The Dream Series:Party in St Vincent

I dream often. Well I used to dream more often. When I read them back, some sound like a movie 🙂. Here is one from December 7, 2019.

In this morning’s dream during my second sleep, I went by boat with some other people (who I don’t know) to a dinner party in a stately home in St Vincent.

The hostess was an older lady and when I told her my name, she went for a small magazine which had an article I had written about the Maurice Bishop killing based on a forum I had attended. She had pages marked with stuff she wanted to ask me about.
I recall seeing food platters all over the house. There was roast beef for sure.

Hmmmm……wonder if that means I have a future as a writer?

The Dream Series: Weird Accident – (2008 Archive)

I was listening to a Lewis Howes You Tube video where he was interviewing someone about sleep and dreams came up. The expert said very few people dream. I am one of them, and apparently dreams are helpful to the brain. Here is one from 2008, which came up in my Facebook memories today.

I could do nothing as the steering wheel seemed to develop a mind of its own. We were careening down a winding road, with a precipice on the left side. As the road veered to the right, the steering wheel stayed to the left. Soon, the car inevitably jumped over the safety rail and plunged…..how deep we did not know.

I was the driver, and at first, when the car left the road I was terrified, but as the car began to seemingly float to safety below, a calm came over me. None of my passengers screamed. There was my father, aunt, sister and my niece plus me. It was the Volvo 840 – a very sturdy car. Maybe that is what made me feel relatively safe.

The car landed without much impact on a road several thousand feet below. I drove it to a halt, we got out, surveyed the damage and were relieved that no one or nothing was damaged. I made an attempt to start the car and lead it from its resting place through the dark night, to resume our planned journey. “Oh no”, my father said, and took the wheel. Soon, we were on our way merrily, as if nothing had happened.

A miracle?

“Begin with the end in mind”

I have deep thoughts in unusual places. Most often, it is while washing dishes. On Saturday March 16, 2019, it was as I was taking a shower. What was on my mind? Death. It was the same day of Tony Becca’s funeral and since he transitioned to the great unknown on February 28, and especially that day of his funeral I thought alot about the ‘D’ word. This article I read recently, also got my mind going.

Every opportunity I get, I remind people that, the fact that we will all knock on death’s door, dictates……compels us even…….to live the kind of life that we are not going to be disappointed with, when we go “knock, knock, knock,” or when the Grim Reaper comes for us.

As a Trainer, I have a platform and I try and capitalize on it by encouraging deep thought and introspection.

One time in a session with quarrelsome people, you know, people whose natural tendency was to find fault and just complain and quarrel about EVERYTHING.

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Gym episode 02/03: We’re going non-stop

The second half of the challenge will be more vigorous….if my body allows. I am going to give it a serious talking to! Doh let mi dung! We haffi go non-stop.

Wednesday morning started later than planned because Tuesday night had pain fuh so! And it wasn’t pain from Monday’s cardio class at work with Bambi. My upper body throbbed. Couldn’t find a comfortable position.

Last week when I had steelcut oats before the session, I felt very lethargic so this morning I decided to have 1 tin of sardines… yes….straight outta di tin with nutten on it :o. Had half a carambola and coffee with it.

The Trainer was waiting for me when I got there. Did my 10 minutes warm up on the elliptical, increasing the level every 30 seconds or 1 minute. It felt easier today.

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I met author Marlon James….. the man of my dreams

My dream stock just got richer. I dreamt about Marlon James last night. In case you have been under a rock, Marlon James is a Jamaican author who won the Man Booker prize. (Let Google be your friend.)

Turns out that he had been living in Grenada for many years, in an apartment building (a proper one….not like what Grenadians call apartment which is a flat in Jamaican language) near to a good friend of mind. So of course, budding writer that I am, I struck up a conversation with him. He was affable….easily met.

Marlon James (source: Global Voices)

Marlon James (source: Global Voices)

His locks were longer than they are in real life.  I told him I didn’t like them. He eventually gave me a key to his apartment and said he was going away. When I thought he had left, I went in to do stuff for him and saw a ton of locks in the kitchen garbage bin. I smiled. Someone valued my opinion.

I then went next door to my friend’s apartment and there he was, having just sat down for a cup of coffee. At the empty place setting, there was a cup for me too. Sweet!

 

We got to talking eventually about the writing that I do (not much :() and he said he would help me. Yay! There’s the pot of gold that I wished for when I saw the rainbow yesterday.

I confessed to him that I had looked at snippets of A Brief History of Seven Killings and that I would not be able to manage that, but that I intend to read the others one day. In real life, part of my #50To50 list includes reading more.

There needs to be some system where during dreams, it video tapes the fascinating events one’s subconscious is churning out. Of course, some of the footage would have to be deleted :). But in general, I have excitement when I close my eyes.

Part 2 of my dream had me ended up in a toasty warm cottage in Sweden about 1 hour from Stockholm. That’s another story.

#Dream last night was so real, it’s uncanny!

Haagen Daz, carrot cake, chocolate cake, groundnut cake…..they all must have contributed to the very vivid dream I had last night.

Vignettte 1

Happened to pass by outside of a media personality’s house. She was dressed up and so was her daughter (Right before I had gone to bed, I had strolled through my Instagram feed and saw a picture of her at NDTC). Although in real life, I don’t know her except on Social Media, we had a nice chat. Then I had somewhere to get to, so I left after a few minutes.

Vignette 2

Saw a girl who was a year above me at secondary school. In real life she is married. In the dream, she introduced me to her husband and a son. I don’t know if she has a son in real life. When she was introducing me, she said “this is my son….we have two helpers, one for him and one for us.” She said it again during the conversation, which took place at a dining table. I got the impression that the teen was messy (like….duh….weren’t we all?). I left her because I had somewhere to go. (“I have things to do!”)

Vignette 3

This was the scariest part, but in a way, I knew it was going to be ok in the end (just like how I think about things in life..so me doh worry.).  So I am driving and I see two roads. I take the one I think will get me there without traffic. I thought I had hit a gold mine when after passing some houses and no car, there was nice smooth Obama-like roads!  Then the road turned into dirt. What that????? It was descending, I was driving fast, and it appeared that there was nowhere on either side for me to run off to. i.e. either precipice or water on either side. Me doh remember.

When the road descended into a dark place like a cave, still on a dirt road, I had to stop and did. I got out and went to the edge and looked down. There was Dr Carolyn Gomes in a yellow hard hat with a lot of other peeps down below. Looked like they were excavating. Maybe they were in a gold mine??? 🙂 They were about to help me with ropes and such the like, when I woke up.

(Don’t ask. Story of my dreams. Very vivid. Very colourful.)

A Wild Ride Of A Dream!

I dream. A lot. And in colour. Sometimes it reflects real life situations which are current. Other times they are weird and wild, like this one from 2011. When I wake up, I don’t always remember that I dreamed until later in the day something happens and I say “oh yeah…..listen to what mi dream last night”

An article I read recently talked about being aware while you’re dreaming, or not. Last night I was very conscious that I was dreaming, and wishful that I wasn’t. Here’s what happened.

I was in a hotel. I was not a guest, but am not sure if I was an employee or just a Consultant on a short term gig. The dream started with me and the Hotel Manager walking across the poolside, with the air very expectant of exciting things to come later. The pool was quite large. While walking we saw a plane flying overhead, dangerously low. In my mind I thought “it’s almost like it wants to crash.” Well, a few seconds later, that is indeed what happened. Splash! Down in the pool it came, then turned belly up. There was no fire thank goodness.  Continue reading

Idyllic….picture perfect

If you could sail off in any of these boats, where would you ask it to take you?

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Ways To Create A Life You Don’t Need To Escape

A friend posted this article with 11 ways to create a life you don’t need to escape. I was thrilled to read that I have done many of the recommendations on the list.

#1 Moved to Grenada. Also studied and trained in England.

#2 I always live below my means, except when it comes to travel.

#3 I have tried meditation. Actually, Oprah & Deepak’s meditation series continues next Monday and I have signed up again.

#4 I don’t try and prove anything to anyone but myself.

#5 I can’t recall my childhood self looking into the future. I was living in the moment. Didn’t really focus on anything much back then, except playing the piano, then later, being in the theatre. The only thing I remember was that during a lunch time conversation in high school, the year 2000 came up and I calculated that I would be 36 then and remember thinking “gee, that’s old!”

#6 Though I don’t feel I have a life which I want to escape, when I infrequently do, it’s SCHEDULES I want to get away from. I HATE having to HAVE to do something at a particular time. Flexible schedules all the way!

#7 I have definitely struggled with recognizing that small changes do make a difference. Sometimes I think “go big or go home.” I used to think that way about exercise actually. Used to think that if I didn’t have 90 minutes, it didn’t make sense to go to the gym. That was until I discovered high intensity interval training where you could get a good workout in 8 minutes.

#8 I don’t do this I don’t think. I follow a hodge podge of people on Twitter, from all spheres with different interests. I am into learning everything about technology right now so those gurus interest me.

#9 Yes, I do stuff. Sometimes maybe it is not what I SHOULD be doing at that time, but hey…..gotta do what makes you happy.

#10 Joining Instagram recently and (again) following random people which include photographers, has made me start yearning for living somewhere else obscure (so not a major international city) in a big country. Those photos of fall especially, by a lake, are just drawing me in.slap back to reality Yamfoot….winter is coming next.

#11 OMG I have a story in my head everyday all day! Actually I started to write my book and then put it down, now I don’t know where the first few pages are.

Anyway, this was a good list. I think I passed.

 

Budgeting

There are different schools of thought on budgeting. Some argue that it is pointless to write down everything you spend and that you should strive to earn more money so you don’t have to give up lattes, if that makes you really happy.

Then there are others who feel it is absolutely necessary to know where you money is going. Here is an article which focusses on the latter. In this year of living frugally, I do have to take note of my expenses.

A few years ago, I used the budget template on the Financially Smart website. I was pleased to see that I didn’t have much debt, relative to the other side of the equation.