Dream in Antigua: a decrepit house with rats

If I don't record the dreams or their "keywords" they float away completely leaving just a shadow, a reminder that they existed but giving no clues to their substance.

So here is the dream I had on my 5th night in Antigua.

Jag and I were detectives of some sort though we were not in uniform. We were in the office when we got a phone call tipping us off about a string of unsolved murders. There is a man who is an expert at concealing body parts, so we must follow this clue.

We drive in an old jeep to the house which is dark and crumbling. The second floor looks like it's about to fall off onto the street, thoroughly unsafe for habitation. There is a man standing out front shouting.

As we get closer I realise it's M but he is in his 60s with completely white hair and a deeply lined face. He is shouting at his neighbour - and you! you never help me with anything! I need to dig a hole and you just disappear!

We introduce ourselves and show our badges. He looks at us with hardened and murky eyes, as if all the soul has gone out of them. He asks us to excuse him for a moment while he gets changed as he is dressed inappropriately for talking to police.

Jag and I have a brief discussion as he heads into the house - we agree that I should follow him to see what he does. I creep into the house, trying to make little noise. It's not hard to hide as there are so many shadows everywhere. I see him looking under a bed (or is it a counter? everything is so crammed it's hard to tell) for something. He fetches a shoebox and puts it on the bed, then walks away.

Instead of following him I go to the shoebox and open the top. Inside it is a dead rat with a fetid smell. Shocked, I drop the lid and follow him up the stairs. He is rummaging through the cupboards, a small plastic bag of shiny crystalline white powder tied around his wrist. He hums and sings as he digs, seeming ridiculously jovial.

Ah-ha! He cries. I found it!
Hiding behind the door, I'm not sure if he knows I'm there, but he seems unperturbed and keeps talking to himself.

That stupid idiot, he wouldn't help me destroy the evidence, and now I have to do it myself.

With that he turns away from the cupboard and in his hand dangles a live rat, trying to struggle away.

I gasp and wake up.

Dream in Belize: psychosis at a party

This was a very strange dream. Maybe because of the time difference, usually when I wake up in Central America it is late night back home and I would have received some messages from various friends, so I got used to checking my phone when I wake up.

In the dream, I look at my phone exactly how I would have in real life. I see that I have several missed Whatsapp calls from P. At this point I can't really tell if this is a dream.

I call him back and after an interminably long time he picks up the phone.

It takes a few moments for me to realise that he is rambling and incoherent. He is saying various words which link together, but it is difficult to catch the meaning.

After a while I manage to piece the story together. He says he went to a party where some people were giving him pills. He didn't know what the pills were but he just took them anyway. Then he started to hallucinate and he was terrified by his own hallucinations. He didn't know how to leave the party and there were so many people there he began to feel afraid. Then he met a girl.

At this point the story becomes almost unintelligible as it is mixed with mutterings of apologies and a frenzy of paranoia - please don't leave me! I really didn't mean to kiss some random girl at a party where I was psychotic. He repeats his sorries again and again.

I feel perplexed, then I wake up.

Dreams in Mexico: a university reunion, spidermen feet and Jag's brown goats

Dream 1: A reunion

In this dream I have just finished night shift and have that unique feeling of grogginess mixed with mild nausea and disorientation. It is a rather woolly feeling, as if your soul has been replaced by an insensate cotton ball.

But I am on my way somewhere, and when I approach the giant hall I realise that it is our university reunion. I wonder in my dream - is it 10 years now?

Arriving at the gate, I am asked if I have my registration number by someone that I do not recognise.

Registration? I didn't know I had to register. I complain.

Never mind, you can have number 37. The other person says and gives me a badge.

I enter the hall and there are lots of people but no one I recognise. I feel even more tired than when I first arrive, and start contemplating leaving.

Then I see Neha, who I haven't thought about since we finished university - but her hair is cut extremely short. I say hi to her, but the sound is lost in the humdrum of all the conversation around u.

Then I see M and my heart skips a beat. He looks really different - lean and muscular as if he was some sort of fish. He doesn't see me and I keep walking away from him.

I get to the front of the room where a programme is displayed. The first lecture is how to re-attach a severed head. 

Someone comes up to me and asks if I would swap their number 45. Then Julie arrives with a huge platter of frozen strawberry and cucumber slices and announces it's a paleo party!

I take a slice of frozen strawberry. As I bite into it, I wake up.


Dream 2: Spidermen feet

In this dream I am driving along the Warringah freeway northbound. I'm not certain but I think I am in my own car. Looking towards the left, I see E driving a dark blue van and wonder why she is driving that sort of vehicle.

The car is able to read my mind and sends a text to her automatically. She replies asking me to pull over to a small street (which doesn't exist in real life). As we pull up I see a huge Kennard's storage.

What are you doing here? I ask her

I am delivering Que's baby clothes. She replies.

We get out of our cars and go to hug each other. She is wearing an extremely skimpy top which barely covers anything. As we put our arms around each other she suddenly says hey your pants are on backwards!

She starts trying to adjust my shorts (they are the dark green ones from Uniqlo) backwards but of course it doesn't work. As I start laughing at her attempts to do so, I look down and see spidermen feet. I jump and wake up.


Dream 3: Jag's goats
(Unfortunately most of this dream is lost)

It starts with me and Elsie discussing the size of the house she has just bought - she says its 45 square metres but I say that that is impossible.

The scene cuts to a beautiful farm. The hills are rolling and green, as if it has just rained. I pull up outside the farm gate and walk up the driveway. Far away Jag is waving at me. She is dressed simply in overalls and looks tanned and happy.

As I get closer I realise she is surrounded by goats. Lots of them, all brown goats. She is chasing them around trying to grab them by the front legs, with variable success.

Just hang on one moment! I have to find the right one to milk. She calls out to me. Then I wake up


 

Dream in LA: retirement soup in a supermarket

This dream starts in a non descript supermarket. B and I are shopping, and as we go around the aisles it becomes apparent that the supermarket is entirely vegan. We fill our baskets with mushrooms, fresh vegetables, rice vermicelli.. lots of goodies. B is really excited and almost skipping around the supermarket.

As we get to the counter we see a small display of lollies - we pick up a bag of luridly pink gummies and drop it into the basket. The checkout man scans all our items and asks us whether we want the luridly pink gummies in the same bag or separately.

Will you be eating in or taking out?

I look around me and realise that we are actually in a hotpot restaurant and the "supermarket" is the shopping part of the hotpot restaurant. We take our purchases to a table nearby where there is a gas stove built into the table.

Try as we may, we cannot start the stove. B suggests that we go back to ask the checkout man. When I get there he is busy on his phone and barely glances up. He says that we should be able to figure it out ourselves. I give up and tell him to bring the soup over.

He lifts a giant 5L (the reference came from how in the US milk comes in gallons) bottle over the counter - the stock for our soup. Though it's a huge bottle, it is surprisingly light in my hands. I unscrew the top and look at it - only a little grey fluid is lurking at the bottom and it looks extremely unappetising.

I read the bottle and it says in Chinese:
Essence of life!
For retirees! 
This product has multiple purposes to preserve life
including boosting your immune system
and preventing bone breakdown

I feel confused and wakeup