Safari Goes Pear Shaped

 Words Matter.
          George jinxed us. Or maybe it was the fruit. Or the sudden decision to get out some NPC line dancers.
Thirza Ember: Hello all and welcome to the Safari. Two destinations this week, first grid EVER and then on to Kitely. You should know that grid-jumping directly to the EVER grid welcome sim, Gutenberg, is a problem. For some time now, it's not been working right. I have given an alternate LM that always works, it takes you to a different part of the grid, and from there you can get to Gutenberg.. and then to theater... so multiple jumps....Aime, can you confirm for me that the direct jump to Gutenberg region doesn't work?  
Aime Socrates: OK
~momentary silence and distinct lack of teleport particles ~
Aime Socrates: no, cannot go there directly, you are right thirza, we must use the alternative lm.
Lucy Afarensis: We have already started ?
Aime Socrates: yes Lucy..we started the party before safari..you know why ? its a dangerous safari...
Thirza Ember: you can tp out of the grid, but to get in, you have to do contortions - multiple tps
Lucy.Afarensis: oh dear
Aime Socrates: some will not come back

Lucy Afarensis: shudder... Thirza, You have a pear on your head ?

Thirza Ember: yes, we're going to learn about the erotic side of eating fruit... it's all very tasteful, a proper french author will be there,  basically, Cheops Forlife read a novella, about eating a pear, and it's all frenchie and stuff... and then she made a build representing it... it is not your usual vw tacky 'erotic, this is classy, sweet and romantic. When we get there, everyone will get a bit of fruit.   Your fruit is your ticket, because the build is small and only 4 or 5 people can visit at a time, so when they call for, eg. 'apples' then all the apple people go to see the exhibit
George Equus: Def a pear for me, have several  as breakfast each day:)
Aime Socrates: hope i will not get a banana
Thirza Ember: hahaha well if you do - not my problem, Cheops is the boss of the fruit
Aime.Socrates: pfff, i prefer apples
Lucy.Afarensis: I like peaches
Thirza Ember: this is a RL author we will meet, his name is Bertrand Runtz , and Jacqueline Barral, the actress from the Theatre de l'Adret  will also be there, ... so we have to be good, he is new to virtual worlds
George Equus: No sim crashing then?
Aime Socrates: no sim crash..but dangerous...for other reasons
Thirza Ember: yes let's not crash the sim
George Equus: I'll do my best not to
          ....and that is how our troubles started.
          Offline servers, and a tech gone awol meant our constant attempts to teleport over to the region either met with refusal, or freezing, crashing or the losing of clothes. For a few fleeting moments, we got a quorum of visitors on the sim.... but it didn't last.

Thirza Ember: oooo we survived
THEATRE ADRET: Bonsoir Thirza
Lorenzo Soccavo: :-)
Cheops.Forlife: please sit down to save resources lol
Billy.Bradshaw: Hi Lorenzo
Cheops Forlife: hello snowbody welcome, let me send you a fruit
Denis Morin: Bacchus look.
Lorenzo Soccavo: bonsoir Billy
Denis Morin: Hello Billy, Talia, Aime and the others.
Cheops Forlife: and just add
Talia Sunsong: Hi Denis, many were lost along the journey to ever land
Lorenzo Soccavo: Hi Snowbody
Cheops Forlife: oh you are so good pupills! heheheh
Ange Menges: Possible to have a banana on the head ?
Cheops Forlife: so quite...
~~~crash~~~

          Here we are, at the halfway house teleport, trying to get over to sim Gutenberg, and from there, to the Theater. Having teleported about looking for anyone lost, and having crashed several times into the bargain, it seems that my mesh clothes, despite being in the MySuitcase folder, had become optional in other people's viewers. The cure? when undressed, use a funny dance anim, and go with the flow. 
Thirza.Ember: i guess we really really want fruit
Lorenzo Soccavo: here it's campus university Strasbourg here
Truelie Telling: ah, you've rezzed... but no mesh... you forgot your bra
Total Sorbet: shake it thirza 
Cataplexia Numbers: Hi everybody :D
ARCANQUEST FRANK: mi ha ricrashato ho perso il frutto, lo stavo chiedendo a cheope
Could not teleport.
Taarna.Welles: You can start to sing a story about avatars who are waiting :)
Thirza Ember: well at least this region works!
Lorenzo Soccavo: j'essaye entrer en contact avec Cheops
Taarna Welles: TAARNA *** LoVe ThIs PaRtY ****
Lorenzo Soccavo: Cheops et les autres sont sur Gutenberg
Truelie Telling: hi Billy
Taarna Welles: lol nice boobs Thirza
Talia Sunsong: haha Thriza
Lorenzo Soccavo: on essaye contacter maintenance de la grille ;-)
Lorenzo Soccavo: désolé sorry
Billy Bradshaw: That girl Thirza need to get a shirt on
Truelie Telling: thirza, you created a whole line of undies just for this eventuality!
Taarna Welles: She has it cold. :D
Billy. Bradshaw: tell me I can open my eyes then
Leggs Lamore: nope
Thirza Ember: you guys are no fun
TruelieTelling: y'all got fruit on your heads! I think I missed something
Total Sorbet: yes.. we sat.. got fruit on heads then crashed
Taarna Welles: owwwwwwww
Talia Sunsong: The hosts wanted us to wear fruit
Truelie Telling: oh, how do I get one... I do not want to miss the show.
Billy Bradshaw: yes  Trulie, best fruit cake on the metaverse
Billy Bradshaw: don't think my crash log can handle any more

           We tried and tried for a full hour.  If you add it up, that's about 30 man hours spent attempting to reach the sim, a tribute to our interest in the region, and Cheop's reputation as a great builder.  

 Here is the little boat, from which you can teleport up to the Pear in the Sky, if you don't feel like cam/double clicking.
          There is a long-standing institutional aversion to teaching people English in France. It seems to be born of a belief that knowing English diminishes French; or perhaps the hope that if they hold out long enough as unapologetically monolingual, eventually French will become the international language of choice. Although they might find some stiff competition from Chinese... luckily, this generalization doesn't extend to many of our virtual co-residents like Cheops Forlife, and Safari's own Aime Socrates, and bless them for making everyone's life easier.


           Words matter. Certainly it's true that any text loses something of its poetry in translation, however, it really helps if at least  the context of a build is made plain. In the case of 'Manger une Poire' by Bertrand Runtz, imagine the eating of fruit - of a pear, specifically - couched in the language of love - which, anyone will tell you, 'is' the French language. So if I tell you 'abeilles' are bees, and 'butiner' is to gather pollen, and 'croquer' means to munch...peeling back the layers, tasting the flesh... well, you get the idea.

           But it wasn't to be, not for the Safari, not this time. We have been on home computers, tiny laptops, even had 20 of us partying on an iPhone before now, but EVER was saying Never... at least for now. We will have to try again another time; in the meantime, why not go over there yourself, the HG Address is at the end of the post.

 Destination 2 was at Quayside on Kitely, so named because, well, you arrive on the quayside. But there is way more than waterfront on this region - a vast airfield, and a fascinating skybox museum. 
Thirza Ember: i can't take off this pear any suggestions?
Leggs Lamore: giggles gonna be a pear shape forever now
Total Sorbet: eat it!
Juliette SurrealDreaming2: i don't see a pear
Thirza Ember: PATHHHH you survived!
Pathfinder Lester: ya, i crashed out at the last location and couldn't get back in
          The Quayside Landing Point has a very useful map to help you find your way around, and apposite TPs. As you can see, there was still plenty of fruit on display, including an oversized orange - trust Art Blue to outdo us all.

Keith Selmes: it started as a small project for education then it grew ... it's a retirement hobby now

          Planes and vintage cars are on display, and in the hangars you'll find some really useful historical detail regarding biographies, timelines, and... ladies' flying fashion.
          Speaking of fashion, Talia Sunsong, who had the day off so was able to join us for a change, had been on a star wars sim, and so was wearing the most amazing avatar, that looked stunningly sinister.
Talia Sunsong: you see aliens drove cars in 1910 lol 
Cataplexia Numbers: laughs at the waddling plane
Keith Selmes: Most of the planes up here are built by a chap called helijah at Blendswap, just the Wright biplanes are mine 

Aime Socrates: wonderfull builds Keith
Thirza Ember: the models are just brilliant
Cataplexia Numbers: they are! This is very lovely Keith, Ty for having us and how generous to allow us to take a copy of the planes.
Leggs Lamore: very realistic and detailed ...
Keith Selmes: the line up is just like the static display at an airshow, I've spent some time on airfields
Leggs Lamore: you would love the Air Force Armament Museum here in town
Keith Selmes: I'm sure I would 
Thirza Ember: how many planes do you have on the region?
Keith Selmes: how many planes ??? I don't know! not enough 

Pathfinder Lester: love that Mucha piece with the woman on the bicycle
Talia Sunsong: I liked the lady of fashion flying the plane
Leggs Lamore: dont you know she was concerned about her skirts getting caught up in something ?
Talia Sunsong: i believe it with all that fabric
Keith Selmes: Yes, the Wrights used to tie a string around the skirts
Cataplexia Numbers: i can imagine so!
Keith Selmes: i saw a claim that it's how hobble skirts and pencil skirts got started
Cataplexia Numbers: makes sense, you never know what will spark a new fashion trend do you. I think toyas fashions were started by fruit :D
Thirza Ember: can we get a photo op?
Leggs Lamore: she still wearing that pear ?
Thirza Ember: omg the pear is haunting me. keith must think we are nuts
Keith Selmes: oh well, if you're all nuts, i should feel at home

 After the Aviation museum, we headed to the North Airfield to try a few planes.
Thirza Ember: i crashed into a bridge - a very big bridge... and i got no insurance
Cheops Forlife: haha I abandoned it before  to leave the area lol
Talia Sunsong: I got stuck on the skyscraper railing and was circling the building :D
Leggs Lamore: dont let me get in the air then ... you would all be in trouble
Thirza Ember: you looked awesome in that contraption though
Cheops Forlife: but they are fantastic!
Talia Sunsong: so fun!

Art.Blue: they do very good indeed
Cheops Forlife 2: sure I'm amazed,
Leggs Lamore: hey Keith someone is trying to crash one of the PLANES
Jess Campbell: well I left one over on the fence
Talia Sunsong: HI Keith lots of fun to fly
Keith Selmes: call me old fashioned, buut I usually use runways for taking off
Jess Campbell: well its a grand area, very informative

Leggs Lamore: runways are good
Thirza Ember: aww Keith, you are old school!
Jess.Campbell: I couldnt find the brakes !
Keith Selmes: If anyone would like a passenger ride we can do that ?
Talia Sunsong: me
Leggs Lamore2: ME ME ME Keith I'm a bad driver / flyer
Keith Selmes: I'll bring a helicopter

Thirza Ember: I JUST FOUND THE SOYLENT GREEN 
Art Blue: really where? 
Lucy Afarensis: ewww
Leggs Lamore: wowzier 
Thirza Ember: there's a deposit of it near the pub...  i was flying, and I saw a pub, so of course, I wanted to visit the pub... and next door... the soylent green place Keith i am shocked

Thirza Ember whispers: soylent green.. is people!
Lucy Afarensis: hehe
Leggs Lamore: Keith is over 600m away

Thirza Ember: i'm still shocked... maybe that is what happens to folk who abandon planes
Art Blue: have not seen this
Lucy Afarensis: I have crashed 2 so far - no 3 !
Thirza Ember: some of us have have extra fruit content, he might not let us leave the region
Lucy Afarensis: send out a search party ?
Art Blue: it is Soillnt.... from Soil
Talia Sunsong offers soylent green ice cream
Thirza Ember: Don't be fooled Art... words matter. /me tries to take off her pear
 Object Rezzer 1 flyer 1910: rezzing now - stand clear
[sit as passenger]
Thirza Ember: i need to escape
Aime Socrates: done
Aime Socrates: i saved you
Thirza Ember: yes
Thirza Ember: i knew you would. Just kidding. This is a wonderful place!
Aime Socrates: hehe funny sim    

HG Addresses:
Theatre de l'Adret on EVER    ever.unistra.fr:8002:ML3D

Kevin Selmes' Quayside         grid.kitely.com:8002:quayside
(Note - Kitely sims are on-demand. So if there is nobody on the region you wish to visit, a hg jump will not work. You need to go first to Kitely Welcome  grid.kitely.com:8002  and then look for the region name.)