I saw About Time on one of the many flights (I had 17 hours to kill) during my spring break journey to Peru and Machu Picchu City. What a heartwarming, good for the soul message it portrays. Tim can travel back in time and change life events. He learns a secret to happiness from his dad, a fellow time-traveler. The quote must be read in a British accent with a half-smile:

Tim: And so he told me his secret formula for happiness. Part one of the two part plan was that I should just get on with ordinary life, living it day by day, like anyone else.

Tim: But then came part two of Dad’s plan. He told me to live every day again almost exactly the same. The first time with all the tensions and worries that stop us noticing how sweet the world can be, but the second time noticing. Okay, Dad. Let’s give it a go.

Tim lives the same no-good-very-bad day over again but has a much different perspective. The day transforms into a not-so-bad-actually-kinda-good day in the end. Tim articulates moral of the movie thusly:

Tim: And in the end I think I’ve learned the final lesson from my travels in time; and I’ve even gone one step further than my father did: The truth is I now don’t travel back at all, not even for the day, I just try to live every day as if I’ve deliberately come back to this one day, to enjoy it, as if it was the full final day of my extraordinary, ordinary life.

Single happy/sad teardrop, yes? I think the moral affected my experience and attitude during my trip especially when little trivial things happened to “Team Peru” (Robin, Melinda and Chris) such as…

• Missing a flight and spending the night in Bogata, Columbia
• Leaving a brand new camera in the taxi on day 3 (filled with 3 days of pictures)
• Seeing your iPhone dropped and cracked on a rock while posing for a picture
• Camping in the pouring-down rain
• Hitting rush hour traffic down the main marketplace in Cusco turning a 10 min drive into one hour
• Nearly missing our flight home and running through the San Salvador Airport “Home Alone Style”

We are adventure people and the mini stresses and tensions are all a part of the exciting ride. All’s well that ends well.