Halloween in Second Life

Halloween, or All Hallows Eve (AKA Samhain or All Saints' Day) has just been and gone over the weekend. This celebration tends to blend into Nov 5th firework night in the UK

Taking a leaf out of JMB and Moggs book I thought I might post on the subject.

It is also interesting to note that other cultures celebrate festivals often involving fireworks, such as Diwali or the festival of Lights celebrated by celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and also Buddhists I believe.

Every year, up to this one, we have put out a pumpkin jack-o'-lantern and enter into the ‘spirit’ ;-) of the thing. This year, despite good intentions, it was left just a little too late. Unfortunately I was left attempting to acquire one at short notice in the midst of an apparent pumpkin famine.

I drove round all over on Friday afternoon, but was unable to find one. Rather than completely miss out, I thought why not decorate my place in second life? They are unlikely to have run out of pumpkins there, effectively having an infinite supply.

So I set off and visited a few rather spooky pumpkin emporia. There was a positive wealth of spooky Halloween gear, most of it at reasonable prices too. So I made a few judicious purchases, including spooky glowing lights and an animated ghost.

My place in sl is a pleasant terraced half-timbered building in the Tudor sim of Reading Primley, Renaissance Isle, so it has atmosphere anyway.

On my return from the expedition it was the matter of only a few minutes work to fix up some pumpkins, the ghost lights and a the piece de resistance - the ghost, that I set up to emerge from my front door and float into the street every now and again.

I think the whole thing worked well.

So Happy Halloween, Samhain, Diwali, etc. all.

Oh and at this time of year let’s also not forget the man reputed to have been the only one ever to have entered parliament with honourable intentions - Guy Fawkes.

We’re all going on a Summer Holiday...

Apologies to regular visitors. Postings are likely to be a little sparse on the ground for the next couple of weeks. The ‘staff’ will be taking a well-earned and overdue break.

Given the complete absence of the (was it the met office?) predicted record summer temperatures and continued drought we intend to escape and maybe find some actual summer.



Somewhere there is no need of the ‘evil’ patio heater, the new 4x4.

Somewhere the tax on alcohol is far less punitive.

We do plan to do stuff that would have the hearty disapproval of the health fascists – and possibly others.


Some ‘binge drinking’ (over 4 glasses of wine in a session), or possibly some ‘problem drinking’ (two or more glasses of wine a day), oh - and eating plenty of good food. So that’ll upset Sir Liam Donaldson, the UK’s Chief Medical Officer.

Don’t tell, the BMA, or Peter Fahy, the Chief Constable of Cheshire, but we will probably be doing some drinking in the street too – well sitting outside a local café or taverna having a drink, or two, at some point.

A flight or two may also be involved…

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