We had an ambitious plan for the late May bank holiday. To keep a three year old up to midnight watching Jurassic Park in an open air screening at the Eden Project. Madness, you might say. You’d be right…mostly.

Jurassic in the Park?

The evening started with a two course dinner in the Mediterranean biome. We’d eaten there a few times in the past, although it’s a dynamic space and doesn’t always house a restaurant. Sometimes it’s just a café or serves a variety of snacks. This was a special pre-movie dinner that literally some people availed of. Not that many. Probably 25 at the most. It wasn’t the cheapest option as it came in at £32 including a glass of Prosecco or sparkling elderflower (and a steep £22 per child). The food was nice though and the atmosphere was what really sold it. We had a pleasant wander around the biome after we finished our dinner.

Dinner was being served from 6.30 pm, and we were able to get into the cinema area from 7.45. Considering the film started at 9.35 it was quite a long wait in what turned out to be a chilly evening. Add in some rain and you’ve got a fantastic outdoor experience. Although the wet conditions were a little dispiriting at first, once the film started all was forgiven. Seeing Jurassic Park on the big screen and in such an atmospheric location was outstanding. The film really holds up well all these years later and makes the Jurassic World series feel irrelevant.

To paraphrase Dr Ian Malcolm, chaos mathematician, we were so preoccupied with whether or not we could watch a film outdoors in the UK, we didn’t stop to think if we should.

…

I kid! Next time we’ll just bring more layers.

Monitor Mayhem

It was a sad day a few weeks back when my iiyama ProLite ultrawide monitor refused to turn on during a day of working from home. It had died. Completely unprompted. How rude.

The lack of any power light or attempt to turn on pointed towards an issue with the power supply. I opened up the casing, breaking almost every plastic fastener tab as per my custom, and removed the cables from the power board to get a better look. My limited electronics experience extends to “oooh, that looks bad” or “yep, that’s melted”. That’s followed by ordering a replacement component online and getting the soldering iron out. This time the power supply looked perfectly normal.

Figuring something has gone wrong at a level I’m not equipped to understand, I sought out a replacement board. I found one on eBay for the same monitor and ordered it after some internal debate. How much am I willing to spend attempting to fix it before I give up and get a new monitor? I initially pegged that figure to £30, but now it has expanded to £60 for reasons that will become obvious.

The first thing to do upon receipt is to make sure it’s actually the right part. The eBay seller insisted he was telling me the right part number. I wasn’t so sure. Turns out he was just looking at the serial number which is different for each part. That’s not much good if you’re trying to get the thing you need, but thankfully the model number for the monitor was accurate and the board fitted.

Moment of truth. Everything was put back together and plugged in. And…nothing. Not a peep. I guess the power supply isn’t the culprit after all. The next step in the process is to find a bin. Or give it one last go. The other readily replaceable part is the main PCB (printed circuit board) which is the other board visible in the photo of the back of the monitor. Back to eBay to find a replacement. I’ll update you with how it goes.