Won't be around much.......

True enough gentlemen, there is all manner of inspiration to be found in dreams and that is certainly one of the good sides of dreaming. A good many of my dreams take place in a large and rambling city which has become reasonably familiar to me. Some parts of it are very old with classic Victorian and Art Deco buildings, some parts are falling down and ruinous, some parts are very modern with towering glass and steel buildings with all manner of architectural innovations some wonderfully inspired and some very much in the 'fail' category. The hospital is in the modern part of the city.

There's a part of the city too where there is a great deal of industrial buildings filled with incredible steampunk like machines and scrapyards to die for. Real world environmentalists would have a fit if they saw it, but most of the time it's a good place to be. I often build vehicles or machines of various kinds here or else restore to working order the most amazing old classic cars.

Most of the older part of the city seems to be built on a hilly landscape and it has narrow streets, interesting shops and wonderful arcades. An incredible Cathedral is in this part of the city too. On my dream score card I like this older part of the city second best of all.

The best place is the railway station and rail yards where diesels don't exist at all and all manner of wonderful black and oily and smokey steam engines can be found. The station itself is pretty darn impressive with a huge arching wrought iron and glass over roof and Victorian railway architecture of the most wonderful kind. Lots of smoke and soot of course which I don't mind at all. I travel by train quite a bit in my dreams and I seem to know the timetable and where to get off to change trains. It seems like I can get most places in the city by train, but the ruinous part of the city is where I have to be the most careful.

Just lately a Ferry Terminal has become a part of my city, but I'm not so sure about that as yet. Parts of it have the most wonderful, though down at heel, Victorian architecture and the rest seems to be hastily knocked up from wood and corrugated iron. The ferry boats that operate there seem to fall into the hastily knocked up category as well and while I have travelled on them once or twice it certainly wasn't the driest or most comfortable journey.

The dreams I like the least are what I call 'searching dreams' where I'm looking for something and despite a great deal of effort I don't find it. Exploration dreams are the best because I can go pretty much anywhere. In the old part of the city there's a street with the most amazing old picture theaters and I've watched a few movies there. Lots of stairs and they're a bit maze like inside, but they're good places to be as a rule.
The dreams where I'm either protecting someone or taking something important somewhere can be the most challenging and involve all manner of Intrepid skills that I've learned over the course of my life. These can be pretty darn thrilling and sometimes border on being nightmarish, but mostly I do Ok and win through.
The last category of dreams are 'job dreams' which often seem to be loosely based on actual work places where I have worked in the past, but often with a twist. These can be a real mixed bag that vary between having my every fault and failing picked over or else they're basically Ok and I do whatever my job is just fine.

As I mentioned I spilled a warmish cup of tea over myself and didn't wake up, but despite that I do get clues in my dreams that it's time to wake up and return to the physical world. Needing to look for a Ladies restroom is exactly what you'd think and usually wakes me up fairly quickly. Having any kind of soreness or pain or going to the hospital usually means that I've been lying still in one place for too long and I need to wake up and move around a little to ease my joints.
Otherwise I can be fairly difficult to wake up and usually involves a fairly patient and gently persistent approach by the person who is doing it. My daughter is very good at it which is just as well because if I'm woken up suddenly the sense of disorientation is just plain awful and persists for up to 20 minutes or so.

Well gentlemen it looks like that I'm having to admit that this illness of mine has advanced to the point where I'm going to have to give up all notion of being able to build any kind of vehicles or do anything creative in my workshop anymore. I went through this with having to give up being a motorcyclist. I hung onto 'Ginny', my big Suzuki 500 twin, for far too long in the hope that i was going to get well again, only it never happened.
Forgive me for not being here on the forum lately, only I find it very hard to hold any interest in motor bicycles or velocars at present. You are all a great group of guys and I've made some good friends here. Perhaps a little later on when I'm not feeling quite so down in the dumps I'll come back just to hang out and chat.