Citizensheep. "Michael Grimes lives in Birmingham (UK). This is his blog about anything that he fancies."

During the night, while I was trying to sleep, I noticed for the first time that the large wardrobe at the foot of my bed had old lettering buried beneath its paint.

I made a mental note to investigate, then remembered what I’m like and decided to find a pen and write myself a physical one instead. So I reached for the lamp and flicked the switch: nothing. The room remained in darkness.

Maybe I’m asleep, I thought, remembering that recently it had taken me several attempts to wake myself from a nightmare by trying to turn the light on. If so, I thought, I hope the inscription on the wardrobe really exists, as I’m rather interested in knowing more about it.

The scene had changed a bit (now I think about it), my position in the bed being closer to reality. I sat up, reached for the lamp (also in its proper place now) and tried again. Still nothing. Time for a concerted effort, I thought.

My memory is that I shook myself. Whether I did this physically, or simply by nudging a few brain cells into place, I don’t know; but something changed, almost imperceptibly. I don’t remember sitting up (maybe I did it as I shook myself awake), but there I was, still sitting up in bed, looking at the lamp.

I reached for the switch again, and flicked it.

This time, it worked. But I flicked it off again immediately as I remembered I didn’t own any wardrobes, let alone one with an inscription buried beneath the paintwork.

I lay still for a long time, committing it all to memory, making sure I would remember the detail of my false awakenings when I opened my eyes again.

Which begs the question: did I ever wake at all, or did I dream about turning the light on too? And that nightmare I’d remembered: did it happen weeks ago, as I thought it did (I didn’t write it down), or did it happen earlier tonight? Or even at all?

I don’t know when I learned to wake myself from dreams. I was surprised, a few years ago, when all three of the friends I was with wouldn’t believe that I could do it; but surely it’s not all that uncommon? (They were all from the same family, which may or may not be relevant.) It’s a useful trick, though, particularly when combined with the other thing.

The other thing happens periodically, often in waves, and is utterly terrifying.

I heard a radio programme, many years ago, about people who couldn’t tell if they were awake or dreaming. One girl would wake up, get dressed, go to school, come home, then wake up once more and go through the whole thing again and again: her own, personal, Groundhog Day Hell. That hasn’t happened to me, thankfully. But often I will find myself ‘waking up’ three or four times. I can usually tell when I am awake; but, after three or four attempts, one does become a little uncertain.

I’m pretty sure I’m awake now. Or maybe I’m not. Maybe my whole life is just a dream. How will I ever know?

Ramblings

Yesterday, a roomful of 14-18 year-olds agreed a tax on unhealthy food would be a good policy move for a government.

They spent the morning chatting about the Budget with George Osborne at Number 11.

They spent the afternoon discussing policy ideas with MPs at the Treasury, and then voted on their favourite. (Their favourite policy idea, not their favourite Member of Parliament.)

They were at the launch of Youth Budget 2013, the result of an online challenge in which 1,400 youngsters created their own economic vision for the country.

Education,politics

If you’re at all interested, Michael Gove recently set out his education ministers’ priorities (listed below), in response to interest from the Education Select Committee.

Here they are:

David Laws MP

• Capital (including school places)
• Pupil Premium
• School accountability
• School funding
• Teachers, teaching and teacher training

More about David Laws

Matthew Hancock MP

• Apprenticeships and Traineeships
• 16-19 provision including vocational qualifications

More about Matthew Hancock

Lord Nash

• Academies
• Free Schools
• Governance (linked to school accountability)

More about Lord Nash

Edward Timpson MP

• Adoption
• Children in care
• SEN and disability
• Social work and child protection

More about Edward Timpson

Liz Truss MP

• Behaviour
• Curriculum and qualifications
• Early education and childcare

More about Liz Truss

Hat-tip to Liz Moorse for the list and to Andy Thornton for spotting Michael Gove’s startling resemblance to Alfred E Neuman.

Education,politics

Tomorrow sees the launch of the Youth Budget 2013.

It will be available online, but we also had the top-level stats printed in a fancy leaflet. It looks great, but it was folded wrongly. So I’ve just spent a fun twenty minutes re-folding some for my colleague.

The Youth Budget is the result of work by 1,400 14-18 year-olds across the UK, as part of an Aviva-funded programme of economic awareness education.

These young people are the voters of tomorrow. Can they do a better job than the Chancellor?

The Youth Budget 2013 will be available online tomorrow: http://youthbudget.org.uk

Education,politics

I decided to share ten albums that I discovered this year.

‘Discovered’ can mean either that 2012 was when I first heard an album or that 2012 was when I decided I liked it.

The order’s not as strict as it looks. (I could do with a system of ‘-ish’ lists that falls somewhere between the uniform equality of bullets and the rigid hierarchy of numbers.)

I won’t bother you with descriptions of them or with unhelpful personal responses to them; I’ll leave you to discover them for yourself, should you be so inclined.

Top ten albums that I discovered in 2012

1. Who Needs Who

   • Dark Dark Dark
   • 2012

2. I A Moon

   • North Sea Radio Orchestra
   • 2011

3. Living With Ants
   

   • Mechanical Bride
   • 2011

4. The Law of Large Numbers
   

   • Emma Pollock
   • 2010

5. Grown Unknown

   • Lia Ices
   • 2010

6. The Sad Machinery of Spring

   • Tin Hat
   • 2007

7. An Awesome Wave

   • Alt-J
   • 2012

8. Loveblood

   • King Charles
   • 2012

9. All the Wars

   • The Pineapple Thief
   • 2012

10. The Year of Hibernation

    • Youth Lagoon
    • 2011

Note: Although the links are to Spotify, the dates are taken from last.fm because I don’t trust Spotify’s chronology. (I’ve no reason to trust last.fm’s either, save that I’ve not yet noticed any glaring errors with it.)

Ramblings

I looked through my phone and found this photo. It was taken in Brewsmiths coffee shop in Birmingham.

Ramblings

I decided to jump on the bandwagon and write my own social media predictions for 2013.

Ten social media predictions for 2013

1. People will continue to be social
2. People will continue to use the internet
3. People will still talk to each other
4. People will continue to use the internet
5. People will still find other people interesting
6. People will continue to use the internet
7. People will still want to buy stuff
8. People will continue to use the internet
9. People will still want to complain
10. People will continue to use the internet

Ramblings

I realised that I forgot to write anything on the sixth day of Christmas.

On the sixth day of Christmas I tried refreshing my scant understanding of the basics of counterpoint. For fun.

Ramblings

I decided to list my five favourite albums of the year.

Then I found that choosing five was too difficult, so I postponed it until the tenth day of Christmas.

Ramblings

It rained. Again.

Ramblings