Can I have >24 hours per day

What are your favorite pastimes and how often do you have the so-called free time to do something that you like? I always think that everyone in the world, no matter the rich or the poor; the fortunate or the unfortunate or just a normal human being is given only 24 hours per day and neither one minute nor one second more. Some people can be very rich and have a lavish life style. But no matter how avaricious they are, they could not exchange their sumptuous mansions and wealth with the time that they want so badly. 

I always think about the most efficient way of using the limited time that I have for my own sake and for the others that are living with me. A priority list is definitely a must as there are simply too many things to do and too little time to do all the things that I want to do. But, if there is a priority list, it means there will be something of lower priority that I should spend less time on in order to spend more time on something that are with higher priority. And, how am I going to set my priority list? The priority can be changing all the time, based on what I am really looking and what I want to achieve. 

After so many years, I came to realize that the job that I spend at least 10 hours per day (including commuting time) must be something I really interested in as it occupies the big portion of my everyday life. Spending 10 hours every day to repeat something monotonous and not interesting at all is a torture and it makes me feel that I am wasting my life on something useless, even there is a good monthly salary that can be used as a compensation to the loss of my precious time. 

Also, I am not so sure, how much time I need to sleep every day, especially during weekdays, 8 hours a day seem to be a luxury. I read from some online articles that, an hour of power nap is equal to two hours of sleep at night. If this theory is correct, then actually I sleep 7.5 hours every day - 5 hours on my lovely bed, 0.5 hour in office before starting working, 0.5 hour during lunch time and 0.5 hour on bus after knocking off work. Many of my colleagues are practicing this kind of eccentric habit and very often I can see people sleeping or even hear some loud snores in office right after lunch or inside company bus. Perhaps, everyone feels that 24 hours are simply not sufficient and sleeping time is not of higher priority.

(457 words)

03 [Around the world in 80 days] by Jules Verne

The first time I heard about this book was many years ago when I was still studying, it was the title of Jacky Chan’s Movie. I didn’t watch that movie and that was why I didn’t know exactly what the story was about. A hospital had been named after the author of this book - Jules Vernes and I used to wait for my bus to Paris a few times in the bus stop which was located next to the hospital. I was wondering then why a hospital was named after this man and whether he was as famous as Charles de Gaulle in France. The puzzle was only solved when somebody told me that he was actually the author of the book which is really famous not only in Europe but also other parts of the world.

I am not really sure whether the protagonist – Phileas Fogg can travel around the world in 80 days when he used half of his wealth and made a wager with his friends in Reform Club. In those days, only steamers powered by coals were used to carry passengers and goods from a country to another with a few coal top-up points in between. There were no aero planes nor high-speed trains that could be used as transport means. For me, I would not bet on Phileas Fogg to complete the tour on time. It is too difficult to meet the really tight schedule as there are some much uncertainties that we cannot foresee in the journey. It is not the age with internet, where information is readily available online and we can find the answers of everything that we want to know.

Together with his valet - Passepartout, both of them started their journey from London and passed by India, Hong Kong, United States and finally reached London again. Phileas Fogg was a calm and eccentric man. He didn’t show his emotion even he was agitated or excited. It was very hard to predict what was in his mind and what he wanted to do next. Nevertheless, he was someone who was really good in doing time planning and problem solving. It was undeniable that they managed to use money to remove many obstacles that they faced. However, there were also many predictable things that were out of their control. They simply needed to find a solution without delaying the tour. In India, they saved Aouda from the local after finding out that the girl would be sacrificed in a religious ceremony by some fanatics. Also, the story is made more interesting with Fix, a police inspector that followed Phileas Fogg suspecting that he was the bank robber who was trying to run away from London with huge amount of money…..

This book actually reminds me how eager I was when I was a child to travel around the world and then the eagerness was disappeared and replaced by the compromises to the reality when I started living and working as a normal adult. I wish that I can travel around the world. It can be done in 100 years ago with very limited options of transportation and today it will be easier and cheaper! I should not have forgotten what I always wanted to do when I was a child.

(549 words)