The moon (a dream)

A generic female figure, representing my mother and other women in my life, took me and a friend of hers on a trip. An adventure, really. We stopped over in Belgium. Where I used my phone to take some pictures. Some of the landscape and some of some tall building I was standing right under. It was a modern building. And I aimed my camera straight up to catch a ray of sunlight that was reflecting beautifully on the stained glass windows of the building that had mostly the colour of bricks but was smooth as concrete but also looked soft.

As the sun was setting, a couple stopped and asked me to have a look at the picture on my screen. They agreed it looked amazing and sharp. They also gave me tips on how to take better pictures. Next moment my mom, the friend and me were walking through some Asian country. At a local market, we noticed a return of punk. At least I did, for my companions were to busy with their conversation, smiling, and apparently reminiscing on the past.

A small group of young punksters were involved in a heated discussion at a small clearing on the market. Before they walked on I noticed one of them was wearing a kind of backpack, or maybe the shape was just part of his clearly homemade black, leather jacket. Which looked more like rubber to me. The figure/backpack was in the shape of a bat with the wings sticking out just below the man's shoulders. Two female punkers - not belonging to the first group - entered a clothing store on what looked like high heels. But looking more closely it was more like they were walking on 30cm high stilts. With the toes in the high 'boots' (black, with gold tribals and some other painted decorations), aiming straight down. So, it looked like they had no feet. 

We walked passed a small harbour that harboured a few fishing boats. I assumed most were out catching fish. Looking to my right and down a little, I noticed some young boys playing with fireworks. One of them threw a piece at us and it exploded in the air with a not so loud bang nearby us. My companions did not seem to notice and I smiled at the boy who threw it. He grinned. My company went into a shop and asked me to wait outside.

I presumed they needed to use the toilet. I planned using the time to look up - anticipating sharing the night with them - the Indonesian phrase "Good night, ladies". I already knew how to say "good night", so all I had to look up was the word "ladies". But before I could do so they had already returned and we continued on our journey.

Next, we were hiking through a jungle. And my mother's friend asked if we would make it in time to the campsite. My mother replied: "Yes, the mud will come. We will get wet and dirty." I pictured us covered in mud and shivering in our shared tent.

Next thing I knew I was on an operating table in a cleanroom. And subjected to some tests. My mother and her friend had already gone through the process and now it was my turn. Before I could take the final stage of the journey they had to be sure if I was able to withstand low gravity and other harsh conditions. Apparently to live on a base on the moon.

The mat (a dream)

The schoolmaster asked us to gather around Mr. Johnson's Mat. Which was yet unfolded, waiting to be revealed on the floor of the small empty patch of forest. Parents and children alike wondered but also seemed afraid to come a bit closer.

The teacher - a man with short, brown hair in his thirties and cleanshaven - sank down on his haunches, glanced around the group and unfolded the map which was made of some kind of thick plastic and showed no sign of hinches or folds when unfolded.

My first impression - or from the character I played in my dream - was that it vaguely resembled the playing board of Ludo. Because of the different coloured circles. The colours were orange, brown, yellow, blue, red and green. They resembled the different levels of learning from all different children in the school, regardless of age.

The colours matched the different places on the edges of the manmade open place in the woods. Children got assignments from the AI, put their hands on the mat, on a coloured circle that matched the level of difficulty of the question. Thanks to biometrics the software knew which student had answered which question and 'sensed' the answer. The corresponding circle would light up at a right answer and more circles would light up, indicating the number of points the student was rewarded. The student would then walk over to the appropriate spot at the rim of the field. About half a dozen students could simultanously use the mat.