Another dream, another toad…

I just awoke from this dream as Evangeline opened the front door, so some of it has been shocked into the subconscious!

The dream started somewhere I can’t remember, but the first bit I can remember is when I was getting into a single bed (rather like my cousin Beth’s bed when we were kids and I stayed with her parents). As I pulled the blankets up to settle down, there was a little twig-like thing on the edge, so I pulled it out and chucked it on the floor. Then some bloke came in to say goodnight (not my Uncle Alan, but a stranger) and was telling me about a slight “pest” problem they’d been having- a few mice and rats in the roof. Then he spotted the “twig” I’d tossed out and pounced on it, saying “Oh no- we must have a bird problem as well… that’s a little, shriveled bird foot!” I wasn’t too alarmed as IRL our cats are always abandoning little birds’ feet about the yard.
So off I went to sleep, unconcerned. The next morning I was in the city with some other people working for some government office. We had to get some lunch and travel to some other site for a meeting, so one of them went off to get some take-away stuff for us to eat on the train. I ordered a hamburger and chips and a soft drink and this guy went off to get everyone’s order. When he came back he had got various hamburgers, chicken, sandwiches and chips, but handed me a barbecue chicken in a bag. I was a bit miffed, but took my bag onto the train and tried to settle down. However, a heap of people got on and crowded us out of our spot near a window- there were several small children, a few older ones and a few extra adults- the little kids just stomped on most of the food- a Macca’s burger went all splatto across the seat, which put me right off!
A while later I got settled elsewhere in the train and opened my chicken bag- BUT-inside covering the whole upper side of the nicely browned chicken was a huge floppy toad, looking quite slimy and stunned! Eeeergghhh!!! I slapped the bag shut as it moved a bit!
I went back to my friends sitting with the kids to show them, but when I got there, one of the toddlers had just got another, smaller, darker toad jump onto his front and everyone was trying to get it off him, while he shrieked! A man who seemed to be the same one as had been saying good night before, said he was the child’s father and that he had been receiving some of these animals in mailed packages for some weeks.
The scene moved then to a stairwell- maybe in a station and I was walking up- as I rounded a corner, a pale green thing wound around a steel brace- it looked rather like a snake! (How Freudian!!!). As it looked rather sluggish as well, I grabbed it behind the head and held on tight, taking it out into a corridor. This turned out to be the corridor of a laboratory building or university. I ran with the “snake” (it seemed to have some rudimentary dinosaur-looking pale green legs at times) into a lab with benches and yelled- “Someone get me a container for this thing!”. Everyone started to scatter and run away- I let go of the now writhing and jerking thing and it hurtled across benches and floor towards the windows. I yelled at everyone to get to the other side of the room and out the door- some hardy types (blokes in lab coats mostly), immediately went to have a closer look at the thing. Somehow I knew it was not particularly harmful or venomous and wasn’t panicked, although I didn’t want it to bite me anyway. A guy came along from another department and said it was the Pale Green Jungle Python from Ethiopia (??!!).
Without much ado, I was back with my colleagues from the train, going to our meeting. We got off the train onto a bus and set off in the rain; (it had been sunny before and overcast). We got off the bus at what seemed like the long boring stretch of Ayliffe’s Road, before it descends past the Shepherd’s Hill Reserve. There seemed to be nothing there except a tall thin Asian man with a briefcase standing beside the road.
Meanwhile it got quite dark, and we’re walking along the road- which now seemed to be in a fairly level suburb with lots of peak hour traffic, rain and traffic lights. As we rounded a corner on foot I noticed that a heap of large gravel was piled up with lots scattered across the lefthand turn lane. Then I looked out into the intersection and noticed that a car seemed to have fallen into a big sinkhole in the road! It was full of people- 8 of them in fact, and had filled with water up to road level! I looked them over and got out my mobile phone to call an ambulance and police- meanwhile one of the passengers stood up (it was a large convertible with top down, in the rain!), and started pressing 000 on her mobile as well. Other passengers didn’t seem able to move or get out so I moved in front of the car to direct traffic/make it stop or whatever, while a colleague attended to the passengers. Suddenly all the street lights and traffic lights went off and it was a bit hairy standing out there in front of the oncoming traffic! However, the cars still had their headlights and I figured my hands would look white in the lights and people would see me waving them about and not hit me!
As we waited for the ambulance and police to turn up, suddenly someone I had seen earlier in the dream in a shocking pink suit, turned up. She had been sent out by some government minister to personally investigate claims that the transport department was letting things go to the dogs, and here she was right on top of a supporting incident! We seemed to know who she was, so we grabbed her and started making her write down our sad tale about the accident, the road condition and the disorganised trains and buses we had been travelling on. Then the front door opened and I was awakened- no more dream!
What the?? Figure this one out!!

Dreams of beach compounds…

There was a crumbling and rusty large gravestone in my dream and a long epitaph written there, which contained phrases like:
“He saw red enamel…
He spoke of beach compounds…
..
He dreamed of Antarctica’s health…”

There was a whole lot more that I desperately tried to remember in the dream so I would remember when I woke up! This is all I can recall at the moment, but hoping there is more…

The dream was long and involved the story of a doctor and his speech and language expert wife who had three sons, one of whom was quite autistic. The dream followed them from a time when the kids were quite young and playing on a beach, riding bikes and running around the house screaming and laughing, to when the sons and wife were dead and the old doctor was old, grey-bearded and rather tottery. Somehow I was in the dream at various stages of this family’s life. I remember going for a long walk with the father and the two non-disabled sons. We were chatting about all sorts of things, including listening to the sounds our joints made quietly as we walked! The autistic son was mainly educated at home and I can’t recall the details of how he was managed on the days when both his parents worked. Anyway, he wore a helmet to prevent him doing too much damage to himself and ran about saying weird things, squealing and flapping. He could read a bit, made up odd stories that did not make much sense and found it impossible to ride a bike like his brothers, even though he tried for years. When he died- and I think the epitaph may have been for him- there was a reporter from a large newspaper at the family home to do a story on him. While they were discussing what should go in the story, the doctor brought out some old films and videos of things happening with the autistic boy.
The doctor and his wife also put the helmet on and imitated some of the antics the boy went through- they were hilarious! There were some crazy things on the films and videos that had the journalist cacking himself!
I could see the house as a whole in its setting at the end, with some small industrial city in the distance a few kms away. The house was a modern, multi-roofed house on a small hill overlooking the city. The grave with the epitaph was in a field next to the house covered in golden dry grass.
I remember speaking with the doctor on the occasion of his farewell dinner from the local community when he retired at 65 or so. I was talking to him about what it had been like for him to be a patient for the first time when he had suffered a small prostate cancer [this must be related to one of my former jobs where I did interview several older doctors who had recovered from it]. He was philosophical and explained he’d been a bit embarrassed, hadn’t approved of some of the things that had happened to him, but decided he had been treated OK overall and wasn’t complaining!
There was a bit about the sons not receiving some awards from their church youth group because a crotchetty old pastor had blown some incidents with the autistic boy out of all proportion, and blamed the other two boys. [weird!!!]
The house I can see as a rambling house with plenty of yard and not much garden- it appears to be in a sepia print! I could sketch it, or find a similar photo to illustrate how it looked.
The image of the old doctor left on his own at the end, shuffling around the house with no other occupants is warm and only slightly lonely. The doctor had a grey beard, trimmed but a little longer than when he was young, and his hair was thick and white and growing over his collar. His clothes were a bit crumpled- with a broadly checked shirt and a brown cardigan! Perhaps we have the beginnings of a movie script or at least a short story here!
It’s also probably relevant that I have known many families with autistic and Asperger’s syndrome kids and have spent a lot of time in their homes- but none of them match this particular family in the dream! And none of them lived where this dream is set- in a dry part of the US interior with rolling, grassy slopes and fields of corn and wheat stalks!
Well- maybe more to this if it comes back to me, maybe not…

The house was like this with multiple roofs, but modern large windows.

Nommish soup

We had one of our home made soups tonight and a few Plurkers and FBers wanted the basic recipe. Here it is:

Sweet potato, peanut and coconut soup

Feeds 2 to 4

1 x large orange-fleshed sweet potato
1 or more carrots as well if you like.
6 or more garlic cloves
onion or leek if you like it (half an onion/the white part of a leek)
250ml chicken stock (beef will do, or make your own stock)
1/2 cup red lentils
200mls tin coconut milk/cream
Several tablespoons of peanut butter (I use Crunchy)
extra water so the solid vegies cook.
1x tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon chili powder or a small red chili.

How-to
Start stock, cumin, water and lentils boiling on the stove or in the microwave. Peel and chop sweet potato and garlic/leek/onion/carrot. Add all those. On stove simmering- till vegies are soft- about 20 mins. Add coconut milk/cream, pepper, chili and reheat to simmer. Blend it smooth or mash the solids, adding the peanut butter as you blend/stir. Reheat to serving temperature if you need to. Balance the spices however you like. This can serve 2 to 4, depending on how thick you like it and how many people turn up! Can be served with peanut butter on toast, corn bread or crusty rolls. Some people like a lime wedge to squeeze into it, too.
I’ll find a photo to show what it looks like, but basically it’s smooth and orange!

Rantz

Rantz

Originally uploaded by Murfomurf

As Rantz was in town for Plurkfest Oz 09, we had a few fotiez walks around the place, but unfortunately, not much of a natter. Another day, another time- maybe via Skype!

Total wow!

Originally uploaded by Spotrick

Spotrick took this AMAZING photo when we went to Mount Lofty! I’m sure this is a winner!

Finished the psychedelic fingerless mitts!!

Although I did some work on my uni assignments, the highlight of the day was finishing the fingerless mitts. My internet friend Yvonne in Dortmund, Germany got me to test a simple new pattern she had written. I completed the knitting and crocheted the edges of the second mitt, then photographed the mitts with yarn and needle gauge samples for Yvonne’s website on Etsy.

Fingerless mitts knitted in psychedelic yarns!

I also got into the debate about the usefulness and enjoyment of Twitter, Plurk and Facebook. Spotrick wrote a proper blog about it and Charlie thinks she will blog too. I find Twitter a bit bland and disconnected, Plurk is nice for warm, friendly little exchanges and Facebook is a good all round site where I can keep in touch, share things and have a wider circle of acquaintances. Charlie likes Twitter for “corporate” communications, but I find that aspect leaves me cold. I’m not interested in finding out about companies, investments or “products” via a communications network consisting of little snippets- I’ll leave that to big companies interested in competition with each other.

Monday- new book for Spotrick

Spotrick bought his holiday reading- the third in the Millennium series by Stieg Larsson “The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest“. I’m hopefully borrowing a copy from a friend so I can start before he finishes!
Evangeline, A-J and I did a bit of window shopping in Rundle Mall- I don’t think I had been there for three months! They hadn’t been for a year, as they were living in Tasmania or travelling 10 000 kilometres up the east coast and down the Aussie interior! We had no money to spend, so we just oohed and ahed over the new season’s clothes- I stored a few ideas to copy or adapt old stuff! I seemed to be rather drawn to yellow things- a nice happy colour. I rather liked a polka-dot blouse from Alannah Hill, while Evangeline loved the decorated cardigans with embroidery, sparkles and bows!

Alannah Hill Join my Dots Cardi

There were some some lovely things from Lisa Ho, but I have never been able to afford that sort of thing even when I’m working full time! Esprit and Witchery had some more reasonably-priced things that weren’t too decorated- I like fairly plain stuff.
It would be good to get something nice for a job interview, but I can’t afford it and will cross that hurdle when I get to it. Last time I had a job interview, I wore a nice skirt but it was rather tight in the waist, although my blouse and jacket fitted fine. I have several pairs of suitable shoes for interviews as I don’t wear them every day, but Evangeline said she hasn’t got any decent ones any more. I certainly haven’t got a dark coloured suit that fits- haven’t bought one for twelve years!
I’m wishing the craft bug would bite me a bit harder now- perhaps I might be inspired to sew a few things for summer, since I’ve managed to knit something after a long “dead zone” with no motivation or energy.

Shopping and alpacas

As usual for a Saturday we did the weekly shopping- special ingredients this week were the makings for Turkish Wedding Soup (chicken meat to go with the carrots, capsicums, lentils and stock we already had in the pantry). I’ll put the recipe in when I get a photo of the finished noms.

Clean and quiet in their pens

A few hours of the afternoon were spent at the Alpaca Breeders’ Show at the Wayville Showgrounds- free and we parked in the street!
Loads of photos came out of this- the animals’ faces were so sweet and cute- such lonnng eyelashes (as I guess they ARE members of the camel group), such lovely fur colours and so soft.

Sweet alpaca face!

We wandered freely amongst the alpacas in their little pens- all very clean and not smelly. I was able to take as many photos as I liked in there. However, when we came out to look at the “products” made from alpaca hair/fur we came across a strange group of women selling clothing who were very thingy about photography. They asked me to wait and ask the head person for permission to put the photos on Flickr- they were quite happy for me to take the photos but not show them to anyone. I waited and waited- the head person wasn’t making any effort to allow me to speak to her, so I have the photos, I’m putting them on Flickr and I’m NOT putting a link to their website, as I would have done if they’d been nicer!

Finished items made from alpaca yarn

What the f**k do they think I am going to do with photos of a few jumpers and scarves? Weird!
Unfortunately (and I think, unwise commercially for them) there was no ready spun tarn for sale to satisfy the knitters and weavers amongst the visitors. I would have bought a little of the lovely soft yarn if they’d had any- but alas, no opportunity.
I have purchased yarn from the Rare Yarns Company using their online service in the past. I absolutely love the look and feel of their products! The natural colours are varied and appealing, while the dyed yarns have some gorgeous rich shades. For example:

Rare Yarns Cherry Astrakhan Yarn

Affogato then Regatta’s

That was Friday!
Had a tasty little affogato at Billy Baxter’s at Norwood, conferred with the fellow unemployed, bought some postcards, stared at gorgeous beads then joined friends celebrating the announcement of the 2010 theatre season. We had dinner with them at Regatta’s- a riverside restaurant near the Festival Theatre and Playhouse in the city. It was rather expensive but extremely tasty as a special treat. My feet nearly froze off until about 2am!
No fotiez were taken except a few with the old phonecam. How unusual!

What happened Monday? Ummm…

It was a public holiday and I needed reminding what we did??? Oh yes and Tuesday was a work day and I ummm…? Must have done something.

Wednesday I did a lot of cleaning and the vacuum cleaner was so clogged with dust I got drowned in it! We had dinner at Wah Hing and learnt some interesting news. Amelia came and stayed the night so she could go to band practice with David.

Thursday was uni day and I watched the rest of Michael Moore’s “Sicko” online. We had a good old debate in the tutorial about funding of the Australlian health system and the USA crept in quite a bit!

Today I printed out some dog-coat patterns for Amelia and her friend Reannen to knit, went to Norwood to have a coffee/lunch with friends, SPotrick started 2 weeks holiday and we are going with a group of friends to Regatta’s tonight for dinner (consequently blowing next week’s budget in advance).

I’ll add more later maybe. Where did that week go?