I was going to say "this isn't looking good."But, actually this...

I was going to say "this isn't looking good."
But, actually this hasn't been looking good for some time.

When I was a small boy, I remember finding an old alarm clock in my grandparent's shed.
I thought "this would be good beside my bed so I don't miss playing cricket on Saturday morning."

I wound it up and listened to it tick happily for a while but every so often it would start ticking more slowly, carry on for a while but sometimes it would stop altogether.

Shaking it would re-start it and it would go on normally. "But, will it stop again?"

NRZ reminds me off that old alarm clock.