Barbies Forest Addiction

I play quite a lot of computer games - it is generally what I am doing when I'm not at work.  I'm also quite fussy about which games I play.

I'm not very good at first person shooter (FPS) type games (although I do find them fun as well as infuriating) I like co-op versions most but I usually end up shooting my team mates more than any enemies!  Single player FPS are fun too but I have no sense of direction when I'm playing so I find it really frustrating when I get lost or swamped by enemies and continually die at the same point.

I usually prefer strategy or simulation games.  Probably because I can't get lost!   There's been a game lately however that goes against the norm (kinda).  Its called The Forest and is a survival game where you find yourself stranded on an island following a plane crash.  Unlike most survival games there is a big storyline as well as the challenge of simply surviving.  It's quite difficult as the island is not uninhabited... there are 'dudes' everywhere who beat you up at any opportunity.  They are much easier to deal with in a group!

This game has me a little bit hooked...especially as there is a peaceful mode in the single player where you are truly alone (no bad dudes to kill).  That is probably as freaky as having enemies around, its atmospheric and lonely...but somehow still a lot of fun!

Sometimes it bugs...the fire isn't meant to do that

You can hunt food...or sometimes it comes to you and jumps on the fire

You can build a new home

Barbie undergoes renovation

So a few years ago I moved.  I'm still in the same place but due to some unbelievable luck it really doesn't look like it.

It started badly, we received notice from our landlord to move out in 6 weeks...that's quite a challenge if you haven't planned but it is do-able, although the housing market in this area moves very fast.  We took it as a good thing as we had problems with our neighbours etc and started the frantic search for somewhere else to live.

A couple of weeks into looking - already after several viewings and lots of disappointment - the 'new owners' of the property had come over...the flat had been sold to a housing association.  They didn't hesitate to offer us the option to stay (or move to  another one of their properties).  I used to work with social housing so I understood that they would never allow us to move to another property of an equivalent size - we are just a couple living in a 3 bed flat after all - so we opted to stay where we were (thank you sitting-tenant rights!) and have the place refurbished around us. 

To give a little background, the building is an old tenement which had been listed a few years ago and was in desperate need of work.  The took it back to the very shell of the building.  Not a single room or part of the flat was left untouched....so. much. dust.  It was a great amount of upheaval and almost a year of workmen coming in every day for different things.  We lived in the bedroom for at least a week!

But is was worth it..


On top of getting an almost entirely new flat they also let us choose the colour of the paint in each room...not sure they expected the front room! (There's not a drop of magnolia in the whole place)

It was Christmas....I'm not allowed to keep the lights up all year :(

Thankfully now the work from the housing association is completed on the inside - we still have some new floors to put down ourselves but that's a work in progress.  The outside of the building is covered in scaffold whilst they fix the roof..Not idea quite how long that will last - one day I will be able to see out the (new) windows properly again!

(and I've been wondering why I haven't had time to post!?!)