A New Years Day Ramble

Happy New Year, everyone! 2008 is here at last, may it bring all good things to you and yours!

Last night was a whirlwind of revels in Caledon, centred on the Gaiety Theatre in Caledon Penzance. A New Years Eve Ball ran nearly all day, with countdowns to the New Year for Australia, Europe, the East and West coasts of the US, and all points in between! This epic celebration was put together by Her Grace Gabrielle Riel of Carntaigh, Radio Riel and Prim Perfect Magazine, and also included live and silent auctions in aid of Gardens of Hope, a charity working to help people in southern Africa create and manage a variety of green spaces.

I was lucky enough to attend both the London NYE Ball in Penzance, to see 2008 arrive with all my fellow UK residents of Caledon, and then later on the New York NYE Ball, attending the Carntaigh side of it as Penzance was full, to raise a glass to my darling wife Kacy, who was celebrating the year's end and beginning in RL. Sadly I have no good pictures of either event, but I enjoyed a dance with my sister Cheyenne and her Sweetie at the Penzance Ball, and a waltz with Her Majesty Kamilah I, Vicereine of Caledon, at the Carntaigh Ball.

The Balls were masques, and the variety and complexity of the dancers costumes was once again a testament to the creativity of Caledonians. My good friend Hotspur O'Toole won the Best Dressed Gentleman prize at the London Ball, quite rightly so, and promptly crashed in amazement! Just one of the many moments of fun that was had.

And so now to 2008. What does it hold in store, I wonder? To be sure, 2007 will take a lot of living up to! I have had so much happen, I hope you will forgive me a few moments of recap.

I have made it through a year now of living alone, and have passed through and out the other side of a health issue that saw me in constant pain and heavily medicated 365 days ago. I have moved from unemployment to recently starting a part-time job with an international courier firm. I have lived through the worst flooding the UK has ever seen, certainly in living memory. I have walked away from crippling debt by taking the step of being made bankrupt, and I have had a diagnosis of Aspergers Syndrome. Not an empty twelvemonth in RL by any means!

And my Second Life too has seen major changes. I started 2007 owning half the mainland sim of Huchu, with a Garden, a concert hall, a Tea House, and a home atop a 750m chain! Then the lag arrived, carried in by porn cinemas, yard sales and casinos, so I sold up and moved to Caledon, where I became a Founder of Tanglewood, SteamSkyCity and Kittiwickshire. I took part in Roleplays for SLRFL, not always an easy experience! I am the Colonel of an all-but-defunct Cavalry regiment, I build airships and other items both as a hobby and on commission for my fellow Caledonians, and I have many dear friends and a Second family who gladden my heart and enrich my life. And of course I went from being a Half-Elf to a Fur, with a spell as a Djinn along the way!

The biggest change crosses the boundary between Real and Second Life. After a couple of affairs that left my heart shattered, a woman came into my life who showed me that love, real as any in RL, could be found in SL. By allowing me to be me and love her as I do, by giving me such love as I have never known before, delivered patiently and with such care and understanding, Kacy and I have weathered many storms together, and enter 2008 as husband and wife following our recent marriage in SL. Whilst there are many opinions on the validity and merit of such unions, to us it is as real a commitment as any taken in RL, and is the one event that tops all others in 2007 for me, truly defining it as a year to surpass any that came before it.

Looking forward is always a perilous business, and on this first day of a new year, it can be even more scary. A whole year before me, however am I going to fill all that space and time? New routines to work out, unknown changes and unforeseen events to reconcile and adjust to. It can all seem too much for this cat to take on alone. But I have one thing in my favour, one piece of knowledge that can take away all the fear, one certainty that the Year To Come will be filled with love, and joy, and wonder.

And that is the fact that I am not alone, for I have the love of an incredible woman, my beautiful, incredible wife Kacy, to guide and support me, to cheer and comfort me, just as I do for her with my love, to take us into whatever the future holds one day at a time, hand in hand and sharing all the wonders we will find there. Truly am I blessed to have such a partner to share all of life with. And we have our friends and family with us also, each and every one a reason to view the New Year with hope and excitement.

The ramble is at an end, thank you dear readers for your indulgence! May 2008 see us all experience as many amazing and incredible things as we are able to, and may it be our best year yet, each and every one of us!