Friday 24 January 2014

Vipassana: food and dreams (part 2)

Day 5
Shepherd pie, greens with mushrooms, coleslaw. Quinoa biscuit (who knew quinoa could be used in biscuits!)

In this dream, I am at UNSW but it has turned into a giant Woolworths. I am strolling the aisles when there is an announcement being made that there is a closing special. I look up and there are fishnets of goodies suspended from the ceiling, and they are about to be released upon us.

The first special is - Brindabella cheese for $3.69! Random bits of stuff fall from the ceiling and I pick them up to examine them - but they are roast tofu, and tuna with beans. Then my dad comes towards me with a ginormous slab of violet crumble and he has taken a single bite out of the corner.

Too sweet! He says. Can I swap you for a savoury one?
You have diabetes! You can't eat that. I scream silently and wake up

Day 6
Leftover day, with vegetables + peanut sauce and the best dessert - sticky date pudding with proper caramel sauce, and home made kiwi mint gelato

In this dream I am standing in the dark facing a huge bridge, sort of like the Anzac bridge but not quite. I understand inherently that I need to visit two people - both Shirley and Elaine have moved into two buildings one on each side of the bridge. They look like super fancy mega apartment buildings, and I remember that Elaine was telling me about the apartment she lives in. She had said that they could see the Sharp building from their apartment, which is completely made of gold bricks and you could see every single one glimmering.

I start to walk across the bridge, thinking I'll visit whoever's on the other end of the bridge first and visit the one on this end when I come back. At the other end I briefly enter a pedestrian tunnel before coming out on the surface of the bridge again. There I see trails of fresh blood on the ground and I wonder what is happening. Then I see a flight of stairs and an old lady slowly climbing down the stairs. Blood is dripping down her leg.

Are you ok? I go up to her and ask.
She looks at me silently and I see her leg, grossly swollen and distorted. It looks like it's about to explode, and suddenly pus bursts forth from the surface.

The old lady's two sons come rushing to her and I say to them she has necrotising fasciitis and has to go to the hospital straight away! They nod solemnly and start helping her up the stairs.

Then Shelley comes out of nowhere and says, where are you! everyone has been waiting for you to come and make up the deficit in the bookstore. We need you to pay an extra $5 so that we can keep the bookstore open for another day. I am confused and wake up.

Day 7
Roast vegetable tofu stew. Orange yoghurt poppy seed cake. 
This dream is just a glimpse. I am standing in my Kingsford place and there are water tracks everywhere. Someone has managed to put foot tracks all over the walls and I wonder who managed to climb up to walk upside down on the ceiling. I can't close the door either and the wind is howling. Suddenly my dad appears in the doorway pushing a bicycle, and my grandma also appears but she is much younger with curled hair.


Day 8
Cheesy pasta bake. Sprout salad. Sago pudding with cardamom.
This was the most vivid fantastical dream I had the whole course.  

In this dream Grace and I are standing on Anzac Parade near the intersection of Middle St. It is bustling as usual and there seem to be a lot of cars around. She says that she has to go soon, but will go with me to pick up my takeaway dinner. We go into this restaurant I don't recognise and it is dark inside. All we can see is the single cash register, though people seemed to be seated and eating in the darkness.

That will be $23.20 please. The girl at the cash register says. I start giving her money but realise that all the denominations are Chinese money.

That's ok, you can pay with Chinese money. She says and takes the notes from my hand. Then she looks furtively around her, leans across the register and whispers. Please, can you help me? I am trapped here, they are keeping me as a slave.

Suddenly two men come out from the darkness and tell us to go, basically pushing us outside. Once outside I ask Grace what she should do, and she says she wants to go home. So we wait on the side of the road for a taxi, but the road seems to be now completely clogged with cars showing bright blue lights. There are no taxis and after what seems like a long time, she gives up and says that maybe we should just go have dinner.

We decide to go back to the restaurant where we were and this time I see the sign: Congolese cuisine. This is so exciting! She says, I've never tried Congolese food before!

We sit down in the darkness, and I start thinking about how we can help the girl. I lament not having discussed some sort of plan before we came into the restaurant, but now it's too late. As my eyes adjust to the darkness I see there are several tables of men eating silently around us.

Towards the back of the restaurant there are two chefs working in the open kitchen. Next to one of them is a stake, and two black calves are tied to the stake. They have a desperate look in their eyes like please don't eat me! I am about to be eaten!

I tell Grace that maybe we should go, because the restaurants kills such poor little baby animals. She tells me to relax, but then I notice that all around us, there are racks and racks of animal carcasses. The stench of old, foul blood hits me at once and then I realise, the blood is dripping onto us. Then I wake up.


Day 9
Fried rice noodles with tofu and vegetables. Watermelon salad with mint. 
I am driving along Woodville Rd with Cindy and Shelley in the car. They seem to have regressed in age and we are talking like we are teenagers, something like.
What do you want to eat?
What do YOU want to eat?
I want to eat whatever you want to eat.

As I drive along I realise we still have to pick someone else up, but I have no idea who and I have no idea where we are going. I try to get Cindy & Shelley to organise their thought towards where we are actually going to eat, but they start arguing about which flavour of lipsmackers is best and I can't interrupt them.

Then there is a sign. This is the last turnoff. And a very long right turn lane. I don't go into the lane but ask them again and again where we are going - then I realise the road is going to end and that is the end.

Day 10.
Lasagne. Peanut butter date balls.
Amazingly, I have no dreams on the last night.
 

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