We have arrived at last at the final week of teaching for this term. The way the timetable has worked out, my last lecture before the break will be on Wednesday afternoon. Later that evening we have our staff Christmas party. I did one lecture this morning, by the end of which I had completed the syllabus for my Mechanics & Special Relativity Module. I have two more sessions with that class, tomorrow and Wednesday, which I will devote to some worked examples and revision for the examination which is on January 14th.
I’m sure the students are tired too, but at least they have the advantage of youth which probably endows them with more energy than I can summon at this point!
Two events over the weekend added to the general sense of exhaustion and made me feel even older. One was that a very dear friend whom I first met, when he was 19 and I was 29, just had his 50th birthday. I remember very well celebrating his 20th. For some reason I felt more comfortable when our ages began with the same digit, if only for a few months. Now he’s 50 and I’m 59…
The other thing that happened was that last night I watched the first episode of a three-part documentary series The Irish Civil War. I thought it was excellent and will definitely watch the other two programmes. The Irish Civil War, which was raging 100 years ago, was as brutal as it was tragic and the episode made uncomfortable viewing, not least because even a century later many of the scars are still painful.
The thought suddenly struck me watching the programme that I was born in 1963, just 40 years or so after the end of the Civil War and 20 years closer in time to that event than to today. Time passes.
Anyway, enough of that. I don’t have time to mope about feeling old. I’ve got some examples to work out for tomorrow’s lecture, including a problem on time dilation…
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