Jacqui Preen, a care assistant at Ravenhurst Care Home won The Care Newcomer Award.

“It was surreal and was an absolutely amazing night,” she said. “When they said I was the winner I just sat there and it didn’t register – I just couldn’t believe it. I really didn’t think I had a chance of winning. I was shocked. I can’t explain how I feel it still hasn’t sunk in yet.

“One of the highlights was getting to meet [tv presenter] Ben Shephard. I walked up to the stage and threw my arms around him – he was absolutely lovely.”

Mrs Preen was welcomed back to Ravenhurst with a huge banner outside the home congratulating her on her win.

She added:

“If it wasn’t for Ravenhurst and the things the team has taught me I wouldn’t have won. It’s with their backing that I’ve won it.”

The former hairdresser got through to the West Midlands regional finals of the awards last year, in the same category. Her passion for people was so inspiring, she was nominated for the national finals, which took place at a glittering awards ceremony on Saturday at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

It was after visiting her late grandmother Elise White at Ravenhurst that Mrs Preen decided to join the team 18 months ago.

She said:

“I love the residents, they give me so much more than I think I ever give them and they just make everything worthwhile. They are like my second family. I just get so much satisfaction from my work – being able to make somebody smile and make their day is so rewarding for me.”

Mrs Preen was nominated for the regional award by the home’s manager Anastasia Meredith, who said:

“There are some people who just have a natural desire to care and understand the importance of putting your residents at the heart of everything you do. Jacqui is one of those people, consistently going that extra mile for our residents.”

She added:

“To give an example of Jacqui’s dedication to her role, she will often come to work on her days off to help to take our residents on trips. Her dedication to her role is truly inspirational and we are all so proud to have her as part of our team.”

Nice welcome, wouldn’t you say? XD

Ravenhurst provides detailed notecards on the races and the roles that can be played within each race. The allowed races are vampire, lycan, fey, witch, and of course human. The main feature of the RP is the “masquerade”. Any non-human features and abilities are to be concealed from the public as much as possible, which sounds like very challenging RP for both supernatural and human characters. :} The human base is primarily NPC’d (RPed as non-player characters) but there are player characters as well — some who ICly don’t know that supernaturals exist… and some who do. The community is also pretty active around the evenings SL time.

The notable things about the character sheet you have to submit is that it requires a few paragraphs describing your character’s backstory, goals, and how they’re going to fit in and function within the city. Part of what I did catch of the character creation class is that characters are encouraged to have jobs, and while one can ask an administrator/GM or mentor OOCly if it’s fine to have a certain job, you can also ask around ICly, which is potential for more RP. The character sheet also requires logs of RPs you’ve been in to see a sample of how you roleplay.

Coming to Ravenhurst was also pretty good timing because I had a place to wander around in my current non-elf, human outfit. XD So end my explorings for the day! I’d also like to thank Doll Gathie (aka her display name, Angelika Grimm) for holding the class, and the help and info.

Credits:

Hair: **Dura**
Top and leggings: AITUI
Gloves: CheerNo (outlet store)
Shorts: .::SENSUAL MISTERY::. (closed)
Shoes: Rawdolls

Playing hidden object games is a cathartic experience.  Time stands still and before I know it, there’s 3 hours of my life I’ll never get back.  And, I don’t care.  It’s delightful.  I had a to do list yesterday too.  Granted, it was blessedly brief but I did most of it.  Somehow.  Funny, but I’m actually a bit less clear on my non-computer game memories of yesterday than on how I managed to find the pretzel in the picture.

Even though I didn’t embrace the personal joys of computer games until my 40′s, I think I’ve caught on to the whole joie de vivre.  It was classic.  I ended up with an open bag of salt and pepper kettle chips and a sweating glass of diet cherry Pepsi on my desk.  That’s the closest I get to Cheez Doodles and Mountain Dew.   Oh, and my glass was on a coaster.

Before I started playing, I located the cheat and printed it.  Double sided, to save paper.  I hate getting hung up on puzzles and it’s not what I’m into the game for anyway, so I came armed.

This whole thing is indicative of my life arc.  The ‘traditional’ order of things isn’t of great concern.  When it’s time to explore something, that’s what I do.  Perhaps it’s because I raised myself and then didn’t have kids of my own.  I have 2 step-daughters and they’re amazing people.  It frankly makes me rather giddy that they’re in my life.  I get to attach to a couple other fierce humans and didn’t do any of the work.  Sweet.  Kind of like getting to download the ‘marrying a man with kids’ cheat.

It doesn’t matter when something appeals to me.  I feel no constraints or prohibitions – not that come to mind immediately, anyway.  They’re probably there, but I bet that the ‘whatever’ wouldn’t appeal to me if it was going to be in conflict with my internal parameters.  For example, I’m not interested in bar hopping.  Never have been.  So, no big deal that I’d find it hard to reconcile.

Currently, compared to the old me, I go to a lot of live theatre, I hardly make it to movies, I leave the t.v. on during the day for companionship and I don’t automatically assume that all middle-aged white men are assholes who have ruined all our lives.

I feel no desire to attend large festivals – I really hate crowds – go figure! – but I adore creating them and then chatting with people who come.  I still love to hike in the woods with my dog and my husband.  I still pack candles and means to make coffee in my room when I travel.

And, I play computer games.

Significantly,

Susan Scot Fry

Update…  Most of all, I find deep, abiding joy in life.  I play.  So many of my friends are great at playing.  It’s inspirational.

WEBSITE: http://ravenhurstroleplay.secretsstories.com/

METER: DCS but is rarely used.

COMMUNITY:

Most of the players that go to Ravenhurst seem to be some of the best in SecondLife. They emote quite nicely and are creative, thought of course is possible to encounter one-liners. Everyone seems to want to roleplay and are usually friendly to new faces. The  only problem I’ve noticed is that most  of the time I go to the sim, there is barely anyone around thought perhaps in USA timezones there are more participants.

ABOUT:

I was there when the sim was medieval themed and it looked awesome,  but the owners decided to make it modern and I’ve noted a slight decrease in the  look of the sim. Also it looks a bit too bright from my liking, but it’s a matter of personal tast  They are highly based on the World of Darkness roleplay and new players need to fill a charactersheet (which isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. It  can be quite fun). They are strict about the masquerade and you aren’t allowed to have weapons in sight, which can be good or bad depending on the situation.

PHOTOS: