THE DREAM I was at some family reunion. I had forgotten the name of a relative. He or she (cannot remember which) was from Staithes - a lovely village just up from the coast where I live. I was making up some excuse - talking about why I had forgotten them.

GUESSWORK The dreamer had bumped into someone he had not seen for a while. He could not remember where he knew this person from. He had forgotten their name. He knew that he knew them but was a little embarrassed that he had forgotten their name. He really liked this person and was looking forward to spending more time with them.

ASSOCIATIONS AND SYMBOLIC MEANINGS
1. FORGOT: Forgetting someone had a direct parallel with the day before which is often a strong indicator that the dream is about that issue. The dreamer had met up with someone by random and they clearly knew him - yet he had difficulty placing them. He felt it was odd that he had not recognised this person straight away as he had met them in a community centre which he regularly visited.

2. FAMILY: In the dream its a distant family member that the dreamer has forgotten. In real life the dreamer was shocked that he did not remember the person he had forgotten and exactly where he had met them from. The community centre he met her in was somewhere he visited very regularly and the person who he had forgotten had been very friendly. He had only met her a few months before. The dream was probably hinting that this person was like family (in the dream they appear as a distant relative from a place that the dreamer really liked). Its possible then that the dream deals with this key feeling - the dreamer wondering why he did not recognise someone whom he had liked and from a place where he went every day.
3. EXCUSE: In the dream the dreamer is making up all kinds of excuses for having forgotten the distant family member. This probably hints at the meaning of the dream. The dreamer was making all kinds of excuses in real life for forgetting the distant relative. If you do forget someone's name and where you meet them its sometimes embarrassing to say this. Yet the dreamer got himself into all sorts of trouble by doing just this

DREAM ANALYSIS In guesswork the dream was linked to a situation from the day before when the dreamer had forgotten someone's name and forgotten where he knew them from. It deals with the following themes
- People who are close to you
- Forgetting people
- Making excuses

If you weave together these two themes and think about the situation from the day before you will find it could capture this type of thought -"I totally forgot her name. I was a bit embarrassed and started making up bad excuses. I am surprised I forgot her because I knew her from the community centre - I normally remember people from there. I made the situation worse by making repeated excuses."