Visiting an English enclave in Amsterdam

J and I were in Amsterdam. I was wandering the city, alone, at night and came upon a kind of village near the water. A bunch of smart and interesting artist/squatter types were living in some industrial buildings. When I arrived, they were having a neighbourhood party. A bonfire raged in the middle of the street. The overall feeling was of Christiania, circa 1996.

Oddly, the people in the village spoke English. They told me they were part of an English enclave in Amsterdam.

I went back to where we were staying. The next morning, I wanted to show J the village but got lost on my way to find it. We ended up at an elementary school. I thought I would take a shortcut by going through the school.

Inside, I watched a really cool teacher work with a group of kids. They were doing incredible things. A man saw us watching and invited us to have lunch with him. It turned out that he was the principal of the school. The teacher we were watching was his wife. We knew we wanted to send our kids to this school.

J and I had a wonderful lunch with him in his office next to the gym where the kids were playing. Then we went on our way. It was the school for the village I had visited the night before. J and I knew this was where we belonged.

Cocktails in the trees -- so lovely

I'm not going to tell you anything about this magic treehouse... you'll just have to check it out for yourself.

Meeting with the Queen, my ex and an elephant

One of my exes got a job at Canada Steamship Lines. I found out because I was walking past their offices (which are near where I work) and saw him and some other people looking out the window. Then, later, a friend confirmed that he was working there.

Then I was in a meeting room at Canada Steamship Lines. It was a kind of salon -- very Victorian, like a room at the British Museum where world explorers met.

I was... scantily dressed, lounging around in this room reading anthropology coffee table books. People began to gather in the room. The queen arrived. Not Queen Elizabeth, but maybe Queen Victoria. She was leading a geriatric pet elephant. Apparently, the elephant went everywhere with her. She was a little bit dotty, but was still an essential presence at the meetings.

Then my ex arrived in the meeting, along with some other people. I tried to blend in and not be noticed. But it was difficult.

Me and my platypus buddy

I dreamed that I had a pet duck-billed platypus that I carried around in my arms.

Blind men

A long and detailed dream last night.
It started with a visit to my friend's house in Geneva. He lived in a big rambling apartment. We talked. Somehow, we were on a worksite and there were some city workers taking measurements. But they seemed hesitant. We poked around at a doorway and found some very sophisticated wires. We figured they were looking for wiretaps. Alex realized he had information that could be useful. Suddenly we were in a spy movie. False information was transmitted by phone. The people who got the information died. Alex supplied the information to the right people. Suddenly we were all much older. I was an established photographer and, it seems, good with the ladies. Alex had been admitted into an old age home, but the nurses hated him so much they hid him in a back room and ignored him. Coming up to the front staircase of the old age home, the stairs were littered with women hoping to see some famous old man who was living out his last days there. I managed to get in by showing my camera. I learned that someone had given the old man a gift, but he was blind and wouldn't be able to see it. Everyone was sad about this. I remembered that Alex had the gift of being able to see with his hands. Maybe he could help out....I went to look for him... and woke up.

Happy dream: My favourite imaginary band of all time

I was in Calgary, and was scheduled to go back to Montreal. En route to somewhere... I stumble on this band playing an impromptu show in one of those characterless corporate alcoves next to an office tower.

I jump out of my bus, or taxi or whatever and join the small audience. The band is amazing -- these carnivaesque rock and roll people, playing music I can't remember clearly. They were a lot like one of my absolute favourite bands: Friendly Rich and the Lollipop People

Two lead singers stood on soapboxes, with their faces painted in grey and white, with scary, accentuated old man wrinkles. Behind them stood horn and accordian and guitair players, dressed in pinnochio marching band kitch.

When the song was over, a greyhound bus pulled up and the whole audience got onto it. They were taking us somewhere.... no one knew, no one cared. We were all having such a damn good time.

I remember thinking that I was supposed to be going somewhere. But I was too intrigued not to lose this trajectory.

The bus headed to the suburbs and ejected us all on a big green open space. The band danced and ahead of us, playing something spontaneous and ridiculous... from the circus. We all ran after them, waving our arms and encouraging them to keep playing. It was awesome...

When I mentioned my dream to J, he said it sounded a lot like the magical mystery tour. Perhaps.... but I was also watching Burning Man videos yesterday....

No more wine...

Kirsten announced at our annual post New Year's spa day, where we soak for a few hours with friends and then congregate around a few plates of hot and spicy food, while reviewing our new years resolutions from years past and making new ones for 2009, Kirsten announced grandly, and without prior consultation with her soul mate, the man with whom she shares a blog called wine and dreams, indeed this blog, this blog...Kirsten rolled up her tongue and said: I will stop drinking wine in 2009. I choked on a piece of spicy meat. What? So, of course, in solidarity, I have quit also. So we won't have many postings on the wine side of wine and dreams, this year, unless we break under the pressure. So far, so good. That was January 24th or so. No bottles have been cracked since. But we will certainly be breaking our vow in June, when we plan to get married again. That's right, we are going to tie the knot again on June 21st. Why not? is there anything in the rulebook that says you can't? It's kind of like getting a second mortgage with the same lender.