I had a dream

I always pay careful attention to my dreams. I feel like it’s my sub-conscience talking to me through random imagery and actions. Most of the time the message is pretty clear. Other times, the dreams are incredibly vivid but have no apparent meaning. Over the years I have had a few dreams that I can remember very clearly – which is great – even if some of them turned out to be nightmares. Last night I had a long and vivid dream. I’m not sure if there’s a message hidden within it, but I felt like writing it down so that I could come back to it and see if it gets any clearer with retrospect.

Here are some of the main stages of the dream. Like I said, none of the scenes seemed to be linked but they flowed together like scenes from a film.

Act I:
I am walking through my front door when I spot a couple of guys sifting through my things as if they’re attempting to steal something. I can’t tell what. I confront the two men who try to shrug it off and act normal. Then one of them gets angry and kicks me in the stomach. I defend myself and knock him to the floor. the second one attacks me and I block a few of his blows. I punch back and finally take control by applying an arm lock I learnt at kung fu. The men are slightly worse for wear than me at the end of it and quickly scamper off. I feel like I recognise the two men and decide I should try to find them again to talk about what happened and make peace.

Act II:
Scene i: I’m walking down a busy boardwalk on the beach. The sun is shining, people are happy eating ice-cream or swimming in the sea. I arrive at a small esplanade where I am due to teach kung fu to some children. Whilst I wait for the esplanade to clear I walk up some steps to an area where there are several skateboard bowls lined up next to one another. They gradually getting deeper from right to left. A couple of girls from my kung fu class dressed in their baggy uniforms are riding around in the bowls. I notice that there are barriers around the top of each bowl and I tell one of the girls that the barriers didn’t used to be there. It prevents you from transferring from one bowl to another. The girl lends me her board and tells me I should have a go. I agree and head towards the first of the bowls. Upon closer inspection I see that it isn’t that easy to ride and needs to be carved in a specific direction. this makes me hesitate.
Scene ii: A group of teenage boys skates past and reminds me of the two men I had a fight with earlier. I still need to find them. Then I receive a message from one of them saying they’ll meet me later on. I received the message on an old pager.
Scene iii: I turn to walk back down the beach and spot the cliffs on the other side of the bay. On top of the cliffs is a giant pair of trainers. It strikes me as odd so I get out my camera to take a picture. I try to focus on the shoes through the viewfinder but they’re gone. I look again and this time it’s a bill board. I suddenly realize that the shoes and billboard are a new type of advertising scheme that projects holograms onto the landscape. It seems like a clever idea to me because technically there is nothing there so the ecological impact is minor.

Act III:
Scene i: I’m with my family and we’re walking towards town on a big boulevard heading downhill. The boulevard cuts under a building and we see that there’s a door underneath the archway.
Scene ii: An old man leads the way and we enter the building. It’s empty but in great condition. The general design is art-déco with lots of wood, paneling, curves and beige colours. A picture of an old woman who I presume to be the late owner of the house is hanging on the wall at the bottom of the stairs. I take the picture off the wall and find three birthday cards attached to the back. The first looks like it’s from her husband and the other two from her children.
Scene iii: I head upstairs and enter a bathroom with a large jacuzzi bath made of small blue square tiles. The shape is unique and the edges are all rounded. I’m not a huge fan of the tiling but the bathroom is impressive. My older sister goes to the loo and forgets to lock the door so I nearly walk in on her. She doesn’t look very well. I pass through a door and see a bedroom with some men’s clothes strewn on the bed. Seeing the grey and beige pin-striped trousers, it dawns on me that the old man who let us in must be the old lady’s husband. I look through a window and see him outside in the garden. There is a large swimming pool that matches the jacuzzi in the bathroom with curved edges and small square blue tiles. I’m looking for an exit to reach the garden when I wake up.

Here are some quick sketches I made to try to (badly) illustrate what I saw.