The Royal Hotel.

This evening’s cinema performance was a bit disastrical; it started off with the DVD player refusing to open its drawer and making disgusting noises when we tried to force it. We hurriedly found a replacement which, just after the interval, stuttered and then finally stopped. We took the DVD out and examined it closely and it looked to be in perfect condition and, from then on, the player refused to recognise the disc, in fact it refused to recognise any disc that we put in it. Only one customer accepted our offer of a refund, the rest preferring to come back and see the second half when we get round to showing it.
 
I now have to go out and buy three DVD players, two replacements and a spare. We quickly devised the strategy of having two machines at the cinema at all times and use each one on alternate weeks, that way we will always have a spare that we know was working two weeks ago. I’ll also buy both a disc and a head cleaner so that we can do basic servicing on the spot. That should cover most eventualities except for the projector exploding – which did happen a couple of years ago - and it is far too expensive to keep a spare cinema standard projector.
 
This Blip had always been part of this evenings plan, mainly because the weather forecast was abysmal; I thought that it would look good in a downpour with a few smokers huddled in the doorway; unfortunately, neither turned up at the right time.