Bianca Monty: Week 1

he second of our three Monty households in Veronaville is here at No. 20, Via Veronaville. The house is almost a twin of Antonio's place.

But it does not come with a fireplace, and the kitchen is on the left side of the stairs, while at Antonio's it is to the right.

Upstairs looks almost exactly the same as at Antonio's, with the only difference being the placement of toilet and shower. 

"Finally out of the Monty compound, Bianca is looking for love so she can start a family of her own.", according to Maxis. 

A Family Sim, she wants to become Education Minister. Also, she is in love with Kent Capp, as we know from the first week with him, his sister Regan and her husband Cornwall. Bianca is unemployed at the moment and has just under 5,000 Simoleons to further furnish her modest house. Fortunately, Mr Humble's computer is delivered promptly, and she is lucky in finding a position as Playground Monitor right away - the first step on her way to Education Minister! 

She returns from work on that Monday with a promotion to Teacher's Aide and knows just how to celebrate that, inviting Kent over as per her wish. 

Before the two have had time for more than a hug and a backrub, Oberon Summerdream rings and asks Bianca to join him and a group of friends at the One-Twenty-Five Café in Downtown Veronaville. As before (when I was playing Regan Capp and her family), Oberon's group turns out to be all friends with him, but many of them are enemies among each other. 

The fight between Bianca's mother Isabella Monty and Kent's father Cornwall Capp was predictable! 

Isabella wins, and Kent is mortified.

It does not change his feelings for Bianca, though - she pops the question there and then, and he accepts. Bianca and Kent are now engaged, in front of everyone! Make love, not war is Bianca's motto :-)

She makes an effort to befriend her fiancé's sister by joining Regan at one of the chess tables. Kent, however, is not as peacefully minded; he berates Isabella for having attacked his father. "He is an old man, and at your age, you should know better than to fight every time you happen to be in the same place!"

Still, Regan is greatly encouraged by Bianca's peace offering and expresses her wish to become friends.

Tuesday is quickly told: Bianca goes to work, and upon her return finds that a stray dog has dug a hole in her lawn. Filling in the hole, raking leaves, recycling yesterday's paper, paying today's bills and making a few phonecalls to friends and family keep her busy until bedtime. 

Wednesday sees her promoted to Substitute Teacher. The rest of the day passes pretty much like Tuesday, except that there are no bills to pay and no holes to fill in. 

The next set of bills are due on Thursday, but Bianca smiles when she pays them - with a regular income, she has still over 5,000 Simoleons left afterwards, and could start to think about some home improvements. 

She wishes to give Kent a backrub, and of course he needs to be invited over for that. Over a meal of Bianca's delicious minestrone, she tells Kent that she expects another promotion soon. 

"I am sure you'll get that promotion, and many more," he smiles. 

But her own prediction and Kent's belief in her do not come true - instead, Bianca is fired on Friday after she took the wrong decision with a chance card. Devastated, she calls Kent over for some comfort. 

Why did he bring Tybalt Capp along, of all people? she wonders as the three of them sit down to eat the leftover minestrone. It seems Kent has taken a leaf out of Bianca's book, encouraging friendships rather than enmity between the Capps and the Montys. 

The two men hog the computer, making it impossible for Bianca to try and get her job back. Instead, she takes care of much necessary gardening work.

It is already Saturday when Tybalt has left and Kent has gone to bed upstairs (he was invited to spend the night), and finally Bianca gets a chance to look online for her former job. She has to accept a position as Teacher's Aide again, but she's back in - only that she has to wait until Monday, since of course there is no school on the weekend.

Kent did not wait for Bianca to wake up - by the time she opens her eyes mid-morning on Saturday, she finds his side of the bed empty. Never mind, their love for each other remains unchanged.

She invites Emily Lee over, a recent graduate from uni who has moved to Veronaville and became her friend after they'd met at a community lot. It's a nice girls' day for Bianca, with her and Emily now best friends. 

Sunday is the big day! Bianca's wedding nerves mean she burns her pancakes. Good job nobody is there yet to witness it! 

It is too cold now to celebrate outside, and so the living room - which has been empty except for the desk and computer anyway - is chosen for their modest ceremony. Kent arrives, the two get into their wedding outfits, and the wedding begins. 

Look at Isabella's face! And note how Emily seems to have the hots for Oberon, while Antonio simply looks suitably serious for the occasion. 

In the end, even Isabella applauds as Kent and Bianca are declared husband and wife. 

Bianca is happy. One of her biggest wishes has come true! The cake, by the way, is called "Antonio's prize-winning wedding cake" in the buy catalogue :-) Did her brother create it? 

On the other side of the stairs, things aren't going well. "Don't think I have not seen how you are looking at my Oberon," Titania says through clenched teeth to Emily. The latter gets incredibly angry at having been found out, and not long afterwards, the two ladies engage in a most undignified fight - at their friend's wedding, too! 

Everybody calms down a little with pieces of the delicious wedding cake, but the atmosphere is a lot less cheerful and festive as Bianca had been hoping for.

Finally, everyone has gone (the party was still "a good time"), and the newlyweds change back into their regular clothes. Bowls of Bianca's minestrone and a bottle of champagne make up their dinner. "Here's to the new Mr and Mrs Monty", Kent exclaims.

Although they could not afford a honeymoon or at least to book into a nice hotel for their wedding night, rose-patterned curtains and a string of fairy lights at the headboard make their bed a suitably romantic place. 

A mixed week for Bianca! She got to marry her true love, but job-wise things were a bit bumpy, and the fighting between their two family members (and then even between two of Bianca's best friends, Titania and Emily) made for some less than happy Sims. 

Antonio Monty's Family: Week 1

This is the start of a somewhat long stay in Veronaville. We're here for the Monty clan, and as you know, there are several households to spend a week with, beginning with Antonio and his children. In my game, I have placed them here at No. 30 Poet Place, one of the typical Veronaville houses. 

According to the household biography, "recently widowed, Antonio must either give up his job at the family restaurant and use his savings to raise his twins Beatrice and Benedick, or hire help and keep the job he loves. What will be his role in the family feud that may have cost him his wife?" 

We are to believe that there is a family restaurant (has anyone ever found it in Veronaville?), and that there is a mystery behind the death of Antonio's wife - but in all the years I have been playing this game, I have never found any indication for the cause of Hero's untimely death.

The house comes with a rather grand fire place and little else, making it necessary for the family to be very careful with the just over 2,500 Simoleons they have in cash. 

Upstairs is no better with just the cheapest toilet, shower and sink. Luckily, as an Executive Chef, Antonio earns 1,200 Simoleons a day. Therefore, even if they have very little to begin with, the family with be able to gradually improve their furniture and decor.

Everyone is off to school or work first thing on this Monday morning anyway, and by the time Antonio is back from work, he can afford to buy a fridge, dining table with chairs and cheap beds. The lounge will have to wait for another day - the children have to do their homework sitting on the floor. 

Even a reasonably good cook can find making a meal on the cheapest stove difficult! 

But there is no way he will let the food go to waste, and everyone is hungry enough to eat what they get. 

Antonio is a Knowledge Sim with the lifetime want of maxing out all his skills. For his personal bio, Maxis once again picks up on his wife's mysterious death: "Committed to his children, Antonio is determined to get to the bottom of his wife Hero's death. And what will be his role in the family feud that may have cost him his one true love?" 

Benedick is the youngest, and according to Maxis, also "the gentler half of Antonio's twins. Sensitive and kind, he may some day be essential to solving the question of his mother's death." 

Beatrice is described as "the more outgoing of Antonio's twins" and as "quite the firecracker. But can she be as sweet as she is sassy?" 

The children will be teenagers before the week is over. 

Their first day at the new house comes to an end with the siblings peacefully sleeping in their new beds. Antonio retreats, too, as soon as he has finished the washing up and had a much needed shower. 

Antonio has Tuesday off... and Wednesday, and Thursday. It means that he has plenty of time to do all those little jobs around the house and garden as well as be there for his children, but it also means no income until Friday evening. With two sets of bills due before his next salary, he has to make a decision. 

He ends up selling Mr Humble's computer and the tattered old map he found while digging in the garden. 

A desk and chair for the children's homework are bought before anything else.

Not long after the children have left for school on Wednesday morning, lightning strucks the hibiscus tree in front of the house, and it catches fire. I keep Antonio busy indoors, hoping the flames will soon die after having consumed the tree, but the fire just keeps burning. 

Passers-bys stop and shout hysterically, and because I fear for the children when they return from school, I finally give in and have Antonio call the fire brigade. 

Not just one, but two firemen turn up, and quickly put out the fire. Now instead of doing all the other stuff Antonio had in mind this morning, such as reading the paper, raking the leaves and preparing dinner for himself and the kids, has to wait - he needs to sweep the ashes first, and of course needs a shower quite badly. 

But the day takes a turn for the better when both kids return from school with their first A+ reports. There's one proud Dad in Veronaville today! 

"Morning Bea!" - "Morning Ben!" It is Thursday, and an important day for the twins.

When they are at school, Antonio lovingly makes a berry pie for them.

It is their birthday, and he invites their grandparents over as well as their aunt Bianca. The lady in the pink cap and shirt is Emily Lee, recently graduated from uni - she happened to walk by before the party started and was invited to join the family. 

Bendick receives a phonecall from Oberon Summerdream who wishes him happy birthday; the two families are friends. 

Beatrice as the older twin grows up first. My dice rolls for her aspiration to be Romance, and she fancies herself as future Rock Goddess.

Her little brother is not so little anymore, is he! Antonio and Isabella jump with surprise :-D Bendick's aspiration is Knowledge, like his Dad's. But he does not want to follow the family tradition and enter the culinary career; instead, he dreams of becoming Chief of Staff at Veronaville General Hospital - maybe his Mum died of an illness, and that makes him want to enter the medical field? 

On Friday afternoon, Hal Capp walks by shortly after the twins have finished their homework. Beatrice's wishes are all about flirting and dating, but Hal proves to be the opposite of attractive to her, and so all they do is talk for a while until she sends him on his way. 

The twins have plenty of time on their hands on Saturday, waiting for their Dad to return from work. They invite their friend Puck Summerdream over.

Once Antonio is home, he orders a taxi and rewards his children with a trip to a restaurant, the Oresha Family Dining. They have really worked hard all week and never complain about their frugal life in their sparsely furnished home. 

So far, Antonio has not expressed any romantic interest; he has been too busy raising his children, working and taking care of household matters. But here at the restaurant I have him "scope room", and to my delight, Demi Love, a townie with a playable surname, catches his eye. Unfortunately, she is always either having dinner or talking to someone else or going to the toilet, and so Antonio never really gets a chance to meet her. 

Meanwhile, Benedick meets and greets Hermia Capp.

Back home, Puck is still there (he was not made part of the outing since - as usual - I forgot that I'd have to form a casual group for visitors to accompany my playables to a community lot). He has just jumped into a heap of leaves but now, with his hosts returning, quickly rakes the leaves back into a neat pile.

Sunday is not only the day of this winter's first snow fall, but also Family Day for the Montys: Antonio's parents Isabella and Patrizia are invited over, and of course the boys Mercutio and Romeo, Antonio's nephews and his children's first cousins, are coming along. 

Benedick and Romeo get along very well, and while they are catching up, Romeo's girlfriend Juliette Capp walks by. She is delighted to spot her sweetheart unexpectedly, and even more so when Benedick welcomes her. Unfortunately, Mercutio argues, pokes and slaps her every chance he gets, and apart from Benedick and Beatrice, nobody talks to her. I am not sure Romeo even notices her at all! 

Anyway, it is good to have the family over, and the week ends on a positive note. With Antonio's work at the restaurant and no spending apart from the weekly bills and the meal at the restaurant, there are now over 6,000 Simoleons in the bank; with careful buying, some improvements can be made to the house next time I play here.