Weird Dreams

[pickles]

A very much pre lockdown dream , Jj !



I dreampt about these doggies that were in the street , one was a black Labrador , another a black, brown and white , non beagle . This morning two notices came up for two dogs in nearly the same description of my dream ! Also in my dream there were other people willing to take them in .

I think with our 3 , it’s enough for now .

[Mark.]

A very much pre lockdown dream , Jj !

True!

I like your dream a lot, Pickles. How strange that you've since seen notices for similar dogs! I hope the rest of the dream comes true and they find good homes

[Mark.]

So, yesterday I dreamt of being young again, and today I have woken up with a very teenager-like zit on my nose

Well, I guess that puts paid to any romance with Rosanna Arquette

[Topcat]

Sorry about the zit Mark, but thanks for the laugh

[Mark.]

No worries, TC

I'm just glad we have to wear masks in public at the moment

[Wilson]

I’m trying to be the good person inside me.
I succeed during the day.

But I often end up being the one that’s caused whatever in the dream.

Anyway back to sleep until 5;30.

Just want to positive I’ve created in my life to enter my dreams.

Sigh

[Wilson]

Terrible sleep

[Mark.]

Wilson

[DannyD]

I'm into weird dreams.

Shortly I'm due to start back at work. A few of us oldies feel slightly worried about whether we have the necessary energy any more. So. My dream:

I dreamt I had been pregnant and had an abortion. I went back to work and did a 4 hour shift. In the dream I could only remember the beginning and the end of the shift. I appeared to work the middle hours in a dream. I asked a work colleague if I had actually done any work, then confessed to her that I'd recently had this operation, which might have affected my memory. Within 24 hours, everyone else was refusing to work with me, so I got the sack.

No idea what this means (except don't ever share secrets - or gossip). I'm much too old to be getting either pregnant or medical procedures.

[Mark.]

That's strange, D, although it must have to do with the return to work after lockdown, surely? Maybe you feel as though you've led quite a private life during lockdown, and you are now subconsciously pondering about all the catching-up that will occur once colleagues are back together again?

I'm probably talking mince, though.

For the last two nights I've dreamt about shifts at the supermarket, but on both occasions the supermarket has been located in a large castle in the centre of a town I don't recognise.

The dreams have been pleasant, but I can't remember ever before having had two or more dreams about the same imaginary location.

That reminds me. A few years ago I began keeping a dream diary. It didn't last long but I was reading some of it the other day - it was bizarre to read of dreams I'd completely forgotten about, some of which I still have no recollection at all!

[DannyD]

I often write down dreams. And frequently, reading them back months later, I am back in the dream

[Mark.]

A couple of nights ago, I visited my uncle's nursery in south Cambs. It was a gloriously hot summer's day. His staff had changed since I was last there - I didn't recognise any of them and they clearly didn't know who I, the stranger in their midst, was. The grounds were larger than I remembered, the trees were taller, and the vegetation lush and magnificent to the point of seeming almost exotic. My uncle was busy elsewhere, but I was perfectly content to sit on a stool in the sunshine outside the old potting shed and wait for him.

Last night, a friend and I ran away (for reasons unknown, but which caused me no sense of guilt) to Cambridge. At first, we planned to sleep beneath a hedge on Grantchester meadows, but then I remembered Jimmy's Night Shelter, so we went there instead. I had the strangely happy sense that homelessness was preferable to whatever it was we had left behind.

My subconscious must be feeling particularly homesick, this week...

[Mark.]

Rereading my last dream is interesting. A few weeks ago, I did finally visit my uncle's nursery again, and took a wander around it one evening when he was out. The experience, physically and emotionally, wasn't entirely unlike the dream, curiously.

The plants of the nursery were (due to the weather) lush and very beautiful, and the trees of the neighbouring wood really did seem a lot taller than I remembered. There was a kind of mystical, magical edge to the atmosphere, that evening at the golden hour. You almost expected Robin Hood or perhaps a horde of elves to come barreling out of the undergrowth.

It was odd that the reality seemed to match the dream so closely, but I suspect the place always felt like that to me, and I suppose that's why it was so amazing to grow up there - and why it continues to haunt my dreams whenever I haven't visited for a while.

I'm not sure I'm explaining this terribly well!

Anyway, moving on, this morning I woke from a dream in which Siouxsie Sioux called in for tea and biscuits and I asked her about her songwriting. I also asked her about John McGeoch, my favourite of the Banshees' lead guitarists: an outrageously talented and apparently very lovely person (he also played in Magazine and Public Image Ltd.), but who battled a lot during his short lifetime with drink.

I've been thinking about him quite a lot recently as I hadn't realised that he grew up in the town I now live in. I don't know why exactly, but I've been finding it interesting that he walked the same streets and saw the same buildings I see on a daily basis. I hope it's not too pretentious to think that we've also walked some of the same metaphorical streets in terms of our addiction problems.

Anyway, teatime with Siouxsie was two-parts fab to one-part slightly terrifying, and a great dream overall. Oi'll give it foive, as Janice Nicholls used to say

[Rachel]

Interesting both re your earlier dream, and your celebrity one, Jjjj.

I went through a period of having a spate of celebrity ones in which I was known to and liked by the relevant people. (Two were Bowie and Freddie Mercury. I can't remember the other.) They were very pleasant more for being liked than for the 'celebrityness' of them

I dreamt yesterday (was exhausted after 8 nights of insomnia and had a late afternoon nap) that I was at my house in France. It was much bigger and looked different (it always is and does in my dreams) and there were rooms in it that I was vague about because I never went in them... because the whole place was haunted and the rooms at the back were the worst affected. The ghosts were frightening (although I only encountered the results of their actions in the dream). In the dream some people had come to stay and I was preparing one of the rooms at the front for them to sleep in when I noticed that there was a large wet patch on the carpet. In spite of the fact that there was a gap in the ceiling I attributed this to one of the ghosts. I decided in an ironic fit of bravado to try to scare off the ghost by saying 'Boo' loudly, but I was so scared, no sound would come out, however hard I tried. I woke up with my heart beating very, very fast, and it took a while for me to realize that I had been dreaming rather than remembering.

[Mark.]

Rachel! I do love a scary dream - but only a good while after I've woken up

It is odd how familiar places often appear larger (and less familiar and/or stranger) in dreams, isn't it?

I wonder if this occurs when we haven't seen them for a while and possibly harbour fears that they may have changed during our absence?

I like your celebrity dreams too.

Last night I was sitting at my old desk (no longer there) in my old bedroom (now full of Dad's guitars and amps) at my parents' house. The window was wide open and I suddenly realised my grandparents (deceased) were standing below, calling up to me. I was really excited to see them and shouted down that I'd come and join them.

However, I then got caught up in some trivial jobs (tidying, I think) and forgot to leave. About an hour later, some Scottish cousins (very much alive) called up, and I suddenly felt guilty that I hadn't remembered to go and find Gran and Grandad.

I went outside to the area of grass my dad used to keep geese on (now built over with a house), and found that my family (a mixture of the living and the dead) were holding what seemed like a party (my sister and BIL did hold their wedding reception there, and my grandparents once had an anniversary bash on it too) - except that everyone was wearing black. I went and apologised to my gran and grandad, who were perfectly fine about my tardiness.

I don't particularly believe in the prescience of dreams, but when I woke up, this combination of living and deceased relatives attending what looked like a funeral perturbed me. Thankfully, though, I then remembered that yesterday my wife found the very first episode of To The Manor Born on catch-up, which starts with the funeral of Audrey's husband, about which Audrey is very happy. So that's why the event on the goose run felt like a party but looked like a wake.

But what made my grandparents visit the dream, nice though it was to see them? And why the Scottish cousins?

[Newt]

I dreamt I'd bought a couch and two chairs from a car boot sale, OH's fault of cause, suite dreams she said as I rolled over last night.



Crap innit

[silvergirl]

Last night I dreamt that myself and some work colleagues had arrived back at an airport and had to find our vehicles in the long stay multi-storey car park to go home. At first it was very dark, and we had to use the lights from our phones, but then the car park attendant noticed we were there and switched on the lights. I couldn’t quite remember where I had parked, so I kept on pressing the ‘bi-bip’ button on my keys in the hope that the car was nearby and would unlock, thus alerting us to its presence. No luck for what seemed like the whole circuit of the car park and then I looked down at my keys and realised it was a different logo than I was expecting and in actual fact I wasn’t looking for a car but for a van. So we walked around again bi-bipping the key fob and waiting for the lights. Then the car park attendant came over and said that the police had had to requisition a van a few days ago from a car park and that there was a number I could call. The person who answered the phone when I rang said that they had the van and could give it to me when I got home, it was in the far south of the country but that the police would bring it back up for me. They didn’t answer when I asked how on Earth they had managed to drive it away as I had the only key on my person. I was annoyed. Then, we were ushered to transport to take us home, and waiting for the same transport was an old friend who I have lost touch with and haven’t seen for several years. There was a small boy with her, who I think was a refugee, and who told me that <old friend> was his mummy. I said oh yes, to the small boy and we all boarded the transport which was a car but with rows of double seats so that it could seat perhaps ten people. A little but down the road I noticed with a shock that the drivers seat was empty, and became worried about how the car was being controlled until someone pointed out that the work colleague who I was supposed to be giving a lift to was controlling it from the second row of seats, which I think was okay. The old friend asked what I had been doing since last we met and I found myself reeling off a list of achievements and accomplishments, but it felt, hmm, false, I was aware that it was all so superficial and maybe I felt a bit judged and perhaps not up to scratch. Then I saw that nobody was controlling the car again and they all laughed and said that nobody needed to because of the terrain, and right enough, we were sliding down a narrow road at the very bottom of where two mountains meet and the road was icy so the car sledged down like a bobsleigh on a track. There was a car in front of us and when it reached the bottom of the track it gracefully flipped and landed in the snow on its roof. Someone slowed our car down and we all jumped out, everyone seemed to know who the people in the car in front were except me, but I was the closest and found see that there was a baby in a car seat in the front passenger side of the upturned vehicle. I slid in and felt under the furry parka hood and felt warm baby so I sort of gently slapped her cheek and called the baby’s name and she woke up so I unclipped the seatbelt and felt the baby over for injuries and passed her back to the group of people behind me. I then scrabbled over and grabbed the driver and pulled him out too, but he was cold and not breathing. I shouted for someone to dial 999 for an ambulance and started giving him mouth to mouth but there was no heart beat and he was actually an empty beer can. I kept on trying to pump for a heart beat but I knew it was futile because there wasn’t a heart beating under his thin metal shell and it was difficult to give him mouth to mouth in his gaping empty hole where there used to be a ring pull. But I persevered and then caught a glimpse of my sister and shouted out to her in a language that only we could understand so as not to frighten the others to ask how long the ambulance would be. She said that it would be two hours so we would have to do our best to keep him alive until then and I helplessly shrugged and said that it was going to be impossible because look, he was an empty beer can. She ran over to the drivers side of the upturned car and opened the door and started scooping out the snow and there was the real driver, still inside the car. I felt like an idiot and quite inadequate because I hadn’t noticed that I was rescuing a beer can and not the driver of the car. I don’t know if he made it or not because I woke up before the ambulance got there.

[Cowboy]

Wow. Just wow. Not even gonna try to interpret that one Sgirl. Hope all is well in your real world as well.

[Mark.]

Wowzers, SG! I'm with Cowboy on this!

I noticed with a shock that the drivers seat was empty, and became worried about how the car was being controlled until someone pointed out that the work colleague who I was supposed to be giving a lift to was controlling it from the second row of seats

Do you mean they had a steering wheel and pedals in the second row? Or that your colleague stretched their legs into the front and worked the car with their feet? The latter is how they made KITT look like it was driving itself on Knight Rider.

Not that that my question in any way contributes to a greater understanding of your dream, come to think of it.

I shouted for someone to dial 999 for an ambulance and started giving him mouth to mouth but there was no heart beat and he was actually an empty beer can. I kept on trying to pump for a heart beat but I knew it was futile because there wasn’t a heart beating under his thin metal shell and it was difficult to give him mouth to mouth in his gaping empty hole where there used to be a ring pull. But I persevered

Let's face it, we've all, at some point, been here with a beer can, haven't we? It's 2.45am, but the night's too young to end. There must be at least one small drop of life left in the can, if only we get our lips air-tight enough around the hole to suck it out. Or give it a good squeeze - a little old "CPR" might help. Come on, baby, show a little life, you can do it, don't give up on me now, just give me a sign, one little teardrop, that's all I'm asking for... We've all done it; it's why we ended up joining Bright Eye

Seriously, that's an amazing dream, SG! There does seem to be a lot of loss of control within it, though - or the fear of loss of control? I hope that's not reflected in real life and that, as Cowboy says, all is good with you It is really great to see you

[silvergirl]

Morning! No dreams last night that i can remember you’ll be pleased to hear.

Knight rider was one of my absolute favourite tv shows when I was little so that’s quite an exciting bit of trivia I didn’t know, thanks mark!

I seem to have some vehicular anxiety in particular, but maybe it is just the vehicle (ha!) for a more generalised feeling of loss of control. I am, in real life, trying to decide if I should accept a job which is further away and less money than I currently earn but vastly more scope for personal growth and opportunity and a better pension, or stay in my current position which is very close to where I live and where I am better paid but treated as disposable and unimportant by management. The dream i detailed is on the lesser side of the anxiety dreams I have been having lately.

I recognise that I am a people pleaser, and find it very difficult to say no to anything, so having two reasonable options for employment is exciting of course but also difficult because it means I have to accept I must refuse one of them. I offered to start working weekends at my current job if I leave because I can see that it would be a bad time for them to lose me, and feel loyal even if the working conditions aren’t right for me.

I also heard myself say confidently out loud last week “I think I probably could drink now because I’m so much happier than I was!” And that’s not really a road I want to go down, resurrecting the empty beer can, but at least I could see the futility of it in my subconscious?! So I think it doesn’t hurt to stop and reaffirm my commitment to sobriety, it’s something that, for me, I feel is cyclical, I shall begin reading here again and listen to a few sober podcasts etc.

Thanks for managing to read the screed of text haha, good to see you both still trucking.

sgx