(263) The dream of the death of George Best, Nobby Stiles fallen on hard times, and coming to recognise a famous goalkeeper. In Alicante

On the morning of October 23rd 2007 I dreamed and then recorded the saddest dream -

Sic Transit Gloria

It is a setting where a dying George Best has passed an envelope containing loose change and scraps of money to me and asked me to take it to an address in Alicante.

As I hand the money over to an old guy in a modest setting in Alicante, some of the lineaments of his face strike a chord.
"Are you Nobby Stiles?" I ask.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobby_Stiles
He says something back, with a laughing annoyance at having been recognised.

Later I also meet up with Jackie Charlton  Jack Charlton - Wikipedia  and a guy with a vaguely familiar face who is forever bursting into high pitched flamenca song. At the end I realise that this is Gordon Banks and remark so to someone passing who concurs. Gordon Banks - Wikipedia

I remark also to someone that Nobby Stiles must have fallen on hard times to be living in such reduced circumstances and he, naturally, agrees.

I twig that these are all members of the 1966 England Soccer World Cup winning team.
I see a slightly balding Sir Geoff Hurst Geoff Hurst - Wikipedia towards the end, as we are chatting in an apartment not to high up. I am slightly nervous not only that I but also that someone else might fall from/through the window.


Best had already been in intensive care since October 3rd 2005 due to a kidney infection resultant from side effects of his body reacting to immuno-suppressive drugs against the transplanted liver he had received due to his alcoholism. 
(By the way, shortly after having just awoken from that dream I was intimating the outline of it to my curious wife when our 11 yr old son intervened to say that he would be unable to do the special extra-curricular football training as he has five red marks against him in class.)

On September 15th 2010 I was saddened to see this news item -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/news/8002155/Nobby-Stiles-weeps-over-1966-World-Cup-medal-sale.html
George Best and Nobby Stiles were team mates for Manchester United in the 1960s. I was unaware of his financial concerns.

Then, two days later, I saw this thread at the Guardian Comment Is Free section -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/17/dreams-famous-people-margaret-thatcher

I was moved to contribute a selection of the dreams I had noted over the past three years including the above one.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/17/dreams-famous-people-margaret-thatcher?showallcomments=true#comment-7698442
I note at that thread that, although it was a conscious decision on my part to contribute the Stiles dream, I was only doing so in response to a request from The Guardian for people to send in such dreams about the famous. And so it got published there just a couple of days after the pieces on Stiles´ financial concerns.
...   ...   ...
George Best George Best - Wikipedia (who declared bankruptcy at least twice) died aged fifty-nine on November 25th 2005.
The day before his death I had asked his erstwhile Northern Ireland team mate, Pat Jennings, if he was still alive. Pat Jennings - Wikipedia He replied, "He is at the moment, but they don´t really think..."
That was whilst we awaited our baggage at Alicante airport. I thought the guy looked a bit like Pat Jennings when he was younger... and then twigged that it really was him! I think he was going to appear on a TV golf programme.
The flight I had taken home was for Murcia but a fire at Murcia airport demanded a quite unplanned landing. 
At Alicante.

And find here three of the players who featured in that dream of October 23rd 2007 - Video | Facebook
...   ...   ...
When chatting with Jennings I had in my pocket a cheque which transformed me into the wealthiest I had ever been. I had received it the previous day. It was for £250,000. 

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