My Swan D01 Teasmade

I now have my own teasmade. At quarter to seven tomorrow, it will make me a cup of coffee, which by seven will be cool enough to drink. I can then drink it in bed whilst reading about current affairs on the internet, or some of the zines I have under my pillow, or another story from the Ali Smith collection I bought from Meanwood Community Shop (my new favourite charity shop) at the weekend. Three stories in, I realised I maybe already own this one (The Whole Story) but it's not quite familiar enough to put down. 

 This teasmade came from Oxfam in Headingley, for a very reasonable £10. I later found that my friend has an identical model, bought from the same place, as she went into the shop earlier in the day than me when they had two for sale and bought one of them, leaving the second one (unknowingly) for me. I was especially glad to find this one, as only days previously I had bought a teasmade from the classifieds section at work, but when I switched it on it boiled continuously for half an hour, filling the room with steam. The same steam that needs to be captured and condensed into the teapot to make the tea, I think that's how they work. Well that one didn't work, and it didn't even have an alarm or a clock. It was clearly not the teasmade for me.

This one has an integral photo frame (!) and a removable tray on top. It will make up to two large mugs of coffee (or four cups of tea, but I find that idea far less appealing), although I have taken to only half filling it to avoid over-caffeination before breakfast (because for the time being I am still drinking my coffee in bed alone. As alone as a booklover can ever be, at any rate). I wish I had an actual photo of my one rather than this one, but it is exactly the same model so you get the picture.  

I remember when I first heard about teasmades, I thought they sounded too good to be true. An alarm clock that wakes you up with a hot drink! So now, to actually have my own seems like some kind of dream come true.