Scintillaphobes Unite

Accidere ex una scintilla incendia passim

The sky here at the moment is exactly like that at the start of The Snowman, which has already been watched in our house this season. Christmas doesn't really start until we have broken out The Muppet Christmas Carol. Light the Lamp not the rat!

I'm not sure that this story of a machine to map dreams is anything like it suggests. It would of course be nice to have a machine which would document dreams in a manner more efficient than the scribbled notebooks I have and it is a long time since I was consistent in my notes; I would say that I only record about 1 in 20 dreams. This is disappointing as I have many memories of interesting things. What I can do is list the various recurring themes.

- Regression of time back to when I was doing the exams for my degree.

This is always uncomfortable but actually makes me feel happier on waking when it turns out to be just a dream. Possibly links every worry with the stress of exams. Actually I don't think I worry about this when I am dreaming, just for the few seconds when I wake up and before I realise that it is just a dream. I do recall one specific dream set in some dome-like lecture science lab, all wood panelling and models of complicated molecules. Didn't have walls (see below) but I could still tell it was round and dome-like.

- Being in buildings without walls or ceilings I've not actually seen Dogville but I know that it is performed on a minimalist set with just door frames. I did get the impression that there was actually some special effect in my dreams suggesting the walls, which chimes with my dreams. I rarely get an impression of being enclosed in buildings when I am dreaming, though I do sometimes have to squeeze through small gaps which I always take as a worry about putting on weight.

- Giles annuals. As you might know, I have a copy of every Giles Annual (though of course some of them are just facsimiles). It was a major milestone to get the last one to have one for each of 50 years. My dreams about them involve finding out that there are other, special annuals out there which I have to acquire to maintain my collection. These specials are very poor when compared to the true 50 - they have random collections of characters and no punchlines. I imagine that this is something to do with completing things. It may be about letting simple things go in life or it may be about my habit of dumping books in the middle of reading them.

- Being let loose in some sort of shop where I am looking for a decent model kit to build. I never actually buy anything which may be related to the above feeling on non-completion.

- Trying to find a library in some weirdly-shaped shopping area. Never actually read anything.

- A general, dream-like version of Malvern Link where I grew up. All of the shops in the various other themes are often to be found here but they change location and design with each dream. This has another link to the Giles Annuals in that the Giles Family (Grandma etc) live in a different house for each cartoon they feature in. They would change class and wealth as well.

I am sure there are many more hangups in there (or should I say here) but I cannot tease out any themes at the moment.