Foiled Again

Part I: You know about this, my failed attempt to watch a TV show of my choice as sundry family members imposed.

Part II: Time - check. Family - quietly disposed of in various beds, sounds asleep. DVD - check. Pop it in the machine. Nothing. The multi-region DVD player is in its box, neatly tucked away under the box with all the remote controls in it. Nah, it's too late to go through all that... I go to bed.

Part III: Time - check. Family all asleep - check. DVD player - check. This time it's not too late and I make the effort to unpack and plug in the DVD player. DVD - uncheck. It's gone. Parts 2 and 3, yes, in their box by the stereo where I left them last time. But Part 1 seems to have gone awol...

Aha! There it is, in the remote controls box. Where else? I pick up the DVD player to get the wires plugged into the TV and hear an ominous clatter. I know that clatter. It's the clatter of a loose DVD inside the DVD player. At some point, when I've packed it away I forgot to remove the DVD. And as I packed it or as I moved its box around, the DVD has slipped out from the tray and fallen somewhere inside the body of the machine.

Cue tragi-comic DIY attempt to remove DVD from player using iphone LED torch and jewellery tweezers. No luck. Wiggle it into place? I must have looked like I was playing one of those motion-sensitive iphone games as I gently tilted the machine to get the DVD directly under the tray, then FLIP quickly turn it over, hoping it'll settle back into place. No luck. Time for bed.

Part IV: Time - check. Family asleep or out - check. DVD - check. Screwdriver - check. The top of the DVD player easily comes off, only 7 screws, which I fiddle with while watching a documentary on human cloning - yes please! Just one more me, to catch up on all the TV shows, movies, books and magazines I have lying around while the other one does all the work, like unscrewing DVD machines.

Wiggles DVD successfully removed from machine, lid successfully replaced, DVD finally inserted into machine, press Play and...

... nothing. I get some sound but no picture. Time for bed again I think!

postscript: In a moment of inspiration, I decide the TV is at fault, and connect the Little DVD player to the Big DVD player. After some fiddling to find the right channel, success! Sound AND vision and I am now going to sit up all night watching TV!