Catherine's Tea Party

Today I rezzed my house in the sandbox at the New Citizens' Plaza, Kuula, to show it to my friend Cricket. Anyway, I rezzed a couch and a table so we could sit down while discussing the decoration of the house. The New Citizens' Plaza was full of newbies, as usual, and soon some inquisitive newbies stepped in through the doorway (I had yet to put in a door) and started jumping on my bed. Well, I thought, let's be hospitable and serve them some drinks.

The crowd gradually grew. I rezzed more and more chairs around the glass coffee table. I invited some of my friends to join us --- FD, Noelle, Zin; it was nice to see Hooper again; and we got to meet a clothing designer, Blu. As some people left, others popped in to take their place. We had a lively discussion going.

I decided to move my house up about fifty meters, to avoid the noise and also to avoid disturbing the people on the ground. Even then, there were still some curious newbies who flew up to join us. For some reason, many of my guests had decided to come in what looked like underwear. “Welcome to Catherine's Mile-High Lingerie Tea Party!” I joked. “When you leave, use a parachute.”

I was quite carried away. And then ... the inevitable happened. The furniture and tea set vanished. The house disappeared into thin air. We all came tumbling down one after another, falling flat on our faces. I looked up, wincing, and saw a large signboard at the corner of the sandbox: TWO HOUR AUTORETURN.

An NCI Land Officer came over and began telling me off, politely, for holding a tea party in a sandbox. She explained that the NCI sandbox was for newbies to practise their building skills, and that living in sandboxes was not permitted. And neither was holding tea parties. I appreciated the necessity of such a rule, although I was sad that our party was over. It was nice getting to know new newbies, and I think they enjoyed experiencing some of the things our world has to offer, a civilized teatime discussion in a cozy little house ...

The land officer also said later that “SL is not the place for religion or politics”. Perhaps if I notice people discussing those topics, I'll report them to her.

* I can't remember exactly what happened, and when it happened --- some details may be incorrect.