Problems

I had a rather disturbing dream the other morning, which went roughly as follows.

I became conscious of a large presence in my head, a large round object lurking there. An object which was in some sense an adult male who nearly had a voice - one certainly knew what he was saying, but it was not quite the same as hearing voices - and who had somehow got a foothold in my brain. No other image of him, other than this vaguely sensed, large round object. No head, face, arms or legs. He had hijacked enough machinery to be such a presence, in that sense comparable perhaps to a tumor or a virus, but not enough to be a full blown walking and talking hallucination.

Which I found all rather disturbing. He was getting in the way of normal activity and showed every sign of settling in. How was I going to get rid of him? At which point he butted in with a sort of grim humor: "you might be able to push me aside for a bit, but I will be back. You won't be able to get rid of me altogether. I'll pop back just when you think you have got rid of me". I move from disturbed to alarmed, but luckily I was starting to wake up and I thought to myself that if I was to wake up properly, that would kill the chap off.

So I got up, made a cup of tea and read for a bit before going back to bed. Where I went back to a now dreamless sleep. I am pleased to say that the chap has not returned, although it seems quite possible that one day he will. There are a number of things, some quite elaborate, in my dreams which come back from time to time.

Perhaps I have had a light touch of psychosis; the sort of thing that, if the problem persists, one is prescribed anti-psychotic drugs for.

Rather less serious problem this morning, less serious but so far intractable. Some weeks ago now, I started noticing an odd taste about my tea, mildly unpleasant, to the point where one was pouring the tea away rather than drinking it. Who or what was the culprit?

Was it something in the lining of the new electric kettle to blame? It was not a particularly cheap one.

Were we using some new washing up liquid which was apt to leave this taste in one's cup if one did not rinse carefully in clean water, something we do not usually bother with?

Did the taste appear when I took my tea after some particular something else? Some tastes do clash in this way, for example some toothpastes with most oranges.

Did the taste appear when I was developing a cold, or perhaps just having a brush with a cold, not having had a proper cold for some months? I have noticed that things are apt to taste of fish when a cold is on the horizon, not that the tea taste was fishy, just unpleasant. I do associate to the smell of hot plastic, but that is not a taste.

I am not keeping records and I have failed so far to link the unpleasant taste with anything in a definitive way, although my money is on the washing up liquid, despite assurances from BH that we continue to use the same brand as we generally, but not always, use. Perhaps the brain wants energetic rinsing of the cup to be successful but cannot quite make it so; my subconscious is not as in control of my conscious world as it would perhaps like to be.