Been a While…
It’s been a while since the last such urban “trip” I went on, but yesterday I covered quite a lot of ground. Luckily I only covered about a third of the way back on foot, as my initial estimate for doing everything on foot was a minimum of two hours each way, assuming I never got lost on the way, which would have been rather troublesome. One hour each way is never a problem, one and a half can work, but my right knee starts complaining after about three hours of walking and becomes quite a bother after four, so two each way plus some more walking while there would have meant pretty much limping my way back. It could be manageable, a couple of times I walked for some six hours straight, but after four I really need to do everything I can to spare it and maybe even make brief stops now and then.
I did this because several events are taking place these days and it was a good enough reason to do something like this again, since I didn’t really go anywhere whenever I went out during the summer. Went to see a craftsmen’s fair where there also were various traditional foods on display, stopped by a bookstore, checked out what was supposed to be something of a book fair and glanced at a couple of other things along the way, so in itself it wasn’t bad. It could have been better if the book fair would have actually been set up by the time I got there, but it was the first day of something that’s supposed to last a whole week and what I saw were vans, boxes and people very slowly arranging the books on what would later become the displays, so that was something of a waste.
Unfortunately, there were a few interactions with people which, as always, were very troubling for me, and that was without me trying to buy anything, as that was clearly out of the question, requiring direct interaction initiated by me. At first there was a woman giving me a magazine, which wouldn’t have been an issue if I’d have understood her correctly from the start, but I couldn’t figure out whether she said she wanted to give it or sell it to me, so I had to ask before taking it, which meant interacting and therefore was unsettling. Then, once everything was done and I was on the way back, a guy got out of a car that had stopped right in front of me and asked me if I knew a hospital in the area, which made me stare in the direction of a children’s hospital but eventually mutter that I didn’t know the area, because with him next to me I really couldn’t remember if it actually was that way or in the opposite direction, nor how far the next one was, as that was probably the one he was referring to. Yet the worst was the couple who asked me to take their picture in the craftsmen’s fair area, even though I had noticed their intent as I walked towards them, put my head down and walked faster, in an attempt to appear unapproachable. It didn’t work, so I mumbled something about wondering whether I’ll manage, but the guy said I’ll manage just fine, handed me the camera and showed me what button to press, after which they walked a couple of steps away and hugged. So I took a picture of them without ever looking anywhere other than at the camera’s screen, sort of tried to ask him if it was all right and then awkwardly left, sort of walking sideways, while he said it was fine.
Going to such events always makes me think that they’d be just the kind of things the Andra I knew would have wanted to go to, pulling me along and then making me wait around for her while she checked everything out. In themselves, those wouldn’t exactly be good memories or mental links, but they imply being with her and aren’t negative either, so they’re far better than anything done without her. Besides, I would have never thought of checking out such events before going to a few with her. Not that it does me any good, since there are usually a few things that catch my eye but I obviously couldn’t buy anything even if I wanted to, but there you have it… A little over a week until it’ll be six years since she left and here I still am…
In other news, at least I’m alone these days, so that makes things more manageable, at least as long as nothing’ll happen that’ll require any intervention or interaction. I just wish I’d be alone for good or at least neutral reasons, not because they’re going to help out relatives diagnosed with cancer who have been discharged from hospital. Can’t say that I care about the person in question, which goes for nearly any relative of mine, but people should either somehow get completely cured very quickly or die very quickly when this happens, if it needs to happen at all. Really couldn’t care less which of the two it is, but nobody should go through something like this for any significant length of time. It’s just terrible, not to mention terribly frightening.
Otherwise, I sort of got stuck at the end of chapter two in Risen. You have me and 12 NPCs against eight lizardmen, if I counted correctly, but I only get experience for the lizardmen I land the killing blow on. It would have been so much nicer if the game would have put all of us in a group, like it does during the quests that give me a single ally, so there will be no experience lost regardless of who lands the killing blow. There’s always the trick with Rhobart, which I could use to recover any experience lost here, though I preferred not to do so otherwise, but it’s really annoying. I tried a few times to kill all of them and I think the most I managed was five, then got frustrated… Hope it won’t make me give up on the game.
