Alarm bells ring as midnight strikes

The incident occurred 10 years ago, while I was working as personnel manager for the leisure division of a large brewer, and based in north London recruiting staff for a certain retail outlet.

At the time I was living in the Midlands and travelling to the job on Monday mornings. I stayed in a local hotel for the weekday nights and travelled home on Friday afternoons. I saw little of my wife and two young children.

The work was tedious and the days long. Lots of meetings, late nights catching up with paperwork, and sandwiches on the run if I was lucky. Dinner was usually a plated salad and a half-bottle of wine in my room at about 10pm. My room overlooked a man-made lake, though, and in the early morning I used to enjoy watching the wild fowl and swans on the bank.

One evening I rang the hotel from my makeshift office to tell them I would be late and would be grateful if they could put a couple of chicken sandwiches with a half-bottle of red wine in my room. I arrived at the hotel at about 10.15pm, absolutely whacked and ready for supper and bed.

After eating, I set my alarm clock for an early start, cleaned my teeth and crawled into bed, and was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. When my alarm went off, I got out of bed, shaved, showered and dressed. I was just putting my papers into my briefcase when I thought "I wonder what the birds are up to on the lake?"

I opened my curtains and to my surprise it was still pitch black. The bedside alarm showed 12.05am. I checked my watch and it read 12.03am, so I called reception, which confirmed the time as 12.03am. I'd been asleep only an hour.

I don't know what happened with the alarm clock, but I went back to bed and had a very disturbed night's sleep.