A Decision about Virtually London (lite)

I decided on something last night that would change things for me and Hibiscus and Ed too.  We had been working really hard to cover Virtual London Fashion Week, even putting stuff on iheartsl and CNN as well as Virtually London (lite) to promote it all.  It has been a lovely event, but with so much writing up and editing photos it’s been completely manic for me. Hib has written her socks off too, to make our little blog pretty popular, and Ed has given us some stuff for the non-fashion people to read.   I even announced the fact that a couple of real life designers were coming into the show and that some or our very talented SL designers were making the outfits for the virtual catwalks.  There is an event in SL Kensington tonight for Best in Show in which some of these designer outfits will again take to the virtual stage.   

I had been planning on an article featuring the ladies who made the copies of the real life designer outfits, as I wanted an insight into how they felt about such an unusual task.  It was then that one of the SL designers came back questioning why I was able to write about the show when the exclusive had been given to another magazine.  I knew nothing of this, but the designer had been given the job to contact the magazine and get them to cover the event.  When I enquired, I was told that we wouldn’t want to upset the magazine, (who’d agreed to be sponsors if they could have the exclusive.), by writing about it.  Well it has been such a long week, we worked very hard, only to be cast aside for the big night, all so that the magazine, who will write about it for a couple of days at the most, (and will not keep a daily update of Virtual London news for the rest of the year), can supply their sponsorship. This isn’t a magazine about real life btw, they publish in real life, but it’s only about SL. 

It was then that I made the decision to discontinue Virtually London (lite), which is an awful shame, as we have lots of really good and loyal readers and I have always enjoyed telling the London stories as they are such a great community.  At the end of the day it had been exhausting, but fun to run the blog, but you can only assess how well thought of you are by how much you are included in the big scheme of things, and a decision had to be made about the future.  We have our other blog ‘Our Virtual Trilogy’ which is really enjoyable as it covers all of the grid and has quite a following already.  Hibiscus, Pixi, Ed and I share this blog and we will concentrate on that, bringing some London stories into it now and again anyway.  I suppose I am explaining what actually happened on here because I don’t want people to speculate, we had done our very best to the satisfaction of our readers, many of whom are really good friends, and I want them to know why the blog has stopped being published.

From No Trousers to Clive and Pink’s Dream

I’d tried to distance myself from SL London a bit yesterday, as I’d written so much about all the events there over the last week, so I went off to explore.  I met a lovely little witch called Cerise earlier in the day and she brightened things up for me as we chatted and she showed me her swamp, I’ll go back and visit her she is a great little character.  I did finally end up back in SL London last night and went over to Knightsbridge only to be accosted by a crazy newbie with purple hair.  As soon as he got close to me he took off his top and trousers and stood there like an idiot, so I hit vanish and disappeared.  He went off, but I decided to accost him, so I followed him about asking him what he was doing and telling him to put some clothes on, explaining that no one was shocked and everyone knows that only newbies take off their clothes.  He turned on the defensive as you’d expect and he told me he had only come into SL because of being killed off in another game, I told him to look for Soho and he could wander around all he liked there in the nude, he disappeared never to be seen again!

Further up the road I could see Clive and Pink chatting outside the club so I went over to say hello and it was evident that there was nothing going on in the club as there was no dj.  We were joined by Hibiscus and Ed, and Pink was telling us about how Clive has made her a beautiful place to live.  Clive started making his own furniture when he lived in the apartment above me a long time ago, and even then he was making some really nice stuff, he clearly is a natural at building and also a very clever designer.  Clive and Pink invited us over to see their sim and we all went over for a look around.

 

 Clive had a speedboat harboured in the little cove and we wandered over to the garden he had made for Pink, but this was only the beginning, everything was so elegant and well planned.  Clive had said the house was big and this was indeed a mansion.  I was stunned at the layout, which you would only see in magazines in real life, which featured very rich people’s properties where they have designers advising them. 

Clive and Pink had a small cinema off of the lounge and upstairs was nicely laid out with an open plan bedroom leading down to the bathroom with a  jacuzzi,  you could fill the jacuzzi with water by touching the tap, so clever!!  They even have their own club for those great parties they will have in the future, it was a total wow!!

Outside of the mansion, Clive took us on a tour of the grounds, he had a network of caves with a giant fishtank  and coming out into the open he had little places where you could stop and relax including a small Buddhist temple to meditate.  Lots of lovely  little coves and even a volcano were included in the extensive landscape, Clive had levelled the land himself and landscaped the entire sim.

The mountain region was really something, with a fantastic view over the rest of the islands and finally Clive took me for a spin in the helicopter, which was just amazing and yes, he build that too!!  Thank you for showing us around Clive and Pink, you have the most magnificent home I have ever seen in SL, it’s a special place for two special people!!

Filmstars and Fashions but my Office is Best!

I just haven’t had time to keep up with my blog as well as our other Trilogy site this week, the Virtual London Fashion Week has involved so much work and if it wasn’t for Hibiscus taking a great big load of the articles, and doing an excellent job, not only with the write ups, but also with the outstanding photos, I don’t know where I would be.  Also a big thanks to Ed (co writer Ed Follet) for breaking the monotony of the Fashion articles with some great London stories and photos too.  It has been really exciting this week though, the fantastic Debs Regent has pulled off a real coup, she has managed the impossible, to bring some real top designers from the real London Fashion Week, to take part in Virtual London Fashion Week, and she let me break the news, big thank you Debs!!  So far we have Savannah and Sienna Miller (also film actresses) with their designer company ‘twenty8twelve’ and another Haute Couture designer Maria Grachvogel, plus there may be more to come.  Debs is the first person ever to have talked real fashion designers into using Second Life to show their collections.   I also had the ‘Peace for One Day’ to cover Monday, so it’s such a busy week. 

In the meantime SL Kensington  manager Seany and SL Builder TD told me that they had to re-build the house we had as an office in Kensington, so I cleared all the desks and stuff out.  However, chatting to TD, he suggested that our old office is going spare, as they had decided not to take out the inside of the building now.  It was lovely, Me Hib, Ed and Pixi (hurry back Pixi – missing you!!) could go back to our proper office which we really felt happy in.  So I went over and set it all up, trouble is I have to make some modern desks as these look wrong, but will get around to that when I get more time.

Looking forward to seeing what will happen with the last night of the Fashion shows and hoping SL is kind to me and doesn’t leave me non-rezzed and frozen out in the cold, I’m sure I can depend on my two intrepid reporters to cover me though, thanks Hib and Ed!!

Fashion and Cowboys

Well it’s only Monday and it seems like Fashion week has been going on for quite a while to me, although it only started on Saturday.  Virtual London is putting on a great show every night and I have been so busy I can’t believe it.  If any of you people are IM’ing me while I’m at the shows, I must apologies if I don’t get back to you, I spend my entire time taking photos and sometimes crashing as a result, so sometimes I just can’t answer then and there.  So far the shows have been really nice and there may be a real life designer joining us further into the week, we will have to wait and see, but it is exciting news.   The show had started late on Saturday, with people not taking their seats etc and there was also a really good event at the Underground Club that evening.  They had a Cowboys and Indians night and people were getting all dressed up to win prizes.  I managed to go along for just half an hour as I was exhausted after the catwalk shows, but it was great fun to see all the cowboy and indian outfits and people dancing.  Seany the manager even had his horse in the club.

Friend and co-writer Ed Follet had a really good cowboy outfit on and looked like a cool dude!!  I got something from BareRose earlier, I really liked the hat best and that’s why I bought it, I’ll have to visit some Wild West sims just to wear it again!!

I hope they do another night like the Cowboys and Indians so that I can spend some more time having a dance, still onwards and upwards with the glamorous side of Virtual London, and more lovely fashions shows over the next few nights!

A Hedge, A Shrub And A Thorn!

I wandered over to the sandbox in Hyde Park Yesterday, I had this yearning to build something, although I wasn’t too sure what, I find it quite relaxing messing around with prims.  While I stood there still deciding, a tall gentleman came and stood near, and he had a tee-shirt on that could only invite comment.  Written on the front of the tee-shirt in big bold letters was the word ‘Pervert’.  He said hello and I asked him about the tee shirt, he said he didn’t believe in Lindens so he must have picked it up for free.  His name was Hedge and he asked about how far people could go in the pg sim before they get thrown out with bad language etc.  In spite of his tee-shirt I got he impression that, he did, in fact, have a good sense of humour and would wear that to invite conversation.  After all a real pervert wouldn’t exactly advertise the fact would he?  We were joined by Hibiscus who entered into the lively chat and puns were exchanged right left and centre, I was very boring and on a bit of a roll with them.  Hedge thought he might like to get more involved with us and decided that all three of us should get married.  I decided this was a bad idea as I thought I might get left with the washing and ironing part of the partnership.  Hib had other ideas and began to put her wedding dress on.

In no time at all Hibiscus was kitted out in all the wedding gear!

It seemed like a match made in the Garden of Eden,  a Hedge and a Hibiscus, a union of shrubs, I felt like a thorn in the side of this ‘would be’ romance and decided that a three way wedding was not for me, who would do the dusting and vacuuming? how would we decide who is doing the washing up? it just wouldn’t work!

Poor Hedge decided, in the end, that this wedding was not for him, Hib has another broken heart and I am wondering if she can get a refund on her wedding dress, perhaps we could buy Hedge a new shirt without ‘that’ word written on it!!!

Jazz Club Blues and a Coming Home to a Little Grief

Hibiscus told the story on her blog about the ladies who wait at the Jazz clubs in SL in the hopes of picking up a date for the night by approaching the men, even if the man has arrived with a partner.  I had mentioned to Hib that I would like to go and see for myself what goes on.  I had gone before to watch and I like sitting listening to the music in the clubs anyway.  I donned my black evening dress and put my hair up then teleported over to the club.

As I stood waiting for things to rez I moved off a few feet to one side and was aware of a man following me.  He stopped close by and I stuck the ‘Busy’ sign above my head, not wanting to talk to him.  He stood there and stood there and I thought he must go away in a minute.  Anyway another girl came over to him and said hello and he responded to her.  She asked him where he came from and there was a long gap before he said Reunion Island, there was another gap and she said I’m from the UK, with that she gave up and went off.  He stood there for a while longer and eventually tp’d out too.  He didn’t seem to be interested in being picked up by her so I did wonder why he had come to the club, perhaps some men don’t like girls making the first contact.

I went up the stairs into the club and put my music on, it was nice, people were dancing and the music was good, I walked around the edge till I found a seat right over to one side, out of the way of the group of people who stood by the door.  Trouble was that I was out of range for most of the chat going on.  I did see one girl who had a really funny little avatar, she looked like a naughty St Trinians schoolgirl in an evening dress, she had a cigarette holder and puffed away, it was a great smoking animation and she stood there until one of the men came over and asked her to dance.  Still with her cigarette in hand she took the floor and was having a lovely time.

The worst thing was I crashed after a while and when I logged on again I was standing.  I decided to go to the couches nearer to the group of people by the door, but still well out of the way,  so I could hear what was going on.  I hastily sat down and then I got a message from one of the men across the way to say hello.  I told him that I was just watching the dancing and enjoying the music but he wanted to chat.  He was nice, his profile said he was Russian and he told me he had written a book so I asked him about that.  I thought this is no good, as I can’t really just sit and watch and chat, he was funny though, and I don’t think he had written anything.  He turned out to be from Essex and admitted he only liked Russian Vodka and that made me laugh.  I said my goodbyes and headed off for my Virtual London apartment.

I noticed on my ‘people counter’ when I got back that an avatar had been around the apartment several times and the blinds kept being closed.  So when I spotted the same name on my radar I expected a little griefing and I wasn’t wrong.  In she came (he or she, probably a six foot Navi in real life!), a small child av with attitude.  I actually got the SL Police on the job, it was hilarious, but you will have to wait to read about it in Virtually London (lite) later this week!!

Losing Selina

I hadn’t known Selina Cazalet very well, I had met her when she came to Virtual London and she seemed bubbly and nice and so full of life.  She had bought a longboat and wanted to moor it down by Big Ben in SL Chelsea.  Debs Regent, Selina’s friend Lady Krimmer, Seany Blinker and I had all stood with our glasses of champagne chatting and admiring the boat.  So it was with some shock that I heard that the real lady behind Selina’s avatar has died of cancer.  Lady Krimmer told me a couple of days ago and she is so upset about losing her friend and it made me immensely sad too.

I had started out last night by going to the Mayhem Club in SL Mayfair, they had a contest there and I wanted to photograph the costumes that people had on.  I had already covered the 9/11 event in SL earlier in the day and put a story on CNN.  It’s nice that people still make the effort to pay their respects in SL.  After I had been to the Mayhem club for a little while I got a call from Lady Krimmer, who was at Jade’s Jazz Club listening to singer Inchino Melson.  I asked Lady to send me a teleport and I joined her.  We sat on the piano listening to the beautiful voice of Inchino as we talked about Selina.

Selina’s family had sent a real life picture of her to Lady  and she showed it to me, Selina was smiling in the picture and looked beautiful and so nice, and it really brings it home to you how precious life is.   Lady asked me if I wanted to go and see her home in SL and I said that I would like to see it, so she teleported ahead ready to send for me.

I reached Lady’s lovely home which had wonderful gardens with two castles and some of the buildings had been built by her friend who had made the Da Vinci sim, it was all just out of this world (even SL world).

Exploring the gardens, we went through a very pretty fairy garden and over a bridge to one of the castles with its little winding staircases.  Lady showed me the Jacuzzi and we both got into the water just floating and relaxing.  She had some cosmetics on the side of the pool and told me another  friend had made them.  Opening a foam bath bottle I could see all the bubbles and flowers as they swirled around her. 

You sort of carry on with ordinary things don’t you, you have to, but I know Lady is feeling the loss of Selina very much, and my thoughts are with her and Selina’s family and friends.  As we go on in SL we will all experience the pain of losing someone and it’s not easy.

Just Having Fun!

I seem to be writing all the time now, ok it’s what I enjoy doing, but there hardly seems time to have any fun lately and just wander off to do other things without constantly getting stories and taking pictures with an article in mind.  Well over the weekend I decided that I would just do that for a change, wander around the grid and see what I could find.  I found a beautiful sim and the man who owns it makes real looking waves and rocks and the best thing is that you rez it on your land them push it over the sim border so it doesn’t use up any prims.   I decided to buy one of the kits and take it home to try it out and it’s absolutely breathtaking, I’m really glad I did.  The only thing is though, I found myself writing about it again as it was so good and put it on Our Virtual Trilogy and ihearts.

Meeting up with Hibiscus and Ed later on in Virtual London, Ed showed us this fantastic jet he had built and we talked about getting around the sims in the helicopter that you can rezz from the Chelsea sim.  Ed has been having a go with it and I bet he can fly it a lot better than I can.  Drax joined us and we stood laughing and joking and having a great time.

I went for a wander with Drax the next day and we visited a castle (which I am planning on writing about! again!!!) and then went on to the Magical Mystery sim to listen to the music and just stroll around.  Funny thing, I met the owner who was standing there when we rezzed in, I hadn’t told her that I had mentioned her sim in my last CNN story about the Beatles, so I was able to tell her and she seemed  pleased.  We just relaxed and looked around, ending up in the little shop there where there was a blazing fire.  We made ourselves at home and just sat chatting, it was an end to a really nice weekend.

CNN Repoter Nicole’s Dance And Travelling By Helicopter!

It must be pretty hard for the CNN reporters Nicole Saidi and Henry Hanks to take the in-world meetings seriously sometimes.  After all they are not really SL’ers as such, they just come in as part of their job, so perhaps the lunacy of the avatars must be a bit strange for them at times.  Nicole took the Tuesday meeting this week and there were a few of the regulars there to hear about articles that have been reported on and what is of interest for the next few days.  As we talked we were joined by a couple of new people who did not sit down with the rest of us, but hovered overhead.  As Nicole tried to start the meeting one of them came down and started to dance in front of her and I have no idea what Nicole must have thought, more nutter avatars no doubt!!  Well she surprised me, she went right along with it, while I sat there thinking how rude the person was to do this to her, she said she would dance as well and invited any of us to join in.  We just watched, but it was so funny to see Nicole dancing around and even doing the splits at one stage.  I questioned the dancing man a bit, but he wasn’t saying much, they did give us a video link to watch, but it may have been better if they had just come along to the meeting to tell us what they wanted instead of griefing poor Nicole.  Well I say poor Nicole, she did really well and wasn’t going to be put off.  I expect when she logged off back into the real world she thought to herself ‘what the hell was all that about’  I wonder too as it happens!!

In SL Chelsea where I have my apartment, the Jazz Club across the road has a helicopter on the roof that anyone can fly if they want to.  I took it out the other day and was not very good with it.  I tried it again this morning and found I could control it a lot better.

Like SL Chelsea manager Rails Bailey says, (who put the copter there), it’s a quick way of getting around the sims, and it is.  Ok you still have the sim crossings to contend with, the out of control bit where you are pulled across the new sim and then dragged back before proceeding, but you can safely cross with the copter and it’s a lot of fun.   I even got good and landed it on the top of my apartment block before docking it back down on the Jazz Club landing area.

I wonder if I can talk Hibiscus into coming for a spin in it with me, I know how much she loves being a passenger in my car, so I expect she will jump at the chance to fly with me!!

I came back down through the Jazz Club and was surprised to see they have taken up the nice red carpet that they had down.  I wonder why, perhaps there were problems, but it’s a shame as it was dead posh before.  It will be nice when they get their times sorted out as well, as it’s set in SL London, all us Londoners are missing out so far, as all the Jazz Club sessions seem to be set in the middle of the night for us.  If they left some great music playing like the romantic stuff by Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra in between the dj events, I’m sure people would still go along for a dance whatever time of day or night.  It’s a nice venue and brand new so I hope they do well!!