a case for time travel (part four)

Once, in Italy - it was either a town in Tuscany or Veneto, I can't remember details - I stood on the fringe of a street market while the family shopped for shoes. All of a sudden I was aware of the savoury fragrance of roast chicken coming from a vendor's van and I was immediately transported mind and soul to a childhood, London suburban, early Sunday afternoon. Make no mistake, this was not a mere memory; this was the real thing. Only my eyes were transmitting incorrect messages to my brain; all else was functioning properly, sometime around, possibly, 1969.

It only lasted, ooh, a couple of seconds in clock time but, as we know, time is relative - it might have been the whole afternoon. As we lose the memory of dreams soon after waking, so it is with travelling in time.

I get this a lot now, ever since the routine of employment has been suspended. It's milder than the Italian experience but, nevertheless, easily noticeable. Usually I'm walking down the road, say to the allotment, and I'm no longer walking that way but along a different street to another destination quite clearly from my past. The sensations are intense, and real, but sadly too quickly over - I think it's the realisation of dual reality that the process can't cope with. That's the theory I'm working on. Again these aren't memories: I have no recollection of events just sensations of a very familiar environment. Any way, think on; perception, time and place, it's all relative, see. What's not possible?