The Traveller Family: Week 5

Carlos Contender used to live in this house, originally assigned to him by Maxis, all on his own for the longest time of his life. As an elderly man, he met and fell in love with his 3-bolt-lady, Trisha Traveller. She left her husband Trent and daughter Tina for him, and when he died, the house became hers.

Trisha still lives here, but not on her own anymore: Last round, her daughter moved in with her. After a period of estrangement - understandably, Tina was less than happy about her mother leaving her and her Dad for another man - the two women finally became friends again.
Now Trisha is 68, and much to my surprise, I find her lifetime want changed AGAIN, something that used to occur rather often in my game but has not been happening in a while.
As far as I know, Trisha is my first Sim to have had an inexplicable change of LTW not just once, but twice: Originally, she wanted to earn 100.000 Simoleons. Then, she wanted to become Mad Scientist - unreachable at her age. Now, she dreams of owning 5 top level businesses - as good as impossible.

Tina's LTW has changed, too: She wanted to have 20 best friends and was nearly half way through when all of a sudden she decided to become a Mad Scientist. Last round, she worked her way up to Scholar. Now, she is set on having 50 first dates! Not difficult, just rather time-consuming.

On Monday morning, Trisha purchases Belladonna Cove Groceries. Although I am pretty sure she will not reach her LTW, I want her to at least give it a try.

Before the ladies do anything else, I have them put the house and garden in order. For Tina, that means raking leaves in the front yard. Burning them results in herself catching fire...

...but (I forgot that it is there) a fire alarm has been installed at the outside of the house, and Tina's life is saved by a fire fighter.

Tina has the first of her 50 first dates with Corydal Capp...

...the 2nd with Marcus Baldwin...

...and # 3 with Prezioso Picaso.

In the evening, the ladies drive over to their newly purchased business and open the groceries shop for the first time.

The shop reaches rank 1. Tina helps her mother, but she is as painfully slow at the till as the elderly woman.

On Tuesday morning, Tina uses some of Carlos' old workout equipment to get in better shape.

The shop reaches rank 2 with Tina working there on her own in the morning.
      

Meanwhile, Tina has  her 1st date # 4 with Charlie Cho...
       

...greets Tara Gieke, a friend of her mother's...
       

...and Vincent Stratton, a Secret Society member like herself whom she knows from uni.
       

Nathan Gavigan walks by and is also greeted.
       

In the afternoon, after Tina has had a rest and a meal at home, mother and daughter drive over to the shop again.
       

The business is now at rank 3.

An evil witch has sent an infestation of bugs, but Tina makes short shrift of them.
       

Back home, Tina has one more date for the day, this time with Servo Capp. In case you have lost count, we are at 1st date # 8 now.
       

On Wednesday, Trisha finally makes her Bronze Cash Register Badge. Things will be a little easier from now on. She also makes her Silver Sales Badge, and the shop is now at rank 4.
       

Tina's date # 9 is Justin Kim.
       

# 10 is Tybalt Capp.
       

The second shift of the day at the shop sees the ladies work up to rank 5. A heavily pregnant customer - Parvati Patel - is glad to be offered a comfortable chair and a bag of cookies.
       

Tina finds out she has 3 bolts for Sirius Swain.
       

On Thursday morning, Trisha makes her Silver Cash Register Badge while serving Sally Riley.
       

It is a beautiful day, and customers are happy to use the outside area of the shop where Trisha has served a berry cake. In the course of some hours, the business reaches rank 6.
       

To make the place as nice and attractive for their customers as possible, Tina trims the shrubs and rakes the leaves. When she burns a pile of leaves, however, one of the nearby shrubs catches fire. Customers panic and come running from all corners.

The fire causes them to lose customer stars, so that within minutes, the business goes down rank 3.

When the tree catches fire, too, I fear for the worst.

But neither Tina nor her mother come to any harm (I have kept Trisha busy at the cash register all the time) - three townies die, whose tombstones are quickly transferred to the cemetery: Shea Johnston, Melissa Fancey and Marylena Hamilton.

Too shattered to do anything much that night, the ladies go home, where Tina has two more first dates before going to bed: # 12 with Matthew Smith and # 13 with Tank Capp.

On Friday morning, Trisha nearly despairs - her business was going so well, and look at it now! She spends several hours cleaning up.

Tina has date # 14 with Peter Sims...

...and # 15 with Guy Wrightly.

Working very hard for the rest of the day, the mother and daughter team manage to get the shop to rank 5 again.

More dates follow, but I have not taken pictures of all of them. Here are # 17, Amar Alioto...

...# 18, Pao Siew...

...and # 19, Hyun Cormier.

Most of the time, Tina gets the date over with as quickly as possible; for her LTW, it does not matter how good or bad the date was, only that it was a first date.Every now and then, however, I let her make an effort, because a good date is such a great mood boost. Here, she really goes to town, even serving crêpes suzette for Hyun and herself (I found it in Trisha's inventory).

"Yes, I have to be careful about rain when I'm walking the neighbourhood, it would of course wash off my body paint," Hyun explains.

Saturday morning sees Tina getting up alone - as usual.

She has a very nice first date # 20 with Romeo Monty - another man she has 3 bolts for!

At the shop, Trisha makes her Gold Cash Register badge while serving Erik Swain. The business is now at rank 6 again, as it was before the fire.

Erik later leaves a "gift" for Tina on the front porch - "thanks" for a particularly short and unsatisfying date.

By now, Tina has exhausted her list of male friends and acquaintances to call for a date. Everyone she has been ringing today has more or less politely declined her invitation. Therefore, she enlists the Matchmaker's help.

Date # 22 is Hun Wade - another 3-bolt- man! (Tina paid the full 5.000 Simoleons.)

"He works as a cook at a community lot," the Matchmaker introduces Warren Owens as date # 23.

Alvin Le Tourneau is # 24 - that's almost half of Tina's LTW reached.

On Sunday morning, the groceries deliverer appears at the same time as the Matchmaker. Trisha honestly does not mean to spy on her daughter's dates - she really meant to do the gardening at that moment.

Abhijeet Depiesse is presented as Tina's date # 25. 

# 26 is Sterling Pons...

... and # 27 is Benjamin Kalson, another community lot chef, if I remember correctly.

Andrew Vijayakar certainly takes the prize as most unusual look in Tina's collection, as well as being her # 28!

A new name appears, Randy Reiner. I can't recall having seen him before, but he is obviously another chef.

Oh dear! Tina looks anything but impressed when Gary Leive appears! She decides to leave it at that for now, and dismisses the Matchmaker.

A few hours later, I find mother and daughter dressed in their finery, and Tina kissing her mother. "Happy Birthday, Mom!"

Trisha is 75 now, and she's been wanting to throw a party from the moment she woke up that day. So a party it is!

Tina makes use of meeting her mother's friends by securing her first date # 32 with Mickey Dosser.

The party is a success, with the hula dance being the biggest hit right after the delicious food Trisha served.

Someone must have been complaining, because all of a sudden, a police car pulls up and an officer gets out. Could he be a prospective date for Tina?

She does not seem to think so! The officer dissolves the party due to the "noise" (honestly, it wasn't that bad!), but Trisha and her guests are happy, it was a great few hours they had together.

Before going to bed, mother and daughter clean up the dishes. Their week ends without either of them having been to the shop today.

Will Trisha try and get at least one business to top level? Is Tina going to have more 1st dates with the Matchmaker's help, and what will she do once her LTW is fulfilled?