Did you or your mother ever have those catalogues, the ones with the shiny armor plated pages with people slung about on pieces of furniture or standing near elaborate draperies. It was the ‘home shopping network’ of its day. Well in our shop we had the authorised traveling salesman who’d come and deliver stuff courtesy of one of those catalogues. For months I let two things gestate into realities in my mind – One was the Rambler Cassette radio- which I’ve written on before- the other was the TIMEX wristwatch. The thing with the Timex was, it was self winding, no dial except for changing the time – How the hell you’re meant to get you tiny fingers around the pin head of a thing I don’t recall – but on the birthday it turned up I was about as excited as a squirrel just out of hibernation or that hyperactive acorn chasing creature from the ‘Ice age’ animations….

The box was made of toughened plastic with a velvet cushion inside. It made a hollow sound as I put it on the table – almost like opening up Alladin’s cave I lifted the lid – you’d swear there were glittering fairies dancing all around it and sprinkles of magic dust – the gold band slid cold over my tiny wrist and I shook the thing to start it going. Funny, it felt lopsided – that was the nature of the counterweight, reminding me of those automatic oil wells with heavy counter weights seen on so many movies – ahhh

The muted gold said I have ‘arrived’ I am grown up I now control time – little did I realise that the whole picture would change and that it would be controlling me…… however this wonderful little round face with its hairline second hand just continued to charge around the clock like the sun round the globe, the sun around the center of the spiral arm etc all funneling back like a tornado to MY watch, my grown up 13 year old watch. Of course one day the band broke as they do and it never got fixed and I put away childish things and got a CASIO digital hmmm how long did that last with its tacky plastic strap. It was an early one.

Now I do not wish to be constrained by know what the time is all the time- of course it’s all around me and if I really need to I just glance at the mobile phone… I could probably tell you within ten minutes what the time was anyway – I sort of have an intuition about it almost like I can put my time sense out there and sniff the prevailing minute or hour- maybe by the weight of the sun or the aura of the atmosphere… what ever I do it keeps going faster and faster and there ‘s so much to do! Can’t i just get a giant stop watch and lap time the world….. for just a moment!