Life's a Beach at the Underground Club!!

Come on!! get your best beach wear out, honest you won’t get cold in SL!! There is a special event at the Underground Club this Saturday, that’s the 2nd May, it starts at 2pm (PDM) 10pm (GMT) and carries on till you drop!! so the poster says! There will be many prizes for best in Beach Wear so be sure to put on something amazing! Only remember it’s a pg sim so no rude bits showing!!

Fishing Contest in SL Chelsea

There is a plaice (oops place! Sorry!) in Chelsea where you can sit and fish the day away, sunny days on the riverbank with only your rod and tin of maggots for company if you like! I’m not ‘carp’ing on that you should wish to be a lone ‘sole’, but you can ‘fin’d solace in your own company if you want to. Well yesterday there was quite a crowd there, it was the first 7Seas Fishing Tournament this year and people were having a ‘whale’ of a time! (Sorry, that’s a mammal I know!).

Chelsea manager Seany1235 Blinker was in attendance, overseeing all the proceedings and having a go at fishing himself, he is often seen there throwing a line out and seems a real fan of SL fishing. Seany asked me to have a go, but I wasn’t rising to the ‘bait’, I was worried I might get ‘hooked’ on it, so I decided just to watch the others ‘tackle’ the waters.

Each angler seemed to have a different style and some definitely seemed a bit fishy, perhaps a bit of cheating was going on? One lady was using a magnet instead of a rod, I’ve no idea what she was trying to catch, perhaps she was fishing for old bicycles or supermarket trolleys! Another lady had a really laid back app’roach’ as she leaned back with her ciggie dangling between her lips, looking too cool to load a maggot on her hook.

Then we had the guy who had really pushed the boat out, by dressing in a wetsuit complete with goggles and flippers, it may have been a ‘shark’skin wetsuit, I’m not sure! As I stood watching I was startled by the sound of explosions, and then I saw her, a lady called Jessi, r’eel’ing over from the shock, I realised that Jessi was throwing sticks of TNT into the water, could this be breaking the rules? I’m not sure what ‘scale’ of cheating this comes under in the rulebook!

SL London owner Debs Regent appeared to see how the contest was going and give it her ‘seal’ (yes I know that’s not a fish, but it does go in the water!!) of approval.

There were cash prizes to be won, and the first tournament of 2009 was a big success. The first prize was awarded to Pianons Clip with a score of 157 points (L$330), second to Jessi82 Oh (TNT lady!)(L$165) and the third and fourth prizes split between Frances Benelli and Sylke Spyker (L$27 each).

Well enough of fish puns!! I’m off to the chip shop for cod and chips, that’s if I have enough money, Seany never did pay me that sick squid he owed me!!!

Chelsea Barracks for SL Chelsea?

Continually exploring, I even check the skies above sims for any sky platforms that people might be hiding out of sight of the ground for one reason or another. It was by luck that I found a giant platform above the Chelsea sim and went up there to see what it was all about. It is a massive complex of apartments and on closer inspection I could see it was being built by London greeter Auti Coba and is a copy of the Chelsea Barracks. It looks half completed, but what I saw was a very good build. Looking at pictures of the real barracks on the internet, it is very close indeed to the original. I’m wondering if people will be able to rent the apartments inside once it’s in place, as they look quite spacious considering the amount of flats in the block.

When I came back down I decided to contact Auti to see what he had to say, but he declined to comment. Hopefully I will be able to find out more later on. Well done though Auti!! You are an excellent builder from what I’ve seen!

St George's Day UGC Party Celebrations

St George was alive and well and visiting the London Underground Club in SL Knightsbridge Thursday night!!! The evening got off to a great start with dj Seany at the helm dressed as St George, and there were plenty of princesses in the club waiting to be saved from the fearful dragon. People had really gone to town on their costumes, long medieval gowns on a lot of the ladies and some great knight outfits for the guys. It was amazing to see the detail of some of the costumes and they all looked so colourful with the red and white balloons and decorations around the dance floor.

Dj Janis took over later on, and the club was still rocking as people made the most of the night. Finally the dragon did show up, but he seemed friendly enough as he took to the dance floor and boogied on down with the rest of us, perhaps his maiden eating days are finally over, it’s ok St George you can relax and carry on partying!!!

Nudies in SL London

The London team quite often have problems with people who have a wardrobe malfunction in SL, and Wednesday just gone, saw two under dressed avatars prancing about in SL Knightsbridge. You do wonder what is going on with these people, as it is a little bit hard to lose all your clothes, unless you click the pie chart to remove them all, but then again these two had bits on, one had shoes and socks and the other one had camouflage underpants (very attractive!! Not!).

Someone gave out the alarm call on the London England chat line and within a second or two Clive Hissop was on the scene. Clive, as ever, showing lots of patience with the two men, took them to one side and explained how they should dress themselves in the PG sim, even giving one guy an outfit to wear. I have my reservations about accidental nudity in SL, it’s normally guys who decide that they have no idea how to wear clothes! You do get women of course, but not near as many! It’s a good job that newbie males are born without their ‘little bits and pieces’ attached, (if you know what I mean!), otherwise I think we would have quite a few more thinking that we want to admire them (wrongly!!).

Happy St George's Day, Join The Party at the UGC

A very happy St George’s Day to one and all in SL London. Yes it’s England’s very own Saints day today, and we should be proud to celebrate being English and invite all our overseas cousins along to party with us, after all, many of them have family roots intertwined with our ancestors. The Underground Club in Knightsbridge is having a St. George’s Day extravaganza tomorrow evening, there will be prizes for the best St. George’s Day costumes too. The event starts at 2pm-4pm PDT (10pm-Midnight (GMT)).

Our patron saint, St George was a Christian, who is said to have been born in central Turkey around about 280 AD. He was commended time and time again for his bravery in battle after joining the Roman Emperor Diocletian’s army. He was in charge of a regiment of 1,000 men after achieving the rank of millenary. Our patron saint, however came unstuck when the Emperor Diocletian turned against the Christian religion and ordered the arrest of all the Christian soldiers in his army. This is when the tale turns really nasty for poor St George, who voiced his objection and was subjected to seven years of torture. Legend has it that after all the torturing which, included being skinned alive, he was finally executed, not once, but three times, each time coming back to life. It was truly a miracle, but St George ran out of luck the fourth time, he was crushed to death, and to make sure, the Emperor ordered that he should be sawn down the middle of his head and body. This was finally the end of sad George!

He was duly picked to be the Christian hero-soldier saint of the Crusaders, and by 1222, the English church made the 23 April his holy day and stated that this was as important as Christmas. Anyway, very similar to what the ‘powers that be’ today try to do, Henry VIII abolished saints’ days in the 16th Century, but the English, God Bless em!, continued to hold secret parties in St George’s honour.

You might wonder where the dragon comes into all this, the one that St George is famous for slaying! Well this was added to the legend somewhere around 1200. The tale goes that a princess was going to be eaten by a dragon, she was rescued by St George who then lured the beast back to her city by using her girdle. It was there that he beheaded the dragon and the people of the city were so grateful that they became Christians. I must admit this dragon story sounds as if it would fit right into SL, as dragons thrive around the grid, but no beheading please, all the ones in SL are friendly!!

Come join us at the UGC tomorrow night and don't forget your red and white St George's Day costume!!!

UK Couture in SL London

It was with pleasure that I saw UK Couture opening a shop in SL London. Owner and designer Corbantis Priestman produces excellent designs without busting your budget. I remembered when I first met our very own reporter Pixi Piers as a newbie, and decided to take her to the UK Couture main store to kit her out for a makeover. It makes me smile when I think of Pixi’s difficulty to pick a couple of outfits because she liked so many of them. She did me proud by picking some styles that she could mix and match, already Pixi was showing an eye for looking great as an avatar, even in her first few days in SL.

You couldn’t have a better shop than UK Couture for those quality smart, casual clothes, to fit right into SL London living, so go and have a look.

Union Jack Fun at the UGC!

The Underground Club in Knightsbridge is well known for its themed evenings, and the other night I went along to join in the dancing, only to see that they were having the ‘Best In Union Jack’ night. Hostess TXBarbara Bailey sent me a message asking if I would like a Union Jack tee shirt so I could enter the contest, so I accepted and changed from my party dress into the tee shirt and jeans. TXBarbara was looking after all the customers by calling out to see any of them wanted a tee shirt so they could take part. TXBarbara, dj Brie Janick and the other host for the night Elizabetta Westland were all dressed up in Union Jack style clothes, as were a lot of the clubbers, it was a really colourful sight.

The votes went in for the best dressed and I’m pleased to say a few people won, including me! I received L$250 to my delight, the club certainly gives out some good cash prizes for dressing up, which is a bit of fun anyway. Thanks TXBarbara for handing me the tee shirt and thanks to the people who voted as well.

It was nice to see Elizabetta hosting in the UGC, Elizabetta, a loyal clubber, has finally become a host. Congratulations Elizabetta, you are doing a great job!!

When I was in the club a few nights ago I noticed a new pose ball in the middle of the dance floor and recognised it as the same one I had seen at Woodstock when the London Team had a night out there. The pose ball is called ‘Polonaise’ and when you click on it you all run around the room like lunatics in a line, it’s hilarious and I’m glad they have installed one at the UGC it’s such a laugh!!

New Sandbox in Hyde Park

I think one of the nicest things to be added to SL Hyde Park is the new sandbox area. For those who are new, a sandbox in Second Life is a place for building, opening boxed things you have just purchased (lots of clothes and articles are sold in boxes) and trying out scripted objects like cars, planes, even weapons. Most sandboxes you visit are left littered by objects that people have been experimenting with and they usually have a time limit, say a couple of hours, when the sandbox owner sweeps the area clean, disposing of all the stuff left behind. It’s not good manners to leave articles in the sandboxes and people should either take their objects back into their inventory or delete them before leaving.

Introducing a proper sandbox into Hyde Park is a big bonus for SL London residents, it means you can go there in comparative safety, compared to many sandboxes in other sims, where you are in frequent danger of being griefed. Regretfully some people think it’s ok to try out their weapons on people in the other sandboxes and it is quite common to get shot at etc. With SL London, however, you have members of the London team who will come to your assistance if there is trouble.

As far as sandboxes go, the Hyde Park one is in a class of it’s own. Although most sandboxes have information on how to build etc, Hyde Park also offers free textures and advice on how to make your object come to life.

Building is quite an art form and there are many good and not so good builders in SL, however, it’s something that everyone can have a go at, and even if you use your building skills just a little bit in SL, you will find it a very handy thing to be able to do. Just remember, everything in SL is built by the residents who have created this entire virtual world, making it from the basic primitive building blocks (known as prims), which are also free to use.

I have built little bits and pieces over my time in SL. I even built the first house that I lived in, although it did look a bit dodgy, but at least I tried. I will never be a gifted builder and I marvel at some things people make, like jewellery! So small and so intricate, these people are so clever. I have made pieces of furniture though, like my table and chairs in the picture, and I even dabbled with making clothes, spending many hours getting the pleats of a prim skirt right, with the magical process of making the material sway as you walk!!!

Go on over to the sandbox and see what you can build!! It’s not only very rewarding because you are making something for nothing, it’s also great fun!!

Men's Stores In SL London

There are lots of wonderful shops for women in SL London (I’m pleased to say!!) and gradually we are getting some great men’s stores too. There is one store in the classy Burlington Arcade called SynFus with a good selection of male clothing including some hair too, great for smart/casual wear.

Also a brand new shop has opened in Knightsbridge, owned by Micheal Raleigh (who is a reseller), it's called [CDD] Creations @ London, with some really stylish menswear, check out the eyes for sale too, all sorts, including animal eyes and some very nice male Neko hair with a choice of colour highlights. Men had been having a pretty bad deal in SL with clothes and hair, but I’m glad to say things a really looking up as more and more designer stores are filling the gap in the market.