Blasted awake just after three in the morning with a nightmare.
Lay in bed trying to ignore the stupid-arsed dream.
Get up, have a pee, go downstairs, get a drink.
Get back into bed and lay there trying to get back to sleep.
Start thinking about shopping lists, housework to be done, random stuff.
Realise you're wide awake.
Give up.
Morning world, then.
Let's say you live in Country X. You've lived there all your life, your family is all there, you've not seen huge amounts of the world, not to mention your friends - however few they number - also live in that area. Let's say you have kids as well, and their friends, their school (and obviously their extended family) are also in that area.
You have a friend. We'll call this friend George. George lives in another country elsewhere on the planet, and you're good friends with him. You speak with him regularly, you've met in person when he come over to where you live, and you have no reason to consider George makes up things or gives hollow offers.
George lives - in his country - in a quiet, rural area, several miles from any large towns, but not so far that you need to slog cross-country. George also owns his own land, a fairly large piece of land. One day, in conversation, it comes up between George and Yourself that you'd like a change of pace, a fresh start.
And George offers you - for nothing - a large slab of his land. On top, he explains to you how you'd mortgage the land, raise money to build a house of your own, and things that would need to happen.
But to get all this, you'd have to emigrate. Visas, Citizenship, Tests, not to mention this country doesn't do the points-based immigrants, but does it another way - and especially, you'd need a job. George tells you he could probably help in the job department, but the rest is up to you. The job would need to be secured, then the Visas for you and your family, then the land, then the mortgage, the house... George even tells you you could live with him while the house is being built as he is often away on business.
Gee, I'd sure hate to be tangled up in that sort of decision making...
I'm a bit worried about my mental health. See, as is common knowledge, I am a geek. A big, fat, technobabble, fiddle-with-gadgets, doesn't-read-the-manual, Geek. I'm proud of it, don't care who knows it, relish in the fact that people break stuff, and come to me for help. Unless they bug me. But still. I've had dreams from Dungeons and Dragons games, I had dreams from computer games - ranging from Half Life to Doom to Warcraft, and I've even had pictures of female characters from computer games on my walls.
But last night was a new low, even for me. See, I had a nightmare, stemming from something innocent Jo did yesterday. She was fiddling around with one of these WeeMee things - an MSN image you make of yourself. Final step was "Download and Install" so she did - and it dumped a bucket of spyware on her computer. No biggie, got it off, removed the nasty, job done.
Last night, I had a dream that I came downstairs in the morning, both computers had crashed, and all our data was being eaten. It was one of these "woke in a cold sweat" dreams where I had to battle to save our computers. All because Jo had installed a weeny bit of spyware.
I wonder if I should unplug for a while................. pfft.
I'm not a sleeper, never have been a big sleeper, and more often than not, three or four hours of sleep will keep me going. However, after a couple of weeks of little sleep, everything starts to catch up. Today would appear to be the catchup day.
We had a late night last night, and then we laid in bed talking for well over an hour, and by the time I was comfortable, it was gone 3am. For some very obscure, peculiar reason, my minds eye kept flashing random - and I mean completely random images into my eyelids. It's hard to explain, but it sort of went from a fish in a top hat, to a close up of an ice cream cone, to a building, to a starfield, to something else random, to something else random, and so on. It didn't freak me out or anything, I imagine it's probably something to do with my increased Seretonin levels in my brain causing something to fire off randomly.
But it was very odd.
I bolted awake at 5.50am after a scary dream I don't remember, and laid in the dark quiet listening to my heart thump-thump-thump and my breathing to settle. I was scared, but I have no recollection of the dream whatsoever. Probably for the best.
Now I've staggered downstairs and am struggling to keep my eyes open, struggling to stop yawning, and thinking that as I've had three coffees already, there's no hope. When I get in from the school run, it's housework central, then around 1pm, we're going out for Jo's nans birthday meal, then it's school run, then dinner, then... Well, I am sure something else will crop up and prevent an early night.
Name: Dan English
