A sleek, white, minimalist flat overlooks the Thames. The living room - a spacious haven of silence where select pieces of bespoke furniture appear to float above the gleaming parquet. Off the living room, the kitchen - a mass of reflections of brushed steel in glass and glass in brushed steel. In the corner of the kitchen stands a toughened glass pillar, three foot high, hollow, and the shape of a foot in cross-section. It ticks gently like a quiet long case clock.

A slender girl in a white dress pads in from the living room in bare feet and carelessly tosses a pile of paper shreddings into the container, which settle in the bottom. She returns to the living room and lies back in a capacious sofa with a notepad and pen.

Over a while the ticking gently increases until at last it breaks into her consciousness. She looks at her Cartier watch - ten seconds to four. The ticking gets louder quickly: tick... tock... Tick... Tock...T ICK... TOCK... BONNNNNGGGGG!!! A gong shakes the building and several persian cats flee for cover. Swiftly the Monty Python Foot descends from the ceiling on a hydraulic ram, slides inside the glass container and crushes down the paper shreddings into a flat cake of paper before retreating back into the ceiling.

As the gong fades, she can just hear the first faint ticks of the next hour.
-- wagster, Oct 21 2004

Cranking Out the Time http://www.halfbake..._20Out_20the_20Time
reminds me of this [FarmerJohn, Oct 22 2004]

With thanks to [po] and her teensy weensy shredder.
-- wagster, Oct 21 2004


<bow> get you at playtime!
-- po, Oct 21 2004


As I recall, the Monty Python foot makes less of a gong sound, and more of an oddly truncated flatulent sound.
-- nick_n_uit, Oct 22 2004


[nick] - The flatulence would work too, so long as it's REALLY LOUD!

[FJ] - remind me not to try to compete in the 'weird timepieces' department.
-- wagster, Oct 22 2004


quite right nick <get my message?>
-- po, Oct 22 2004



random, halfbakery