The Duchies anniversary

Last Friday saw the first anniversary of the arrival of the original four Duchies in Caledon. Lionsgate, Carntaigh, Primverness and Loch Avie were the first void sims in Caledon and also the first sims to be held in trust by an individual rather than a group of people.

To celebrate the event Her Grace of Primverness hosted a Renaissance Ball.


Her Grace of Lionsgate (Her Lyoness), Her Grace of Primverness and Her Grace of Carntaigh were in attendance.


His Grace of Murdann, resplendent in his Tudor gown.


Myself and the Lady Primbroke waltz for the evening.


Miss Widdershins, publisher of Prim Perfect magazine

Sadly the Duchess of Loch Avie was unable to join in the celebrations due to RL commitments, however we certainly had a fabulous evening all the same.

May they rule for a further year in peace.

Des is on a roll!

It seems our Beloved Guvnah is on a roll to get himself sorted for before the New Year.

It was only this week that I managed to snap a picture of the newly terraformed Caledon Brigadoon when I here over the aether that yet another sim was being landed as we spoke!


Caledon Bridagoon, now divested of ice, but awaiting snow cover.


Caledon Cape Wrath. Winterfell and Caledon are now linked.

Myself and over a dozen spectators watched as the sea was parted and the earth was given form, before a mad dash ensued to be first across the new sim.

We're now now officially linked to Winterfell. Just mind their security devices when you dash across. Some of the Absinthe residents are a little zealous in their deployment of security orbs.

Caledon now stands at 33 sims with more than 2,160,000 square metres of virtual real estate. That's almost a square mile (and you wonder why it takes so long to get around Caledon now).

The Airship Destroyer aka Battle in the Clouds (1909)

And special thanks must go to Tas at Yours in a White Wine Sauce! for the heads up about The Airship Destroyer being online and available for download.

It's of interest to both early film and historical flight enthusiasts.

To watch the film or download it, point your browser here. The file is .mpg format.

Kircher Society Essential Library of Automata

If you're not already acquainted with The Proceedings of The Athanasius Kircher Society, I highly recommend adding it to your blog links. It's... eclectic in the most wonderful way. From Death Masks, Vladimir Demikhov's medical experiments, mortal remains, underground caverns and a host of the weird, wonderful and unusual can be found in its pages.

Recently a link of interest to Miss Cornelia and Mr. Hassanov (and Mr. Chaplin were he still with us) was the Essential Library of Automata.

Listing 10 books on historical Automata, there is enough material of interest to either the historian, the toy collector or the robot aficionado.

Pearse'd & Cut Penzance

Pearse'd & Cut are proud to announce the acquisition of a fine location in Caledon Penzance to offer a more convenient shopping spot for residents to the north.

When completed the Penzance location will utilise the OnRez vendor system.



We look forward to seeing you at Pirate Kings Road in Penzance.

Exploring the grid

On Monday evening Lady Primbroke and I decided to take a little time out for ourselves and just have a wander through the grid to places we'd heard of but never seen.

Our first stop was Flashman's. A rather run down Pub that would be right at home in parts of New Babbage. It sort of combines the feel of a Prohibition Speakeasy with a seedy London opium den.


The exterior


Inside.

Then on to a Dealey Plaza. A virtual recreation of the surrounds of one of the most infamous events in history. For people of the 60s it was such a shock that people around the world would later be able to recall what they were doing when they heard JFK had been assassinated. Added to that the controversy surrounding his death and the "magic bullet theory" the event is one that has grown to something of a cultural heritage.


The book depository


A view from the window


A view from the "Grassy Knoll"

While the sim doesn't offer any suggestions as to who or how many people may have been involved with Kennedy's death, it's thought provoking none the less.

From there we changed attire into something more tropical and headed to Africa.

Stunning waterfalls and trees.


Lady Primbroke chats with a rather talkative toad.
The Africa sim has a lovely collection of native animals and (with the exception of the aerial shopping strip) is a wonderful setting for an evening stroll.

Tagged memage

Having been tagged by Emilly and Baron Bardhaven and now Lunar I suppose I should set out what this is.

The rules of tagging are simple, and as follows.
(1) Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
(2) People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
(3) At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
(4) Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog


So, eight points? Hmmmm.

1. My human has a Bacon Factor of 2. He was in Queen of the Damned with Stuart Townsend. Stuart Townsend was in Trapped with Kevin Bacon

2. Edward Pearse in named for Sean Connery's character Edward Pierce in The Great Train Robbery. His facial hair is based on Sean Connery's sergeant Dravot in The Man Who Would Be King.

3. I have two other alts.

4. My human is an avid reader and has a large collection of books. As they had to be catalogued for insurance purposes, they're now on an Excel file. Currently 1,925 books at last count, though additions will be made this evening.

5. My human is also an avid historical re-enactor. Currently portraying English Civil Wars.

6. My knowledge of Photoshop techniques has vastly improved from my early days in SL 12 months ago. I still prefer starting with actual photographs.

7. I have a been fascinated by language since I can remember: the differences between accents, the etymology of words and *why* various slang phrases have come into and then out of being.

8. Pearce'd & Cut sold its first wares in November of 2006 at the New Designer's Exhibition. The first shop went up in Victoria City in December of 2006. That site is now in its third building.

Tagging people may be the biggest consideration. Let me see if I can tag some who have not already produced a Meme. Thus I Tag:
Christine McAllister
Cornelia Rothschild
Gabrielle Riel
Elrik Merlin
Iason Hassanov
Rafael Fabre
Zoe Connolly
Hypatia Callisto

What's Black and White and Red all over?

Scarier than a room full of Nuns with rulers


Dia and Mr. Offcourse get some correctional treatment


Christine and I find dancing is something of a habit.


Lunar doing his best Whoopie Goldberg impersonation


Adso Krogstad shows off his Orthodox dance moves

Ah Steelhead :-)

Alba gu brath

Friday was the night I had been looking forward to for many months, when myself and the the Duchess of Loch Avie jointly presented the St. Andrew's Day festival for Caledon.

Sadly I was unable to make the Caber toss due to timezone differences (and having been up rather late the night before). But I had managed to twist Professor Avalanche's arm into coming up with a Hammer Throw to compliment it.


Hammer throwing.

However once potential throwers realised if you skittered the hammer along the ice it didn't register until it hit the ground at the end, the game soon devolved into a version of curling.


Next saw the Champions' Tournament. Acting as Champion for the Duchy of Carntaigh, I was defeated in the first round by the eventual winner of the Day, Miss Alex Fitzsimmons. I redeemed myself in the massed combat by making three kills before being finally eliminated.

Once darkness arrived out came the music and I set along a many and varied set of Scottish tunes for a great céilidh.


An assortment of Scottish delights including Scottish tablet, IRN BRU, deep fried Mars bars, Scotch eggs and uisge-beatha.


Revellers in kilts and tartan


More flinging


Even Steelhead's Sheriff Ortega found himself bekilted.


Even the wild haggis found themselves drawn to the festivities.


Some stray sheep wandered into the clearing wondering what all the noise was about


And then strange things like cats with buttered toast strapped to their backs started appearing.

I had a great night and it was my great pleasure to be able to co-host this wonderful event.

Slainte Mhath!

Ice skating and Rez Days

Monday night was Her Grace of Middlesea's Rez Day. The Duke of Greystoke took the opportunity to set up his skating rink and invited Caledonians to come down and strap their skates on. He also asked me to provide some suitable music for the evening.

The setting was wonderful, with Her Grace looking charming in her white fur attire being accompanied by His Grace around the ice.


Gnarli & Gloire


Christine and I practice some move advanced steps.

Lady Primbroke was especially happy that snow and skating were back in Caledon as she had purchased skates last year a mere two days before a sudden thaw saw all of Caledon launch into an early spring. Hopefully there will be some snow on the ground a little longer than New Years this year.


Miss Tombola puts all her "flying by the seat of her pants" skills towards some impressive moves on the ice.


Mr. Offcourse and Lady Gustafson practice some synchronised spinning.

I received many compliments on the choice of music for the evening, which included, Ravel, Strauss, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Mozart.

Torvill and Dean eat your heart out.