Just Ask

The front door on my building slams very loudly and makes the whole building shake. This isn't too much of a problem if you know about it and close the door slowly, but not everybody does that. Especially the friends of my new neighbour. Funnily enough, neither did the friends of the last person that lived there, which rumour has it, was part of the reason the reason he was kicked out.

Yesterday I decided to nicely ask them to take it easy on the slamming, but when I opened my door, I was greeted by an absolute mountain of a man, who probably took my request with about as much thought as I give to my diet. Knowing that I've probably done nothing to help the situation, I decided to call the landlord and have them finally do something about it. By the time I got home today, the door no longer slams. All this time, and all I had to do was ask.

More Train Agro

How on Earth Southwest Trains keeps their contract, I do not know. The seem to fail at even the simplest tasks, their communication is so bad it's almost non existent, and whenever you try to find out why a problem is occurring, they just blame someone else. Like today, when all the trains were backed up for the second time this week, and the Lymington crew had "finished their shift" and could "work" until the "replacement crew" arrived on a delayed train.

When I got up and made an announcement that I was getting a taxi instead, a lady said that he husband was coming to pick her up and that I could get a lift with them. That's twice now that trick has worked. I hope to God Keira Knightley is on my train the next time I try that.

Action Trains

Strangely, the train was waiting for me when I got to Brockenhurst this evening. The guard said they were waiting for the police. When Sting failed to turn up, I realized I might have gotten the wrong end of the stick.

It seems that it was something to do with fare dodgers, although I've never seen police involvement before, so it must have been a little bit more than that. Especially as the cops were armed when they showed up. I don't think they caught the perpetrators, but they rarely do in these sorts of cases. Probably why so many people do it.

Good news about my watch, though. I've learned my lesson that just because you have several Rolex watches in the window, doesn't mean you know your stuff when it comes to digital. I took it to a department store in Bournemouth, and they fixed in no problem. Job done!

Swings & Roundabouts

I did finally manage to get my Super Nintendo open and replace the inside connectors, where the game meets the motherboard. I thought this would fix the weird graphics problems it's been having. But sadly, this was not the case. Now I have no idea what's causing it, as it's not the cables or the games either. It also means I've spent £25 and ruined the resale value of an original first generation SNES for nothing.

I've decided to get new batteries for some of my old digital watches. But after taking my favourite TV remote watch to get a new battery, the man in the fancy jewelry shop told me that even after he put a new battery in, it still wouldn't work. This got me a bit down in the dumps, but after asking online, it seems these watches have a 'trick' you have to do so they start up again. But I've had these batteries replaced before. Why on Earth some Del Boy type trader back in the Swap Shop knew this, and a fancy Lymington jeweler didn't, is beyond me.

I've also been going through my belongings in Mum & Dad's garage. I have to admit I was rather overwhelmed when I first saw the scale of everything I own, stacked up in boxes 6ft high and 10ft across. Luckily, the movers back in Florida did an amazing job and everything is wrapped up very well, so it's just a case of downsizing the packaging. I can't help wondering how badly everything's going to be affected by the cold weather here in England, and what sort of state they are going to be in come next spring. I'm slowly going to be buying up plastic containers so I can see what's inside easier, but I don't know how well they avoid the moisture problem.

Super Nintendo Blues

When I was working at Gamestop about ten years ago, I bought a used copy of Turtles Tournament fighters and didn't clean the connectors. Then several years later, I foolishly left it plugged in to the SNES while I went back up to New York. Naturally, this caused the display colors to go all funny no matter what game I put in. But at least it still works.

I've tried cleaning it, but to no avail. I read online that sometimes the connectors can get worn out, so I bought a new connector and the special screw needed to open the SNES. Sadly, due to the age of the screws, and my own naivety, I managed to strip one of the screws bare. Which means we had to drill out the screw. But due to the heat of the drill, the plastic and remains of the screw have all melted together, and I still can't get it open to replace the parts. Now it looks like I'll have to try and snap it open and hope it breaks inside and not outside.

And I looked after it so well for so many years. It's a shame.

Edit: and now the VCR has stopped rewinding. At least that's something that can be handled by the English VCR.