Tim: I always knew we were a fairly odd family. First there was me. Too tall. Too skinny. Too orange. My mum was lovely, but not like other mums. There was something solid about her. Something rectangular, busy, and unsentimental. Her fashion icon was the Queen. Dad, well, he was more normal. He always seemed to have time on his hands. After giving up teaching university students on his 50th birthday, he was eternally available for a leisurely chat or to let me win at table tennis.
---
Tim: I caught the train to London in search of a future and a girlfriend. I was staying in St. John's Wood, near Abbey Road, with a playwright friend of my dad's called Harry. It's always nice to have family connections when you're a new kid in town.
---
Tim: No matter how many girls there were in the world, I always seemed to end up with Rory. Until, out of the blue, on a dodgy night out with dodgy Jay, something miraculous happened.
---
Harry: The reviews won't say, ‘Major masterpiece gets unveiled,’ they'll say, ‘Major actor gets Alzheimer's.’
Tim: It's a disaster.
Harry: Is an understatement. It was the Titanic of play openings, but with no survivors. No women, no children, not even Kate Winslet. All dead.
在《真愛每一天》(About Time)中,男主角提姆來自平凡卻又特別的家庭。像許多有愛爾蘭血統的英國男孩,提姆瘦瘦高高,有著一頭紅髮。他的個性古怪,可能遺傳自於父母,他形容母親lovely(討人喜歡的)和solid(可靠的),並且「Something rectangular, busy, and unsentimental.」在這句話中,rectangular是個有趣但特別的形容詞,一般英文中會用square(正方形)來形容人無趣、嚴謹、一板一眼,也許就如同正方形四邊等長,又方方正正,擁有中規中矩的特質。但小編遍查字典,卻找不到英文用rectangular(長方形)形容人的隱喻,不過根據上下文,我們可以得知提姆的母親不像一般的女性,是可信賴且堅強不情緒化的,因此借用長方形(rectangle)牢固可靠且常見的形狀,我們可以大概可以猜測提姆的意思是指母親堅強勤奮或做事認真、一板一眼的意思。
提姆的父親則比較「正常」,在50歲自大學教職退休後就一直以家庭為重,花許多時間陪家人,提姆說:「He always seemed to have time on his hands.」父親退休後似乎「手上有大把時間」,片語「have time on someone’s hands」直譯成中文嘛也通,帶有可支配的時間很多之意。
對於年輕的提姆而言,他只想使用這超能力交到女友。他離開家前往倫敦工作,尋覓未來,也順遍尋找對象。在倫敦時,提姆住在爸爸的劇作家朋友家,他說:「It's always nice to have family connections when you're a new kid in town.」在這句話中「a new kid in town」是指某人初到某處之意,雖然片語用的是kid(小孩),但卻可以形容年紀非小孩的人,不過年紀一般最多形容到年輕人,很少用在過了中年的人們。「a new kid in town」通常還有因人生地不熟而有點緊張、害怕之意,因此提姆認為有認識的人可投靠還不錯,誰知,提姆才剛見到哈利,即見識到哈利的壞脾氣。
提姆在倫敦一開始的生活總是一成不變,他來到法律事務所工作,上班與公司夥伴羅瑞一起努力,下班後則回到哈利家,即使擁有時光穿梭的能力,提姆在愛情運上卻總是落空,直到某日好友傑伊來訪,兩人到盲人餐廳吃飯,生活有了轉機。提姆用「out of the blue」和「dodgy」來形容那宿命的夜晚,「out of the blue」很常見,代表「出乎意料之外」之意,而「dodgy」用來形容事物也有「始料未及」之意,兩者皆有「意外」與「驚奇」的意涵。至於傑伊,提姆也用「dodgy」來形容,而當此字用來形容人時,則有「不可靠」之意。這些組合加起來,可以了解提姆對於當晚的心情只有「不可思議、太神奇了」可形容。
提姆在盲人餐廳認識了瑪莉,雖然整晚的飯局兩人皆見不到彼此臉孔(盲人餐廳故名思義就是在黑暗中用餐的意思),但藉由聊天卻發現彼此有許多相似之處,等飯局結束後「真正見面」時,兩人皆為對方傾心。但同樣那天夜晚,是哈利新劇的首演之夜,他的劇本跌宕起伏,高潮迭起,但卻在該劇最關鍵之時,演員嚴重忘詞,讓哈利怒火衝天。哈利形容當時情況的方式很有趣,他認為劇評將不會用「大師傑作(major masterpiece)」來形容該劇,他認為焦點全會被忘詞所轉移,劇評標題將出現:「Major actor gets Alzheimer's.(主角得了大師級的失憶症)。」
此外,哈利也將這次首演的慘況用鐵達尼號沈船悲劇來比擬(it was the Titanic of play openings),只不過,哈利認為這首演比鐵達尼號更慘,不但婦女與兒童都無一倖免,就連電影中後來活到老的凱特溫絲蕾也沒能存活。哈利不虧是劇作家,連失敗的首演都能善用例子來描述當時慘況。