Dream 66: Firemen and Picnics
Still having trouble holding onto my dreams (usually from interruptions!). These are two snippets from the other night.
P and I were training to become firemen. We'd both gone through the initial basic training and were in the station becoming familiar with the layout. Then P was taken off with the men for further in-depth training. The women were not allowed to do this training as we were not permitted to become full firemen. We were only allowed to work in the station itself and do admin and put out a fire if it was actually in the station - what were the chances of that! I was very annoyed. I tried to argue that I would make a better fireman than P. I was fitter, younger, more agile, not afraid of heights or climbing ladders and in fact had climbing experience. But they wouldn't listen. Every so often I would catch a glimpse of P doing some training. He seemed to be enjoying the bonding with the other men, but he wasn't much good at the tasks and was very uncoordinated. I continued quietly stewing.
Then I was taking part in a camping holiday. I was both an adult and a teenager at the same time. I set up my tent and had quite a lot of accoutrements; bits of equipment and little comforts learnt from many years of outdoor adventuring. There were leaders who kept bossing us about and telling us what to do and when to be at certain places. I was getting very sick of them and I didn't think they knew all that much about outdoor activities. Later I was escaping the teams by going for an illicit picnic. There was a man with me and we tried to find a suitable spot. He wanted to stop at the corner of a field - more like a dry vineyard, the ground was very dry and the grass was faded yellow and dying from lack of water. There was a dusty track which went off past the corner and up towards the homestead and a few trees where we could sit in the shade and hopefully be out of sight. Just as we stopped and put the basket down a woman came hurrying out of the homestead to tell us it was private property. But I knew the place and was going to argue that it was ok for us to be there.
Next I was back at the camp. We had to pack up and move out in a hurry. They hadn't warned us beforehand and most of the others were packed. I was trying to gather up all my bits and pieces. I needed to pack them carefully in a certain way otherwise they wouldn't fit. But I was being hassled by the leaders and people were trying to help me so I was missing things and I couldn't keep track of where things were going. I was flustered and annoyed and being hurried and I knew that some of my things would be lost.