When I was little and staying over at Silver Birches, my favourite thing was to get into bed with Granny and Bampa first thing in the morning, to chat and read books. As I was an early riser then, I knew I had to wait until I heard the teasmade going off. I would lie in bed, straining to hear the sound of the water boiling – deciphering between the false alarms of the hot water pipes in the walls of the house, then leaping out of bed the second I was sure I'd heard the real thing!