"Mummy, was that daddy that nearly got knocked down there" my oldest girl asked. My wife was oblivious. I found this out later.
Something really bizarre. I don't dream regularly but have been noting them down and the last was 15 days ago. The contents are not needed but in a strange order I had this dream, got up, wrote it down, the girls got up, told me they had nightmares and when my wife got up the first thing she told me was she had had this disturbing dream. No content connection but so strange, maybe, that we all had some dream/nightmare on the same night. Its a rare occurrence for dreams to be mentioned at all in out home.
My own dream was totally strange. Too strange to describe in full. In the first at one point I met my aunt and uncle who I had not seen for years. They looked ill and I see where this came from because the phone went yesterday and as I didn't recognise the number so I didn't answer it. On checking google the area code is where they live in the South East of England and I thought maybe something was wrong. So that crept into my dream but in a creepy way because I asked them in the dream if all was OK and they were very cagey before bursting into song in the street and this went into a pub and these pensioners started throwing people across tables with smiles on their faces while singing and slapping others about the chops after a high note. A bit 'Clockwork Orange'. Oh very bizarre.
I digress though. In the first dream I was at one point with my son and he ran away from me straight on to the road with cars flying this way and that. It was terror I felt but he was OK. In the second dream I had a different son and my inlaws were in it but not family any more and again this child of the same age ran onto the road between speeding cars but this time he was hit. And as I got to the car I found a child OK and my own son lying out cold with his leg bent in the wrong direction. Time for action you would think but I was all of a sudden consumed my panic and had the urge to run as I couldn't face waiting for an ambulance. It was a realisation of my state in real life and in the dream I had two weeks ago the same thing happened. I was about to run off and leave him when I woke. A shameful act even in a dream but a state of mind rather than reality.
So that aside I was out a few times today with my wife and the boy in the pram as usual- he is in it more so at the moment as the surfaces are still icy. In fact this morning the surfaces were unbelievable as the door got chapped and I went down to find a neighbour asking if I could phone her a taxi as she had planned on walking her kid to school but she had fallen twice just trying to get out the street. And as I looked around I saw kids of all ages on their way to school tentatively trying to keep their balance and a few ending up flat on their back. It was the most bizarre sight yet they all had smiles on their faces. All getting into the spirit of falling.
Late on my wife took the kids out for the girls' gymnastic class but this time let the boy walk. Not that a dream should matter but the I told her to keep a tight grip on him as the dream apart he has run away from me a few times. No problems. I went to meet them coming back and got to the traffic lights. Watching the lights I saw amber and looked at the wee man until he turned green. As I turned some idiot in a jeep-type vehicle cruised through the lights actually smirking to himself and looking in my direction like he was something special- where are the police when you need them. I won't repeat my words. I saw in the distance despite the darkness the heads of my family coming out the Sport Centre and making their way on the other side of the road. All other cars had some to a halt so I strolled across the road and was halfway across when I heard this almighty roar. It honestly was like something out of a movie. This transit van was flying. About a quarter of a kilometer away it went flying through the roundabout and instead of slowing was starting to speed up again. For a second I paused not sure what to do. Should I keep walking into the path of this speeding vehicle hoping it will stop or wait? In the latter I'd be stranded in the middle of the road as the lights don't stay on long.
Bugger it. I started walking again but this thing still had the foot down. Now last week a young girl was killed up north trying to cross the motorway and when they released her name my wife realised because of her name and the village she came from it was the daughter of a women she knew. And in discussions on this I told my wife that in the dark its harder to gauge distance and speed. This was on my mind when I started to step out into the path of this speeding van roaring my way. Without adding drama to it I got the scare of my life, ran the last few paces and jumped on to the kerb at the same time as I heard the screech of tyres as the van slid halfway on to the crossing. My legs were like jelly. I looked up but because of the street lamp couldn't see through the window. I saw though a car on the other side containing a women shaking her head and shouting something in the van's direction. Then as quickly as it had began the van was wheelspinning and then fired itself off down the road.
No harm done but I was a bit jittery for the rest of the night. It took a while to calm down. I couldn't believe my wife missed it but then she was contending with 3 kids at the time crossing another road. Its not the first incident at that set of traffic lights and its not the first incident at crossings in general around here. It is seriously starting to annoy me now. Why are people in such a hurry and willing to take such risks with other people to get to their destination quicker? I do honestly think its only a matter of time before someone gets caught out. That set of lights was installed because there is an old folk's home there and it is there only way across to get to the supermarket. What chance would some of them have had of getting out of the way? It really does eat away at me. People just seem to be willing to take risks to get somewhere quicker and will worry about consequences later if it happens. I should start using the movie mode on my camera more and start catching some of these idiots.
