Tonstlipp

I take a single, small headphone speaker and put it in my mouth and, in spite of the expectation of crunching on lots of electronic components, I find eating it to be much the same as munching on a Skittle-

I am rehearsing (out loud) Monty Python's 'Dead Parrot Sketch', lingering over the opening lines, a variation (incorrect, of course) on John Cleese beginning with “Good afternoon” and Michael Palin countering with an amiable “Good morning”, the comedy (somehow) taking off from there. I have a landscape format poster showing a black ink reproduction of a photograph on a deep blue background, the names “Cleese” and “Palin” in the top corners, left and right respectively, a thick black band running across the bottom. I am practically rehearsing into this artifact. I seem to be in a sort of glazed shopfront and I watch a lady walk past on the other side of the road quickly followed by a young Michael Palin who scuttles after her (his wife?) in the semi-darkness. I am disappointed to see him pass by as I continue with my theatrical run-through, wishing he had noticed/heard me. I am delighted when he does indeed come over only a few moments later, adopting an impoverished pose outside the shop, the poster propped at his back. He is soon joined by Eric Idle – does the poster change to “Cleese” and “Idle”? - and the pair of them sit dejected, hunched there on the pavement. I make some joke about “will perform the Parrot Sketch for food” which we all find very amusing-

I have decided I must take a photo of the poster (complete with an overlay of white writing) to send to my friend Ayy Ess – I have to attest to the fact that I am with Palin and Idle. Unfortunately I cannot get sufficient light to do this and I adopt a strange, knock-kneed, zombie-esque shamble as I walk over to the tall rear window. I manage to avoid the numerous empty plastic bottles, each with a baby bottle (sterilising?) inside, but cannot help but bump into two tall, hollow, metal canisters, sending them clattering to the floor. Michael Palin suddenly beats me to the far wall and draws up the roller blind at the large window, flooding the space with light-