journal of a writing man

← →

A strange dream

May 22, 2009 · 6 Comments

I had one of those unsettling dreams last night.  It took place a while after some cataclysmic sickness had more than decimated the population.  We were comfortable enough, having weathered the storm safe at home, and the working teams had long since cleared all the wreckage of abandoned cars and random corpses from the cities and towns.  I was called up to London to attend some kind of meeting, and chose to drive myself up in a very posh open top Audi sports model.  The city was deserted.  I parked the car in the street in South Kensington, pulling the top closed and securing the boot, which was filled with electronic equipment.  The meeting went well and I was taken off to an hotel for an overnight stay, and to attend a dinner.  When I got to the dinner a panic attack struck me, and I was frozen in fear.  ”I don’t have to go in there, do I?” … and then, comforted … I woke up.

Beastly, real dream, and it stuck with me all day, through a late morning solo trip to Swansea, over lunch, and to the very end of my afternoon nap, where it picked up somewhat and re-ran an out-of-sync repeat of the action.

My dreams recently have been exceedingly vivid, taking me back to an odd, surreal world of computers and techo-executives.

I could wish to dream of something else, of flowers, open seas and skies and the singing of birds.

Hey ho.

Categories: Uncategorized

6 responses so far ↓

  • Wayne // May 22, 2009 at 7:03 pm

    We are getting an overload of disease news and runaway technology. The miracle is that all our dreams are not filled with fear.

  • gary // May 22, 2009 at 7:14 pm

    Eeek!
    On the other hand, you have the makings of a blockbuster Hollywood screenplay…or bestseller….

  • Mary Lee McClure // May 22, 2009 at 7:17 pm

    Here’s thinking Wayne’s is a very accurate diagnosis, with all the wild reportiing, and I’m thinking greatly inflated, as well, on swine flu that we, at least on this side of the pond are being fed. I’m sure there’s some of it about, but I don’t know anyone who’s had it so I’m inclined to be careful but NOT in a panic.

  • kdip // May 22, 2009 at 8:02 pm

    Sounds like one of those great apocalyptic Brit books by John Christopher. I collected as many as I could get when our library weeded them over the years.

  • km // May 22, 2009 at 11:51 pm

    Must be the week for vivid, strange dreams… I woke up in a sweat the other night that someone had snuck up behind me and covered my mouth with a gloved hand! Stayed with me all day, it did.

  • Bex // May 23, 2009 at 2:20 am

    John, Have you seen the UK series called “Survivors?” Sounds a lot like your dream. Starring Julie Graham, Paterson Joseph, et al. I’ve got the DVD and have seen the whole series. Very scary, but after I watched it, the “swine flu” hit the world and I really wondered if it wasn’t life imitating art.

    I preferred the original BBC tv series on which this was based, Bex. My dream, for what it’s worth, was set in a very much post-apocalyptic world where all the wreckage had been cleared up and some sense of ‘normality’ restored; there was a sinister undertone of threat and fear, though, and it’s that I’d write about if I were so inclined.

    As to the ‘swine flu’, it seems to me to have been a classic case of media-hype and low-grade political band-standing, creating fear, uncertainty and doubt at a time when we all of us need clarity of mind to face the real problems of our world.

  • Like gas stations in rural Texas after 10 pm, comments are closed.