Bookshop Closing (night of 30/01/2019)

Bargain Books in Uxbridge. Now run by a woman called 'Helen' (who resembles Emma next door, and not the Helen who worked in Bargain Books back in 1989). Bargain Books is closing, which makes me somewhat sad. Helen is pleased to see me. Flicking through the books trying to find something genre-related.

Centuries Old (night of 19/01/2019)

Outside 136 London Road.
It is night.
My headphones have become caught up with my keys (?). Attempting to remove them. Difficult. I decide to film myself untangling the keys from the headphones. I am using some kind of laptop / pad to do so. The camera operates strangely - filming me when the camera is pointing away. It seems to sort itself out.
I cast sneaky glances at 136. All the rooms are dark. No tantalising glimpses of the in side of my old house tonight. 136 still has an odd presence about it though.
(looking at the image which I am filming. I think it is of me stood across the road)
Across the road there are a number of my friends sat round in a circle. I go to join them and this portion of the dream is now set in a room. I sweep my camera around, filming them as I say 'hello to all these superheroes and superheroines'. I am overjoyed to see my old dog Bruno amongst them - he is looking very old (the words 'centuries old' are heard - or at least associated with this section of the dream). I go to say hello to him - and though he does respond, his responses are that of an animal who has indeed lived for many centuries.
Is there also an old man with a long beard, somehow connected to Bruno?

Broken Glasses (night of 20/01/2019)

Waiting with my Mum for a train. To my horror, my other glasses break. Both my pairs of glasses have now broken and this means that I will have to face my fear of and and all medical procedures and actually go to the optician. I am glad that my lens did not drop into the path of the train.
I will have to fix my glasses as best as I can for now though. We look for a seat on the train - a drunk man lolls in one of the seats, sprawled about. Mum sits down in a seat for one - where am I to sit? I really want to fix my glasses.

Arrests Across The Street (night of 15/01/2019)

I am woken up by some kind of commotion in the night. Music, noise, lights. Flashing lights in my room coming through the curtains. I realise that the dreadful people across the road are being arrested. I peek through a gap in the curtains, and see a man crouched in the doorway. I pull back into the darkness of my room. I do not want to be spotted.
*
The Co-op in what appears to be London Road, Brighton. A happy dog is running about. One of the store staff, an older lady, I explains to me, that the dog is hers, and she is now allowed to bring it into work. 'I've never seen her so happy, now that she has her customers she says of the dog. The dog is certainly a happy one, running about, outside the store front, then back again. I crouch down,a nd the dog comes up to me. The dog, though small, is surprisingly strong, and pushes me onto my back. I look up. One of the store staff looks down at me. I am afraid I have got in the way of him putting out a delivery - though it is unclear whether I am or not.

This Really Is A Shit Day (night of 14/01/2019)

I return home. I am living in a large Vjctorian house in Brighton - a room of separate studio flats. I enter the hallway, and pass by a man on the stairs. One of the other residents. We do not say a word to each other. I go up the stairs to the first floor, then up to the second floor, then up - hold on. The stairs to the third floor end in a wall (brown wood panelling as all of the house). Of course! I live on the first floor! Silly me! Mystery solved... I head down the stairs - but no. That is certainly not my flat. Everywhere seems subtly changed. I think I may head into one of the flats (at the front of the house) - it is certainly not mine though - I look out of the window, and see that though it is the same street I am on the house seems ton have changed location a bit - shifted to the left or right, Perhaps I am in the wrong house? Then I think... as I passed one of the flats, didn't I see the landlord, Dr Raouf (who was my landlord in waking life from 2003 - 2007) doing something. I hope it wasn't in my flat. I did not give him permission. I do not want him to see my flat as it is very messy. It turns out not to be my flat anyway.
Despondent I head out. I am joined by two of our old dogs - docile, as all our old dogs are when they turn up in dreams. At least I have some company. Outside, I turn back and look at the house. Yes, it is definitely mine. A grey and sober day. I ring a friend and tell them what happened.
I am on a train with a number of other people - I think I am going up to Worcester. The train guard comes along and asks for our tickets. I wish I had checked I had mine before boarding the train. I look through my wallet - no, nothing there - then all my pockets. Nothing. To my growing horror I realise that I will have to buy another train ticket. This really is a shit day, I think to myself, what with the issues with the house changing, and now losing my train ticket. The ticket inspector seems sympathetic, and as I go to pay, says that he would need to take my card details for 'VAT purposes' anyway.
*
With a number of other people. Phillipa from Pure Fundraising is one of the people there - or at least someone who resembles her. In the dream though, we had gone to school together when in Scotland. She gets me to tell everyone what she had been like at school, when she was incontinent and had to wear a nappy. She seems quite happy with this tale being told.
*
Returning home, Brighton I think. Scaffolding around buildings. Someone says that a famous Hollywood film star is in town shooting a new film. (An image of someone falling from a piece of scaffolding? Blood pumping? Is it a horror film?). I idly wonder what if someone lived on one of the streets closed for filming. How would they get home? This bothers me. What if someone had a studio on one of the streets used for filming and they had an exhibition to get to (an imagine of someone coming out of a building carrying lots of painting into a busy street). Would the filming stop to allow them to set up the exhibition or not? What would be more important?

Astronauts (night of 13/01/2018)

A circle of people is stood outside, in some kind of garden area with a Mediterranean feel. They have been selected to go on a mission into space. They are not professional astronauts, though it is unclear whether or not they have taken part in a competition (television?) or something done as part of as career. The people look very ordinary. One of the people who has been selected is a woman in her mid-thirties. Wide smile. Brown hair. The group are being told of their being selected by another woman, who has already been into space. She looks very much like the woman who has been selected. What my role in this is is unclear. I have a large vessel for filling water - an earthy colour - it may be made out of clay. I go to fill this up from a tap in the garden. This will form part of their preparations somehow.

Brighton Ghosts (night of 12/01/2019)

In Brighton, in front of the train station.
I step out of a car? A bus? A black cat gets out too - it is a friend's cat. I certainly have some connection to it. I am suddenly concerned for the cat. Afraid it might get run over. It races up the street, toward the sea.
*
I am showing Sarah Chamberlain the stairway of the house where I live. The stairway is ornate and Victorian. I am very proud of it. I am showing her via some kind of camera / computer, controlling the viewpoint though some remote means. I see beyond the bannisters, my room in the distance of the landing. It is less impressive.
*
Sarah W is crying and upset. I am stood on an 'upper level' - perhaps some stairs? Sarah is outside. I am looking down on her. Sarah seems to be in some kind of garden. There is a washing line behind her. I am afraid that it is me who has upset her. She says that she feels she has no 'get-up and go' any more.

The Cat By The Riverside (night of 09/01/2019)

The shallow banks of a river. Muddy. A number of pipes jutting out of a stone wall discharging water. Trees. Branches, Tangle. I am passing by - some kind of vehicle, a car, a boat? I look at the muddy embankment by the pipes. It looks cold. I cannot imagine sleeping there.

I am on the bank itself now. A black cat is there. To my horror I stands on the cat's tail. The cat is unhappy, and tries to scratch me. I hide my hand inside the sleeve of my coat. I am worried the cat will no longer want to be friends with me. I try to make friends with the cat again.

 *
This may be connected to the above dream - perhaps set in the same location? - Vague images of a computer screens and muddy river banks. A cold room - brown panelling...
I am at work. My last call of the day comes through. A customer is angry because there has been some damage from one of our vacuum cleaners. I think I talk to both the husband andwife. Neither wants to give me their account details. Some of the text on the screen is highlighted in green squares. This means that something has gone wrong with the computer - I will not be able to use it. Is it  because I have reached the end of my shift. Didn't the same thing happen yesterday? The custoemers are angry. It transpires that the Air-Ram vacuum that has caused the damage is not theirs, but someone else's. They are the ones that have been damaged, but the vacuum is not actually theres. I am puzzled and do not know how to proceed with this. 

Charles Manson Is Disappointed In Me (night of 06/01/2019)

I am in Sainsburys. 1960s leader of murderous hippy-cult Charles Manson is sat cross-legged somewhere inside. He is disappointed in me. Disappointed and angry. I must escape from Sainsburys. Getting out of Sainsburys is difficult. A maze of shelves selling a variety of tinned goods and groceries. Larger than I recalled. I must make it up Rainbow Hill towards work. I will be safe there. Slipping between parked cars as I cross the road, about to start the gentle upwards slopes. Grey skies and thoughts of rain.