A New Year Beckons!

Home at Last!

I survived the holidays and am so happy to be back home with my darling husband. I just wanted to wish everyone a belated Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! Now back to my hubby's arms :)

Waiting For Santa

So here I am, Christmas Eve night, and can I get to sleep? Of course not, Santa is on his way!

Many many thanks and the best of wishes for Christmas and the New Year, to all our dear friends who sent us the wonderful cards and gifts you see displayed.

And so now I wait for St Nick, and to see if he will bring me the one thing I want for Christmas! I have said it before and will likely say it again, Merry Christmas Kacy! I love you!

Festive Cheer!

These last few days have seen a number of parties in Caledon to mark the festive season, and I have been lucky enough to attend a couple.

The first was Mr Merlin's Solstice Party, held at Brideswell Manor in Caledon Wellsian. This was an informal party to mark the Winter Solstice, and keep our spirits up as we passed through the Longest Night.

I was in no need of help where my spirits were concerned, as I was with my darling wife. Kacy and I danced all through the party, including occasional crashes, to a wonderful set of music provided by Lady Diamanda Gustafson. A mix of olde festive music, and modern reworkings of the same, our Lady Protector certainly warmed our feet!

My love and I also attended some of the 2nd Caledon Yule Log Burning, where we spent the time in a slow dance, making the most of our last night together before RL Christmas separated us for a few days. Not until the 27th and Kacy's return will I feel truly festive.

However my wife and I are belessed with the best of friends here in Caledon, one of them being Miss Fuschia Begonia, who held a party yesterday to celebrate the launch of her new clothing range. Titled the "Nightwear before Christmas", this was a slumberwear themed event, as her new range is just that - nightclothes! Very good they are too, both the Ladies and the Gentlemens ranges.

Mr Merlin was once again in evidence as a musical maestro, performing the prodigious feat of supplying an impromptu set for this party whilst at the same time running his usual slot on Radio Riel! As I remarked at the time, he is truly the Laird of the Dance, and lifted a wonderful to even greater heights with his aural magics.

The party was a very jolly affair, with teddy bears and night caps for all, a visit by Santa and Mr Phineas Montova, and Mr Angus Messmer paid us a visit, in the seasonal form of a snowflake! At one point the effects of so many bears took its toll on Professor Avalanche, who assumed that form for a while himself! A very polite teddy bear he makes too!

No better cure for missing one's soulmate than to party with dearly loved friends. Kacy was able to wish everyone the best of the season thanks to an Aetheric relay, and the same was returned to her by all the revellers. For my part I danced in the corner, happy to be amongst such friends as these, but at heart I missed my wife all the more, for she is the life and soul of all to me.

Yet I am happy this festive season, for though we are far apart at a time when we would rather be in each others arms, I am filled with her love for me, and she with mine for her, this longing I feel is the sweetest sorrow, for it leads to a wonderful reunion in a few days time! Merry Christmas my darling, I love you so much! Happy Holidays and a safe return, to make 2008 a truly Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays One & All!

A Cultured Couple

One of the wonders of the Grid is the creativity of its residents, and the Second Life Ballet is no exception.

My beloved and I were lucky enough to catch a performance of this troupe, a production of theirs called "Windows" staged on IBM 10. We arrived earlier, and were treated to a thought provoking work of interpretative modern dance, carried off with the use of gestures, not anims!

The company created all the gestures themselves, and an original score to accompany them, and the piece took some 3 months to put together. The whole production was very well done, from the dancers through to stage management.

The work dealt with the theme of voyeurism, and we watched three acts, each of which was a glimpse into someone's personal life at a time of deep emotions. It would belittle the efforts of the company if I were to try and explain it, so do please try and catch a performance yourself, where you will be able to read the accompanying notes in an explanatory HUD, given out by the seats!


Kacy and I had wanted to see a full performance of this ballet for some time, as we only managed to catch the last 30 seconds of it previously!, and we both felt we had watched a stunning example of what can be can be achieved in SL in the field of the creative arts. Do catch it for yourselves if you have the chance, and immerse yourself in a bit of culture for a change!





----------------
Now playing: The Anthem 2004 - Sensation
via FoxyTunes

An Important Year Marked

The third, and undoubtedly most important in national terms, celebration of last week was the Formal Ball held to mark the first anniversary of the founding of the first four Duchies in Caledon.

Lionsgate, Carntaigh, Loch Avie and Primverness all appeared as the first four void sims and Duchies - Caledon has 12 now! - on 8th December 2006.

The Ball was held over Primverness, with Her Majesty Kamilah 1 of Lionsgate, our beloved Vicereine, and their Graces Gabrielle Riel of Carntaigh and CoyoteDimsum Angel of Primverness in attendance. Sadly Her Grace Eva Bellambi of Loch Avie was unable to attend through RL commitments, but she was there in spirit if not in av!

The music was provided by Radio Riel in the person of Lady Diamunda Gustafson, with one of the more recent peers, His Grace Otenth Paderborn of Murdann acting as host. The theme was Renaissance, and our Lady Protector played a wonderful set of music from that era.


Being bereft of my wife, I only stayed a short while, but was honoured to have a waltz with our Vicereine. The platform was ringed with many pictures from the first year of the Duchies, and also a fine sculptie map of Caledon (already out of date due to the speed which the waters around our nation births new land!) created by Her Grace Primverness.

It was a wonderful and austere occasion, and I am honoured to have been able to attend and pay my respects to Caledon's senior nobility. I look forward to the marvels they shall lead us through in the next year, and to the first anniversaries of our younger Duchies as well!


----------------
Now playing: Dyyni - City Of Moving Waters (Origina
via FoxyTunes

Air Marshal +1

Another celebration I was happy to attend last week was the marking of Air Marshal Sin Trenton's Rez Day.

An informal party was held at the Smuggler's in Caledon Wellsian, with many of the AMs fellow pilots from the RCAF helping him get over the fact he is now a year older in SL! There was dancing and jokes aplenty to make the day a happy one indeed, as the pictures attest.

I have only recently come to know the Air Marshal as a friend, through our shared interests of flying, fencing and backgammon, and he is no slouch at any of them. I am pleased and proud to be included in his Friends list, and look forward to many sorties together over the coming year.








----------------
Now playing: Rui Da Silva Feat. Cassandra - Touch Me (Saffron Mix)
via FoxyTunes

Birthday Boy

As was mentioned in a previous post, it was my RL birthday last week. My beloved wife and I had a private celebration of the fact that I have managed to survive another year, but I was very touched by the well wishes that came in over the Caledon Group Channel when Kacy announced the occasion to the nation!

On logging in I was greeted by the wonderful site of my darling in front of a banner, a cake and gifts! All of this was a total surprise to me, being married to Kacy means there is nothing else I could possibly want!

The cake was delicious, and the gifts were some new outfits from Rfyre, my new favourite outfitters. I post pictures of two of them, the other snaps I took were ruined by bad framing due to joyous excitement!

We spent the day together having fun of all kinds, and at the end of it I can truly say it was one of, if not the, best birthdays I have had the good fortune to mark. Thank you, Kacy my love, for making the day very special indeed. This aging kitty loves you more than ever!






----------------
Now playing: Sensationy - The Anthem 2002 (Johan Gielen Remix)
via FoxyTunes

En Garde For Love

Another hobby my wife and I now share is fencing, using the En Garde! system. Needless to say, that despite my clumsy guidance, Kacy is a very capable swordswoman, and wins our duels much more often than not.

Here we are using the piste Mr Fizz has set out for public use behind his shop in Caledon Prime. Unlike some of the others in Caledon, the boards show the ranking of players in SL as a whole (World Champions) and those who have used this particular set (Local Champions).

We set out, just for fun, to see if we could get our names at the top of the Local board. A very few games later, and you can see the result in the last picture! Kacy has certainly got the knack when it comes to En Garde, perhaps because she now doesn't need to get the Wok out when she loses, being able to run me through the next moment instead!

Gambling At The Smugglers

My love and I have recently been playing backgammon as a way of passing a laggy day, when TPs are down and one's L$ balance is eternally loading.

There is a beautiful set in The Smugglers Cove, Caledon Wellsian, which we have been using quite a bit. I have some experience at the game, though haven't played for a while, and Kacy had always wanted to learn, so I was happy to be able to teach her the basics of play.

We are about evenly matched now in terms of ability, although my darling claims that I always win! Not so, she has taken a fair few Lindens from me these past few games! Did I mention we play for money? It was akin to a savings scheme for Kacy when I was winning, though of course the money would ultimately be spent on her, an example being the boots I paid for recently!

The game has also given my love an excuse to use one of our wedding presents. Here you see my beloved showing me exactly what she thinks of my latest win, expressing herself most ably with the Combat Wok that was gifted us by Colonel O'Toole. Ah, wedded bliss!

Happy Birthday Baby!

Today is my darling husband's RL birthday. And what are birthday's for if not for your loved ones to call attention to them, and attempt to embarass you! I won't divulge which birthday it is, that just seems mean, but if you get a chance give him a birthday pinch, or just a simple, non-hurty Happy Birthday :)

I love you baby, Happy Birthday!!!

Damn! They Got Me Twice!

There is a blogger game sweeping Caledon and the SL blogosphere in general at the moment, which plays like a game of Tag, and true to form I move so slowly I have been hit twice! First by Miss Joonie Jatho, and now also Her Grace Kintyre, Duchess Lavendar Beaumont!

Firstly, as required, the rules;

(1) Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

(2) People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.

(3) At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

(4) Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Eight random facts about me. Eight? Can I think of that many?

1. As a child my absolute hero was Jacques-Yves Cousteau, so by age 16 I was a qualified aqualung diver, and have done a bit of wreck diving, though not for some years now.

2. One of the most fun things I have done was a charity Fire Walk, in December 05. Whilst the heat given off on the surface of the coals is sufficient to melt aluminium, the coaching was so good it felt like walking on cool grass.

3. I have proofread for publishers of fantasy and gothic sci-fi novels. Correct spelling is one of my pedantries.

4. My Hollywood fact? I was told to "F##k off" by Timothy Dalton when I asked him for a light during a break in filming The Master of Ballantrae. I was 15 at the time, and was crewing the square rigger that was being used for the pirate ship. Timothy who? Michael York was much nicer, chatting to us, even bringing us cups of coffee as we stood around in pirate gear waiting to run up the rigging one more time.

5. I love thunderstorms, to the extent that I will go out in them and stand near trees to get a better look at the lightning.

6. I was officially diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome 4 weeks ago.

7. I have an interest in military history, and in 2001 made it to the Hotel Hartenstein in Oosterbeck, Holland, where my grandfather was taken prisoner during Operation Market Garden. If you have ever seen the film, A Bridge Too Far, then there is one sequence toward the end of a Tommy playing a flute. That was him - not the actor, but as a RL moment during the battle. He went on to survive captivity, including the Silesian Death March.

8. The most amazing day of my life to date was when I got married in SL to Kacy Despres. Well, you didn't think I wouldn't mention my darling wife at least once, did you?

So there you have them. Now, who will I run after and attempt to tag? Cheyenne Palisades, Ranma Tardis, Gloriana Maertens and Leon Susenko (two in one blog!), Nareth Nishi, Fuschia Begonia and Alfonso Avalanche (aren't shared blogs good for this!) and by no means least, Dame Lapin Paris, who I suspect will be tagged a lot.

Tribute Island

We also visited Tribute Island on Monday. This sim had opened on Friday, but I had no idea what it was about, despite having seen the notices around Caledon. My darling wife very sensibly looked in Search, and found that it is a memorial sim, where people can erect builds in memory of those people who have inspired them, in RL and SL.

Intrigued, we went to take a look. There is a wonderful monorail running around the sim, which gives very good views of the layout, but sadly it travelled a bit too fast for me to grab any more than these two snaps of it.



Luckily Kacy had spotted a few interesting builds, so she took us to see them closer to. On leaving the station I spotted two plaques on the wall, that will have resonance for any Brit. They commemorated those souls lost in the King's Cross Fire of 1987, and the bombings of the London Underground in July 2005. The bombings will have had international attention, but I was touched that someone had created a virtual memorial to King's Cross, a very British tragedy.



Then we came to a recreation of the Princess Diana Memorial Garden. I was amazed to see this, given that the RL build in Hyde Park was something of a disaster, certainly in PR terms. At least here on the Grid, the granite bed of the waterfeature won't need to have grooves cut in it for health and safety reasons!

There are many memorials on Tribute Island, to very many worthy people, but I would like to mention one more, a room box created by our friend Dame Lapin Paris of Tanglewood. This was a depiction of the lounge at 221B Baker Street, abode of the world's most famous detective, one of whose incarnations was played by Jeremy Brett, to whom this was a tribute. Dame Lapin is very modest about her work, but this was an incredibly detailed piece, and all the more poignant for having been created as a memorial.

Tribute Island is a thought-provoking place, and a very interesting concept. When you visit, and you should, think on who you would create a memorial to.

Morgaine Revisited

My beloved wife having returned home, and light thus being restored to my life, we went together to see how the new sim of Morgaine was coming along. It is now open and residents are taking on their plots, but we visited a few days before all was completed.

The main feature of Morgaine has to be the floating mountain, a complex of sculpties created by Horg Neurocam. Hollow, and riddled with seams of cavorite, it floats majestically over the straits below.



There are no plots actually on the peak itself, which is all to the good, as the cavorite makes the rock very unstable. We did try alighting on the peak only to fall through it! Then we spotted the warning signs!

Morgaine was opened on Thursday night, so I urge you to go along and take a look at this marvel of nature for yourselves, as well as the many builds being undertaken by its founding residents, each one a delight in itself (the builds that is, though I have no doubt the new residents are delightful too)!