All Tied Up #dreamdiary 216

I’m in the neighbourhood dumping ground. It’s a large pit that backs onto people’s houses that used to be an embankment containing an old railway tunnel. It’s full to the brim with kitchen sinks and shopping trollies, and on this occasion, large boxes wrapped in red tissue paper. They’re about the size of what you’d store a Christmas Tree in, and they’ve even got labels on. I rip one open and stuff a hand inside. I pull out something green and viny. I suddenly realise that it's a trap. Someone has filled the boxes with Japanese knotweed. Within seconds, I feel my wrists tightening. I look down and green veins have started sprouting all around my wrists and a purple pansy appears like a 3-d tattoo. My whole arm is paralysed. I need medical help. The fastest way for me to get help is to pass through a block housing estate to get to a doctor’s surgery. At a footbridge, I’m approached by two youths. One of them stabs me in the left side of my chest with a small blade.

What if you couldn't walk any more?

Life would be very difficult to adjust to if you suddenly couldn’t do something that you’re used to doing every day any more. Unless, of course, you could fly everywhere instead. Running everywhere would leave you out of breath constantly and you’d look a bit weird crawling around or slithering to the shops every day. It would mean that you’d be immobile and you’d have to rely on others for assistance. You might be able to negotiate a different way of getting around via a chair or crutches; but you still wouldn’t have your freedom or independence that other people have. You’ll have to put your trust in people more. You’d have to entertain yourself or have someone assist you; either a family member, a paid assistant or state-funded carer. You’d have to make special arrangements and allow extra time for transportation, making sure that that there’s adequate facilities in both the vehicle and destination. You need to find people who care.

The Centre

It’s not afraid as it’s put itself in the middle. It’s not trying to hide somewhere where it hopes that you wouldn’t notice. It wants your attention. It could even be trying to create a diversion. There might be a nose and a pineapple wearing sunglasses. There could be a neck and shoulders. There could be a head shaped like a bear with sack eyes. Something is bleeding through. We assume its intention is mischievous, but there’s no way of knowing for sure. We might attack it as soon as we see a physical form, as it’s something that’s creating fear and we don’t want to give it any opportunity. We might not be interested in what it has to say. It might even be asking for help. But we’re determined to shoot first and ask questions later, whatever its appearance may be. And we could be at a loss for doing so.

Metres from death: The hero city defying Putin despite constant drone attacks

It’s not a city that fights back with a large force. It has to be a city that’s still occupied and the locals are looking after the army as well as their own to keep things going as normal as reasonably possible. There’ll hopefully be tales of teamwork and people working together to repair their infrastructure as quickly as possible. Mind you, it’s a bit laughable that Putin hasn’t managed to achieve his objective after all this time. It’s one of the very first cities that was attacked owing to its proximity to the border. Initially, they were abandoned by the state but still came together to defy the enemy. They were reporting where the drones and tanks were. Volunteers came forward to undertake rescue missions to preserve life. Their terrain and change of everyday life has completely, and it becomes difficult to maintain hope each day. The odds aren’t in their favour, and more effort needs to come from the outside world.

Blackout

Perhaps this is all that’s left to see. The media has stopped and all that’s left is this fuzz. Our screens will never display a coherent image again. No-one knows what’s happening. The papers have stopped coming to the shops because no-one can type them. Nothing can change because no-one can alter it. Transactions continue slowly but no-one knows how accurate they are. The cash will dry up soon and people will have to grow their own. It’s a virus that has made things very difficult as it’s a system that we’ve come to rely on too much. Vehicles can’t be refuelled as they require screens. All people can do is boil water and roast on an open flame. All people can do in their homes is read, write, drum, strum, roll or sleep. Although some of it can be recorded via a scribe, none of it can be transmitted.

Hidden Bonus #dreamdiary 215

We arrive saddled up on a t-rex and slide down its tail to the bottom of the structure. There’s a great big blue wall that we have to climb to reach the pool at the top. We know that at the top of this, there’s a big pool indented at the surface with waterslides and it’s surrounded by sunbeds. It’s like a pyramid, only steeper. It’s made of cobbled tiles. In the centre there’s a big green map of the world, but it also looks like slime. My only goal is to get my niece there. We give up trying to climb the structure. It doesn’t look very safe if we were to slip and fall. We’d certainly break a bone. Instead, we walk up the west side which is a slope ridden with grass. We wonder why we didn’t get our dinosaur to stop so that we could jump off at the top.

Through the Cracks

This should be a black screen. But clearly the camera’s captured something else. Something that’s trying to break through. Rather than create one giant hole to break through, there’s loads of smaller holes instead. At one point they’ll be interconnected. When it’s a small image, it’s one continuous spot, but if you look at it in further detail, it jumps out to be a much more colourful image. The red dots deem to be the most piercing. In some places, they’ve turned pink. I wonder if that’s some resistance that’s being put up against them. It could just be a cloud and there’s a bit of forest terrain beyond it. The top section could even be some sort of figurine dancing in sequence like something out of an old-fashioned animated camera. Or someone could deliberately be covering up an important message and I’ve made it worse by playing with the settings.