Just Before Waking...

I dreamed it was my grandmother's birthday (Q. which grandmother? A. Any old grandmother.) and I was giving her two empty baked bean cans decorated with willow pattern. "They're Wedgewood," I told myself, though I knew they weren't but only a cheap, tinny imitation. I was also giving her something else- something better and more valuable- only I'd lost it and couldn't remember exactly what it was- and was looking for it among the packages on the floor of the car. As it happened, I was dressed as a Norman knight, in a plastic helmet with a nose guard. My son was in the car with me and I was persuading him to get dressed up too.

And then we were waiting for the new intake at the theological college. They were arriving in a group- and the plan was to get in the principal's car (a very grand car) and drive out the side entrance and round behind them and take them by surprise- so we could get an idea of who they were before they started putting on an act for our benefit. I saw them down the end of the long straight street- four of them, carrying suitcases, wearing hats and overcoats like it was the 1940s. "They seem to be on their best behaviour," I said....