Babette announces Marriage!!

... otherwise known as 'Catching Up Part2'

After a hectic weekend celebrating with my best friend Babette (she has just announced she is getting married in Real Life Yayayay!!) I thought I'd try once more to write 'Catching Up Part 2.' ... I suspect there may end up being a Part 3 by the time I finish ... But that's just my style; endless wind bagging and loss of focus :-)

Soooo ... Squinting hard and trying not to be distracted wondering where that great pair of shoes came from that Sue just walked past in (I think she has lunch at 1 ... I can find out then!!) ... What else have I not recorded some thoughts on.

The list is undoubtedly very long but I am claiming a certain immunity from remembering everything due to my age (this excuse works wonderfully well for lots of situations - lmao ) but I have just checked back to the last couple of entries and the outstanding items that I really must talk about are certainly Mericat Ireland & Thomas Thaler's joint Rezz Day celebrations; there is an ad-hoc video I captured trying to just get a quick impression of the wonderful atmsophere - I'll put the link at the bottom when I get back from work. Equally without doubt I have to highlight the 'Mad Hatter's Festival' created, organised and hosted by some truly wonderful and talented friends, chief amongst them being Mars Gelber and Skytour Sittingbull.

I am actually going to start however with a mention about two more changes/additions to OneFinalDarkness since last year ... and the most amazing of them is the new Love's Trinity Ballroom. This wonderful addition to the Sim now stands where we used to have residential rentals which, probably as a result of the generally depressed markets (Real Life & SecondLife) never really took off so has be re-inventoried (is that a word!! -  it is now!!) for another time.

The design and build, as I am sure no-one will be surprised by, was done by Babette. She really found her calling when she came to SecondLife and started experimenting with building and design. Everyone who comes to either perform at the ballroom or visits one of the regular live music events there comments on how lovely it is. If you find Babette and ask her about it she will start in with a list of things she wants to change ... but that's designers for you; never resting, never satisfied!! :-)

Personally I think she deserves our praise and once again if you haven't seen the ballroom then please pop along and have a look (slurl: Love's Trinity Ballroom). Better still keep an eye on the Google calendar, available from the OneFinalDarkness site and come see us during a live music event there ... the atmosphere is superb. Just as a taster you can check out performances by Elvera Lerner and Cranston Yordstorm from the links to videos below.

One more mention concerning Sim business. There is another 'Rezzable' theme from Babette for the Themed Event area of Love's Trinity. This one is absolutely superb .... a full Western theme with Saloon Bar, stage coach, stables, Outside Loo (very funny; I keep getting trapped in it lmao) it even has a church!! Inside the Saloon Bar you will find the piano (playable; check out the animation and the sounds :-) ) and of course a bar and stage area for the dancing girls ... I am assuming that is where I come in and I don't suppose I will get paid for it!! LoLoLoLoL

The new theme will be christened soon probably with a suitable line dance installed for the party and some great tunes from DJ Thanatos796 McCallen and brilliant hosting from Shelly Macchi (both very very dear friends of ours) ... I will be underdressed trying to look decorative somewhere as usual and Babette will be trying to underplay her latest accomplishment - as usual!! :-)

Moving off Sim now and the first stop is Mericat Ireland and Thomas Thaler's joint Rezz day celebrations. Held on the sim at the secret garden area associated with their Indie Music club (slurl: AAI - highly recommended) this was a warm and friendly occasion with, not surprisingly, superb music and a constant flow of friends and acquaintances from the AAI scene rezzing in and out ... returning from RL interruptions at times and generally a huge amount of goodwill and friendly banter going on. Mericat and Thom are definitely top class characters and represent for me a focal point and source of brilliant times and entertainment. Both Babette and I have met so many wonderful friends as a result of that lucky chance where we met up with Mericat and Thomas and they started doing DJ sessions for us at The Pig & Whistle on OneFinalDarkness many many moons ago!

Click this link for the casual video I took at the party ... which hopefully gives you a clue to how wonderfully busy it was. I wouldn't have missed that party for anything and feel privileged to know these wonderful people.

As a final note for this entry I have to reflect on the 'Mad Hatter's Festival'. This 10 hour long music event was organised by Mars Gelber with great support from Skytour Sittingbull and any number of other wonderful people all of whom need to be congratulated and I apologise for not having the full list. The music was presented as a series of sessions by well known DJ's amongst them was Mars herself, Skytour, Mericat, Cosmic, Almo and many more. The music was from many different styles but each DJ did their usual amazing job and truly although I only managed to be there for about 4 hours it was a stunning achievement all round. Again I managed to grab a short video which can only hint at the enormously great time everyone had with a constant flow of visitors in and out this has to be rated as a very successful event which I can only hope they all have the courage to put on again in the future.

As I expected there could be a 'Catching Up Part 3' but I think I can be forgiven for not writing that and I will be trying to be more contemporaneous (love that word!!) from now on ... I might have to invest in one of those really smart TV anchor ladies suits that you see on the TV!! LMAO

Thank you for being here ... and I'll see you in SecondLife soon!! *hugs*

[Link to Elvera Lerner at Love's Trinity Ballroom - still in production]
[Link to Cranston Yordstorm at Love's Trinity Ballroom]

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Broken Nails!! Grrr!!

I really was going to do 'Catch up Part 2' as the next blog ... I really do want to get some words down about the lovely things that have happened recently including the rezz day celebrations for Mericat and Thom and the Mad Hatters Music Festival put on by Mars and lots of truly wonderful friends ... these events deserve their own article and I WILL get there (manic tittering from ditzy blonde echoes round the room).

Soooo ... for now I just wanted to mention that I have been breaking my nails on a video making package from Serif called Movie Plus X3 and the results are now hosted on you tube and linked into the OneFinalDarkness website (which has also been updated and revamped).

I actually wasn't joking about the nails ... (Grrrrr) ... I lost two yesterday when I tried to catch my mouse as it dropped off the workstation; ANOTHER  trip to my local nail salon on the way home.

I am posting this from work so I will add some links tonight when I get back and then start on 'Catch Up Part 2'.

Love you all. See you soon in Second Life.

P.S. As promised the links for the current videos are:

Mericat Rocking The Pig & Whistle
Cranston Yordstorm Live at Love's Trinity Ballroom
Yahshvah Shinja Rocking The Pig & Whistle Live
Chandra Deed Live at The Pig & Whistle
Chandra Deed Debuts at The Pig & Whistle Live

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Catching up .... Part 1

After kicking my lazy self back into action yesterday and in between many, many hectic moments of flying around like some demented PA (which I am NOT despite my managers thoughts on the subject!!). I was thinking about changes, since last years Blog entries (Gods is it really that long since I wrote anything!!), to the OneFinalDarkness & Oceans End Sims and the events that take place there. I was also thinking about some wonderful events that have taken place on other Sims which have been organised and marvellously run by some very good friends of ours; topics for more Blogs ... Yayayay!!

Anyway back to my musings today. I think the first incident that crossed my mind related to the redesign of the beach areas that blend between Oceans End and OneFinalDarkness (I was thinking about this while standing in a queue for Coffee ... not for me ... please don't ask me to explain why I do these things; I must have push-over tatooed on my forehead!).

Some months ago now Babette and I were shopping and generally chatting in IM when she suggested that she thought the beach front areas on the two sims looked rather plain and could do with being re-vamped. This thought was not entirely without some background as she had recently completed a project doing the exact same thing for an aquaintance who was trying to set up a new club. I had seen the truly wonderful difference that Babette's inspiration had bought to the beach area she had transformed at that other sim and couldn't wait to see what she would do with ours. For those of you who regularly visit our sims and have the time to explore I am sure you will join me in thanking her for a brilliant job. If you have yet to visit the Sims then for the beaches alone I would have to say (and yes I know I am biassed LoLoL) it has to be worth it.

Several hours later when I eventaully had 5 minutes to sit down and briefly slip my heels off (why do I wear them for work ... at times I really do wonder!!) I was drawn to think about tonight in pub (The Pig & Whistle) when Cosmic Beres our good friend and latest addition to the DJ's plays his weekly set. I always look forward to Thursdays and Cosmic's choices he is just a little younger than Babette and I and always produces some truly wonderful sets that make great and relaxing listening. In addition to looking forward to Cosmic I mused on the recent dramatic change to the way The Pig & Whistle looks. Once again it started during a shopping trip (I am beginning to realise that I may have to Blog about those as Babette and I do a lot of shopping LoLoL) and Babs said 'I think we need a new image for the pub!' This one was a little trickier for us to settle on but after quite a bit of searching we came up with the new bar and related furniture which set the new theme and which frankly makes a much better use of the space within the pub area. There was quite a lot of work done but I am certain that anyone new arriving would think it had been like that forever because the design is just right ... all the elements mesh together and compliment each other and yet again we have our resident style guru and image director Babette Bellios to thank for the superb new look Pig & Whistle.

On that note I have several more ideas ... but for now I am off to The Pig & Whistle to enjoy Cosmic's set and hopefully see a few regular faces at the same time *S*

Wiping the cobwebs off the Blog ....

Well it has been quite some time since I was inspired to write anything .... So what has changed?

To be truthful nothing fundamental has changed but I was reminded of my woeful lack of Blogging by some wonderful articles written by two very wonderful and interesting friends in Second Life, Mericat Ireland and Jellie Arrowmint.

I recently updated the OFD website with new pictures and videos following a series of quite major changes in recent months to Oceans End and more recently to The Pig & Whistle.

One of the changes to the website was to properly implement the Contact Info form and the 'Other Questions' form.

This morning I was pleasantly surprised to find a message from Mericat telling me how she had mentioned The Pig & Whistle in her new Blog article and would I like to check it out.

Even with my wooly overnight brain still huddled in the warm corner behind my left ear Meri's Blog looked just lovely; even without her name at the top the lady's inimitable style shines through crystal clear.

Lots of great pictures are surrounded with a superb set of prose which bubble along in a bright refreshing way. By the time I reached the bottom of the article I was wide awake (well ... Awake enough to go jump on Charlie LOL).

After the Neanderthal had shuffled off in search of food I went back for another look and slid across on the link to Jellies Blog. You really have to read this lady; sharp style great energy and very engaging!

I will have put the links in for you to hop over with by the time thyou read this and if I can coax my brain into life tonight I will do some whizzy Blog link recomendy type thing in the sidebar (I know there is a proper way of describing it ... but I am old LOLOLOLOL).

In short.... These are great ladies and you can't do better than follow their spotlights (or is that Bloglights!!) onto the worlds we span - RL & SL!

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