Dream 22: Friends with Diseases and Walking with Parrots
I was looking after a friend who had a degenerative disease. She was sitting in a chair in the TV lounge of my (real life) childhood home. The disease made her limbs wither and become distorted so she was curled up in the chair in an awkward manner. She was sweating a lot and losing fluid from her bladder too and I was trying to get more fluids into her. At one point my Mother came in. She was trying to be helpful, but didn't know enough about the disease so her suggestions and actions we counter-productive and I was getting annoyed.
Later another friend turned up and she too was in the early stages of the same disease. She sat in the other main chair in the lounge room and I was looking at both of them wondering how I could care for them and thinking I might have to make the house an official care home to help them.
In the next part of the dream I was going for a walk. I didn't have my walking boots or appropriate clothing so I didn't want to do a walk involving too much scrambling about or mud. I was wearing my (real life) first pair of leather trousers, burgundy ones with normal shoes. We decided to go on a walk I'd done before because it had a path most of the way whilst still being through nice countryside. When I had done the walk before I'd started at a different point so the first part was unfamiliar to me. The pathway lead off through some open fields then turned into woodland. It was becoming a little muddy, but generally the path held up ok. We then went through another open area which looked like some water works, purifying or something (but not sewerage works). We had to go along a criss-cross of metal walkways and bridges before we got back to the country path again. I was becoming annoyed because we hadn't even got the the part of the walk I knew and that was going to be a few hours from there. I had been led to believe this first part was only short. We went through some more woodland and crossed a small lane into a series of meadows. Again the path wound backwards and forwards and seemed to turn back on itself, making me cross. In the meadow section a loud group of walkers started on the path. Because it was winding back and forth at one point I looked across and a rough-looking woman met my eye. She was ranting about us spoiling their walk by being ahead of them. I wanted to walk faster so they couldn't catch us up later and I didn't want the peace to be spoiled by their shouting and yahooing.
We came to a grassy hill, it was a very verdant green and the grass was long and flowing. One of the lads from the other group had run up behind us. He did a great whoop and launched himself down the slope. He slid all the way down on his back making a dent in the wet grass. I walked carefully and quickly down the slope worried the others would also catch up. My feet were getting wet and muddy, threatening to ruin my leather trousers. I was now annoyed that I started the walk at all since I wasn't in appropriate gear.
We came to another winding path amongst some trees that led into a valley. By the side of the path I saw a large colourful parrot. It was mostly yellow and reds but with some blues and greens as well. It hopped along the branches right next to me. I called to P for him to have a look as it was beautiful and unusual. As I did it jumped up right next to me and started pleading for me to take it further along the path to a spot where it couldn't be seen. It was afraid of the group coming behind us. P was trying to tell me what to do when the bird jumped up onto my shoulder and turned into a woman. She was exactly like the parrot, the same colouring and so on and was quite slim and small. She was balancing on my left shoulder and I was trying to hold her with my left arm bent up around her. She was pleading with me to take her along an unused section of path away from any prying eyes. She wasn't too heavy, but still awkward and bulky to carry in that way. I could feel I was using my back to much to counter-balance the load. I wasn't happy about ruining my back as I was sure I would if I had to go too far, also I felt again that I wasn't dressed right for this type of thing. I contemplated carrying her in a different way but there was some confusion because of her being both a parrot and a human at the same time.

Dream 21: Bikes, Old Baths and Drama School
This dream was quite a jumble, but I will attempt to put some waking life order into what was dream scape chaos. I was involved with some kind of work, although it had a feel of being at school as well. There were several times I was on a bicycle going either too or from the work/school place. The first couple of times were quite straight forward and involved the odd road from my childhood town as well as familiar roads from Sydney. Then the route was changed due to road works and things became more complicated.
At one point I was in a dilapidated building which housed some old swimming baths. They were being renovated, I think I had something to do with that. Also by this time I was looking for a venue to start a drama school. I was to be a student but also help with setting it up and running it. I was standing at the entrance to the baths and looking across to a cafe on the corner. It was busy and although it looked very basic and run down it was patronised by the trendy, hip, happening crowd.
Then I was on my bike again, I was taking AM (a real life comedian) home, his home, not mine. We had been working together. At first I thought I was giving him a lift on the back of my bicycle, but when we got to the roadworks and took a detour, he showed me another detour and I realised he had his own bike. We ended up at the rundown but trendy cafe, he was a regular there. I went in and tried to order something. A woman was trying to explain where the baths were. I thought they were across the road where I'd been before, but the orientation was wrong, she pointed towards another road. There was an enormous pile of rubble like a bombed out building, behind that was the old baths, I recognised the clock tower structure and the green plaster, but it also had bricks and parts of the building missing.
Next I was trying to attend a drama class there were a lot of people milling about but no one knew what was happening. LL (real life drama teacher) turned up and took a group away. We exchanged looks. Later again I had grabbed some black grapes and was in the street. P was relating a story as we went along. We came to a door and I knocked, just as P was getting to the climax of the story the door was opened by LL and I spilt some of the grapes. I was saying sorry to P and to LL at the same time. I went into the hallway and still saying sorry to LL's withering look I asked if I could use the 'phone. I looked back at P who was looking puzzled and still trying to finish his story. I apologised again. LL indicated the phone and scowled at me. When he answered the door his chest was bare, as I picked up the phone he turned around and I realised he was completely naked and had probably come out of the shower to answer the door. The 'phone call was important, to do with the drama school I think. P tentatively stepped in through the door too. Then LL's two children turned up and we were all squashed into the hallway. LL came back and it was even more crowded as I tried in vain to make the call.

Dream 20: Domestics
My recent dreams have been what I term the domestic kind. A lot about food, making it, finding it but not actually eating it! Also lots of arranging going on, sorting things out, cleaning and so forth... Last night I dreamt I was staying with some people and I kept going through their cupboards to find things to eat, a lot of cereal was involved but there was still nothing suitable. I'd also started a job in an office and there were new things to learn, although I was also teaching them what I could do. I had an old (real life) car with me. I had it back in the early 90's and it was literally held together with car putty. In the dream it needed some tyres and I had to find some software for an upgrade, but because the car was so old I had trouble getting hold of a program which was compatible. Rather mundane I'm afraid, can't have amazing adventures all the time I suppose....

Dream 19: A Dickensian Tale?
Snippet from a longer dream: there were several of us sitting in a large lounge room or common room. There were French doors at the end and it was light and sunny. We were listening to a story narrated by Linda Smith. It was very much like a Dickens story with lots of colourful characters and rich language, but it was set in modern times. Linda was doing the voices. As she spoke the character she was portraying appeared in the lounge room with us. They would speak with Linda's voice and then go quite or disappear during the narration. There was an old man sitting opposite me and another woman. He was in a special chair, there was something wrong with his spine which made him bent over, in the chair he was on his back with his knees bent up to his chest. At first he seemed to be one of the group who were listening to the story, but then the narration started to describe him. He was a very heavy smoker, but because of his condition he could no longer smoke via his mouth. He had to smoke by inserting the cigarette in his bum hole. We couldn't see it in gory detail thank goodness, but he had on green trousers with a cigarette poking out from a strategically placed hole in the crotch of the pants. The man seemed perfectly happy with the arrangement. I exchanged looks with the woman sitting on the couch with me. We both smiled ruefully at the scene.

Dream 18: A Tiger and An Iron
I woke around 5.45 this morning and had a think over the dream - bit weird even by my standards. I went back to sleep and did some more dreaming but it's the first one which has stayed with me.
I was in a house somewhere warm and sunny. There was a plague of tigers in the area and we had to take measures to keep them away. At some point I went out of the house, I told them to keep it locked but when I got back there was a tiger inside. The tiger was a pretty poor specimen. It was quite small and scrawny, more the size of a malnourished cheetah. It did have tiger-like stripes on its coat but it was generally darker and more dull than the usually magnificent creatures. I think it had to do with there being so many of them, they were poorly made so to speak.
I tried to lure the tiger out of the house as I was standing by the back door. I was holding an over sized clothes iron, about three times bigger than normal, very new and modern looking. The tiger came cautiously to the back door and peered around it. I had the iron out in front of me pointing it at the head of the tiger. He moved out of the house, I slammed the door shut and proceeded to attack the animal with the iron. I didn't see the actually killing of the poor thing in the dream but later all that was left was a long tangled stringy bit of skin, flesh and tiger fur. I threw it out into the back recesses of the garden and a domesticated pet (a non specific dog or cat like animal) chased after it.

Dream 17: Woody Allen and East Enders
I went to the theatre to see a Woody Allen show, it was a play and film mixed up together. The outside of the theatre had a facade built especially for the show it was a cartoon castle in the style of Monty Python's Holy Grail.
After I'd seen the show I was on the location set of East Enders. Initially it was only the cast and crew on what was a purpose built set, but later it became an ordinary street with the general public milling about it numerous quantities. The director either knew me or took a shine to me and wanted me to be in a scene where two of the young female leads were to have a big fight, screaming, hair-pulling the lot. They were rehearsing in part of the street. I was to be close by as a featured extra. But then Woody Allen turned up to watch the proceedings. I commented that I’d just seen his show. My part was then extended to me saying ‘Have you seen Dr Phu and Miss Mu? You really must.’ Thereby giving a plug to Mr A’s show. By now there were loads of people and the cast and crew were having trouble getting organised. I went to find make-up but was unsuccessful. Woody was sitting at a table, like a high table at school or a wedding, he was chatting with some VIP’s. I went back to the set but they were far from ready to shoot the scene.

Dream 16: The Affair
I had this dream a few days ago. I half jokingly accused P of having an affair. He went berserk (which he doesn't do in real life)! He was very angry and ranting on and on about how could I possibly accuse him of such a thing and how could I doubt his love for me. It went on for quite some time with me trying to say it was really only a joke. We were still arguing later in the dream while I was in the back of a car and he was outside doing something in the boot. I was crying and looking at him through the window. I said this is so stupid we're arguing about how much we love each other! He came around and into the back seat, he was crying too and saying how much he loved me and me him, then we hugged. Domestic bliss restored, ah.

Dream 15: Time Traveller
I was sitting in a shed with an older man (I was also a man). We had both seen the film 'Back to the Future' and knew this was the machine they had used but it had been re-vamped since the last time and the people who used it were long since gone. We knew the film, but also knew it had been used for real, but we weren't sure what it entailed. We discussed our plan and I predicted what the future spot would look like, I said something like 'Rain forest, concrete, forest, ice and...' not sure what my final category was.
We started the machine and I said I wasn't sure if the shed was going to have to go at 80mph (or whatever it was in the film) and then have to be fired by a huge surge of electricity from lightening. The shed didn't seem to be kitted out for this so we thought it wouldn't work. But the modifications proved good and we suddenly started to shake and travel rapidly through time. The first thing we saw through the window was rain forest! And I said 'I told you there'd be rain forest.' We sat there watching the window intently. The rain forest gave way to a plantation of banana style plants but they were deformed and wizened. This gave way to a more temperate forest, less moisture and exotic plants but this enormous tree trunk filled the window and there were these large brown tubular growths, they were soft like felt and hung down from the tree and grew very dense as if the tree had dreadlocks. The scene was extremely vivid, like a super fast time delay film when watched back. The browns and greens of the forest were so verdant and beautiful. There was an enormous hill of soft reddy-brown soil which seemed to constantly build it self and be sliding down its own side. I wasn't sure how we got to be at the bottom of such a seemingly huge valley, but we could only see the parts framed by the window so it was hard to tell the bigger picture.
I don't know how far we set the time machine into the future but it seemed to be several hundred or even thousand years. We stopped and next thing I knew I was standing in a forest clearing. Our shed was in amoungst some trees with it's side down flat on the ground. There was a larger old shed next to it, still in tact and I thought to myself 'oh there are still some buildings left.' I then looked around thinking we could be the only humans around, but before I could get my bearings I saw some tall medieval looking figures clad in white-ish thick weaved course robes and with long grey beards. There were some smaller figures with them as well. They were on a small ridge just above the clearing and as soon as they saw us they raised their arms aggressively, some may even have had weapons. The leader marched quickly along the ridge towards us. I shouted 'It's OK we come in peace...' I was going to say more and do submissive body language, but the leader had reached the edge of the ridge pathway at a point where it joined another sloped path down to the clearing. He interrupted me shouting 'I hope you brought the stone!'
I realised we were expected and my stomach sank as I thought what stone? But then I vaguely felt something in my left trouser pocket and a picture of a large gleaming green emerald came into mind. Just as the leader stepped onto the second path he disappeared as if the ground had swallowed him up. The other figures like him kept disappearing too. We were left looking a these little dark blue figures not much bigger than knee high. They were odd looking things as if they'd been melted down from something larger. They had elongated rounded heads as if pointed English Bobby's helmets had been pressed onto them then grown there over generations. They didn't wear clothes but their bodies seemed to be made up from shrunken plasticated material like a uniform of some kind with belts, badges and pockets which were flat now and just part of the design (I'm struggling to describe them as you can tell). Very odd little creatures some of which had blazing bright red eyes and others had glowing dark green bits. Some were carrying skateboards made from the local wood. A few jumped on them and came down towards us, we swatted a few away and I contemplated grabbing a skate board myself and using it to escape. But we were on a leaf covered forest floor and nearly at the bottom of the slope. The little Bobby's were shouting things at us about the stone. We wanted to know where the men in white had gone to.
Then a few normal sized people appeared. One was a pretty young teenage girl in a rustic red dress. Someone told her to sing her song. She sang something like 'When you are young in a time like now, two men will come to see. One will like you' (at this point she looked coquettishly around at me and I realised I did like her very much) ' and they will see that the stone belongs to you'. She was singing and making her way further into the forest as we followed. Up ahead there was a large water hole which looked wonderfully idyllic. I was entranced with the girl as she sang, and a rustic voice came from behind me 'ah you sang that beautifully my dear'. Just as I was starting to enjoy the fantastical forest and the story unfolding... inevitably I woke up.

Dream 14: Musical Fat Boy and New Driving Techniques
My dreams the last few days have been jumbled around, hard to grasp or had rude awakenings where you loose the lot in one swift inconvenient, untimely ring of the doorbell!
Today I was interrupted (doorbell-wise) twice, but I have managed to hang on to the following bits.
There was a hugely fat boy, in his teens. He was turned sideways facing his right so I could only see his left side and the outline of his enormous frame - think Richard Griffiths only even more so. He was emanating music. We were unable to control the music type or level and I couldn't work out what it had to do with the boy or how, but he did seem to be a human duke-box. He kept re-appearing in different parts of my dream and I kept trying to figure out why. He was playing music I didn't always recognise, mostly current stuff I suppose.
Then I was in a cross between an insurance company and auto service/repair centre. They were going on about car insurance and security to a group of us. They wanted us to get changed for a practical session which would show us a driving technique that was illegal in some countries. We got changed into bikinis and trunks for the blokes. I was wearing a (real life) bikini I had when I was a teenager. It was a mid blue colour and the pants had lost some of their elasticity so were a bit floppy, not about to fall off, but not far from it.
We were driven to these simulators to practice the new technique. You had to pull the brake lever and gear stick back together in a certain way which meant you didn't need to use your foot brakes. I said to P it wouldn't work for us because we drove a Volkswagen and he agreed. Since the technique was illegal in Germany the gear and brake lever were in different places rendering the technique impossible. P went off to a second simulator to have a go, he seemed quite keen, I couldn't see the point. I sat on a step at the edge of a simulator and watched some of the others have a go. The seat was on a rail, like a rowing machine and it slide back as you pulled on the two levers simultaneously while releasing a catch on the break lever at the same time. Some people took a while to get the hang of it. I was thinking maybe this was some advanced driving technique it would be handy to know, then I thought I'd never use it, I'd rather just use my brakes and surely the bit of wear saved on the brakes would be countered by the extra wear and tear on the hand brake and gear stick. Then I thought about car chases and wondered if the technique was part of a handbrake turn, but then I thought it was unlikely I would ever be in a car chase let alone in a car which happened to have the right gear and brake lever. P came back he'd had a go, but I had decided not to. We got into the cars again and they drove off, I was worried they were taking us home without us changing and collecting our things, but then they doubled back.
Later we were trying to tune the TV into a special channel showing exclusive programmes. The fat boy re-appeared a couple of times with his music. We watched the programmes for a while then I was in another house and they were picking up snippets of the exclusive channels as well, which they weren't supposed to. There was a security check going on and we wandered from house to house checking out our neighbours arrangements, it was all quite friendly. I was in someones kitchen just off the lounge room. A man came in through the front door into the lounge area and I went to talk to him. He said, 'I know this house is secure, but I just wandered straight in and I have the police outside.' Then the doorbell rang again....

Dream 13: Winning an Award
I was at an award ceremony like the Brits but it was something else, quite prestigious. I'd been nominated last year but hadn't won. I'd been nominated again this year along with others of course, for Best Actress. There was another woman in the running whom it was assumed would win. In fact she was acting like she'd already won and was swanning around being a luvvie and visiting the tables of other famous actors. I was at the back of the room watching her and others. I thought she would probably win but was secretly wishing she wouldn't because of her behaviour.
Then came time for the presentation and I won! It was great, the other actress was astounded and really put out, but the applause for me was long and warm. Everyone saying I deserved it seemed genuine. I was given an odd necklace-type affair. It was two long straight strips of some semi-precious metal which went across my chest with a clasp holding the strips together with an emblem of the award on it. When you released the clasp the metal unfolded to form a large square which went across my chest, down each side of my torso and then across my stomach. The square was made up of strips of the metal but also had links in between. I had to wear this everywhere I went as holder of the award. It was rather cumbersome and kept getting in the way.
There were some other bits to the dream but they're lost to me now.