Alarm

Every morning, much earlier than on this photo, our alarm clock sounds. It’s a fancy alarm clock, a present from a friend, and it has a chip inside on which you can record your own alarm sound. Think ring-tones but different.

I once made a recording and over time the dogs have been trained to wait for this sound to jump on in the bed (Poupoune), or start whining to be picked up (Pepe). Which is very convenient, if not that, once in a while, we press the wrong button on the back of the clock and inadvertently record a new sound over the old one. Usually this is just a click, not very loud, and hardly noticeable when you are fast asleep. Not very useful as an alarm sound, so then I have to record a new version of the sound. No problem. But Alison, morbid as she is, recently asked what she’d do if I suddenly died. “The dogs have to be retrained,” I said, but she suggested another solution. So here it is, for prosperity, our wake up sound, ready for re-recording onto the alarm clock…