometimes and feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day. Things get done, I just don’t feel productive. Sleep’s still a major issue. I know I have to pull my finger out, get a good sleep schedule and then my daily schedule can be better formulated. If any of you have any good scheduling and routine secrets, please let me in on them!
I mentioned earlier that yesterday was a day off. Unlike the UK where a public holiday is tagged on to Monday for a longer weekend, in France and Spain, it’s the day it falls on. So bad luck if it’s a Sunday. I’m usually on top of the holidays. This one, I forgot completely about. I looked out the window in the morning and thought, ‘oh, that’s light traffic’. Thought nothing more of it.
Fridge was empty, we go to the supermarket, car park’s empty and the supermarket’s *closed. Eh? Paul then, mentions he read last week that June 9th was a holiday. That’s helpful, today’s the 9th. B*gger!
‘But you usually know the holidays?’
‘Yes, because the supermarkets have signs saying if they’re open or not, a week or two in advance. You’ve been doing the supermarket trips (he’s a chef with some time off) and I haven’t been shopping much to be reminded!’
‘Ahh! I really thought you were clued up about all the holidays, it’s automatic you know and you’re telling me you use supermarkets to tell you when they are?!’ ‘You’re so slack!
‘But, you read it was a holiday! Did you not look at the date and make a connection?!’ ‘Dumb*ss’
‘Dumb*ss?!’ You’re the scheduler! It’s your job!’ ‘Man, that’s shocking you didn’t know (it’s a holiday)!’
‘Well, I told you, that you’d know all my secrets if you take the summer off!’ ‘Didn’t I?!”
Like I said, time is relative.
For these two, time is all about eating, sleeping, washing, eating, sleeping, washing and then some more eating, sleeping and washing because eating, sleeping and washing is exhausting. 
*Fortunately there was greengrocers open. They don’t put up open/closed festivos signs. And that’s were we’ve been shopping mostly, so how was I to be reminded?!
Do you forget about holidays and are caught out? This was the second time I’ve ever been caught out. The first time was in my first year in Spain. It was the same holiday. Do you have any good scheduling, routine tips to share?