It isn’t my alarm, which has a very annoying, but loud and regular bleep. In my dream, my mind races across an unreal gallery of all the electrical things I’ve got. Have I left the fridge door open? Is someone, by some miracle, using the landline? Is it the fire alarm? No. batteries ran out months ago. I start to wake up properly, remember where I am and finally identify the sound, which has now stopped. It’s my mobile. It’s making the noise it makes when someone’s sent a text. I turn the light on and look at my watch. It says it’s 4.37 a.m. That can’t be right, can it? I pick up my mobile and look at the message that it’s just received. It’s from Clive. Does he have no idea that I’m in a different time zone? What time must it be in Hong Kong? Must be about mid-day, I guess. Outblaze new acq. I’m handling! Xxx I have no idea what that means, so turn the mobile off and drop it onto the floor. Sounds more like an inter-office memo than something you’d send to a girlfriend or fiancée.
