and the HIPPO business?

picture this......gill and myself.....on clacton beach to the left of the pier.....circa 2003.....

TODDY was also there....he had gone 'back into his own programming'.....he had figured that he was 'REGINALD PERRIN........he would 'dive into the waves and then come back as a 'new man'.....

CAROLINE was to race up the beach.....'where has he gone?'

well - quite far out but very shallow waters....

gill was to say to me afterwards - that if he had really drowned himself....well toddy was 'all of a bit' with nankeville' and that it would have been better - if he had drowned himself, at the time......


CAROLINE was horrified....her husband was 'nowhere to be seen'.....yes, he had decided to 'keep under water for a very long time'....she wanted to wade in, in order to save him.....gill and i told her that this wasn't necessary......she didn't believe us.......but also believed that we 'knew' what was going on......

TODDY then re-emerged and began to walk out of the shallows.....telling CAROLINE that he was REGINALD PERRIN and that he had re-surfed as a 'new character'....a new person......she was so relieved that he was 'all right' and not drowned and 'lost for good'.......

gill wasn't 'it would have been better if that was the case' he said to me wryly- as we left the beach.....

 so what was really going on?


some 'horror' around scarlett's desk.....CAROLINE had been able to 'do more' than the rothschild team of 'angels'.....and so had i.....

and yet we were now derided by all and sundry as HIPPOS?

THE ANGRY HIPPOS on the beach - waiting for TODDY to stop 'faking his own death within the shallows'.....and to "COME BACK OUT NOW!"

CAROLINE was definitely in 'angry hippo' even though she cannot have been 9 stones for her 5 foot 5height......and nor was i.....but the fact was....we were both projecting ANGRY HIPPO at that point in time....

and that was what was making gill 'laugh on the beach' with us....