Short and sweet

Okay, this is going to be a short one. I have to leave soon to check in with the panto set painters. Then I have a meeting with the sound guy about music and other sound effects.

It’s official: the panto is already starting to impact my sleep. This always happens when I’m directing something. There is a variation this time. In the past, it’s always stopped me getting to sleep. Makes sense, I suppose. Suddenly remembering something you have to do before you drift off. I keep a notebook on the bedside table so I can just turn the light on and scribble down a reminder. Mind you, it took me a while to figure this out. Before the notebook I would just lay in bed thinking “I must remember, I must remember” and unable to get to sleep.

New variation this time: Panto concerns actually waking me up before the alarm goes off. This is not good. Clearly the panto has invaded my subconscious. I’m probably dreaming about it, although I don’t remember my dreams.

I wish I did. I have a friend who seems to remember all her dreams very clearly. I might have some very vague sense of dreaming about something when I wake up, but it’s ephemeral. Very occasionally – and if the dream is strange enough – I can hold on to the memory of a dream long enough to scribble some notes in my journal.  Wish it happened more often.

I do have a couple of recurring dreams, one of which generally upsets my subconscious so much it forces me to wake myself up. There are multiple variations but the central theme is being lost. Either I get myself hopelessly lost trying to make a journey I’ve made many times before or I am with someone and I lose them. Very frustrating (especially the one in which the person I lost was Idris Elba) and usually very upsetting.

Oh, of course, mentioning Mr Elba reminds me of this image a friend sent me a few years ago. I seriously thought about framing it and putting it on my desk, but decided it would be too distracting. (Well, it would be, wouldn’t it?)

Anyway…

Back from panto tasks. The treasure cave set panels look fantastic.

No time to write anything else. Coming back into the house just now I realised the basil plants are looking a bit ropey now that the temperature has dropped. Time to make pesto.