Perception

Fashion? Or Crimes Against It?

I have just booked a holiday for 2012 and in all my excitement, I wanted to go out right away and spend a ridiculous amount of money on summery clothing that the weather will dictate I won’t wear until I actually GO on holiday in mid June. So I did. 
And I spent £0.

I wondered around the city centre for hours and hours looking at the same old crap I see in the same old stores every single year. And I realised that High Street fashion NEVER changes. We buy the same old tat every single year because unless you are lucky enough to earn an absolute fortune to spend on designer brands, we can only afford that same old high street crap.

So I decided to browse the internet, in search for something a little bit special, something that doesn’t make me want to cry and then cut it into little pieces when I see somebody else wearing it and think about how much money I actually spent on it.
And what I found was something old, something new, something borrowed…but unfortunately, nothing blue. And I thought I would share them with you. Because quite frankly, I wouldn’t blame you if YOU TOO are bored of the British high street.

 
David & Goliath Clothing: I have loved this brand for a long long time. If you like quirky images, wordplay and tongue in cheek slogans, David and Goliath is definitely for you. My personal favourites will always be their Lounge Pants, available as PJ sets or as seperates for a fairly reasonable fee. They are a US based company, however they operate a UK based website. Both are listed below;
www.davidandgoliathtees.com
www.chicksrule.co.uk
(Also have various shops around the UK - known are Birmingham Bullring and Oxford City Centre) 

 
Lazy Oaf: I had never ever heard of this brand before, but happened to stumble across it whilst browsing ASOS.com looking for ideas/inspiration. They don’t have a full collection online at present (hopefully that will change after the official SS12 launch in 3 days time…!) but I absolutely love the bright colours and funky prints thrown together by the designer here. Colour blocking has been a hot trend for more than a year now and bright prints - aztec/neons etc have been all the rage in late 2011/early 2012 and it doesn’t seem like they’re set to disappear anytime soon. The great thing about these styles is that they’ll look great worn as casual summer trends with wedges and topped with big sunglasses and a beachbag, or worn on an evening out, with killer heels and a cute little neutral blazer! 
The product is a little more expensive than what I would normally spend on single items, but lets face it, these days, it’s worth it to be one of a kind!
www.lazyoaf.co.uk
(Shop off Carnaby Street, London) 

 
Lipsy London: If you want to be cute and girly and floaty and lovely all year round, Lipsy is for you. I’m not a particularly girly-girl so Lipsy items don’t hold a high percentage of my wardrobe but even I find the occasional item that you can just tell will be cute on absolutely anybody. Again, it’s a little more than i’d normally spend…but the great thing about Lipsy is they seem to have sales quite often in their stores, so even if you have to wear a season behind (with Lipsy you can never tell anyway!) it’s probably worth it to shop the sales.
www.lipsy.co.uk
(Stores nationwide - known are Leeds City Centre, White Rose Centre Leeds)

I am finding even more cute, funky and fun styles and brands as I write so I will keep all you eager beavers in the know with what funky fashions you could be buying and (more importantly) WEARING before anybody else. Except me. Obviously.
If you’re interested in peeking around some of these gorgeous brands stores yourself, a sure fire place to start is Carnaby Street, London. Forget Milan. Forget Paris and even (dare I say it!) Forget NYC. London is the fashion capital for those of us who are bored of the high street.

I Can Save The Economy. Maybe Even The World.

We’re in trouble. And we’ve been in trouble for a while now but it seems that nobody with the power to do anything about it, seems to know exactly what to do about it. Well I happen to have all the answers. Well, maybe not ALL the answers (if only because at this present moment I cannot think of all the questions) but I most certainly have a few.

1. Lets leave the Euro. Everybody is sick of bailing out countries who have done stupid things with their money and got themselves in debt. It’s the taxpayer that ultimately pays for this (and I’ve never even been to Greece!) and since I already own shares which I’m seeing no return on in RBS and a couple of other high street banks, I’m not interested in shares in France, Greece or Italy.

2. Sack Mary Portas and get somebody who is actually going to take a stand about what to do with the Retail sector, rather than comment on the cabinets fashion sense. She’s been in office for a few months now (at least) and as far as I am aware (and I work in Retail so I like to keep myself in the know) she’s done NOTHING. I expect she was hoping for a high Retail profit margin over Xmas so she could sit back with her feet up and say “it’s all good here Prime Minister”. So what should be done? Lets start with York for example, my home town. People come shopping in York who live in York, work in York or for day or weekend trips thanks to Yorks historical value, so they should get a really good shopping experience. Now from what I can gather, Yorks shopping was originally supposed to be split into 4 different sections. The city centre for your high street shopping, Monks Cross for a little bit of a higher market, Clifton Moore for all your homeware/B&Q/Tesco etc and Designer Outlet for your upper-market. It may have started that way but it sure hasn’t finished up like it, and I believe this is because of a lack of control in the units sold to the highest bidders. For example in the city centre there are 2 New Looks, and then 1 at Monks Cross. Who goes shopping in New Look and then thinks “well this is all shit…i’d best try the other New Look”? why does York need 3 New Looks!? We have 2 TK Maxx!! Why? Nobody knows. What needs to happen is a greater control over what companies can be up units dependant on their type of product, size and how many units they already have in one town or city.

3. Small Businesses. Lets face it, big Retailers have got boring. I for one am bored of places like New Look and bloody Poundland who sell the same crap every season for what seems like a higher price every single year, and people are getting bored by the lack of choices. That is why people aren’t out spending all their money, we don’t want to buy the same old tat we’ve been purchasing for years, just to then think “this is the same tat I buy every year” and throw it away, resulting in a massive waste of money. Small businesses change all that. You may have to pay a higher price, but you get better quality products that you often can’t find anywhere else and since they’re privately owned or family businesses you generally get a MUCH better level of customer service too! 
It should be law that every bank that turns profit in the first quarter of 2012 has to lend so much money to small businesses by December 2012 and if they refuse to do so, they should pay a nice hefty fine. That would keep the public happy regarding banks profit/bonuses (considering we own a lot of them and I’m yet to see my bonus cheque arrive in the post!) and would also boost small businesses and the economy. Three birds, one stone. Thank you very much.

4. Reduce the welfare system. I find it ridiculous that in a recession (I don’t care what the PM says, we’re still in one!) if inflation goes up, benefits go up to help with the cost of living, but the wages do not. Then when inflation comes down, the benefits stay the same. I work 40 hours a week (I’ve done 48 this week and I don’t get paid overtime!) and I earn slightly more than minimum wage and I would actually have more free money if I sat at home on my bum and just pumped out babies for a living. Where is the logic in that? I agree, if you’re disabled and you simply cannot work, fine have some free money, but I’m point blank refusing to accept when my hard earned taxes are going to lazy baby machines. I live next to a block of council flats, benefit scroungers paid for by my hard work, stood smoking by the window in their flats, their 12 kids running around in the road outside and their nice big family BMW 4x4 thing sat in their parking space. I drive a Ford Mondeo, my boyfriend can’t afford to smoke anymore (which personally I am glad of) and I pay £600 a month to live in the tiniest one bedroom flat you’ve ever seen because York is stupidly expensive and I cannot afford this, let alone anything bigger. So when the PM tries to reduce benefit household income to £26K a year and it fails I’m sure all those people who earn £1100 a week in child benefit alone (on top of their JSA,Council Tax allowances etc) will spare a thought for all those struggling to get by on 2 incomes and it just not quite being enough. I’m sure.

5. Get entrepreneurial schemes in place in the Educational system. Come on Michael Gove, step up. I loved when I was a kid when people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. It would change every week and some of the answers seem silly when I think back, but I always think when it comes down to having my own kids, I’d want them to be learning at school that it’s good to have ideas, think big and to do everything it takes to achieve something worthwhile. I think kids should learn that before it’s too late and they end up like me, working in Retail because I just didn’t think big enough, and didn’t put the great ideas I had, out there in time.

6. Bring in a baby licence. You need one to get married, you should need one to have babies. Here’s how it works, you pay a fee and that fee covers somebody qualified (a social worker of sorts) to come to your house, inspect you and your partner to ensure you’d be good parents, inspect your finances to make sure you can afford to pay for the child. If everything is in order they give you the baby licence there and then and you take it to the hospital with you when you go into labour to prove you have the right to legally have that child. If you fail the test for whatever reason when you go into labour you have the baby and then it is taken by a social worker and given to a family who have passed the test but for whatever reason, cannot have a child of their own. It would solve the slow pace of the adoption service and the child would all-together have a much better upbringing. It would also make horny teenagers think twice about using protection when they’re out having sex in a bush somewhere. The only other way to solve these issues is to bring in a maximum child allowance for each family. But China have already done and that and to be honest it’s not fair on those families that can afford and want more than 2 kids.

7. Bring in a baby licence in Africa. We have an overcrowding problem on this planet. And since we seem no closer to finding another inhabitable planet that half the worlds population can go and live on, all this planets resources are being used up very quickly. Medical advances mean that people are living longer…so rather than kill off the old people, stop those people in Africa having more babies! I see the adverts clogging up my TV all the time “one child dies every single second in Africa” my £2 a month is NEVER going to stop that happening. We’ve been giving aid to Africa for £20+ years and they’re still in the same situation. I’m not saying to stop giving them the help they need, I’m saying if they didn’t have so many children, less children would be alive in the first place to suffer those conditions and die of starvation or whatever disease they’ve picked up from the dirty water. Stop people in Africa having so many kids and lets focus on paying for them to create a stable environment for themselves so they can be self sustaining and don’t need my poxy £2 a month. Again, two birds one stone. You’re welcome.

8. Stop the Human Rights Board interfering in EVERYTHING. I agree if someone has had a serious breach of human rights (I can’t think of a good example right now) then fine, I can see your point. But when it comes down to the idea that we’re not allowed to send a TERRORIST home to his own country in case he gets tortured, well I find that ridiculous. He has openly admitted that he’s a terrorist and he thinks 9/11 was the best thing to ever happen. So firstly, why should he be allowed to stay and sponge off our already overstretched welfare system? and secondly, nobody REALLY cares if he gets tortured in Jordan! What about all those people who died in 9/11? If we can’t send a murderer (even if not directly) to his home country then what did all those people die for? The saying I believe, is “an eye for an eye”, so frankly, he’d be lucky to just be tortured. I personally think he should be thrown from the top of the Empire State Building wrapped in the American Flag with the names of all those people who died in 9/11 written on it. (I realise it’s a crime to deface the American Flag but I feel the American population may make an exception for this one) and then the world would be rid of one less vile human being. 

So that’s all for know, I have many more ideas but I feel they might be better saved for another time and place, maybe David Cameron will read this and think “I’ll have her in charge of everything, she’s fiesty” and if that happens I’d hate to think that everybody on Tumblr knew all my plans already. Where would the surprise be in that? 

The Beginning Of The End (Aka 2012)

2012 promises to be an interesting year for citizens of England. Firstly the Olympics will arrive in London far too early (we all know we’ll not be ready - look at the Wembley disaster!) and will clutter our TV screens until we all snooze off and forget to pay our TV licence out of pure protest alone. And then of course it will be the end of the world. Again. Yawn.

This is my first post of 2012 and that is on purpose, despite not posting for a while. I wanted my first post of 2012 to highlight the year as I intend to go on (not for all the ridiculous Olympic/End of the world nonsense that normal folk keep whittering on about) and so I have been using the time that has passed to dwell over some New Years Resolutions.

Normally I don’t do New Years Resolutions, because like a lot of people I usually believe they’re complete and utter nonsense and will never last beyond the 5th of January. (“Oh did I tell you i’ve joined the Gym and i’m going to get fit”…”you do realise you have to GO to the gym and just HAVING the membership doesn’t count as getting fit”?…”hmm”) But this year I decided that perhaps a small selection of New Years resolutions may be exactly the kick up the backside I need to get my standstill of a life back on track.

1. Stop eating Dairy. As a lactose intolerant person I should generally stay away from all things dairy to avoid a dodgy stomach and mild nauscia. However I seem to be a little bit addicted to Cheese and Chocolate (the two biggest offenders!) but this year I vow to stop eating dairy, including eggs. Eggs are a touchy subject amongst Vegans (just to clarify I am NOT vegan…due to a protein defect I eat fish) because most Vegans believe Eggs count as dairy products because they come from an animal, even though they are a seperate entity. So my way around this is I will not eat Eggs, but will allow myself “hidden eggs” (hidden in muffins and other such produce)

2. Generally eat healthier and lose some weight. I appear to have put on enough weight in the last few months that a lot of my clothes have become tighter in the belly and bum department and since this time 2 years ago I was a very lovely 9.5stone (perfect for my 5’5” height) I think it’s time I started working back towards the 9stone mark, rather than the other way up. This includes doing more exercise, stopping eating sweets/chocolate, no fizzy pop and try to drink my 2litres of water a day and just generally be all round healthier.

3. Get a new job. I have mentioned before that I feel destined for better things than a career being a general dogsbody to the general consumer in Retail and my Journalism degree is really going to waste…so this year it is time to move on (even if I have to stay in Retail) from the store i’ve worked in for almost three years and I feel that this move alone will have such a positive impact on my personal wellbeing. Combine this with moving house, starting a family and the other little bits I have pencilled in, and I might actually go back to being a happy and positive person. Or maybe not quite that far.

So for now, i’ll keep it short and sweet and leave it at three points. I may add more to my list as the year progresses but I am hoping, for the sake of both myself, and the people I love and care about, that 2012 will be a much happier year than 2011.
So Happy New Year Everyone!! May your glasses always be full and your faces always be smiling!

MadAsAFish182

Any Pension is better than NO Pension…

I have always thought that striking is a very selfish act. 
You cause the people that have done absolutely nothing to you, the public sector worker, an absolute nightmare because people have to take the day off to look after Children because schools are closed, because people have to take holiday to look after their Children, businesses suffer and in turn the economy gets worse and so your big fat pension will have to suffer more to make up the losses.
However, I’ve since changed my view. I still think strike action is incredibly selfish and where would we be if Doctors and Nurses decided to go on strike for multiple days? People would die. Now teachers…nobody really cares about. The kids these days will probably learn more supping cider down at the local park with their mates than in the classroom but thanks for the inconvenience all the same. 

I walked to work on November 30th 2011 dreading what the day was going to be like with all the public sector workers on strike. 
I was glad to learn whilst Facebooking on my phone, that my cousin who is a Doctor, had decided against striking and was heading into work where he happily reported 1 lone protester in the Hospital Car Park. I was also happy to see 4 lonesome protesters outside my local Jobcentre, ALL with their children, which I thought was ironic for 2 reasons.
1. had the public sector not been striking, they wouldn’t have had to bring along their kids…and
2. there are millions of people in branches of the very place they’re protesting outside of, that would happily take their jobs, pension cuts or no pension cuts.

November 30th actually turned out to be an absolutely brilliant day and I think Retailers everywhere will agree. My particular store took £13,000 when an average Wednesday, even this close to Christmas normally brings in £4,000 at a push. The White Rose Shopping Centre in Leeds saw 10,000 more people walk through its doors because what else is there to do if you’re stuck with the kids and can’t go to work this close to Christmas?
In theory, if the public sector strike more often, it may just save the economy. But it’s nice to know they appriciate my hard earned taxes that go to pay their wages so that they can have a day off to whinge about pension cuts. Do I get a pension? No. Am I going to have to work till i’m 100 just to enable ends to meet because my bills and rent take up all of my wages leaving me nothing to put into savings? Probably. Am I taking a day off to moan about it? No. Because quite frankly, if you can afford a day off this close to Christmas, you clearly earn too much money anyway.

And good on Jeremy Clarkson for saying he’d shoot them all! Shame on him for apologising for expressing his opinion. If you don’t want to hear it, don’t invite him on the TV! If the Unions haven’t got anything better to do than push for a television presenter who is well known for his controversial satire to be sacked, then I think they need to seriously re-look at their schedule.
Personally if anybody I worked with decided to strike I would sack them all straight away. Not a minutes hesitation. There are plenty of people lined up at the job centre and it would only take me a day of interviews to fill all of their lazy-ass vacancies.
In the current climate public sector workers should just be damn grateful they’ve got a job. I would definitely say that this close to Christmas and with a double dip recession potentially on the cards for 2012, ANY pension is better than NO pension at all.  

Holidays are coming…Holidays are coming…

Christmas seems to have come very early this year and I must say that in comparison to previous years I am really feeling festive this year.
It was the end of October when I first heard Christmas songs being blared out by the retailers and even I (in all my merriment) thought that was a bit TOO early, but by mid November there were signs everywhere that proved that Christmas was indeed just around the corner.

1. Christmas is the best time to be in Retail. Those mothers and grandmothers that come into the store with lists as long as their bodies full of people to buy for and exactly what they want, all looking to sit on that much desired sofa by the fitting rooms until you’ve found it all for them in the correct sizes so they can just pay and then brave the next store. The best kind of customer service is the kind of customer service where you have minimal contact with the actual customer and yet they still leave satisfied.

2. Staying with Retail for now and it’s those Christmas hits. It starts in late October when the retailer thinks “times have been a little slow this year with the economic crisis…lets dabble in a bit of festivity and see if we can get away with it” and often we do. It was a celebratory time for retailers everywhere yesterday when the 1st of December hit and it became completely acceptable to play ONLY Christmas tunes on the in store stereo, which unfortunately features such “classics” as “Little Drummer Boy (or Girl)” by Beyonce and “Santa That’s My Only Wish”, an effort by Britney Spears. It’s not all bad though. The REAL classics are all their too…Mariah Carey and all she wants for Christmas, and even a bit of Tom Jones telling us that baby it’s cold outside. And come the first of December after the staff have suffered this since October, it’s finally time for the staff to start singing along and joining in with the merriment, before December 24 hits and we’re absolutely sick to death of Christmas songs.

3. Mid November arrives for the retailers and head office sends out that ever Christmassy notice that Gift Receipts are now available and are valid until some ever-important date in January, on which you’ll be flooded with returns and exchanges so be prepared to suffer massive queues and for your establishment to be as low-density as if you were having a closing down sale.

4. The Coca Cola Christmas advert hits TV. It’s a stand-still moment when you see the Coca Cola Christmas commercial for the first time…it starts slowly, building up and you hear that familiar “holidays are coming…” over and over in the background and as if in slow motion, you slowly turn to look at the TV to be sure that it’s real…and sure enough reality hits and suddenly you have the need to start your Christmas shopping with a Coca Cola glass bottle for comfort in your hand. Why is it that Coca Cola still feature the glass bottles on the advert when it is only plastic ones you can find in most retailers these days? (Health & Safety gone mad!!) also, I was very excited to hear that the Coca Cola truck will be passing through York this year…until I realised that the day it does I will be at the Metro Centre finishing my Christmas shopping. Bah Humbug!

5. I bought my first Christmas tree this year (not my FIRST obviously - we have one every year…) I moved out of my parents house last year and in with my partner, but as I worked all over Christmas last year (another joy of working in Retail) neither me or my partner spent Christmas at our flat. He went home to Halifax to spend it with his mother and eccentric aunt and I crossed to the other side of York and spent it with my family. As I am again working all of Christmas but we are both spending just Christmas day at my parents this year, we decided to get our very own Christmas tree. £115 later and I have a 7ft Christmas tree and enough decorations to fill 2 of them. And I get to put it up tomorrow evening. Very exciting stuff.

6. The weather is beginning to turn now. After one of the warmest autumns on record (or so Paul the Weatherman tells me!) we are starting to feel that bit of chilly and contemplating locating the scarf, hat and gloves from the back of the cupboard and taking them for a test run. In what the MET office is saying is the driest autumn in most regions across the UK they are even starting to talk about the possibility of Snow. And it’s only the 2nd of December. Who would’ve thought!? For the record…unless you live in Scotland you’re not going to see snow. The closest you’ll get is a few flakes that melt as soon as they touch the tarmac and create that hideous sleet stuff that is only good for comedy effect when somebody falls on their arse. 

7. In these hard up economic times I cannot remember how I lived without things like o2 moments and vouchercloud. I got very excited when they uploaded all their Christmas offers at the realisation that if I so desire I could go and get a coffee and a free mince pie at over 10 retailers. I could spend the entire day drinking coffee and eating mince pies if I so desire. I would never, since the only coffee I drink is from Starbucks and lets face it, it’s not really coffee is it… (we’ll come back to starbucks in a moment) and I don’t even like Mince Pies! But free offers to get you in the festive spirit! Yes please! I shall be going to claim my free pack of Christmas cards from BHS tomorrow morning thank you very much.

7. Starbucks gets the Red cups and Christmas syrups. Eggnog latte, Peppermint Hot Chocolate and Praline Mocha all make a comeback and people get very over-excited about the Red cups. I love a Starbucks tipple…I’m there on pretty much a daily basis since I work just across the road from a branch, but as far as I am aware…the cups…are just cups. They do signify that we are roughly around 4 weeks away from Christmas though, and that is definitely a good enough start of the festive season for me.

8. Christmas food arrives. Can you buy Christmas food at any other time of year? I can’t say i’ve looked to be honest. But suddenly Tesco are keeping Caerphilly in Crackers and Cumbria in Carrots and it’s all very festive. Christmas turkeys are half price and Brussels are buy one get TWO free (well who can blame them!) and before you know it we’re all 2 stone fatter which will please the local GYM whose Christmas offers all start on the 1st of January. 

<3 MERRY CHRISTMAS!! <3

Experience is the best teacher. But only if you have it.

When you were young what did you want to be? An astronaut? A vet? A police officer? Fireman? The days of dreams are endless when you are a child, or so it seems. But children never come to you and say “Mummy, Daddy, I want to work in a shop”. Why? Because it’s just not a desirable profession these days. 
Did you ever think when you were younger, even when playing house or shop or cafe with your little friends from down the street, that you were destined for bigger and better things? To be one of those people who wears a suit and sits in boring meetings about pointless things for hours upon hours, because you were just THAT important? I did. I honestly thought I would be one of those suits. I honestly thought I was destined for bigger and much, much, better things.
I left University in 2008 with a 2nd Class Bachelors Degree in Journalism and now, in 2011 (and for the past 2.5 years) I work for a big chain Fashion Retailer as the womenswear Supervisor. 
It’s not that I don’t like my job. In fact, some days, I love my job. At Christmas for example (which is fast approaching) Retail is by far the best industry to be in. When December hits and the Christmas Carols are playing on the sound system and the windows are all decorated with baubles, snow in a can and the mannequins have little fake-snow covered robins on their shoulders…Even when it is freezing outside and people wander inside in their hats and scarves and just take that moment to relish in the realisation that you’ve put the store heating on…It’s an industry with Christmas traditions like no other.

It’s just that I don’t want to be earning just above minimum wage forever. And I don’t want to feel like my talents are wasted on those days where customers are few and far between as is becoming ever more common in the current economic climate. What I did want was to make a difference. I wanted a job that makes me think, makes me work hard and probably most importantly, makes me learn new things every single day.
But experience. It is the biggest catch 22 in all of history. I am likely to spend the rest of my working life in retail because I have little experience in anything else. It is the easiest thing in the world to learn to do a job you are already doing, and yet also the hardest. To struggle with day to day tasks whilst you’re finding your feet, making new friends in your colleagues and taking the time to get to know everything there is to know about your employer. But for employers these days, a qualification and a willingness to learn just does not seem to be enough.
What seems to be the biggest shame is that I am not alone in this. It has been three years since I left University with a perfectly worthwhile qualification that for lack of experience alone has not been put to good use, and two years of students studying for all areas of qualifications have followed, many in my footsteps, and gone to work in a sector where we will long be forgotten.
I wanted to be a Journalist. A news anchor. A writer. Something in the Media sector that has flexibility, opens doors and where no two days are ever the same. I wanted to spend hours travelling across the country and across the world to discover what is happening and then tell everybody else exactly that.
It’s a solid industry, Media. One that won’t go down without a fight. People will always want to hear the news, people will always want travel updates, weather reports and other things that the Media industry have so minimally made available for our convenience. But Media is for life, not just for Christmas. Or any other time of year for that matter. If you turn your attention to Media and you make it, you’ll be there for the rest of your life. And this is what we are competing against. Years and years of people with that all important experience that people with a “fresh from the recession” qualification just cannot compete with. 
In getting a job there is a complex race and hundreds of thousands of people are in the running…But in this race there is only myself, and I’m just not in the winning.   

I’m no gamer…but I like to play the game.

In the ever expanding world of technological gaming I am only really familiar with my Xbox 360 these days, and even then, I’m not so familiar with that.
This aside, I must have logged more than 100 hours of game play on a game that I fell madly in love with back in early 2011 (long after more hardcore game players I’m sure!) Fable II.

Then, when battling a particular nasty stomach bug (!) my lovely better half presented me with a new challenge, one that my brother (a much more hardcore Xbox fan) had warned me about…Fable III.
I must admit I was excited. This was joined by nervousness and also a slight bit of guilt, at leaving the first computer game I had ever really loved, behind.
But I got stuck in and soon finished the main story and again after more than 100 hours of game play, I am left with only the remaining, or concluding quests of the game…and I am left a little disappointed.

So lets start with the locations; 
The Sanctuary -
I get the need for this, I really do. But why make it so unbelievably complicated? The start/pause menu that was used on Fable II allowed me to access all my character information, my stats, achievements, quests, fast travel to locations (and everything else I would ever possibly need) why lose that in favour of a menu that features a man who continually tells me that there are “new items available in the sanctuary shop” (which I cannot access as I do not have Xbox Live!) and an options menu that does not even feature a “save and quit” function?
Aurora -
I actually quite like this location. I like the simplicity of the quests in “finding the flowers” and the complex story of actually arriving in Aurora, your companion being attacked and blinded etc…but when you get to Shifting Sands, What is with the creepy music? Seriously?
Silverpines -
This is potentially the most annoying location of all. If I didn’t have to come here to complete my quests and progress in the game I seriously would not have bothered. Not only have they made all the bad guys (bandits, balverines etc) much harder to kill, they seemed to have massively increased their numbers. By the time I’ve fought my way through the seemingly endless pathway into the Silverpines village centre, I have a sore thumb (from excess button bashing!) and I am completely frustrated by the countless times I seem to have met my impending doom.

I stumbled upon a web article today indicating that the “eagerly anticipated” Fable IIII is in the making. Whilst I’m sure it will be successful in terms of sales figures across the globe, I think the games hardcore fans will agree that the game will only be “eagerly anticipated” if Lionhead can right all the things they messed up in Fable III.
So what else did they get wrong? Admittedly some of the complaints mentioned above are personal irritants or are only minor annoyances, such as the music in Shifting Sands…but still, I do not remember having any grievances with my first love, Fable II.
Lionhead made the game harder. It has gone from being a few minimal encounters with small groups of bandits, the occasional balverine or a little colony of hobbes (which were all relatively easy to kill, even for a non-pro gamer like me) to kill, to being a (as my boyfriend puts it) “hack and slash” game where I seem to just get rid of one group of balverines before I’m ambushed by a large group of hollow-men, led by one giant hollow-man with magical eyes that appear to create more hollow-men just as I have finished killing off the current ambush. It’s very very tiring.

They also killed the fast-travel function. Whilst you can still fast travel to other unlocked locations, you are instantly transported to a single destination in your desired location, instead of the options you got in Fable II that deciphers exactly which suburb or area you need to be in within any location. For example when I fast travel from Driftwood to Millfields using the fast travel function, I am instantly transported to the Bowerstone side of Millfields. It just seems a little bit pointless.

Then there was the remarkable cock-ups that followed because of the above additions to the game in the form of “treasure”. Where you used to get useful bits in Fable II (dog training books, improvements for your weapons, potions etc) in Fable III all you seem to get is gold, or one of three potions (health/slow time/summon creatures) that are intended to help kill the bad guys that Fable III shouldn’t have made harder in the first place. Give me back my useful treasures, even if all I choose to do with them is sell them for profit.
Which brings me onto my (almost final) point…why do the shops in Fable III only have 1 or 2 items in at any one time? Personally (being a girl) I love a bit of retail therapy and did enjoy saving a bit of dollar in Fable II before going and splashing it all out on whatever I needed, including the Property Market, which is something much harder to accumulate in Fable III. 
Firstly there is the constant upkeep of any houses you buy and choose to rent out. I don’t want to make improvements on my houses. They’re liveable thus the tenants should pay their rent. If I don’t want to give them better carpets and curtains I shouldn’t have too. If they don’t like it…move out. It just seems that Fable II’s property market was an easy way to make yourself rich quick (something everybody wants) so why take that away!!?

And please, please, please(!) bring back the option to choose what interactions you use when interacting with another person. I don’t think anybody likes being told that when they’re trying to be good, not evil, the only interaction you can use is “dance” or “tickle”. Maybe I don’t want to pick women up and twirl them over my head, and I don’t tickle my own friends in RL, let alone want my character to go around tickling people that, quite frankly are made out to be a bit dirty and unwashed. If you want me to tickle them, at least make them clean up a bit first. 

It’s not all bad however. Lionhead did get a lot right with this game and whilst that may appear to have been undermined by everything that was “wrong” with the game, I was more appreciative of what Lionhead did do right, because there was so much that had changed since my beloved Fable II.
The story for instance. The story is the whole reason I fell in love with the game. It is fantasy and yet easy to believe. Full of magic and futuristic ideas and yet set in a time well in the past.
I loved the dedication put into the Fable III story right from the beginning. You instantly are introduced to “a friend” (who comes across as more like a boyfriend/girlfriend), your butler (who is your sanctuary pal later in the game) and another bloke with a beard who becomes your right hand man throughout most of the main story, until he dies. (Sorry if I’ve ruined that for you.)
I also quite like the Road to Rule. Even though I didn’t complete it before I completed the main story (due to an increased use of fast travel because of the frustrating amount of things I had to kill) I like the concept that you can pick and choose what capabilities and luxuries you enjoy first.
The map is very clever, and much easier to navigate in 3D, showing exclamation marks over areas where quests are available and making it a lot easier to see exactly where you need to be, and I became greatly excited about the improvement in the locations when I unlocked Driftwood and found that on returning a few game days later, you can gradually see the development being built bit by bit. This probably my favourite improvement. 

So as it turns out I will still be putting in the hours playing Fable III and there is probably nobody evil enough in Hell that will stop me buying Fable IIII when it comes out, but I proceed with both caution and an inkling of hope; that the wails of the Fable fanboys (and girls!) will be heard and we see a menagerie mix of Fable II’s goodness coupled with the improvements (if few and far between) of Fable III, to create the most impressive Fable game ever…if not the best game of all time?
I for one, will be putting in the 100s of hours to find out.