Alarm Clock

Alarm Clock ©

By

Michael Casey

The alarm clock sounds and you curse, it cannot be morning already, it’s still dark outside. It’s always dark outside, you had blackout curtains fitted because of all the streetlights, but you forgot about that. So you stumble in the darkness to switch off the alarm clock. Only you trip over the book by your bed and stumble forwards and grab the curtains to stop yourself falling over. Bringing the curtains down off the rail, so you are covered like a parrot’s cage.

I am the alarm clock in our house, my daughter sleeps like the dead. I’m the furthest away from her clock in my room down the landing, or should I say her phone clock. So I shout “ get out of bed sleepy head” only the clock or rather phones still chimes on. So I have to get out for the comfort of my bed, to wake her up. Her school starts early so I have to raise my “dead daughter” so she can eat and shower before school.

Then I can go back to my warm bed for a while, until I have to wake the other daughter. Schooldays mean school runs, which is a  4  mile walk a day, I used to do 5 miles a day when I worked at CPNEC hotel, so this is less.

People have different attitudes to getting out of bed, do you curse and ignore  the alarm?  Or do you switch it off and have just 5 more minutes, which ends up as 30 minutes, and you are a stripper in reverse as you leave the house and run for the bus, because you are late.

I love watches as you all know, is it because of this that I have a good wake up attitude? Am I part watch? Or part clock? I just get out of bed, and get on that bus to work. Luckily I’ve always lived close to town, so it’s not a long journey, which allows me 30mins to an hour more sleep than those who live further out of town.

Being a dad now I try and encourage the girls to be organised, have the clothes and schoolbag ready, no last minute things. Then in fact you can have a lazy breakfast and catch that bus. If somebody is picking you up you are all set and ready to go out the door. Never keep anybody waiting, and always be on time. Or is that old fashioned nowadays?

If you are excited and about to go to Shanghai, then you will wake up on time and early even. You have to or you will miss that plane. Your body, or rather your brain tells you to get out of bed, fun and adventure beckons. Though if you were on Death Row, you just wish tomorrow never comes, you don’t want to wake up. Which is exactly what does happen, after you wake up, you’ll never wake up again, thanks to the executioner.

So how do you help your daughters to wake up, you have 3 alarm clocks. The radio, the phone and the Winnie the Pooh alarm clock. Oh I forgot there is a 4^th alarm clock, me, DAD.  As the girls sleep like hibernating bears, so all 3 clocks sound and it’s only the ballerina like steps of mine as I dance along the landing that actually wakes them up.