Share Your Desktop – June 2024

15th of June and time to join in with Clare’s Share Your Desktop Challenge😎👍

It’s been a very busy virtual month in the Truck Simulator games – one of the reasons that I haven’t been posting. SCS Software have given us two community challenges to complete. In American Truck Sim we need to deliver cargoes to or from any city in the newly released state of Nebraska. They want the community to complete 125 million miles while doing so. The good news is that with several new Steam achievements associated with the state, people are incentivised to do those deliveries. Additionally, not everyone bought Nebraska on day one so there are new drivers joining all the time with their own personal goals to achieve. I’m not worried about that ATS target – the community will get there without much help from me for the reasons given. So, having completed my achievement goals I have stepped aside.

In Euro Truck Sim, it’s a different story. SCS released a major upgrade to the core map – a fully rebuilt Switzerland. This has also been accompanied by a community event – Trade Connections Switzerland. This event works differently – we are required to deliver 20 million tonnes of cargo to or from Swiss cities. 20m sounds easier than the ATS 125m but cargoes are not always heavy and the really heavy ones are rare. There are no new achievements to earn, just some virtual giveaways for the event so the incentives are less obvious. Some of my fellow drivers will be working to get their maps up to 100% of roads driven again but this won’t necessarily help towards the event – some of their driving will be like going on a sight-seeing tour 😅 So, the hard-core of the community’s eventers will have to pick up the slack to get this one done. I’ve been concentrating my efforts here.

So, with the background explained above, here is my current Gaming PC desktop…

…I hit on a plan to maximise my tonnage by working for my company’s Bulk and Chemicals division. Using our specialist tankers guarantees 20-25t loads every drive. What it doesn’t guarantee is that the load will be from the previous delivery point although usually it does and I can juggle trailer types when I’m in one of my company garages. On this occasion though I had delivered a load of plastic granules to Parma from Zurich. Unfortunately, there was no return cargo and I don’t have a garage in Parma. The only suitable load for my trailer going back to Bern was sand from a quarry near Livorno. So I had a long drive through the hills of Reggio Emilia to collect my load. In this screenshot I’m passing through the small town of Monteduro in a shower. The truck is a 3rd generation MAN TGX bought specifically for our Bulk division with a 6×4 chassis and 540HP engine. It’s so new, it doesn’t have a name yet!

On the Photo PC we have a rodent! In the middle of May, Epi and I visited Kew Gardens to see some sculptures that were on display. We often go to Kew as there is always something to see. As usual, it was busy with a mix of locals and tourists. In such an active environment it’s easy to wander around without taking much in. But for the visitor with a keen eye there are often little bits of nature to photograph. Birds commonly provide the entertainment but on this occasion some twitching of the Forget-me-nots beside one of the paths caught my attention. Here, in full view of anyone who cared to look, was a Field Mouse…

…lunching on the flowers and newly set seed heads. It was so used to the bustle of people that it took no notice of me photographing it. Meanwhile the stream of visitors kept passing by – unaware 😅 A very enjoyable brush with nature 👍