In which The Author explores some of his interior landscapes
For many years I’ve experienced strange dreams, but I’ve never kept a proper ‘Dream Diary’ as such. Even so, I’ve noticed that a set of imagined places recur from time to time during my subconscious explorations. They aren’t places I’ve visited, or places I’ve read about, or seen on TV. In fact (as far as I know) most of them don’t exist at all, but I still visit them in my dreams from time to time. Here are some of them:
THE PUB IN PENDERYN
This has turned up in my dreams a few times. It’s not one of the pubs in the village – I know them quite well, and this certainly isn’t one of them. It’s at the end of a track leading from Cwm Cadlan, over the fields and up on some moorland. From the outside it looks like a farmhouse, but inside it’s a pub, with old-fashioned fittings, a flagstone floor and very old wooden furniture. It’s usually pretty quiet inside, with only a couple of old boys sitting at the bar. I’ve been there a number of times in my dreams, once with Mother, once with some friends, and a couple of times on my own.
THE PUB IN TRECYNON
I’ve never been in this one, as it’s never been open in my dreams. It’s an old-fashioned looking Welsh Brewers pub in a terraced street not far from my house. It’s painted white with a bright red door, and has a small window of etched glass so you can’t see inside, with an extractor fans fitted. The Bass red triangle is on the sign above the door, but I can never read the name properly. (This, apparently is one of the indicators of lucid dreaming – when you read something in a dream, and then read it again, only to find it’s changed the second time.)
THE PUB IN TOWN
This is very similar to the pub in Trecynon, except that it’s in the back streets near the Cambrian and the Glosters. I’ve been in there at least once, but there was nobody there so I didn’t stay long.
THE RAILWAY STATION
This is a really weird one! It’s a long island platform between two railway lines, both of which curve away into the distance at either end of the platform.
However, the whole thing is in a deep gorge, (not a cutting) with sheer cliffs on all sides. It doesn’t seem to be accessible by foot, so it must be simply an interchange between trains. There’s no indication of where it is, but I get the feeling it’s supposed to be in mid-Wales or on the border somewhere.
THE HOUSE
This is an ordinary house (not my own, nor the one I grew up in) which I seem to be constantly working on. There are two bedrooms upstairs, but at the end of the landing is a third bedroom which I am always surprised to come across. I don’t think I’ve ever been inside this third room.
An Autobiography in Random Chapters 