My latest dream, like 'Cooksbridge Living', took place at my current property, surrounded by the green fields of the neighbouring farms. I was alone at home and Beibei kept escaping into the fields, prompting me to go out and hunt him down. It was a summer afternoon, one of those balmy days that emerge after a downpour. The local farmers were out and about working their fields. At some point my daughter Lulu turned up, and we sat in the garden together, chatting about animals and telling Beibei off for escaping.
I heard the unmistakable baritone chuffing of hippos coming from the fields, and I ran to the fence in excitement. Could there really be wild hippos living in Cooksbridge? Lulu confirmed that she had seen some earlier, but being only four years old, was relatively non-plussed by the experience. I craned my neck over the encroaching vegetation but was unable to see anything. Eventually I found a gate in the foliage and pulled it open. On the other side, I was amazed to discover an African elephant, two ostriches, and a bunch of zebras and antelopes. They tried to push their way into my garden, so I hurriedly closed the gate again.
Once more I heard hippo snorts, and it seemed to be coming from the garden next to mine. I peered over the fence to find a big muddy pond that had been excavated from the lawn. Inside were a number of dark shapes swimming about, but the water was too murky to see clearly. An immense black lump broke the surface, the sweeping back of a killer whale. The whale fairly dominated the pond, with only enough space for it to swim forward a few feet. I picked up a long handled paddle and gave it a poke, hoping it would dislodge any hippos hiding there. As it glided through the water, it disturbed the other animals, which one by one, evacuated the pond. To my great confusion, they weren't hippos at all, but sea-lions.
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