grrrr this is stupid. Of course I had it defined and enabled as of day one I had my phone. But something recently must have gone wrong. I checked in App Manager and there is was, enabled. as it was always. I disabled it, saved. Enabled it again, saved. and then did an upgrade. and Flipcclock 0.9.7-2 appeared and installed fine. funny things here. Guess what, all runs fine.
If i don't have the kisses in the morning (worst case), then at least I'll have Flipclock. mmmm, not really a comparison but way better than a hotel TV emitting loud beeps

quick check...,no, shepherd still hasn't appeared. I can't blame it on this nuisance then ...

cheers.