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Dreams 28/Mar/2002

A peculiar scenario (similar to the ITV miniseries The Last Train of some years back): the Earth has been hit by a meteor, and, as far as I know, my parents and I are the only people alive.

I am in the south-west of England, probably Longleat Forest. I am running about like a mad thing, down forest dirt-tracks. As I run, trees alongside my path collapse. For one moment, I get the notion that I am in a film, and I wonder how on earth all the damage will be paid for.

I run until I reach a clearing in the forest. It seems to be a vast area of red sandstone, like Ayers' Rock, except it is only two metres tall. Here, I find my parents, to whom I say, "Hello."

The action transfers to a hospital ward/laboratory. The intention is that I be reborn with no knowledge of the tragedy that has befallen the Earth. To that end, I am reduced to a clear liquid in a beaker, to which will be added an anaesthetic. However, I am completely conscious, and am holding a discussion with my parents, who will perform this "surgery". Eventually, it is never carried out.

We come outside again, and I get the feeling that we're not alone in the world. I leap over a fence, and start to run up a long hill. Before long, it becomes apparent that I am running the wrong way up a golf course. Golf balls begin to fly by me, and I apologise to their respective golfers (exclusively old ladies) as I pass them. They smile at me sympathetically. As I run, I notice myself slowing, and am conscious that I am wearing a pair of ill-fitting, 1970's football boots. I see that my parents are catching up with me.

I ask them if this escapade has proved me correct. They agree. I suggest that our house and our previous lives might still be there. They doubt it. We hop into a car.

In the car, we speed uphill, leaping bunkers and tearing up greens. The course continues for a long time, and I suspect that it might be based on Williamwood Golf Course. We career off the course and onto the streets. Now, I must test my theory that I can navigate home from anywhere in the country.

I see a sign for Blantyre, and reason that we must now be in Lanarkshire. We zoom down the main street of a country town, somewhere like Lanark, and come to a T-junction. I decide at the last minute that we should go right, and we do so without stopping.

My decision is vindicated when we find ourselves on foot in a large house, which reminds me of my doctor's surgery. We navigate the twisting corridors until we find what looks like the interior of a hotel. [In the dream, our house is a double room in a hotel, unlike real life.]

We push at the door, which has come off its hinges, and it collapses. There is a body in one of the beds. We poke it with a long implement, and an Italian man jumps out from under the covers. We ask him what he is doing there, and he makes some half-baked excuse, before fleeing. We are glad to be back home.

That night, my parents, my brother (dressed in a smart suit) and I go out for a drive along Nether Auldhouse Road. My brother is going on at me to get a job, and I am trying to weasel out of it. We stop at an amusement arcade. [The location is probably that of the Brunswick Shoe Warehouse, the exterior that of a Brewers' Fayre restaurant, and the interior definitely that of The Ark, in Glasgow.]

My brother suggests that I get a job in there. I don't think I'll be able to, because I am not yet eighteen. He disagrees, and says I can get a job in the meat market that occupies the upper floor. I try not to listen, and go over to the Hangman machine.

The gambling experience is most odd. There are five choices of letters, when you pick one, other letters come up, and the points available are small, non-round numbers, like 14. I play on.


I am in a car, driving through Hillhead, one evening. As the car turns left into University Avenue from Byers Road, I notice a swarm of people whom I recognise from school. I wonder where they could all be going, but soon put it out of my mind.

Instead of finding ourselves in the University, we enter what seems like Merrylee scheme. We park the car and go for a walk. Soon, we are back in the academic quarter, and we walk up the stairs beside the Boyd Orr Building, to find a curious scene.

Instead of the expected vista of Lilybank Gardens, we are on a mythical street called "Grosvenor". It is a wide street, with no cars, and a definite feeling of being above the surrounding areas.

On the right, I notice a Greek-style building, with columns, but no roof or walls. A temporary sign indicates that this is the site of the 2002 Physics Graduation Ball. The celebrations are occurring on a bouncy castle. This anachronism baffles me.

On the left, I see a run-down-looking, American-style motel. I walk closer, to inspect it. It is completely derelict. It is a square building, with a courtyard in the middle, off which all of the rooms are entered. There are two floors, with a red-painted wooden staircase and boardwalk providing access to the upper rooms.

In one darkened corner of the courtyard (on the side closest to the road, but the far corner, as I walked along the road), I find an archaic Hangman machine from the 1970's, it seems. It still works, so I put some money into it. It is different in that there are always five choices of letter, and there are five rounded-rectangle push-buttons with which to select them. I play awhile, and am joined eventually by someone whom I neither see nor recognise.

 
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