I woke early this morning. You can probably tell that from the fact I was able to post before going to work. I woke around 4.30 after having a bad dream. I can’t tell you what it was about but it featured being trapped in tunnels and saying more risks having unwelcome Freudian interpretations forced on me.
After a trip to the bathroom went back to sleep until 5.30 when I awoke convinced that the police were about to tow my camper van away because I’d obstructed someone’s driveway by parking it round the corner from the house. This was very vivid and it was a few seconds before I realised that I didn’t have a camper van and didn’t have a corner to park anything round.
The subconscious is a weird and wonderful thing. Mainly, in my case, weird. It’s not many years since I dreamed I was a spinning top on a fairground ride and woke up to find I was in mid-air, having spun myself out of bed. To be fair, I wasn’t in mid-air for long as gravity did its part rapidly and efficiently.
Julia said: “Have you broken anything?”
I assured her I was OK.
“I meant the bedside table. I knew you’d bounce.”
And they say romance is dead…
Then there was the time I woke up screaming because the giant rat was eating my leg, only to find the “jaws” were my own hands grasping my leg.
Anyway, I popped into wakefulness again at 7.01, which is my normal weekday time (I normally allow myself to lie in until 8.00 on Saturday as I don’t have to run Julia to work). It seemed pointless to go back to sleep so I got up, had the last of the Chinese takeaway for breakfast, blogged, made my sandwiches (yes, cheese again), went to the local shop, did some long-term financial planning (or bought a lottery ticket if you prefer the unvarnished version) and turned up at work just in time to get the last parking space. For some reason everyone thinks they can park in front of the shop on Saturday, even though they are nothing to do with us.
We had quite a crowd in at one time and succeeded in getting a customer to join the Numismatic Society. We had nine customers and three staff in at one time. In the old shop you were uncomfortably full if you had three customers and if you had four you had to synchronise your breathing.
By four I was glad to escape and go shopping with Julia. I say “go shopping” but we have developed a routine that features us having a toasted teacake and a mug of tea before she goes round the shop while I sit and read the paper. It suits me because I’m a lazy male chauvinist pig and it suits her because she hasn’t got someone trailing round behind her complaining about prices.
The rot started a few years ago when I found myself nodding and saying “Yes dear.” when I wasn’t actually listening. I’d always said I wouldn’t do that, but once it started, the rest seemed to follow naturally.
That, I think, is enough for now. To continue risks me getting a flea in my ear if either Julia or my sister read this. Like Bertie Wooster, I have a set of female relatives who can be fearsome when annoyed.

Nearly there!
The pictures show one of the answers to my question from yesterday – where does all the time go?
Love the photo’s 😂 (and the post of course) you often make me smile. I tried ‘that’s fantastic’ as opposed to ‘yes dear’ once. Apparently that’s ‘sarcasm’ 😉
Yes, it can be tricky. I will say no more as things said in print can be used against you for years. 🙂
😂😂😉
I find that waking after a one hour gap leaves me feeling dopey all morning. An interrupted sleep cycle I think
I was once told that 40-50 minutes was OK but if you go for an hour or more it makes it hard to get up. The body is a strange thing.
Wishing you better dreams, Quercus. I remember once dreaming I was dead. in the dream I panicked, not knowing what happened, and was going over possibilities when a voice behind me said, ‘I didn’t do it’. I spun around to see a white-haired woman, no one I knew. At that point, I considered the situation hopeless, and decided to go off an explore. I jumped into some kind of car, and before I knew it, I was at a restaurant and bar. No one could see me, though! I wandered around past the kitchen, watched the kitchen staff work. I went on down a corridor and saw a door with an EXIT sign over it. I knew I had to take the EXIT, which I did and promptly woke up. It took me a few minutes to get a grip on reality.
That sounds quite disorientating, and a little scary. What would have happened if you’d taken another door? It would make a great Halloween blog post.
It was the only door available at the end of the corridor. My only other way out was the way back in, who who knows what might have happened? I might still be haunting that restaurant. 🙂
Fortunately you are here, though if I were a writer of psychological thrillers or horror novels it would form the basis of a great plot. 🙂 Much more Gothic than a man who wakes up under the impressions he owns a camper van. 🙂
The mind can concoct some interesting things during sleep… 🙂
That is true. Sometimes I can recognise what caused it, other times I’m not so sure.