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)

 )