I'm not usually awake this early, and it is most rare for me to be up before 8am without the aid of an alarm clock. However, today I woke up unaided, in the middle of a rather surreal dream. Perhaps the early rising was caused combination of my recent body clock reboot (I had been completely the other way round until Monday 30th December) and the fact that I'm due to embark on a trip to London this morning.

I'm certain that the dream was a lateness anxiety thing. I'll try to recall the story of the dream.

It was set last night (Thursday). It was late night shopping at the local garden centre and I had selected a number of items to buy. Absent-mindedly, along the way round the garden centre, a number of other items had found there way about my person and I'd forgotten to put them through the till when I got there - the till person had obviously not noticed things bulging from my pockets or whatever (hell, there's no logic, this is just a dream!). Getting a few yards away from the place, I realised the mistake and so headed back to the shop, very near closing time. Realising that the shop would have to stay open to allow me to return the items I'd not paid for, I ran on ahead and demanded that they stay open while I returned them. On the way back to the car, I saw a TV news reporter and asked him to keep track of my story and I saw a policeman, to whom I told my purpose for visiting and who immediately arrested me.

His problem was that I'd obviously taken items from the shop without paying and so had broken the law. He was not budging from this course, despite the fact that it was clear that I'd bought items of a much greater value than I was returning, and everyone was happy for me to just return the spare items and leave it at that. I called a mate over to the garden centre for moral support. The time ticked on and it became clear that even a night in the cells was going to be more of a morning in the cells. I knew I had a road trip to start preparing for (that would be the real trip to London) and that I might not get any sleep for it, if indeed I was even released in time. I started to have to make plans for the mate to take my car on the trip on my behalf and for me to try to take a last minute train to join everyone else, once I'd been released.

Not sure what the dream means except that one should always keep an eye on where you put items you're buying in a garden centre - the trolley is best. Plus, if you've gotten away with stealing something by accident, be careful how you return it.