The Alarm Bird

So early one morning last week I was soundly sleeping- until I heard this "Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep". Of course, I woke up thinking I had set my watch alarm to wake my up early for the days classes. I started searching through my room trying to find my watch to turn the alarm off. For a good 5mins I was ruffling through my stuff, baffled that I could not find the alarm to turn it off. It wasn't until I was sufficiently awake that I remembered that I hadn't brought a watch with an alarm to Singapore. So I went back to bed at what I figured to be 4:30am to try to get some more sleep- cursing the person who had left their alarm to go off at 4:30 while they weren't there to turn it off.

It wasn't until I related this story to Jenny that I finally found out that this was actually an alarm Bird. Ok... This is the one thing that has irritated me in Singapore: the Alarm Bird.

"What is the Alarm Bird?" I hear you ask--- Well as the name (made up by me I must add) suggests it is a bird that sounds like an alarm. It doesn't sound like any old alarm; it does not wake you up with the gentle coo of a song bird; it doesn't sound like a clock radio alarm with Sonny and Cher singing I Got You Baby ala Ground Hog Day.

No... This bird sounds like a watch alarm. I don't know how it manages it but it sound exactly like a watch alarm I had when I was 13 years old. Sort of a high pitched beeping sound that doesn't sound like it should come from any natural organic object. Unfortunately I haven't been able to record it to give you a sound bite- but it is very real, and very annoying. Much like the Australian Drop-Bear this bird seems to be constantly making its presence known yet never letting itself be seen.

So every morning for about a week, I was greeted bright and early to the incessant beeping of this bird. I think I am finally use to it and able to ignore it for the sake of an extra 3 hours of shut-eye. But if I ever catch that bird... It won't live to tell the tale