Another Dream

I'm not really sure how this latest one should be characterised.

I've been preoccupied with something recently (which I may post in another entry - will need to talk to someone about it first) but strangely enough, my mind has decided to go with something else in this latest dream.

In this one, I was on a cross-country roadtrip in Singapore with someone (I don't remember - it wasn't very clear in the dream but I might have been with a group of friends). This is highly improbable as you can drive the country from end to end in about an hour, depending on the traffic.

In any event, as we were driving past a particularly rural area, something happend to our car and we were forced to pull over to the side of the road. Fortunately there was a house nearby which was built close to the road - elevated and partly obscured by a hedge, out of which I heard an irascible male voice with a South-African accent and the man claimed to be "the rule of law" in that area. Thoughts of apartheid South Africa entered my mind.

We decided not to go to that house for help and tried to find a neighbour instead. We were quite fortunate and and managed to find one nearby who told us that the South African was a local judge who had set a road-trap for unwary visitors to the area. Apparently he had a hole made just off a side road where our car had broken down and put a small African boy in it as a sort of lookout. He had also installed sensors on the side of the road near where the car had first broken down to trigger the device which was intended to damage passing cars.

I remember feeling infuriated about this - so much for this boermens [apologies to my South African friends who mignt be reading this - I know it is racist but it's only a dream] claiming to be the "rule of law". I hate my private property rights being infringed and I don't care who you are, even if you are the Lord Chief Justice - we are going to fight it out in court - and I intend to win.

First thing my posse and I did was to go to the little fox-hole and drag the African boy out of it and force him to tell us about the sensors and where they were installed. When we managed to get that out of him, we went and smashed up the sensors which were strangely enough, some ball-bearings embedded in a wooden pole and a laser. Afterwards, we dragged the African boy and stormed into the South African's house. I had to decide how to play it whether to go in with verbal guns blazing or to try a more reasoned approach. My instincts were telling me to go with the latter - must be my inherent respect of members of the judiciary kicking in after so many years practising at the Admiralty Bar.

Strangely enough, the South African wasn't in the least surprised to see us and he was going about his business while we exchanged legal arguments about the rule of law, the enforcement thereof and our respective roles in the process. I remember explaining why I declined to address him as "My Lord" as Singapore was a republic and therefore I would adopt the mode of address as was appropriate in Singaporean proceedings. It was also me making the point that I was intending to have this debate on as near a footing as equals as our respective positions allowed us.

The South African seemed very willing to engage in debate - it was almost very congenial - like two learned friends having a discussion about a particularly tricky point of law - firm and intellectually uncompromising but with no hard feelings between the parties afterwards.

I don't remember how the matter was resolved as the dream sort of ended in a fade-out.