Greens - Well after all the announcements that Sally Phillips has made who would think she'd make another...but she has! She has now decided that all of the downtown district should be bulldozed and replaced with a more exotic and modern setting to increase trade and tourism...especially in the run up to the change over. So as the retail goddess of Simborough have been given the task of reviewing the new lots and I start today with Green's, a 5star hotel to suit your every need.
Green's is part of a chain of hotels across Sim Nation known as the "Green Diamond Chain" and it lives up to its name. This hotel is luxurious, spacious and with wining, dining, sport and shopping is probably one of the best locations to visit even if your not staying.

There are 4 rooms, pretty standard, that host a bed, balcony, sofa, and ensuite facilities and there's also a luxury suite that caters to the more luxurious needs but which is also shown in its price. I had a quick nose around in the hopes of bumping into Jessie Brooks..who will be doing an interview here....but alas the film crew had left and Jessie hadn't even arrived yet!
The restuarant, Luigi's, has a fabulous Italian menu and is absolutely delicious and there is also a bar which looks out across the lawn and swimming pool area. Most importantly there are two great shops...one of which caters for that tourist in you i.e. sunglasses, postcards, teddy's etc and the other is a small branch of eternity (a Simborough Clothes Chain) and offers high quality and high price goods.
All in all I think Green's will pull in the tourists, and indeed the stars, and is definately a lot to visit. You can see more pictures of the hotel here. See you next time, Jaie x

Coping with divorce
 
Recently seperated Polly Derwin has gone through a lot lately. Her first born, Kay, was diagnosed with squashed head syndrome and after only a few months her husband left her. She talks to me about the hardships of being a divorcee, learning to cope with child and the constant struggle to make enough money.
So Polly, firstly may I congratulate you on your idea of forming the SSW, how did it come about?:
Thankyou Jaie, my great friend Magdelene Oognate and I were having a normal lunch and were discussing my divorce and the fact that Magdelene often feels lonely in the day. Neither of us wanted jobs as we feel that our children need us at home but after the chores have finished, there's not alot to do. So..we formed the SSW.
Did you have any idea that a divorce was on the cards?:
No, not at all. I mean, we were having problems, mainly financial as Craig was working hard to get some money in. When Kay arrived we were overjoyed, even though he had squashed head sydrome. I really didn't know what Craig was thinking.
How is Kay?:
He's great, he's no different form other children, only in his looks and the doctor says this should clear up when he reaches his teens. He helps me out lots aswell by doing chores and cheering me up when I'm down. The fact that his Dad's gone really doesn't seem to have affected him so much, I guess his dad was always at work anyway.

Whats been the hardest thing to deal with since the seperation?:
To be very honest its been the financial side. Yes Craig was a huge part of my life and I do still love him but he just wasn't happy. As far as I'm aware he wasn't having an affair, things just weren't going right.. Men come and go and so I'm used to breaking up from a relationship, what I'm not used to though is trying to support a family while also trying to keep my principles that mothers should be at home. Initially I thought we'd have to sell the house but when the estate agent came round he took one look at my kitchen floor and offered to buy it from me tile by tile! Apparently it was an extremely rare, collectable type of lino, wonders will never cease. Anyway with that I got quite a bit of money and with  little shuffling around with the rooms its worked out ok.
What did you use the money for?:
Well with the money from the floor I built a little extension for a bedroom. That left me with a largish sitting room which I've decorated as thats the first room people come into. I couldn't afford a new bed though so me and Kay share my double!

How have you solved your financial difficulties and moral issues?:
I've become a painter..simple as that! I was reading on the Simmerville website about how to make a living out of painting and thought I'd give it a try. It would give me enough to support me and Kay and would mean that I could stay at home. Thats part of the reason why I built the extension as I use a corner of the sitting room as a studio. Kay's even getting into it!
If you dont mind me asking, how much do you manage to make?:
Of course I dont ming, this is for the SSW!! In the beginning I really didn't make much, bills were mounting and I was getting worried. Kay kept me going though as he brought some money home for good grades. I built my skills quickly and now I usually make about 166simoleons a painting. I usually paint 2 pictures a day and Kay brings home goverment money for good grades most days so I make about 430simoleons a day.
Thats really not bad!:
I know, it covers my bills and extra. It allows me to stay at home, and I can fit socialising in the day around it!
Well Polly, thankyou for talking to me. Good luck in the future and thankyou also for getting the SSW running, it'll be great!
Thankyou Jaie
[If any viewers have comments or have been affected by this kind of problem please fell welcome to contact us]

Adopting
 
I've always wanted a family and I finally thought that this new dimension would be the place to start one. I'd meet my perfect love, we'd marry and have a huge family and everything would work out just as my childhood dream. This wasn't to be the case though. I entered the new dimension with great excitement but life goes way too quickly. I'm not saying that I'm old, I'm not, but at 41 I'm no spring chicken either and by the time I actually find a good man the time for children is going to be way past. I want to see my children marry, see my grandchildren but be dead and buried before they're even a teen!
So I thought I'd contact the adoption agency. Who wouldn't give a child to me? I'm healthy, have a great job (I'm an assistant chef), do yoga every morning, keep the house spotless, I'd be the perfect applicant wouldn't I? The answer is no....you can't believe how difficult it is!! They said I didn't have the correct funds!! I mean I'm a single working women trying to create a nice home for herself, they can't expect me to save my hard earned simoleons...of course I spend them!
So obviously the next plan was to try and save some money up instead of decorating my home. I'd wanted to build an extension for my child to be but that couldn't happen as I had to save all this money. Everyday, when I got home from work I phoned them, everytime expecting that they'd say yes, and I'd get yet another disappointment. If this carried on I'd be an old women before I had enough money and would they let me adopt then? I couldn't take the risk! I sold my bed, stripped the walls of wallpaper and sold all my beautiful painting replacing them with the works of "art" that I created. On Thurs I phoned the agency again and they said....YES!! They'd bring my new daughter around in the morning. They had children of all ages to offer but I decided to have a child as I simply couldn't cope with a baby or toddler. My job is 9-3 so it also fits around school perfectly. I'm so happy to finally have a family.
But REMEMBER: The most important thing is to have at least 3000simoleons in your bank account. As soon as they've agreed to the adoption you can spend the money so don't worry. Its probably best to adopt earlier in your life as well, so you can spend longer with your new child but hey that wasn't the case for me. Laci arrived this morning and I was so, so happy to see her stepping out of the car..she's beautiful, my new beautiful girl. I can't wait to start getting to know her.
Rita Gamming

Fostering

Let me tell your our story. I am alot older than my husband Chris and so for us having our own children has not really ever been an option. Add to this that we our both extremely well known and renowned scientists in our fields and that we have commitments to Simborough web we really don't have time to have our own children...that was until TS2 arrived. With the new life that it has brought we wanted to leave our legacy and not just die without being remembered and so we started to discuss fostering as an idea. I didn't have time to deal with pregnancy and neither me or Chris revelled in the idea of dirty diapers and bottles but we did want children. Fostering was the ideal way to go, we could adopt children and hire nannies to look after them while we were out, then, as soon as the first was a teen we could dismiss the nannies.
 
So after deciding this was the way to go we called Rita Gamming and discussed adoption with her. Apparently we needed 3000simloeons to be considered, this wasn't a problem for us, money is not the issue. So we adopted our first child, Phil. He arrived in the morning at 10 and I was instantly maternal and wished for another. Within 2hours of getting Phil, I phoned and asked to foster another...this time it was Marsha. It went on and on until we had 6 kids, Phil, Marsha, Diane, Aurora, Darren & Alon.

Obviously what with having 6 children in our care the house had to be greatly extended. If you look at the diagram you can see what we did. Our original house started from the right and came up to the end of the kitchen. We simply added on a girls dorm, a boys dorm and another bathroom. I really like the layout as everything centres around the main living space and as a family this is where we spend most of our time.  Marsha has turned out to be an exceptional pianist and we all enjoy sitting around listening to her play as we study, do our homework and generally have fun. As a scientist I am very keen to educate our younger generation and help them to grow into their aspirations. I think this is one of the most exhilerating parts of being a parent or foster carer.
 
One thing that has suprised me is that I originally thought the more kids the more hectic but its simply not true! Becuase we have so many they actually look after themselves and me and Chris hardly have to parcticpate at all if we don't want to. In fact at weekends when we both have to work we just leave them to it and they all get on splendidly. Of the 6, 4 are now teens and we are hoping that once they attain adulthood and move out we'll be able to foster some more.

So in conclusion I think fostering is a great thing to do and its much easier than you may think. Remember the 3000simleons that is needed isn't taken away when you adopt so you don't need to keep earning money to adopt, simply don't spend the money you've saved until you've adopted everyone you want. You don't have to have a huge house either as you can see from our floorplan. We have a single story house and just have an extra 2 bedrooms and one bathroom to accomodate the children. And...the more children the better. They help look after each other and I would think about 3 is a minimum if you want them to play and socialise with each other...then all you need to do is pay the bills and cook them their dinners. Of course you need to do this if you desperately want to, its not for the faint hearted and remember these children are all going to want to move out one day so you must not get too attached but I LOVE being a foster parent!
Teresa Harrow
Pic 1 (Marsha, Alon, Aurora & Darren) Pic 2 (Marsha, Diane, Phil and Darren/Aurora playing on floor)