TRAFFORD CENTRE CANDLE GIRL

Some context for people outside the uk, the trafford centre is one of the main big "malls" of the uk, at least it was for me and my friends when we were younger, and it's one of the few places in the uk with a five guys, which IS GREAT, and i am in constant envy of americans having such ready access to them.

My dream starts out with me standing around in the little area near the fiveguys, the trafford centre is LITTERED with all these fake marble pillars and statues, as well as these drum-like barrels with fake plants in them. The dirt they're planted in might be fake too, now that i think about it. Anyway, im standing there waiting but im not quite sure what for, except i KNOW it's a girl and we arranged to meet up to go on a date today. I didnt have my phone or anything so i was just kind of standing there twiddling my thumbs, and i think i was early by a good few minutes. After some waiting she shows up, grabs my hand and goes:"

"He told me all about you, even your little drawings. I think theyre cute."

I have no idea who "He" is and she said it like, youd talk about like someone i'd already met and knew, but i had no idea who she was referring to. She spoke in a very flat, calm way, and she walked slowly but never really moved all that fast and her hair always swished around when she moved. I dont want to say she looked unshowered but she did look scruffy, but i think it suited her and honestly looked kind of pretty. She was very cozy looking and easy to speak too, mostly because she already knew the kinds of stuff i drew so i didnt even have to worry about that.

Anyway, we were going to go see a movie, at the odeon theater, which was deeper in the trafford centre. BUT. I had no idea where the odeon was. I told her i didn't really know where the cinema IS, and she just smiled a little and asked me to lead the way anyway. So we just, wander around for a while holding hands. I figure i cant get us too lost in a big building with fake pillars in it anyway. She knew where we were meant to go, but she told me that i'd be able to figure it out, so we just walked around holding hands. It's not like i was going to complain about that anyway.

Theres a whole bunch of weird and kind of tacky places and decorations when we're walking around, and i have to stress that this place is actually real and even kind of looks like this. It doesn't have the cool giant cat statue in real life, and the stone for the outside is this textured plastic feeling thing, but this is the namco arcade and they went with some kind of aztec look for the outside. It looks like a jungle run set without the monkey statues or puzzles. The torches on the wall are the most incredible thing ive ever seen its like, red cloth painted to look like flame and they just kind of blow hot air out of the brazier that connects it to the wall, so it sways like fire - it looks HORRID i love them so much and, if i could, i'd have them in my house.

for those not in the know, Jungle Run was a british gameshow that aired on CBBC, which i think every single tv package came with, so its almost ubiquitous as far as i can tell. You would do challenges for monkey statues, and there were a bunch of different types like crash bandicoot gems. I think the big prize was a giant monkey statue or a BMX. it could go either way.

At this point i'm still meandering us around, just trying to remember where it actually is. I kept looking over at her and it was very obvious that she knew, but i didnt want to ask because i was enjoying just walking around looking at stuff. We walk in past some restaurants to this, i dont even really know how to describe it's set up like a ship- a cruise ship i guess? The upper floor and bannister are set up to look like decking, and it overlooks a large cafeteria like area, where theres tables in the middle surrounded by fast food places. Theres mcdonalds, subway, and so on, the idea being you buy your food from the edge and take a seat in the middle. I think most people eat them standing up cause its nice to leave the tables for families or groups of friends, if youre only like, two, three people you can just walk around and eat without it being unorganized.

OH theres also this big screen that they project advertisements onto, it's meant for upcoming movies or events i think, the only one i remember seeing though was a M&M advertisement. Those ads are that special kind of eye-glassing that just makes me feel like my brains calcifying into a pearl thatll be sold at auction after my untimely red and yellow candy mutant induced death.

The roof of this place, directly above the dining area, has this massive smoothed off dome-like shape, and its all painted to look like nightime clouds and some ocean when it gets closer to the walls. Theres this ring of slits, that they use to ventilate the area. It really is one of the nicer parts of the Trafford centre, though the illusion isnt very convincing. And i might be biased because thats where they sell food.

So eventually we get to the cinema, and it has this whole train ticket setup (this is also real) with these big screens that have little rows showing the movies and the time theyre taking place, so you can look at it in line and know how long your wait'll be and stuff like that. Instead of going to the only dude there behind like, three seperate counters we went up to the machine that looked like a cross between an atm and pacman coffee table. It had a big list of all the movies and showings, and i went to go and order the tickets for a couple minutes after our current time, but she stopped me and said:

"We should book it for about 4 hours from now, because the theater will be empty and you'll like that more"

I can't really fault that, and shes right about me preferring an empty theater, so i go ahead and order them for 4 hours. The tickets come out of the machine with a whrrrr noise and we go back to walking around. She tells me she wants to go and get some candles, like fancy nice smelling ones of good quality that arent those little tealights.

So she leads this time, and she knows the EXACT way to go, but we still take our time and just kind of shuffle over to it slowly. We get to the store and its just called candles, and looking inside is just rows and rows of candles, on display bits and aisles. Theyre all kinds of different sizes and the whole store smells like flowers. She walks up the center bit and asks me to sniff some of them, so i do, and they all smell really strongly of a singular fruit or flower. They're the most normal smelling candles ive ever smelt they didnt have that weird aftersmell that most candles do.

I asked her what the candles were for, and why it was so important she got one i liked, and she told me she uses them for prayer, and that he would like the same candles i do. I assume its the same He she mentioned at the start, and it all kind of makes sense. For my whole dream shes known a lot of things about me that i hadnt told her, and i assume this is how she knew. I honestly didnt think it was that weird, it all just kind of clicked into place and it was like a "oh okay" thing. She was telling me about the candles and how she has a bunch of different ones and i liked hearing her just talk about candles, it was nice to listen to her talk about them even though i dont know anything about candles.

After hearing about candles for about 5 minutes i woke up so i guess i wasnt that interested in the candles.