diff --git a/festival/examples/saytime.sh b/festival/examples/saytime.sh
index 3efc2cf..c8eac1b 100644
--- a/festival/examples/saytime.sh
+++ b/festival/examples/saytime.sh
@@ -48,10 +48,13 @@
 
 (define (get-the-time)
 "Returns a list of hour and minute and second, for later processing"
- (let (date)
-   (system "date | awk '{print $4}' | tr : ' ' >/tmp/saytime.tmp")
-   (set! date (load "/tmp/saytime.tmp" t)) ;; loads the file unevaluated
-   (system "rm /tmp/saytime.tmp")
+ (let (date tmpdir tmpfile)
+   (set! tmpdir (getenv "TMPDIR"))
+   (if (null? tmpdir) (set! tmpdir "/tmp"))
+   (set! tmpfile (string-append tmpdir "/saytime.tmp"))
+   (system (string-append "date | awk '{print $4}' | tr : ' ' >" tmpfile))
+   (set! date (load tmpfile t)) ;; loads the file unevaluated
+   (system (string-append "rm " tmpfile))
    date)
 )