The Traveller Family: Week 1

The Travellers are to be found in the family bin in every neighbourhood, but in my game, I have decided to settle them in Desiderata Valley. 

Their family biography reads: "After a few years of astounding success in his law career, Trent realized the life of a working man wasn’t for him. He decided to take his modest fortune and travel with his family to explore the world." Funnily enough, Trent's memories show that he worked in Law Enforcement, not in the law career.

Here they are at their new address, No. 189 West Pleasure Path. 

"Trent is a Free Spirit. He’s never afraid to go out into the world and get what he wants. He is a dedicated father, and loves spending time with little Tina." That is what Maxis say about him. His aspiration is Knowledge, and he now dreams of becoming a World Class Ballet Dancer. 

"Trisha’s a little apprehensive about Trent leaving his successful career so quickly, but is ready to see the world and teach her little girl about the history and customs of far away lands." Well, there won't be much of seeing the world for now, what with Trent's lifetime want. Trisha's own lifetime want of maxing out all skills is a real challenge - she has not a single skill point. Her aspiration is Popularity, not Knowledge as you'd think. 

"Tina was sad to leave her school in Sim City. She misses all of her friends in the city, but she’s also very excited to explore all the far away wonders her parents have been speaking of." Again, all that exploring won't happen just yet, but I hope she'll make new friends here. 

Let's now have a look at the house. What little furniture there is on the open-plan ground floor is cheap, and there is only one small window.

Upstairs isn't much better. But since the family still have 40,000 Simoleons left after buying the house, they can afford more windows, nicer doors and most importantly, good furniture. 

Downstairs now looks like this; the empty part of the room will be furnished as per their wishes or needs. The kitchen is well equipped, and the dining table has enough space for visitors. A shower has been added to the downstairs toilet, more windows and better doors. 

Upstairs, the unnecessarily large bathroom has been made smaller and the rest of it is now Tina's room, in cheerful yellow with a sunflower-patterned wallpaper. 

The master bedroom is big enough to hold a desk where Mr. Humble's computer has been set up. 

The spacious landing can eventually hold skilling equipment, for instance an easel or - if Trent will get into the Dance career - the ballet barre. ]]>

The welcome committee consists of the Joques, Marcel and Sophie, and Faith Goodie. Since neither Trisha nor Trent can cook yet, all they are able to offer are sandwiches, but everybody enjoys getting to know each other.

In the afternoon, Tina learns how to do her homework with her Mum's help. 

The Joques are still here when it is time for dinner, and surprisingly, Trent is able to produce Mac & Cheese without burning the house down.

Trent is lucky on Tuesday and finds a job as an Aerobics Instructor. With him at work and Tina at school, Trisha spends the day doing the crossword and some household work, all in the name of skilling. She also makes sure to pay the bills. 

Tina and her Dad return from school and work at the same time, but Trent can only say hello to his daughter before he is off to another shift: He has been promoted to Backup Dancer.

Unfortunately, he takes the wrong decision with a chance card and is demoted to his former job as Aerobics Instructor. Never mind, he'll do better tomorrow. For now, he brings home his colleague Issac Bell.

Autumn begins on Wednesday, and it's not just the season that makes young Tina want to skill: She has, amazingly, already an aspiration (Knowledge) and a lifetime want (to become Mad Scientist). Here she is, skipping rope before school in order to increase her fun level and gain body skill at the same time. 

While her Mum is busy filling in a hole in the lawn, dug by a stray dog, she spends the evening gaining some cooking skill. Her Dad has gone back to work for a double shift after he has been re-instated as a Backup Dancer. 

At breakfast on Thursday morning, Tina cleverly suggests they should get a TV set - only for her and her Mum to gain cooking skill, of course ;-D

Speaking of skills, Trent now needs charisma, and so a mirror is hung near the front door. There are mirrors in both bathrooms, but I don't want him to unnecessarily hog a bathroom when someone else needs the toilet or wants a shower.

Trisha is happy to welcome a radiant Tina with her first A+ this afternoon. The day ends with Trent returning from work with a promotion to SimJazzer Instructor. 

Friday is dedicated to school (Tina), work (Trent) and skilling (all three). An easel is set up in the master bedroom, where Trent can now gain the creativity he needs to advance in his career. 

On Saturday, mother and daughter have breakfast together while Trent had to leave for work early. Trisha encourages her daughter to make friends with her classmates, but the girl is more interested in skilling - at least for now. 

But when Garrett Newson walks by in the afternoon, Tina runs out to greet him. They aren't friends yet by the time he leaves, but she has made an effort. 

Unfortunately, Trent has to work on Sunday, too. But he makes sure to spend time with his daughter before he leaves.

Also, the family have breakfast together; Trisha is now able to make delicious omelettes, just the right stuff for Trent before dance practice :-D Winter has set in, and they wonder when the first snow will fall.

Mother and daughter later walk to The Frippery Frock to buy some warmer clothes for Tina. 

She meets Gabriella Newson there, which is nice; now she knows two of the six siblings. 

Back home, Trisha has a nap while Tina, ever the little bookworm, is poring over her Mum's cook book. She really loved the omelettes this morning and wants to learn how to make them herself. 

Trent returns from work with a promotion to Dance Video Star and his colleague Issac Bell. Issac stays for a meal, and the first snow is once again talked about. 

This is where this nice, quiet week with the Travellers ends. Trent has been doing well in his career, and Trisha now has 17 out of the 70 skill points she wants. Tina has been focused on skilling but didn't neglect socialising with other kids completely. She'll grow up into a teenager the first day of their next week.

I like this family. They are easy to keep happy, and once the rucksacks and sunglasses are gone, they look like any regular Sim :-) I was surprised to find that each of them had quite an extensive choice of outfits already; Tina didn't have any winter clothes, though, which is why I chose the clothes shop for their visit to a community lot.

By the way, my game didn't crash at all during this "week" - maybe something is wrong with Pleasantview only but not with Desiderata Valley.

Trisha Traveller - Week 6

Click here if you want to (re-)read week 5 with Trisha.

Carlos Contender's original house is still there, and looks pretty much the same from outside. Inside, though, a lot has changed since Carlos' days.

When Carlos died, he left the house to his 3-bolt-love Trisha Traveller. Trisha left her husband and daughter to be with Carlos; Trent died long ago in a fire at home caused by burning leaves, and only many years later did their daughter Tina reconciliate with her. For a while, mother and daughter lived together happily at this house, but then Tina married Charlie Cho and moved in with him.
Now that Trisha is all alone and 75 years old, she does the most reasonable thing:

She moves to the Senior Residence, of course.
It is Thursday when she arrives.

There are four other residents here at the moment, three of which are pictured: Gunnar Roque, Bottom Summerdream and Jimmy Phoenix. The fourth resident is Bottom's husband Björn.
Gunnar is the youngest at 65, the Summerdreams are 67, and Jimmy is the oldest at 79.
Trisha is the only one who is not on Permanent Platinum, and she will not reach her lifetime want of owning 5 top level businesses.

After she has done all the gardening, she greets Sirius Swain (who has, as we know, just returned from a family vacation and still sports an impressive sunburn!).

She makes friends with Bottom over a game of kicky bag.

On Friday morning, the airport arrives at the same time as the repair service, the latter being an almost daily visitor here.

Some time later, the group of senior residents arrive at Three Lakes where they check in at the most expensive hotel.

Their first day is spent familiarising themselves with the hotel and its facilites and dining out at Three Lakes Plaza.

The maid seems incapable of getting all her work done at the hotel - Jimmy Phoenix decides he does not want to wait any longer and rather cleans the bathroom of his hotel suite himself.

It takes until Saturday morning before the maid finally clears the table of the dirty dishes left by the previous occupants of the suite!

A trip to the market is undertaken.

And there I finally detect Kennedy Smith, another long-lost "relative" of the Smith family! Very few of my playables know him, and I was hoping for the vacation makers to run into him. I send Trisha over to greet him.
After that, I end the vacation prematurely - the hotel seems a little "buggy" and is not much fun to play, and with Trisha meeting Kennedy, I have achieved my main goal. Back at the Senior Residence, she will dedicate the rest of the week to befriending him.

Or so I thought!!
Just before 7:00 pm, Trisha puts aside the gardening shears and follows Mr. Reaper to the Big Lot in the Sky.
I was honestly dumbfounded - I sat there in front of my computer, saying "WHAT?!" aloud, as I never expected Trisha going so soon.

Since I was only playing the Senior Residence because of her, I'll move straight on to the next household on my list.
Is Kennedy Smith ever going to join the rest of his relatives in New Max?
What happened to the shop Trisha started to build up last round? And how will Tina react to the sudden death of her mother?

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?