…I’ve contracted….something!

I’ll spare you the symptoms, but I’ve been confined to bed for the past week with something flu-like. Maybe it actually is flu, who knows? Couldn’t read, the screen on the computer and TV hurt my eyes. I’ve lain here for days, listening to the radio day and night feeling weak and feeble. Today is my first day out of bed since last Tuesday. I’ll try and catch up with posts by the other guys tomorrow and post them.

You will probably have read that Kate Middleton, or Catherine, Princess of Wales and future Queen of the United Kingdom, to give her her proper title, was photographed sunbathing topless in the privacy of a French chateau a week or so ago, and a French magazine decided to publish them. Having seen the photographs in question, I can confirm that they appear to have been taken from Belgium and that the grainy, ill defined snaps are a) terrible and b) a terrible invasion of privacy. They also appear to confirm that the young, married woman daringly exposing herself to her husband, has breasts. Stop the press!

You can obviously imagine my delight on subsequently being offered some SL paparazzi shots, taken from a tree top about 200 metres from the main beach/dancing area at Turtle beach. This isn’t extreme voyeurism, you understand, but ‘the public interest’. I’m sure that each and every one of you are in agreement with me that people getting their breasts out in SL, as well as their vaginas and penises, are a topic that we simply need to cover in the public interest.

In fact, the photographer who spent three hours hiding in the tree claims he’d even have taken a photograph of these nudists at Turtle if they’d had clothes on. And we agree. If they’d had clothes on we’d still have taken the brave decision to publish them on the basis that you -the SLN readership- simply need to know that people have sexual organs which are sometimes being thrust in our faces from a neighbouring country with what looks like a Box Brownie.And sometimes are even covered up, the shameless tarts and tramps!

As editor, I have purchased these photographs at great expense and taken great care to effectively write a blog headline which will see this blog’s click through of readers ‘spike’ dramatically tomorrow and the following day. A kind of SL equivalent of a big, moral guardian editorial and front cover of a RL tabloid newspaper intended to push sales. All in ‘the public interest’, you understand.

It’s how RL ‘newspaper’ publishing, and blogging of any description, work. I’ll let you know the percentage rise in readership, due to the headline I’ve written and which will turn up in search engines, next week.

I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a monarchist. Why should someone born into a particular family enjoy a life of unparalleled privilege? (And, in equal measure, lifelong menial service to their country)

I live in Scotland, a country seeking independence from the United Kingdom which will one day have Catherine as its Queen. A Scotland led by idiot donkeys, who would turn it into a third world country within a generation, I should add. But I do tend to be more of a republican at heart, as opposed to a monarchist. And despite that again, I’d prefer the current Queen to some narcissist moron like Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister, being appointed ‘President of the United Kingdom’.

So what have we got? A couple of lousy photos, just like real life. A voyeuristic invasion of those avatars’ privacy not to be splashed all over the web, just like real life. The likelihood of a huge increase in this blog’s readership, due to a carefully worded headline, just like real life.

The RL Catherine photos are a gross invasion of privacy and serve no purpose. The ‘public interest’ claim may be just about justifiable because the public (adolescent and middle aged men, in the main) will be interested in looking at any celebrity’s ‘norks’, as one particular commentator in need of acne cream, I suspect, put it.

There is nothing worthwhile about any celebrity’s ‘exposure’ in private (although I sometimes suspect these are carefully calculated PR stunts in the case of ‘B’ list celebrities). There is something slightly odd, in the 21st century, that women’s breasts are still a cause of such interest, and there is something nauseating about those who take these sort of photographs, buy them and consume them. We, as a species, need to re-examine our prurient interest in these sort of photos, and re-examine our morality in continuing to feed this sort of nonsense. But these sort of photos are a violation, and perhaps we need to consider putting in place laws that see the paparazzi involved in these sort of invasive, voyeuristic photos jailed with terms that match other crimes that involve violation. What’s the difference between the Catherine photos -alleged public interest’- and me, you, or anyone else taking grainy photos of our neighbours’ kitchen? Waiting for that moment on a sultry night when the man or woman of the house wanders down to the fridge for a glass of juice, naked, and we capture a photo of their ‘bits’ when the fridge door opens? Exactly what is it that makes the difference between voyeurism and paparazzi? A better camera? People involved in ‘peeping Tom’ photos, in the UK certainly, go to prison. I would advocate photographers involved in the gross invasion of Catherine’s privacy should be exposed to the same rigours of the law.

Ella

One of the disadvantages of holidaying is that my desk piles up when I’m away, and I end up with a lot of catching up to do. I had an immensely heavy workload last week, and this will continue next week (and possibly the week thereafter).

SL time will be either exceptionally limited, or zero. I will try to get some of the others’ posts popped up if I can, but can make no promises. Thus, SL Naturist will be a rather sparse publication for the immediate future, but things return to normal at the beginning of October, and Issue 6 will be available at the end of October. Expect a light level of publication until the beginning of next month.

While I was on holiday, Areola didn’t show up online at all (although due to us all having different RL and SL times, this isn’t a major concern). But I did get an email in which she outlined her next offering to the blog, and it has duly arrived. I’ll let Areola pick up the story.

Ella

SL Naturist picked up on Evacaroline Ling’s sense of dissatisfaction with visitor numbers in this post a few weeks ago. It seems that Eva’s sense of frustration hasn’t dissipated, and her group is showing a number of notices in which she repeats her concerns, although a number of people have made the effort to register their strong support for Sweden Naturist.

If you don’t use these places, they will close. I presume we visit Sweden because we adore the beautiful layout and the chance to be naturist within it. If you don’t support Sweden, or any of the other sims that offer naturism as a lifestyle choice, they will close. It’s as simple as that.

So we have declared this Wednesday to be ‘Support Sweden’ day (12th September), giving people a few days to organise themselves and their SL time to make sure that they visit Sweden on that date and we register our gratitude and thanks to what Eva does.

Join the group, it’s free, and leave a message in the group notices. I have done, registering SL Naturist’s full support for what Eva does for us.

Sweden Naturist

Click the link above and visit now if you can. And be sure to visit on Wednesday, September 12th!!!! SL Naturist will be there, in late afternoon and early evening European times, and shouting our support for Eva and Sweden.

In the meantime, I’ve added a few photos of me at Sweden, and having a jolly time in this beautiful sim.

Yes, it is true! I danced with a chair (although this is better than talking to an empty one, Mr. Clint Eastwood!)

Areola

And so my holiday draws to a close, with it being unlikely I’ll have another break until next June. That’s nine long months away from now!

Best to maximise those last final hours before we pack up and head off home, and today’s photo is a scene I’ve just experienced in RL less than 20 minutes ago. Before the sun had properly risen, I took my little cup of tea down to the shore, just to breathe in the fresh air, watch a couple of early morning nude joggers pass by, and sit on one of the wooden beach seats to listen to the waves. It was magical.

And the thing about this hour of the day, 700am-ish GMT, is that it’s quiet in my RL, allowing me to get into SL and explore or write about it, but it’s also quiet in SL time! Europe hasn’t quite woken, and the US is just drifting off to bed (or already in bed, depending on which coast you’re on) so it’s only the night owls still around.

Standing ankle deep in the surf, naked, watching the sun come up.

Is there a better way to live?

Back to normality (and work) next week, so SLN will fall back into its normal pattern of posting. I have lined up a couple of posts I’ll try and get published tomorrow, Sunday, before I pretty much disappear for a few days (you’ll have grown sick of the sight of me this past week anyway!).

Until we next speak, enjoy SL and your naturism, real or virtual, wherever you are.

Ella.

I got Ella’s IM this afternoon, rounded up my chum Anton, and we trotted over to the tennis courts to re-enact the game of all-nude male tennis she encountered earlier this week.

I’ve managed to grab a couple of decent ‘action’ type shots I’m happy with, and here they are…

I particularly like the third shot, which does, I hope capture some element of a game in action, even if our invisible (female?) opponents are out of shot! I’m guessing we were distracted, taking a heavy 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 defeat. Maybe it was the vision of them across the net, or maybe it was just that we’re bad tennis players. 🙂 Anyway, setting the shots up were a challenge but great fun to do.

And I don’t want any of you to think I’ve been hiding this week after the verbal pasting I took from Pookes 🙂

I’m quite flattered to have a street named after me 🙂

I’m sure Ella could tell us from her experiences this week that the male appendage comes in all sorts of sizes, and there’s no one much less ‘developed’ than Michaelangelo’s ‘David’, a work universally admired.

On that basis…and I’m not that bothered. 🙂  How many have streets named after them in SL? Anyway, I’ve proportioned me like RL. A constant problem with many SL guys is that they seriously flatter themselves with disproportionate penises, and probably more boastful than their RL selves are.

I’m anticipating Ella will have a field day with this post when she comes online, imagining we’re veering close to being ‘smutty’ 🙂

To get back onto a naturist theme, NWAT has some photo boards in a couple of its shops. Two points I’d raise are that a) guys seem to be shy about having themselves pictured. C’mon guys! Do your bit to redress this imbalance, lovely though all of the ladies are and b) I tried to upload my picture to one of them, but it didn’t seem to want to accept the image, so I’ll check with Rok and see what we can do about altering that.

And on the topic of lovely ladies, how come none of these delights have offered to pose for SL Naturist? C’mon ladies, make yourselves known to me so you can grace the pages of Issue 6.

Harry

The sun hasn’t broken through wispy cloud yet, so my morning stroll was cooler, allowing me to take a long walk along the naturist beach. On my way back, I encountered a nude tennis match, which would be a lot of fun for anyone who plays the game (I don’t, I’ve no hand to eye co-ordination).

The match was between two men, and yet again I’d have asked Harry to set up a suitable series of shots if I had the time to do so, but since I want these postcards to be instant, I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with me again. I’m sure you’re sick of the sight of me this week. However, as a bonus, a treat or something downright scary -take your pick- the elusive, occasional SL player, Mr. Keng, was ‘encouraged’ to come online and pose with me. And then go offline just as quickly! 🙂

I’ve IM’ed Harry to set up some sort of proper shoot for this and we’ll revisit some of these themes when I get home and Harry’s had time to organise something properly. 

I have to say that, despite knowing the tennis court was available (at NWAT) it wouldn’t have occurred to me to use the props and poses until I’d encountered a RL version of naturist tennis. I expect that what this means in the future is that I shall view different scenes in SL with a different eye, and we shall have to revisit our favourite locations and do some more photo shoots at various spots. 

In the meantime, enjoy some fairly basic shots of myself and Mr. Keng playing some tennis!

Ella

I’ve added a little bit to the naturist accessories page, due to there being a few free items available from the pharmacy. They aren’t strictly naturist, but you might like to check them out and add them to inventory.

Pookes.

Rok, at NWAT, has sent me a postcard of him enjoying what he reckons will be one of the last hot days of his summer, and he is seeking to make the best of it.

For those of us in the northern hemisphere, summer is now drawing to a close (although residents in this part of Spain will enjoy warm days until October and maybe even beyond. Or, at least, holidaymakers in this area will. The locals will be getting their winter woolies on in a couple of weeks, I expect, because everything’s relative to what you’re used to experiencing.

I’ve been out here in the early part of the year and able to sit in the sun, in a T shirt, in February having desayuno (breakfast). As I did so, a local cyclist rode by in his winter clothes and also wearing a ski mask!!! It looked like a scene from some comedy film about environmentally friendly bank robbers. 🙂

This is my last full day here, and it’s back to the UK for me tomorrow and the full expectation of months of rain, snow, more rain, cold and even more rain in long dark winter days in western Scotland. So I shall make the best of it, and even tomorrow up until lunchtime, because the winters are long.

And that’s one of the nice things about SL, and naturism within it. We can experience it, at least virtually, and have some sense of a reminder about what it is we love about the lifestyle.

And even if you’re only an SL naturist, and lack the opportunity or courage (yes, it does require some courage to make that public debut) to be a RL one, then you’ll find there’s what I style as the ‘genuine’ naturist sims, such as Eden, Nudity Where Art Thou, Su Casa and others (you’ll find the slurls on our links page) where you can gain some sense of what the lifestyle’s all about. And the ones who are genuine do a very good job of creating some sense of the lifestyle. Laidback, carefree and relaxing with a high element of sociability. And as SL is essentially a ‘social network’, it is possible to make very genuine friends who share this outlook.

So Rok sent me a postcard of his fading summer, and I’ll be writing my penultimate postcard later on (when I try to replicate yet another scene from RL). Why not send your own ‘postcard’ to us to publish? You know where we are, and you can send me -Ella Keng- an IM, an email, or however you wish.

Ella

This holiday’s costing me a fortune in L$!!!!! 🙂

In the need to be quick, instantaneous with ‘what I saw’ each day, I’ve had to roll out my ‘SLN, Eve’ and ‘SLN2, Adam’ alts. I only keep them for such emergencies when I want photos and want them now!

You can tell how little thought has gone into ‘Adam’ due to the fairly basic skin he’s wearing and, while not pictured, he operates a non-scripted (non functional) penis, the Midnight Lotus free edition. In fact, the only cost that has gone into him has been the hair I had to buy to replicate today’s scene from real life.

As usual, I wandered off to the sea with a cup of tea this morning, and with the surf still up, there’s little likelihood of sea bathing for anyone. Never mind, the residents seem to know how to keep their exercise up. For there on the beach was a man, bearded and white haired, doing some yoga exercises. Probably in his 60s, but looking 20 years younger as a result of healthy outdoor living here, and his own fitness regime. I watched for some time as I drank my tea, fascinated by his suppleness and vigour at an early hour. 

As I drained my cuppa and got up to leave another man, naked apart from a pair of running shoes, jogged past on the sand. Even without the aerobic exercise provided by getting into the water, the locals and tourists alike seem to find ways to keep fit.

And then it was back to our apartment to quickly find some white hair (I passed on the beard) and press ‘Adam’ into service and pose him at Eden’s outdoor gym, also doing some yoga.

Ella.