Relativity, time and everything else

Tonight I watched the first of the next Brian Cox series, Wonders of the Universe. It had me reaching for his book (urm, - the one I never finished*). I was flicking through and started thinking about relativity. They say as you go faster, time for you slows down with respect to the person you're speeding past or away from. I find the whole concept pretty hard to get my head around, its work in progress but I think I'm on the cusp of cracking that particular idea. Anyhow, this train of thought then led me to considering time and our perception of time. I appreciate the time it says on the clock is absolute and definite but how often do we hear the phrase time flies when you're having fun or have a sinking feeling when we realise how far away in time an future exciting event will take place. 

Brian insinuated this evening on Wonders that time was one directional. He did say the whole cosmos will come to a stand still at some future, many trillions of ages away but that it would die eventually. And with it time. Pretty radical thinking. I'd sort of thought the universe went on a constant cycle of recycling over and over, perhaps I'm half right but each time we recycle we get closer and closer to a stalemate where energy just gets used up. But isn't that contravening the law of conservation about energy never being created or destroyed just changing into different forms? Oh dear. Back to the beginning for me...

This is too much thinking for someone who should be in bed sleeping at this time, good night folks!

*I never finish a book, I flit, go away, come back and nit pick- its me not him- Brian's book is great.