If Thursday is 'Little Friday' ...

... Then today is 'Big Friday' and the weekend is HERE!!! Yayayay

I can actually always tell when it's really Friday ... especially during the Spring and Summer months ... because on Fridays I always wake up early (05:20 today) because I can't wait to get the weekend started.

For as long as I can remember it has always been the same:

Monday; Alarm goes off at 06:30 - sleep in till 06:50 - rush around screaming at Neanderthal to get out of the bathroom .... leave the house in a cloud of hairspray checking that everything is straight and trying to remember if it all matches (and frankly being so grumpy I don't really care).

Tuesday; Alarm goes off at 06:30 - sleep in till 06:35 - share bathroom with Neanderthal trying to avoid groping fingers (not trying very hard of course!) ... sort out the ravages from the previous night with straighteners and leave with a cloud of hairspray settling gently in the hall ... Confident that everything is straight and (?!?) Errrmmm kind of matches.

Wednesday; Cancel alarm at 06:20 - tease Neanderthal with predictable consequences ... rush off and hide in bathroom while he cools off (lololol  - he grumbles so much!!) 06:40 tease Neanderthal a bit more while getting dressed and making sure everything is just right!! Slap Neanderthal's hands and finish makeup and hair ... Deep breath and off to work.

Thursday; Slap alarm at 06:00 and try to wake Neanderthal to persuade him to go make tea ... predictably all that happens are grunts and a big hairy arm stealing the duvet ... Go make a nice tea and sit checking through the amazing blogs of my friends and some rather nice right ups about 'Fetish Fashions' from Second Life. 06:35 the Neanderthal is still snoring so a leisurely session in the bathroom and by 06:50 getting dressed and shouting at Neanderthal to persuade it to go to work! Final touches of makeup and body spray and glide out of the door feeling very confident ... Neanderthal scrambling to get his shoes on and cram something into his face as he tries to do up his shirt and get in his car; quite funny really!

Friday; The sun is up this time of the year and the alarm clock says 05:20 ... not everyone's idea of fun but I love starting Fridays early the weekend feels so close! My hairy huggable Neanderthal looks peaceful at this time ... I pad off downstairs and make a nice cup of tea for both of us; he won't drink it but that's ok. Plenty of time to read through the overnight e-mails from Second Life and look at some of the events and new fashion announcements. By 06:15 I have a second cup of tea and am in the bathroom ... all is still peaceful in the bedroom as I get dressed - he 'Works From Home' on a Friday lmao - Bless him. I finish getting ready and leave by 06:45 with a nice leisurely drive to work .... The weekend is nearly here!!

And of course it is Bank Holiday Weekend in the UK, a nice three day weekend to relax and enjoy. I have much to catch up with in Second Life, Blue Mars, OSGrid and Entropia ... I am beginning to wonder if I can get a job 'Working From Home' ... at least I could keep up with all the Virtual World projects I  have going on then!! *S*

I think I will add a new section to the OneFinalDarkness website this weekend ... 'Virtual Worlds' ... that should be fun; with references and links to the various virtual places Babette and I currently inhabit.

Hoping you all have a wonderful weekend and if you have a Bank Holiday on Monday, as I do, then enjoy that too ... and I will see you all in Second Life or Blue Mars or OSGrid or Entropia ... LoLoLoL

*Hugs* and Byeeeeeeee


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I'm not on drugs ... I just love Mondays!! :-) ...

.... and the reason for this apparent madness is simple; Mondays mean (after dealing with the fallout from the weekend at the loonie bin, otherwise known as work!!) I get to spend some quality time with amazing people in SecondLife.

Now ... I appreciate to the casual reader that probably still seems like a very bald statement, very suggestive of the diminished mental capacity associated with the ageing process - LoLoLoL :-)  The truth though is that if you met the people I am talking about you'd be counting the days down each week till the next glorious Monday came along.

The focus of all this joy and wonderment is The Pig & Whistle pub; specifically the pub from 1pm - 3pm SLT each Monday. DJ Mericat Ireland (more famously know as - Meri  LoLoL) brings her special Indie/Alternative music choice to the pub in a two hour flawless DJ set that each week amaze me by remaining fresh and genuinely engaging.

Along with the central whirlwind of wonderful fun and energy that is Meri there are a growing number of regular and very special individuals that make up the kaleidoscope ebb and flow of conversations and laughs that Mondays always are: A few of these unique and talented individuals are; Graz Firecaster, Jellie Arrowmint, Paypabak Writer, Josielo Ceriano, Thomas Thaler (special mention here - Thom IS the light that shines for Meri !! Awwww ... he is a great guy!! ), Almo Unplugged, Serotonin Raymaker, Aston Mindes, Lucifer Bates, August Abrahams, Perl Hesse, Boo Latoe, Geert Parx,Cisa Batista, Cosmic Beres, Deatoris Toll, Dirty Adored, Filthy Adored, Dominic Nico, Duggie Rubble, EdenSky Cortes, MaeBee Tomorrow, Mars Gelber, MattG Blackbart, Piet Lundquist, Annie Anton, Sean Bernheim,  Skytour Sittingbull, Sqidly Toxx  and there are lots more who all deserve to be mentioned but hopefully they will forgive this daft, goofy old Brit Bird for not making the list exhaustive ... Pleassseeee!!!

What really stands out against the predictable, pixel perfect backdrop that SL tends to end up being; is the very 3D, interesting & interested 'Full-On' personalities behind the Avatars that all of the Monday night regulars in our pub are. There are rarely evenings when there aren't 2 or more 'Hot Topics' that fire back and forth across in local chat ... often heated but very, very, rarely out of hand. If you have an opinion you can be pretty certain that once voiced you will be challenged to support it and if there are people who share it they will wade in on your side.

I have perhaps suggested that Mondays are somehow a huge melting pot of rabid debaters .... thats would be the wrong picture to give you. What I am trying to say is there aren't many times when something isn't being talked about and all of the substantial 'News Topic Bites ...' will be layered between plenty of ribald laughter and ... I have to be truthful some very 'Adult' themes and moments!! How much fun is that!! LoLoLoL

The best way undoubtedly to understand Mondays at The Pig & Whistle is to come along and be prepared to enjoy, relax, converse and be pulled into this amazing and totally brilliant band of people I am proud and happy to call my friends!!

Yayayayayay!! It's Monday .... It's Meri .... Time to get dressed and P A R T A Y!!!

Who needs Atkins ... Not me!! Arrrgh!!

MANIC!! ... yes that would be the right word for the last 10 days. I have to admit that much of it is of my own making with planned (and unplanned!! - Woops) changes to the OneFinalDarkness Website and the work I have been doing on the Midnight Romance Website taking up large chunks of my time; all excellent fun of course but the time ticks away!

I am sure you can guess where the title comes from!! ... LMAO ... I will admit I have been a little complacent with myself since Christmas last year and it all came to a screeching conclusion (and yes!! - I did screech!!) when Charley said "Is that skirt supposed to outline your bum like that?" After I had rushed upstairs and checked out the disaster area that was my out of control rear end ... and hence the screech! ... I decided I needed to do something about it. That was 10 days ago and this morning I had enough energy to summon up the courage to check that mirror again ... Well I can't say, hand on heart, it is back where it should be yet but the rushing around (and the extra walking around at work - The only good thing about that job is the exercise I get as a result of my manager believing I am his PA!) has at least smoothed a few of the stress creases from the back of my skirts (I am still avoiding bending over too much in case I blot out the sun or clear someone's desk!! LoLoLoL).

Soooo ... with lessening fears of having to obtain my Super tankers Captains ticket for being in charge of an enormous butt; I can talk a little about some of the changes to the OneFinalDarkness site. For a while now I have been very impressed with the various features and benefits that having a Google account can provide; not least of them being the Google calendar for instance that Babette and I use to organise the events at OneFinalDarkness (and believe me ... without that calendar NEITHER of us would remember anything; except to keep track of the latest offerings from N-Core or Nyte'n'Day!).

One of the very interesting features which I stumbled across is the suite of Google 'Friends Connect' and associated gadgets. These provide a social infrastructure which peoples Google accounts stand at the centre of. Although I am sure there will be changes I have put together a new feature on the OneFinalDarkness site to take advantage of these Google applications ... you will find it on the menu listed as 'Coffee Corner'. I am pretty sure some of these gadgets will come and go but in between times they add another dimension to the site and allow you as the viewers/readers to be more directly active on the site with comments and recommendations and of course by showing your support and helping to more firmly link us all together.

I look forward to any thoughts or ideas any of you have and would encourage you to use the various feedback paths on the site including; not only the new 'Coffee Corner' and page recommendations but the general comments option on the 'Contacts' page plus the currently little known 'OFD Forum'.

As another thought; I already know that Jellie Arrowmint and Mericat Ireland have wonderful, lively and active blogs (the OFD one still needs to odd jolt from a crash cart! LMAO) sooo why not make sure I know about any blogs that any of you have and with your permission I'd like to add them to the OFD Blog Roll.

Perhaps if I am brave enough I may ask Charley tomorrow "Does my bum look big in this?" ... LoLoLoLoLoL

*hugs* to you all as I grab the Blackberry and rush of again with a list of things to do that have suddenly become urgent (in other words the idiot manager forgot he was supposed to do them!! Pfffft!!)

... And if you hear a screech it will not be me this time but it will be that damn security guard who can't get his eyes off me bum!! LMAO

Luv ya all !!


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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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