A Day in the Life: Zoe | Bellisseria's Water Taxi | Three new locations
09/11/2021
9/11 ANNIVERSARY
As our friends in the USA and 90 countries that lost citizens in the attack remember that sad day 20 years ago, our hearts and minds are with the victims, their friends, families and everyone affected by their loss.
A DAY IN THE LIFE: ZOE
I rode my motorbike to the office; enjoying Bellisseria's beautiful scenery along the way. It's lucky there were not too many people on the roads, as I'd overslept and missed my morning coffee! People who know me will tell you I tend to get a little grumpy without my FIRST COFFEE .....!!
Arriving at our Winters Elm office, I noticed BBB chief Boo wasn't around yet. Lucky me! I could relax a bit while I woke up properly. I made a beeline for our coffee machine and, while enjoying my first sip, walked onto our peaceful patio. What a way to start a new work day, listening to the birds sing as I looked out over the river!
My first job was to empty the passport, drivers license and license plate mailboxes. Seeing the number of applications, I knew I would not be bored today! When the new applications were arranged in no particular order (I am a real bureaucrat!), it was time for my daily house-calls to verify addresses. Only genuine applicants – not mainland refugees – qualify!
I enjoy this part of the job as I get to see so many pretty places. Often I return later to explore them more in my spare time, which starts at 3.30pm (I am a real bureaucrat!). I like checking out applicants' homes through the windows. How nicely decorated many of them are!
Some are committed to their privacy, which I usually discover too late because I was busy admiring their beautiful things. After getting my umpteenth free flight from a security device, I wipe the dirt off my clothes and head back.
Luckily today I didn't have to ask the border police for help. All the applicants were genuine. Having checked their homes, we still needed to check their ID though. It's my job to make sure each gets a personal invitation to our Initiation Office for a full body scan. After sending those out it was time for my lunch break. So much work done already!
Lunch has become more pleasant since Mr Beeb was sent on indefinite leave. I relaxed in our lovely garden with food and a glass of wine (don't tell Boo). I almost forgot it was a working day.
After lunch, I checked how many citizens had visited the Initiation Office in the last two days. Too many alas – more work for me. So it was time to take the bull by the horns and actually make the passports, licenses and plates they'd successfully applied for. I had to make them all within 48 hours – such a hard life.
It's a fiddly job, which requires full concentration to process them faultlessly. Any mistakes in personal information would render the document illegal with all the consequences of that*. I looked at the clock, which showed 3:15 pm and decided to call it a day. The new documents had to be packaged and sent to all those Belli addresses, but luckily the post office is right next door!
I didn't complete all the documents; my day was shorter than the work required. Good bureaucrat that I am, I happily postponed the rest. When I see the boss I will make my routine complaint about overwork and say I really do need an assistant to drink wine with share all those house-calls.
*None at all – it's all for fun.
Article and photo by Zoe Suki
BELLISSERIA'S WATER TAXI
Did you know that Bellesseria has it’s own Water Taxi? It runs between the Fairgrounds (in Whiskey Bay), the Lighthouse (in Cedarburg), and a lovely trad community at Squishy Squid. You can catch the Taxi at the pier at any of these three locations. It arrives roughly every 10 minutes. Look for a sign that looks like this.
I caught the Water Taxi starting at the lighthouse. It is such a pretty location and well worth looking around before you board the taxi.
It took me to Squishy Squid where I got off for a delightful little walk around this lovely community.
Then I hopped back on it and rode it to the Fairgrounds, located in Whiskey Bay.
The fairgrounds is a great place to visit, by the way. It often has interesting events going on. At the moment, there were no special events, so I hopped back on the Water Taxi and returned to the lighthouse from where I had started my adventure.
Article and photos by Teresa Firelight
NEW LOCATIONS
This week we have a cave system, the headquarters of Bellisseria's largest and most influential group and an arty coffee shop to add to the destinations in the BBB Online Travel Guide where you can collect stamps for your Bellisseria Passport.
The cave system is beneath one of SL's many versions of Stonehenge; on Campbell Coast. The BBB's very own Cranston Yordstorm took a break from his work for us to do some spelunking beneath his land. He discovered that Glastonbelli has its own distinctive cheddar cheese – made and stored for maturation in the caves he discovered. You don't need to spelunk, because he's built a railway you can ride to tour the caves. You may even meet SL's version of Cheddar Man, the oldest known inhabitant of the British Isles who met a violent death in the Cheddar Gorge some 10,000 years ago. SL's version is just as dead but rather livelier, so be warned!
Bellisseria Citizens is the largest and most active of Bellisseria's many groups. Its HQ is a great information resource for Bellisserians old and new – as well as being a relaxed hangout and a place to play games. At some point all or most Bellisserians are going to find their way there and now they can get their passport stamped too.
Our editor, Fenella is curator of the Limoncello Art Gallery, which has a few locations in Bellisseria and on mainland SL. The latest of these is a cafe in the Elven Falls Art Collective, which opened in July this year and is a growing community of SL Artists.
All the information you need is below and the Online Travel Guide has also been updated. Enjoy your SL travels and be careful not to lose your passport!
| The GlastonBelli Cheddar Man Caves | ||
| Bellisseria Citizens Headquarters | ||
| Limoncello Gallery Elven Falls |
Thank you to the reader who pointed out the error in the lighthouse link in the Water Taxi article. That has now been corrected.
Posted by: Fenella | 09/11/2021 at 11:28 PM
Great edition guys! Be warnd Zoe, I can read!:)
Posted by: Boo | 09/12/2021 at 06:44 AM