Last night's dream:

I received a photograph. It showed an old building with a few business signs and offices in a run-down neighborhood. The caption made fun of the fact that the Iranian embassy in Turkey was next to a weight-loss clinic. Apparently there was some irony in it but I wasn't getting it.

I am now part of the scene in the photograph. I am there in front of the building standing next to my car. It's night time or early morning before dawn.

A Turkish policeman comes over and asks questions. I'm hoping he won't search the car. There's nothing in my stuff that would be considered illegal or dangerous but I'm sure it would cause suspicion and unnecessary trouble. I would have to explain over and over again that I'm only a journalist.

The policeman does not look inside the car but takes my mobile phone. I don't know why. He dials a number and talks to someone who seems to be a higher authority. I don't understand Turkish but the tone of the conversation seems to indicate that I have an illegal phone.

I try to explain that the phone is useless because it does not recognize the wave length used by Turkish telecoms. It only works in Iran. But the policeman does not listen. He walks away and I follow him to try to convince him to give back the phone.

The policeman is now an elderly woman wearing a traditional tribal turban. Kurdish perhaps? I'm still trying to get my phone but she does not want to give it back either. I thought maybe I should offer money. But I'm afraid it may complicate things.

As I follow the woman in the old neighborhood alleys, she stops and shows me a room. On the wall there's a slide show of large colorful images of Norooz Haft Seen spreads in rapid succession. They all display the main components: the mirror, the candles, the fish bowl, the green sprouts, the apple...

But there's something more. Something that made the images look traditional and yet very different. There were twirling lines shaped like vibrating spheres in various parts of the Haft Seens. Some were made of red lines, some pale blue.

"Look," said the woman, "They are perfect. They are round and wobble like Earth. They are whole."