Swine Flu at CNN and Lively Week!

I’d put in a couple of stories to CNN last week and went over to the meeting last Tuesday and Nicole Saidi the CNN Producer was already there waiting for the others to arrive.  Nicole is usually very pushed for time, as she meets us in-world while she is at work at the CNN Headquarters in Atlanta, so she often has to dash off if a story breaks.  She told me that she was actually at home ill, as she had swine flu and a bad throat, so it was good of her to make it into SL at all, being that she was not very well.  As the others arrived it was quite a good meeting, however, I think most of them thought that the meeting slot was 2pm SLT like it used to be, and not 1.30pm SLT, so many arrived late.  We thanked Nicole for giving us her time in spite of her being at home, and I hope she is feeling better.

You might wonder what it’s like working with a very rowdy bunch of virtual reporters in SL, well I can tell you it’s not easy!  I have to keep Ed and Hibiscus in check all the time or they run riot!!  Things came to a head the other day when they decided to have a medieval duel in our office in Virtual Kensington, I just ducked out of the way as Ed swing his hammer and Hib drew her lethal looking sword!! 

Max the Siamese kitten is used to Ed and Hib sparring in the office, he knows they are only joking around and he loves them both, Ed sent me a picture of Max who had found a warm spot on his shoulder to go to sleep, awww cute!

I went over to the Jazz club in Kensington to see what was going on and there were some people enjoying the evening there.  I met up with Gerr Finesmith and we had a bit of a dance, it’s a nice club with some good music and I hope it’s a big success for Almo Skytower who runs it!

Been chatting to Debs Regent a bit this week and I told her about Johnnytreadlightly Nightfire’s castle so I met her over there and we had a little look around, she was amazed at the detail.  I could imagine a copy of the Tower of London would be really great in Virtual London, complete with ghosts, lol, but the Tower of London is in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, a long way away from the areas covered by Virtual London, shame though!

Debs had to return to real life and I went back to chase some more stories for the coming week.

 

Greyhound Live Meet Up

Another real world meets pixel world happened last night at the real Greyhound Pub in Kensington Square and the virtual Greyhound in SL Kensington.  I had advertised the event a couple of days before in the Virtually London (lite) blog, and yesterday Debs asked me to do a poster to put around London, which I did.  Well the virtual pub had a large crowd, and some of them were actually at the real Greyhound too, people like Mal Burns whose av Malburns Writer was sat in the virtual bar with the real Mal making the link talking on the video.  There didn’t seem to be a great many people coming to the real camera last night, although we could hear that the real pub was packed, we didn’t even seen Kwame the landlord, but we did see Brie and Ruskin, as well as Mal,  which was really nice and they said hello and waved from the real pub.

Hibiscus and I had been there for quite a while and people dropped into the virtual pub throughout the evening, Drax said hello, Nikk arrived, but I never got a chance to talk to him, and later on pixi got there.  Hibiscus had to go to do an interview and I had to leave to put pixi’s latest article  on for Virtually London (lite) .  I am so lucky to have two such great people writing for the blog, Hibiscus who is a brilliant writer and pixi who has just started writing and is already stunning me with her work.  The link up, once again, was a success but it would have been nicer to see more of the people in the real pub being introduced on the screen, we did see some, and there may have been more after I left, anyway they all looked like they had a really good time.

Christmas Tree Gift from Norway

There was quite a bit of excitement last night as the Christmas Tree was placed in SL Piccadilly Circus in SL London.  It was a lovely evening as the tree was officially a gift from Norway to the London sims, just like in real life.  There was a nice speech from Fish Palen who handed the tree over to Debs Regent and Debs also gave a great speech in response.   Although I thought this would be fun, I was really surprised at the amount of people there and all the nice Christmas outfits a lot of avs had on as well.  The event was a big success and we all went over to the Mayfair Underground Club to finish the evening.

Newbie Greeters and Furniture shopping

The newbies are arriving thick and fast into SL, and SL London seems one of the prime targets.  I sometimes go over for a few minutes to see what is happening and its a tiring job answering the same questions over and over, but the London team are good at it, so patient and I watched Brie Janick and her SL husband Seany1235 Blinker doing their bit.  Debs was there as well and she has a lovely sense of humour, she dressed as the queen to welcome them.  Well it’s her sim and it’s a wonderful place for newbies to start out. 

Hibiscus joined us and we all stood there chatting as one of the newbies spoke in voice and it was clear that he was well under age.  Brie was so good at handling the situation, giving him advice but telling him he should be on the teen grid, he went away quite happily in the end.  Then another av appeared with a gun, usual sort of thing! anyway Brie and Seany once again got rid of him without any fuss, they are well used to patrolling the sim. 

Hib and I went off shopping afterwards, we had to get some new furniture for the office as the whole building has been re done, and its beautiful thanks to Nikk Huet whose creation it is.  The rampant newbies are everywhere though even at the shops, the media saying that SL is a sex den is still drawing them in.  I saw two av’s at it (yes I do mean at it!! and she had no clothes on and he had his bits attached!) in the middle of the furniture store.  Trouble is as well they were a few days old and looked so scary with their prim hair and horrible skins.  As me and Hib were looking at the sofas a nude male av came over to us and I told him to go away and he did, he looked dead daft as well.  We carried on shopping and decided on a pair of temporary sofas for now, but they are quite nice and only two prims again, the same as I have in the apartment, only these are light grey and the others are a tan leather colour.  We will look for some better ones for the office though to match the nice desks and other bits there.

Cher Pulls it Off!!!

Cher had been working so hard to get everything right for the big opening night of his new Department store.  The store (Bonjour Fashion House) looked a million dollars and his new range of furniture called Hi Hi looked amazing.  I must admit it had been on my mind early in the evening that I hoped it would all go to plan, knowing what SL can be like with sims going down and stuff.  I needn’t have worried though, everything went beautifully.  Maximillion Kleene arrived on stage to sing and the place was packed.  So much so that Cher got excluded from the stage area because the sim was full!!

Max is a great guy and a really good singer and so popular in SL.  The rest of the London team dropped in, including Debs Regent and Saffia Widdershins from Prim Perfect Magazine, and the place was rocking!  I wore one of Cher’s skirts which is a favourite of mine and stood taking as many pictures as I could, which was a little difficult with the lag.  Captive looked stunning in a blue dress as she danced near the stage.

My friend Hibiscus also looked lovely in a white dress and I’ll have to catch her later for a shot of that, same as Cappie I’ll have to get some pics another time a bit closer when lag isn’t a problem, but everyone had shown up and given Cher their support on his very special night.  Here’s to a great future for the store!!!

Changing the subject, which I am known to do!! after my CNN story on ‘Anger‘ had been linked to the real life story about the couple getting divorced after meeting in SL.  I got a message from a really nice lady called Seasonedred Halfpint about her and her partner Darrius Beresford who have got married in SL and engaged in real life, and its a lovely story.  Anyway you can read about them on CNN at http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-151830

Christmas Lights go on in SL London

Hibiscus and I had a great time last night, the Christmas Lights were switched on in SL Knightsbridge by Katrin Linden.  The Lights had been designed and made by best mate Cher Demonge, yet another fantastic design, everyone thought they were stunning.  Katrin was very pretty and wore a beautiful Christmassy red cloak with a large White fur collar.  Claudia Linden also popped in to say hello.  There was quite a crowd there, and although the lag was quite bad it all went really well.  Debs Regent was there to wish everyone a Happy Christmas as well.

There was a street party to celebrate the lights going on and London rocked!!  I put on my posh frock from the Barerose store in one of it’s many colours!! (good value or what!!) and danced in the street (bit worried about those bandy legs though!)

There was a new gentleman in the crowd last night, he wore a nice red waistcoat.  I had met him the day before and had a very polite conversation with him.  He seemed vaguely familiar, maybe the way he talked or the way his hair was parted, hmmm somehow he reminded me of someone I have met before.  I did notice that he was in one of the ‘Dr Who’ groups, so possibly I have seen and admired his red waistcoat from afar some other time!!  Anyway he was having a good time dancing next to Brie and Cutewillow who looked very festive.

Good mate Hibiscus has done a terrific write up of last night at our Virtually London (Lite) blog.

Early Christmas cheer and Cher’s New Shop Opens

I don’t know what it was, it may have been that I seen the lovely Christmas displays that Cher had put in his main store in Seraphim, he had made some beautiful Christmas trees for the store, and it set me off looking at what I had in my inventory.  I am one of those people who always wants something better than the last thing I bought and although last years’ Christmas Tree was lovely, I decided to go out searching for another one.  I found this sim that seemed a little bit different to the other Christmas sites, it’s called ‘Oh Christmas Tree’ and I saw the most pretty and delicate trees there.  The only thing was the fact that they had quite a few prims, so I decided on a small one for the apartment.  Drax came over to see it and liked it as well.  Trouble is I am having to adjust my prims in the rest of the apartment for the Christmas decs.

Talking about Cher’s store, Hibiscus and I went over to Mayfair and met up with Debs Regent, Brie Janick and Seany1235 Blinker to look at Cher’s new store he has just opened in Mayfair.  He has brought out a new collection of Men’s clothing called ‘Hello’. Cher wears his own range, including great looking chunky boots, and he always looks terrific, it’s a good way of marketing his collection and he should do really well with it.

Brie has taken up photography in SL and showed us some of her work, it looks really good and it’s a nice thing to do, we saw a couple of portrait shots that she has taken and I am looking forward to seeing some more of her work.  She asked us to come over and see her place where she has her studio, so that will be lovely.

Finally I got a call from Captive, she told me that they had created a little Christmas scene in Murray, so I went over to see what they were up to.  Roach and Cappy were sitting on a large Christmas card and below them there was an ice rink and some snowmen and other bits. Cloud and a few other friends were also there, I think people are beginning to feel a bit festive, although it is a bit early, but hey!! this is Second Life! they can do what they want.

Cher’s Chelsea Build and Newbie in Wonderland

As I have said before Hibiscus and I are waiting for our apartments to be rebuilt in Chelsea, funny how you latch on to a place but it’s a great spot and we both want to move back in as soon as possible.  The rebuild had started a couple of weeks ago and I saw Debs Regent, the sim owner, looking and I think she had a few things that she wanted altered.  Anyway to cut a long story short, my friend Cher offered to do some building for Debs and she asked him to re-do the apartments.  Cher has picked another style block in the same real life Imperial Wharf and it looks like a really nice design, with a big floor space again which is great.  Anyway Cher called me over to see what I though so far and I went over to see him.  I loved it when I got there, the whole thing has very clean lines and nice big windows giving plenty of light.  We stood in the ground floor part of the building having a chat.

Later on Hibiscus and Drax popped over and they both agreed that they loved the apartments as well, so we just have to wait to see if Debs approves. 

After I had gone to see Cher I decided to have a wander around SL and ended up in one of the stores that sells skins.  Usually people try the demos on while keeping their clothes on over the top, but a girl in there had other ideas, she stood naked in the middle of the shop with the demo skin on and she also tried different hairstyles as well, but stayed bald most of the time.   She did have a pair of white stockings on so she probably thought that was ok.  Well you get a lot of newbies wandering about in those stores and this guy suddenly did a ‘double take’ when he saw her, he walked past, then went back, started to type something, but then changed his mind, walking all round her looking, then decided to make himself comfortable and sit near her so he could get a better look.  Newbie in Wonderland haha.  (by the way, you can read all about ‘Sex in the Virtual City’, my report at CNN at http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-111456)

Finally yesterday, I completely forgot about a posh ‘do’ booked at the Kensington building, the ‘beautiful people’ of SL were invited to a designer jewellery event.  Too late to get dressed up, I just turned up and stayed on the edge watching all the people in their wonderful expensive designer clothes dancing the night away.  I got to say hello to a few that I knew and hope to be able to write some of it up for the London Blog, as the models on the stage were wearing some lovely pieces of jewellery.

Goodbye to Fashion Week!

Well I must admit I feel a bit sad tonight, Fashion week in SL Kensingon has just finished.  Me and my great mate Habiscus have never worked so hard, and I still have the write up from tonight to do, but wow what a week, I think Debs and the team can be so proud as they pulled off the most popular SL event ever!!  That’s lovely Debs making her final speach to the audience in the pic below:

Debs, Hibiscus, Cher and I watched DYN Designs and Platinum Skins do the last shows and the evening was great, only one lot of designers didn’t turn up, FAT Designz, for reasons only known to themselves, but what a chance they missed, all the designers took a step up to more success this week as the event had been sponsored by the real life London newspaper The Evening Standard who cover the real life Fashion Week.

Another good thing came out of it for me, I finally decided to tidy myself up and get new hair and new skin, so I look a bit different now!!!  Thats me in the pic below trying to fly back to the sim after it had been re started, SL being SL it was playing up again tonight, but hey!!! the show went on, and the sim was packed with happy avatars! (Just feel a little sad it is all over)

SS Galaxy Night in Underground Club

Hibiscus and I had previously been invited to a night on the SS Galaxy and really enjoyed it with Debs Regent and all the London team.  Well they decided to have a Galaxy night at the Underground Club in SL London and the theme was formal dress but in black and white.  I rooted around in my inventory and found a white top and my favourite black skirt that I bought from Cher Demonge’s boutique ‘Bonjoure’.  But I had to go out and buy a pair of shoes, no hardship for me, I love shopping!!  Anyway Hib and I met up and she looked dead glam in a tux, so we went into the club and it was already rocking away with Seany as the dj and Brie as the hostess for the first part of the evening.

 

There were lots of prizes for best dressed and people had gone to so much trouble, although some cheated and there were a few colours mixed in, they still all looked stunning.  Great music and a great night, the Club is so popular that Debs must be really proud of it, along with the rest of fantastic SL London.