I slept fitfully last night and had a dream. It began with a discussion I was having about the Oxford and Cambridge dinner in which I was explaining that I had managed to invite VS Ramachandran to speak. The person I was talking with kept saying, "But no, we are getting George Orwell" And I kept insisting Orwell is dead. The argument grows heated and I wake up ... or I think I do ...

And when I wake up I'm still in a dream. It's a mysterious hotel room with blue velvet drapes. I lie there thinking about my dream. Suddenly, a naked man (on my left) rears up beside me and terrifies me. I thought I was alone. He fades away. It might be a ghost or a nightmare but it frightens me and I wake up. Or think I do....

Still inside my dream I get up and I try to put on the lights so I can sleep without being afraid. I wander over to my right where there is a hallway and bathroom. I seal the hallway off by pulling some blue velvet drapes that are the same color as the curtains.

As I walk back to bed, a huge, neon-green Persian cat is purring against the wall. It can't be real, I think, yet I think to myself but this is no dream, I just woke up. I pick up the cat which is soft and delicate and stroke it. i start chanting to myself, this is no dream, this is no dream. With the cat in my arms, I turn around to go to bed and suddenly I see a dog on the floor.

The dog seems to be a collie. It is a beautiful large dog and completely motionless, even its hair, as though frozen in time. As I watch the dog comes to life and stretches and turns to me. I wake up for the third time and I'm in the real world.