For no real reason other than ‘something to do’ whilst I counted the minutes down until l I could leave my RL office and enter my SL one,  I decided to ‘google-whack’ my name.  For those of you unfamiliar with the term, ‘googlewhacking’ is when you enter your name in a search engine to see what results you get.  It’s  bad enough finding your real name on-line for all to see, so I wondered what it would be like for Kitty, and what kind of results I would generate.. Before I proceed to share my results with you, I’ll let you in on what inspired my choice of Second Life name.
When you join Second Life you have to choose your surname from a selection provided by Linden Labs. There are loads to choose from, covering a variety of cultures and both real life and fictional characters, but you cannot  use your own surname unless of course it happens to be included in the current list.   (This is probably a good thing, as I don’t think this website would be half as much fun  if I’d used my real name, which for the record is Ethel Thundercrackers.  I could have called the blog ‘Thundercracking’ though I suppose…)

Anyway, the first name wasn’t under any doubt for me owing  to my love of cats and all things feline it *had* to be Kitty.  I did toy with the idea of calling myself Selina- both in reverence of the moon and also because Catwoman’s real name is Selina Kyle, but Kitty just seemed less pretentious:) The tough part was choosing a surname because there were so MANY of them!  I’d just been watching the BBC series of ‘Casanova’ on DVD (the version which starred Sir Peter O’Toole and David Tennant) and I guess  Sir Peter was lurking in my subconcious somewhere when I spied ‘O’Toole’ as an available surname.  I liked the way it sounded, and there you have it, my name was born! 

So I google-whacked ‘Kitty O’toole’ earlier…and was gobsmacked.  Most of the references were to this site and the few others that I feature on across the old t’internet, BUT I was utterly *DELIGHTED* to see that there is an old Irish folk song called ‘Kitty O’Toole”  It’s even been recorded by a chap called Jim Hancock ! So it gives me great pleasure to present you with the lyrics to the song, and they sum Kitty up quite eloquently I think…especially the last verse eh Jez?

Kitty O’Toole

A charming young creature was Kitty O’Toole,
The Lily o’ sweet Tipperary,
With a voice like a thrush and with cheeks like a rose, And a figure as neat as a fairy.
I saw her one day, oh, she looked like a queen,
In the glory of sweet one and twenty.
As she sat with McGinty’s big arm ’round her waist,
Oh, how I envied McGinty.

Six months after that on a sweet summer’s day,
The boys and the girls were invited,
By Mickey O’Toole of the cabin beyond,
To see Kate and McGinty united.
And when in the church they were made into one,
And the priest gave them blessings in plenty,
As she stood with McGinty’s big arm ’round her waist,
Oh, how I envied McGinty.

But the years have gone by, now McGinty is dead,
Shore me heart was all broke up with pity,
To see her all lonely and mornful and sad,
So I went and got married to Kitty.
And now when I pass where McGinty is laid,
With a stone o’er his head, cold and flinty,
As he lies there so quiet and peaceful and still,
Oh, how I envy McGinty!