High Spirits

Round 3: April 2010 (Spring)
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George (53) and Belinda Meadows (52)

Narrated by George

Ever since Davina headed to Crystal Creek University, it has been really quiet in the house.

To distract us from the emptiness of our house, Belinda has really thrown herself into her creative projects, whether it be writing her next novel or working on another masterpiece, and I've been keeping busy with work. I should be due for a promotion sometime soon but I need to get out there and network a little more.

Right now I'm an Animal Linguist and while it's interesting, I've been thinking about a career change.

I kind of fell into Natural Science when we first moved to Crystal Creek but my passion is raw science... theorizing, experimenting and researching, that's what I love. My dream is to become a true scientist but if I change now, I don't know if I'll live long enough to achieve it.

This month, Belinda's restaurant finally reached level 10! The place is constantly packed and it continues to get great reviews.

To celebrate, we booked a trip to Takemizu Village in the Far East. We've never travelled anywhere outside of the country, so we were both excited.

I don't know how Belinda found it, but the resort we were staying in, the Balance Resort, was breathtaking! The suites were small but they were still beautiful and we had our own private swimming pool.

I was so jetlagged when we arrived, though, that after I grabbed a bite to eat, I headed to our room to bed. Belinda stayed up for a little while and checked out the rest of the resort.

[Click to enlarge]

The next few days were packed with activities. We went to a bunch of parks and shops, went on some guided tours (which some didn't end so well) and took part in local customs.

A guy outside of a market was doing Tai Chi and offered us lessons.

I was completely lost which isn't like me at all.

But Belinda seemed to pick it up rather quickly. She really enjoys it.

She practices it whenever we have some downtime and she’s getting pretty good. I'm determined to master it when we return home.

We went to the Far East to sight see but it ended up more like our second honeymoon. It was so nice to have that time together without the worries of work and customers.

Before we returned home, our goal was to learn the local greeting. Belinda had no problem going up to random locals and bowing.

I didn’t want to offend anyone so I only tried it once or twice. In the end, I just had Belinda teach me. But at least we both know how to do it now.

Our trip ended faster than we hoped but it was needed and deserved. We ate amazing food, learned a lot about Asian culture and got to see a beautiful country. We can't wait to go back and take Davina and Joel with us.

Outtakes:

Serves me right for not checking their workout clothing before making them workout. Luckily they were right outside of a store and I rushed him in there to buy new ones. It looks like the guy behind him is like “wtf?” LOL

Not really an outtake but these 2 were standing there having a poke/slap fest for hours. They eventually became enemies. I don’t know what started it and there was nothing in their memories to give me a clue.

Notes:
-Ugh, empty-nesters! I haven’t played any in years and now I see why I haven’t. I’m glad they had the want to go on vacation, otherwise it would have been very boring to play and write. It was still hard to write, hence all the pic spam. I did go a little pic crazy though since this was the first vacation I sent a playable on in this hood and I wanted to get lots of shots of all the cool lots I downloaded.
-If you’re interested in downloading the Balance Resort, you can find it here. It’s a very pretty lot but it may be a little laggy for some because of all the greenery and fountains. It ran fine if I turned all of the lot view options under Options to the lowest setting and then turned it all back up if I needed to set up a shot.
-Before they left on vacation, Belinda rolled the want to buy another community lot, and while on vacation, she rolled the want to learn a massage. So I’m going to have her buy a spa and give massages instead of having her open up another restaurant right now (I don't know if an NPC will automatically spawn for the massage table, though. I need to test it). I have a spa downtown but it’s too expensive to buy right now. Hopefully having 2 businesses to run will make them a little more interesting when I play them again.
-Apparently George and Belinda could care less that Davina is gone and Davina must not care, either. They didn't rolled a single want to talk to her, invite her over or anything. And Davina didn’t call at all while I played them. But game-wise, it was only a few days that I played them, so it’s ok. The only person Belinda wanted to talk to while on vacation other than her husband was the chef at her restaurant. So I’m interpreting that as her wanting to check in.
-Lastly, I decided to call this Round 3 since I'm not very far into blogging my hood and it will be easy to track. Thanks again for all your suggestions!