Clock Mental
I don’t order everything online. Books and DVDs fine. But some things I need to touch and feel. One such thing is the humble alarm-clock. I can’t just order one without going to the shop, especially after what happened last time (not that I do it every week, but I do like me alarm-clock just so).
I had done a search for alarm-clocks which have a soothing waking-up sound. Following years of torment at the hands (ha!) of a Casio digital alarm-clock, which woke me everyday abruptly with all the tact and carefulness of a boxer attempting to knit, I decided to splash out on what as allegedly the world’s best, most soothing alarm-clock. Yes people! I was not the only person suffering this horror. So I did some research. The tone was ‘ambient yet powerful enough to wake even the most determined sleeper’. What’s more it was an ‘Oriental rolling wave sound’, whatever that meant (I had never heard of an Oriental Wave but I had no reason to discriminate). It sounded good to me. It takes a steam-train to wake me up usually, and me living in
I was really looking forward to getting the alarm-clock and waking up in a good-mood. How much? Well, at the risk of aggravating my boss I threw a sickie from work so I could be at home when my package arrived. My intention was to test the alarm-clock out as soon as possible; there was no way I was waiting until the following morning to test my new-fangled awesome invention out!
The Oriental Wave—or more accurately, Tsunami—woke me with tremendous force. The first thing I thought was that the house was falling down. Then came the chanting Oriental voices, followed by Pan-pipes–which would have been fine, only I hated the Pan-pipe version of a Take That song I’d once heard a busker do in town. My advice? Buy an alarm-clock in person. Sleep is too precious to risk by buying online–