Too Busy To Blog

In the space of just over a week, I made the transition from Basic account to Premium. Or to put it another way, after six months of free Second Life living, I've started to pay money. And what drove this was the prospect of being homeless.

Currently, I have been renting my beloved skypad from Timber Oceanlane, a major player in the London sim. As a friend, Timber has been real good at letting me have a low rent and the house he provided suited my needs perfectly. But he has reached the stage that his involvement with the London sim is taking up all his time, so he has little time left to manage his land ownership.

So he decided to sell.

Being a decent chappie, he offered me first refusal on the plot, 1024 sq. meters of low-lag land in Root Squared. But to own land meant becoming a premium account owner. Up until this point, I'd been paying my way via earnings - I get paid enough as a writer in SL to afford my lifestyle. I had no desire to own land so renting has been just fine.

But I have come to love my skypad. It is "me" in there. The decor is just how I want it and I have a place to retreat to at any time. I've even done interview there - low lag and no interruptions.

I took the plunge. $72 for a one-year account is hardly going to break the bank; I can drink that at Starbucks over a week, or in two nights at the pub. Add to that the bargain price for the land, this all means I can now have a permanent location that won't be sold.

I said I love my skypad. I do. But I also want more wall space for more art. I fancy having a small art collection. So Mony and I went house shopping for something similar to my current place but with more space. And as my current house was designed by Brombo Alonzo, owner of Bobz Designs (SLurl:http://slurl.com/secondlife/Janni/155/63/21), I decided to go see what he had on offer.

Oh what fun! Brombo has a sky platform where you can rez all his houses and stroll through them at your leisure. And we rezzed a few. The one we settled on was the Jana 1.5 - the one without the built-in pool. Why not the pool? Well, the house has lots of patio space and I already have a great hot tub with lots of special features, courtesy of La Belle Vie furniture store, so I can pop that on there.



There's lots more wall space, two extra rooms, and, as I said, lots of balcony and patio space. So pretty soon, we'll be throwing a party to celebrate the new house and the new land. Look out for the invites!