I have never lived or stayed in a place where a clock chimed time. I have however seen / heard them in action in some places but they are now an extinct species except for those with antiques.
On my very first visit to London however, I made it a point to personally listen to the Big Ben chiming as this was something that I had grown up listening to in radio.
Now, I have clocks on the walls of my bedroom and drawing room but, they are battery operated and do not chime / strike. I do use an alarm clock by my bedside to occasionally set an alarm but, more often use my cell phone for the same purpose.
In my current life, the clock strikes twelve only once every 24 hours as, when it is midnight, I am inevitably fast asleep even when others stay up like on new years eve etc. When it is noon, I would have just finished my morning routine of reading the newspapers and solving crossword puzzles and would move to my recliner to catch up with my WhatsApp messages and to read something else.
Rather dull for the proposer of this topic for this week, Sanjana whose life is far more adventurous and I look forward to her take on the topic later today.
This is my contribution to this week’s Friday 8 On 1 blog post topic. The other seven bloggers who write on the same topic every Friday are Maria. Sanjana, Padmum, Raju, Shackman , Srinivas and Conrad. This week’s topic was suggested by Sanjana. Please do go over to their respective blogs to see what they have to say on the topic. Thank you.
For whom the bell tolls, my dear Ramana. Midnight being as good as any old hour. And please do remember that ghastly saying that the darkest hour is before dawn.
Unfortunately, and I don’t like it when people plant immovable thoughts onto me, according to my father-in-law (RIP) most people die around four in the morning. Though he has been long dead (incidentally he clocked off at roughly two in the afternoon) I wake up, I look at the time and, invariably, it’s hovering somewhere between 0355 and 0405 hrs. Which means I still have five minutes or so, or am dead already (unbeknown to me). Whilst I prefer to get up immediately sometimes I just lie there for a moment wondering if that hooded creature with the Scythe will have the courtesy to knock first or just enter – uninvited. Best case scenario – we both shriek at the sight of each other, and he’ll leg it post haste. Repeat.
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Ursula, you have now come and planted that idea into my head! I wake up at around 4.30 am every day anyway and from now on I may just keep thinking of this idea at that time.
One of my sets of grandparents had a cuckoo clock that would announce each hour. I loved it!
You were lucky! My maternal grandparents died much before I was born and my paternal ones didn’t need clocks. My grandfather had a pocket watch on a chain which I found fascinating. My cousin inherited it and his widow sold it through an auction house for an incredible price.
We had a cuckoo clock in the marital dwelling. In the hall. I always anticipated that cuckoo jumping out on the hour. No idea where that thing wound up. Never did get a grandfather clock, I really wanted one too but the antique auctions never had them.
Now I am clock obsessed. They are everywhere though I do use the phone as an alarm when needed.
Daughter found this clock thing amusing until she phoned me one day a couple of weeks ago and told me she just bought a huge wall clock and we had a great laugh. Apples falling not too far from the tree.
XO
WWW
You experienced a daughter buying a clock and I a son who completely out of character, brought a bucket of ice cream that he thought would please his old man! It did very much indeed!
I remember the year of the cuckoo clock gift – my ex was so pleased with himself and for a whole week I looked at this plain cardboard box which he didn’t get enough paper to wrap it in. At one point I said I hope it’s not one of those chiming clocks – as I remember finding him in part of the living room measuring a space bit of wall. Well it turned out to be such a clock – and it was NOT me who removed the “cuckoo noise” but rather HIM as it irritated him! It irritated me from the very beginning as it wasn’t just on the hour but every 15 mins a gentle little cuckoo emitted from it!
I couldn’t ever understand “why” as we both had wrist watches, radio alarm gadget and an ordinary wall battery clock in the kitchen…
Catherine de Seton recently posted..Tripping around town…
Such intrusions into domestic harmony and silence can be very irritating and it was, dare I say, poetic justice that your husband got irritated more?
Once the clock strikes twelve, I know I’ve been up far too long and need to go to bed straightaway! There are no chiming clocks in this house or in the immediate neighbourhood. They’ve definitely gone out of fashion. But I remember that when I was young jeweller’s shops would be full of chiming clocks, and when they all started chiming at once it was an incredible racket!
I remember such shops too but, they never wound clocks up unless to demonstrate to a prospective customer! You found a room full of clocks showing different times and static.
As others here have said, we had one of these old cuckoo clocks that had the weights so that you wound it by pulling the weight down and let it slowly return to static position, the clock being run by gravity. Big Ben would not have fit in that room.
Conrad recently posted..Once the clock strikes twelve
Leave alone Big Ben, even an old fashioned grandfather’s clock standing on the floor will not fit into most rooms now.
I like to hear large clocks chiming. When I was a little girl my mother’s family lived in Leeds. It has a beautiful library with huge lions on each corner of the building at ground level. My father told me that when the clock struck 12 midnight the lions came to life and walked around the building. I believed this for a while until my mum told me that the clock never strikes midnight because of its proximity to the hospital and not wanting to disturb the patients! I quite like the idea of huge proud lions strolling round the library.
I would love to meet your father!