Nik-nik

Hi John, What an awfull news about the car accident. I am very glad that apart from your nerves everything is OK with your son and of course with you and your wife. The new banner is very nice. LOL! Very nice what you did with the bridges. Love the use of Jeronij's bridge. It's a masterpiece. Oh my... that tedious terraforming. I like what you do with the road patch technique and still manage to keep some knolls and hills in teh country side. The road to the waterpump is very well executed. I have finished playing C&C and I am going to start up SC4 again soon. I had a great weekend I went with the two eldest to a small stream where we netted some tiddlers and some dragonfly larvae. I did my sons some boots on, but still wonder why because they went up to their knees in the water. As you can imagine a big part of the small stream ended up in the boots. Later on at the river beach Jop managed to fall in the water wetting the rest of his clothes. In afterthought it was hilarious but I had to remain a poker face and comfort him of course at that time. Even more later I went on a bike ride with Merijn, the yougest. What started out as a small tour took me 1.5 hours and some steep climbs (well steep for Dutch standards). But we both enjoyed it tremendously, we saw squirels, rabbits, horses and cows, and Merijn knew every one of them (well, the squirrel was a bit difficult). Did I tell you already that Pim is going to the third grade? We were very surprised as we were expecting another year in kindergarten (from age 4-6, the first two grades are more or less similar to Kindergarten in the Netherlands). I guess that is what happens when you have an smart elder brother. John, have fun and take care. Nik-Nik

Perfect! What better way to start the week than with AVR. The weekend was relaxing. Played a bit with C&C Tiberian Wars. It's taking up all my gaming time unfortunatelly. Jop had a soccer weekend and had a great time playing about two dozen mini games in two days. He was exhausted! I do not know if you remember an exhausted kid, but it is testing the nerves. Fortunatelly we knew where he got so distresed and upset from so we could sooth him before it got worse. Today my wife found out that we left his shoes in the club house, fortunatelly we have some spare ones else he had to go to school with his soccer shoes on LOL. I guess the comercials near the bridge are plopped? Nice! Andreas Roth SC4 tools ? Do not know what it is taht you are referring to but it is great! Love those parkngs you used. That parking in pic 10, just behind the commercials is very good, but I like the grafitti even better (here not in RL, I hate 'em). Now that hotel. I noticed in pic 14 that the street in front of the hotel is so very crowdy with all those cars parked. Considering the texture of the parking (black) I would recommend to use roads in stead as Jeronij's street mod is then not used and the road is much less crowded. Besides that you've done a great job. Especially the way you redecorated the back exit with the foot path, maybe add a small terrace too, for example instead of the statue? LOL I was thinking immediatelly why in earth's name is he putting that condo there? Then I noticed the header of pic 17. greedy contractor. That explains it. i live in a small town that is continuously under fire by these kind of contractors and in general if you let them go without proper supervision, they tend to go for the money and not estetics. Love that overview especially when comparing it to pic 1. Have a great week John, enjoy the guitar and stop making me jealous with stories of attending such great concerts! Nik-Nik

Hi John, I am back. Guess you already wondered! Back during Ascention-day (17 May) had a short break and took the wife and kids to the camping. We have a wonderful folding trailer and visited a great camping site. So I missed the update of 18 may). During that holiday period my living room got a new floor (parquet in french). Wonderful, the room now looks twice as big, unfortunatelly it sounds twice as little and with three sons that's............ Anyway, the floor layers made some mistakes and correcting that took me about the rest of the following week (missed update of 25 may). So at Pentecost I too found out that my PC went Kaboem! eh, what the .... is that! It must be the time of the year, judging from your problems too. Well I am as computer literate as an oak door so I had to take the thing to a friend of mine who lives an hour away (for Canadian standards in the same town, for Dutch standards almost at the other end of the country). Well, he quickly found the culprit: a broken sim. Yes, there are sims in my PC.This one was fortunate only 256 MB, he did not fool around with his two 512 MB brothers, so I still have some good amount of RAM. That solved I died to try out my PC the next day (I was back at home after midnight) only to find out that the internet connection was not working. ?!?. What the .... is going on now again. It was working at my friends last evening so the PC is OK. Must be the cable. nope. Must be the socket: nope. Could it be the connector? Yes, a big blob of varnish decorated the connector. It took me a good hour to remove it carfully with a sharp hobby knife and a thimble (my wife is a Health & Safety Manager you know). Finally I am on the air again. Finally this weekend had a great time with my brothers, their wifes and children during our anual come-together (which we agreed upon after my father's death 3 years ago). So I am now at the office (lotza work is waiting, but I have my own priorities, hè, hè, hè and finally can comment. Update 38 That upper middle class sector of pic 6 & 7 is very nice. I like the ol'Silvio. He's a great man with good principles. If nly the walk to him wasn't so darn tiresome (I must start to loose some weight). I love those hungarian houses of pic 9.. It's a pity that those ugly yellow appartment buildings were built next to them in pic 12. Some development agents are just money grabbers. Don't you agree? Update 39. Pic 6 very nice res zoneing. I like the way you placed the paths. They are fitting the large building (can't remember it's name I believe it's Simgoober's) well. Pic 7. that little green house across the plopped river is just a great sight. A house where I wish to live, if it were not for that huge exhaust pipe of the hospital and the helipad across the river. Good! VERY very good you blasted that ugly Com sector. pic 14. very nice those diagonal parks together with the clock. Now, that's an oldie isn't it? I like that motel & gas station combo in pic 14, but one picture later the motel is gone but the gas station remains.Later in pic 23 and 24 I notice that it suddenly does not fit well there anymore. The "Will wright school of gaming". Must be a boy's dream to study (or play) there. great those paths around it. Pity there are some palms trees. Is that a 8x7 lot? So are the palm trees added or do they come with the lot? Don't you just love that Deadwood roundabout bus stop? It is like a landmark isn't it? The park of pic 22-24 is one of your last masterpieces. It is very well done, John. Finally thanks for the region picture. It's so big and so full of memories that it will probably take the rest of the afternoon for me to look at it (well drool at it, that is). Take care John and looking forward to your latest RL stuff. Nik-Nik

Hi John, Pim is stunned, well actually the first thing he noticed was the bus in front of the cineplex. LOL. Jop on the otherhand certainly did not miss the T-rex. " Hey, I know that dino" he said. Wonderfull, while writing this reply Pim certainly noticed his own name and Jop's. The kids are anxious to go to the small town fair that opened in Oosterbeek these days so I am off to get nauseous in one of the big swing machines. take care. Nik-Nik

Hi John, Before reading the update any further I immediately noticed something familiar. It took me soem seconds to reckognize the wonderfull coloured T-Rex Pim Made. Great addition! I'll continue to read now. Is it a coincidence that the hospital is placed right behind the Donut shop? LOL. Wonderfull that "Professor Jacky" college. well deserved! I see it now in pic 13. Pim's Cineplex! I will show it to the boys this evening. Wonder what they got to say about it. Pim will be very VERY proud I guess. Holy smoke what a great job you did with the back! This Cineplex reminds me of the Rembrandt theatre in Arnhem (where I live very close to, Arnhem that is). It is also a huge cinema in town with almost no parking spaces around. Hellish to go to in the evening. What I amtrying to say is that your cineplex is quite realistic! About that commerce. Well from picture 11 it is not a pretty sight, but from pic 16 it is very good. It all depends on your point ofview I guess. Are there more pics from the residential area seen in pic 1? Well I am off to home celebrating week's end. have a great weekend, John, and do enjoy the crêpes for me too. I just love Crêpes. Crêpes are one of the reasons to spend my holidays in France. (well, and the wine, and the language, and the food and the countryside and, and, and). Crêpes with vanilla ice, Crêpes with cognac, Crêpes with Cointreau, Crêpes with just sugar....Crêpes, Crêpes, Crêpes! Nik-Nik

Hi John, It's a lovely spring evening here in the Netherlands. I am sitting in front of my PC, with a warm.......pops of for a refill....cup of coffee....temporarily distracted by the lovely chocolate cookie... The garden door is wide open and I am enjoying the verdant green grass (which I lay 3 weeks ago remember). Anyway I am digressing. I am not working for the government (thank GOD for that) but I have a lot of legal matters that involve governmental dialect so to speak (I am into the transfrontier movement of waste). But I like it that you liked it. Maple syrup, mmmyum. one of those other great things you have over there. Yes, I am very curious on those pics your wife took. Update, well yeah back to that. First off, AWE at the anorienbigme9.jpg. I love big overviews like that. It gives the overwelming sensation of reckognizing areas that you've developped and which I had the pleasure to comment to (or is it on..I hate English pronouns). Thank you for Blame it on Nik-Nik the Sequel (It's like a soap opera will it ever end?). The triangle is much (MUCH) better! Also nice to steer down that road towards that sculpture, which is nicely placed directly oposite the road. I love that Old road. Gread winding. I liked even more the extensive description on how you built it. I learn a lot from that, you know. The industrial area is just great. Again the placement of the trees is simple but very effective good work! Great parking space behind the commercial area, good work. Alcohol and Donuts? Strange combo. Oh, the road patch plopping technique (there goes that chocolate coockie!) yes, TEDIOUS it is.I am glad I am not the only one who feels it that way. The new area to solve the texture problem.... Perfect. However, on behalf of the Rural Bureau for the Development of Cervinae Territories I would like to protest against the sudden decrease in green in the neighbourhood ANyway, that gulf station is just a beauty. Fits well there. What's that industrial building behind it? Great piping on the back. (on the side of the building the fork truck and truck will have some serious manouvering problems (best seen in pic 19)). I am off now to spend some wastefull hours behind the telly. Have a great weekend John and do not eat too much Maple Syrup. Oh and fix that slowliness problem. Maybe Wouanagain at Sc4D can help you. Nik-Nik

Yeah, weah blam it on poor ol' Nik-Nik. I bet you had a great Thursday evening! I answered before but ST crashed on me, so here my comments again. I like what you did with the avenue (of course). About the statue you let the grass triangle remain where as I would consider just making that part of the kerbstone. One other remark. I still see the blue corner building that grew instead of the boutiques. You wanted to tear it down. Change of mind? It fits well with the other two buildings especially with the diagonal building. >> The JBSimio Clinton clock tower is an awesome choice of corner house. I think in the new set up it is even better placed.>> The maintenance headquarters is very well placed. Great lot at a great place. My compliments! Nice to see in pic 13 that the residential growth next to the PW is indeed R$$$. Pity that R$ block shows up too. The train pics are awesome. Next update. I am glad that you decided to build a school complex there. It is not far away from my home if I remember right, it's bordering the pond). Thanks for making that tunnel, now the kids can go to school without any danger. I am flattered.>> I like the use of the bicycle paths and of the grey paths between the playground and the baseball field. Very good choice. Pic 10. The pizzeria clientele, how do they get there from the private school? I do not see a stairway? probably just by car, all those rich spoilt kids have cars (explains why Sims drive very badly). The duck pond is a great choice. I was wondering what you would do with those lower pieces of land in the area. It is a very good choice. You keep on surprising me with original ideas! Where are the ducks? Well did you write the memo in fivefold to the Central Agency of Anatidae Habitat Development?>> If not it will probably end up at the bottom of the pile and it will take weeks before you will get the proper stamps if it will not be returned to you in the first place.>> On the other hand judging from the following picture, the memo ended up most probably at one of the burocrats of the Rural Bureau for the Development of Cervinae Territories. They are known to be very pushy when new “Lebensraum” is involved.>> >> >> >> Texture problem? Probably again the Rural Bureau for the Development of Cervinae Territories demanding a green living environment! Yeah, yeah, you know how the green lobby is nowadays: Economic development is OK as long as there is compensation in green. Well enough green on that turf I guess.>> >> BTW how did you make that fenced road. In pic 18?>> >> So how was the dentist?>> Here in the Netherlands we skip spring and head on straight to summer. Its getting an incredible 26-28 degrees in some towns in the Netherlands. The kids love it of course especially now that they are once again allowed to walk on the grass that I planted at Eastern. Once the Netherlands was known for its superfluous amount of precipitation, but it hasn’t rained in Holland in 6 weeks now. It’s like living in Spain. (No complaining here!!).>> >> Have a great weak.>> >> Nik-Nik

Very nice river John! Your work with the ploppable plants is very well done. I noticed how the bridges cross the largest piece of the river (due to ploppable water?) but by using the ploppable plants this fact is well conceiled. I especially like the last part of the river, it is meandering (is that English?) nice. Back to the rail road track. I could accept your reasoning behind putting a street over the rail road, but a bussy avenue is something else. I once again plea for either a tunnel or an overpass. The two towers are great. Strange that they are R$ (or are they C$) only those buildings, being very lovely I mean. Pity that pics 17-19 could not be seen, I refreshed the page several times. I hope to try it later again. So what's happening in RL? Spring is coming here too. I have a sunburnt forehead due to relaxing in the garden (out of the wind the temperature is well above 20 degrees Celcius). Relaxing from laying that grass mentioned earlier. Laying them was fine (my wife did most of that) but getting the roots of the tree and the ivy out was something else. It took me well over 2 days to get the job done (and a 6 yard long root out!). Easter was great, relaxing most part of it. The boys enjoy an extra day off and I am back in the office enjoying my lunch break. Take care John. Nik-Nik

Hi John, I got the corner boutiques. They are Gascooker's: https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=362 I am not sure if I have them, but now I do. Have fun. Nik-Nik

Coming from SC4D where you show your work in Show us your.... I can only say what a great work you have made. Very nice cities. Huge some of them are. Good use of some of the latest lots around superb picture adjustment. Keep to great work up. Hope to be back soon. Nik-Nik

Hi John, The weekend here was great although a bit too much to do so I am now relaxing at work after a strenuous weekend Jop (the eldest) had his first soccer victory 4-0, his third game (one lost, one equal and now one won). He was the goalie (somehow the kids all want to be goalie so they have to take turns) and he made some remarkable saves for a 7 years old. Pim is trying to ride the bike and with his low muscle power that's a whole feat and as for Merijn, well he just does what he does best and that's just being adorable. the first BBQ, wow that's soon, has the snow already gone? Now back to the CJ: Great town. But i have three little problems: 1) pic 10 and others. This is a very well laid out piece of town. the use of the 1x3 borders is very well done. I use these also but you master them as you usethem to border to the green behind it. very good thinking. However, there is a palm tree. Maybe loose the palm tree (plop it again) and it will be perfect!! (palms and indian fall do not match in my opinion). 2) pic 9 and 11. How on earth do those big orange trucks get behind that building. Probably the building was built after the trucks were parked there. Someone has to take care of those fences too, the fences where to nose of the truck stick through. 3) The knoll. The road and the JRJ parkings are absolutely gorgeous. The buildings....well they fit the general idea of the neighbourhood but unfortunatelly not so realistic. What I pointing at are the two petrol stations. Both have a serious problem for cars to get on and off to. See what I mean at one side (big green sign) you either have to cross the kerbside or JRJ park. The petrol station at the other side, at the corner is a petrol side for 4x4 only as you have to clear 2-4 feet of kerbside drop there on one side or navigate over the green border, only to hit the parked cars. LOL. (I know I am a pain in the you know where....) The plopped river is drop dead gorgeous. Very well done! Do you ahve a linkie for me for those great corner shops, the classic ones with the curved corner? The boutiques of pic 17 I mean. Have a great week and a great Eastern (don't eat to many eggs). I am going to get some new grass in (only 40 square meters) but taking the old grass out (well what's left of it) equalizing the earth and laying the grass sods takes some days work. Nik-Nik

Hi John, Thank you for the touristic update. Gosh you live in a beautiful country. A bit big, but beautiful. Good decision to split the avenue bridge. Those buddybud bridges are gorgeous. Great work you've done on the sawmill. Great RR track! I cannot remember seeing that corner lot with the high fences before. Made it yourself or is it Deadwood's (I have them, but never used them). The guitar on the billboard is perfect! Picture 10 & 13: Why did you decide on a separate street to the sawmill / lumbermill area. First you build two tunnels (in RL tunnels are expensive you know) but only 50 yards along the rail road track you build a street crossing the RR. It makes no sense. Isn't a roundabout or intersection at the avenue/oneway road (pic 13) more logical? The river ooks gorgeous. Nice to show what can be done with ploppable water. Time I wstart to work with it too. Have a great weekend John. I am off home now. Nik-Nik

Sorry John, I am a bit late in responding I became 39 yesterday so AVR was not directly on my mind (I know I should be ashamed ) It's almost spring here in the Netherlands according to the local newspaper which shows some nice photo's of de Keukenhof: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keukenhof I do not know what they call spring but looking at the dark clouds outside and seeing (thank god not feeling) those 1 cm hailstones smashing down from heaven I wonder where has spring gone. Certainly not to Canada judging from your stories. You are right about the use of complementary colours it must be something natural. If you want to see my kids just ahev a look at: SC4D at dedgren show us your Children thread: https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=586.0 Anyway back to AVR. Great service tunnel, never seen one over here though wonder if it is something North-American. The service area turned out pretty well. I like it. Ha, ha talk about tying some loose ends. I do remember you stating on going to use ploppable water. It turned out pretty good although I still think thesides are too steep for such a natural creek I would think canals (I know said it before) would be a better choice. Nag, nag, nag. So Exxon decided to close the old gas station. Well where do the car drivers go then to fill their tanks? That Shorty Burgers is almost never shown in any CJ. I like the fact that you dare to use it, ha, ha, ha. It fits well there Take care John. Nik-Nik

Hey John, back home now. Should be doing some preparation for a job interview, but couldn't resist. Here's Pim's drawing. I think it's his best so far as he realy followed (more or less) the lines of the animal. Hey guess what my kids are Dino-fans. Colouful isn't it? Nik-Nik

Hi John, I will upload Pim's drawing in another reply as I am now at work and of course do not have it with me (nor can scan here). The update is very nice. I like the RR lay out,. Why did you use Jeronij's underpass (it's nice) and not Marrast's? Because Marrast's is not transit enabled? Take care and spring is coming to town here, 14-17 degrees celcius! Nik-Nik

Good that this it is a small update as RL takes up the time to answer. Pim is now sitting next to me making a wonderfull colour drawing of a dino and Merijn is in bed. At last I can have a look at AVR. Nice little update. The area looks very nice. The cultural rest stop is interesting...these things sometimes sprawl up as mushrooms. The morafi lots are a great asset. Good work with them David's inn...ah what a wonderful piece you'vve made out of it. Interesting parking lots. Made them yourself? LO at Nardo's answer: "Hmm ... ploppable water is some of those things this oldfashioned stubborn donkey of me never tried. And the raintool, I rarely use. I guess I might change this somehow ... maybe .. " It is so recogniseable....I have never used it as well. LOL. Have a great week, John. Nik-Nik