Our trip to London on Sunday made me remember how much I enjoy daydreaming. I can't read in buses or cars without feeling sick, which means that I can't be tempted into trying to work. I listen to my iPod and daydream — I really need to do that every now and again. Life is often so hectic and relentless that having a space to just think about things is incredibly valuable.

I love watching trees flick by while I'm on the bus, and letting my imagination wander wherever it wants to. It seems to help me (in a subtle way) to make some kind of sense of all the things that happen to me, and to try out alternative plans for the future. Of course, it's almost a racing certainty that none of these possibilities will come to fruition. But even though I know this, it's comforting to think that there are multiple alternative futures out there. All kinds of random thoughts come along when I'm daydreaming, and it can sometimes lead me to make interesting links and connections between things. These links might not actually be useful, but it helps me to feel like a live, thinking human, modelling the world in her brain and creating something, rather than a stressed automaton responding passively to circumstances.

I suppose what I'm saying is that sometimes you need to lock your bossy, anxious, results-obsessed, boring brain in a cupboard and let your inner airhead out to play.