Better than an iPhone?

My niece Ailish made a short trip to Edinburgh this weekend. We arranged for her to pop down to our flat for breakfast this morning before catching her train back to Newcastle for an afternoon of essay writing. Last night she set an alarm for 8 o'clock on her iPhone. 

I was ready and waiting with the table all set for breakfast at 08:45 this morning, as arranged. Ailish hadn't reached us by  09:15 so I sent her a text with the simple message "Wake up!"  She did so - but by this time it was too late for her to come and see us before her train left just after 10:00.

Ailish's alarm failed because she set it for 8pm rather than 8am. If only she had used an old-fashioned alarm clock like this one (an 18th birthday present to me in 1981), which doesn't discriminate between am and pm.