QUANTUM WEIRDNESS

My phone buzzed angrily next to my head. I groaned as it illuminated the dusky darkness of a Monday morning. It was 5:04am.

My Mum had sent me a picture of their rooftop breakfast, overlooking the blue Pacific ocean. The sea looked perfect, just beyond the whitewashed walls of the hotel and the thin sliver of glistening sand. "27 degrees!" said the message, "...at breakfast!"

I'm glad they're having a nice time in sunny old New Zealand.

The next thing I read was an article about the heat death of the Universe.

"We may be able to escape the sun swallowing up the Earth in a ball of fire in 5 billion years' time..." said the article cheerily, "But there's no way to escape the end of the Universe itself!"

I munched my pancake thoughtfully. I'm not sure I totally agree. The next article was about how quantum weirdness pointed to the possibility of an alternate reality. I couldn't make it to the end of that one; I just wasn't clever enough and my eyes were still asleep.

It is interesting though, the thought that there might be a reality hidden in the spaces behind our perception of reality. 99% of every atom is empty space, so there's certainly room for some quantum weirdness.

The dustbin men were parked at the end of the drive. They were throwing wheelie bins around as though they were practicing for the Council Workers' Olympics. The amber light on top of the noisy lorry was flashing with silent approval. I had to wait there, tapping the wheel while John Humphrys asked an American about driverless cars and the European Union.

"So you're saying you think the United Kingdom would be a nicer place to live because the concept of people having their own vehicles would be a remnant of the past?" asked Humphrys.

"If there is a United Kingdom by then," joked the American.

"We'll save that for another day I think."

Indeed, John Humphrys, indeed.