A Series of Unfortunate Events

Well okay, so not exactly a series, I just wanted to use that title xD

But yes, the major unfortunate event that happened was: MY WEBSITE GOT DELETED! CAN YOU IMAGINE? I WASN’T EVEN ABLE TO WRITE BLOGS ON MY TUTORIALS!

Enough capitals. It was sooooo frustrating to not have my blog anymore. It was like a heavy dose of ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’. I never realized how much I’ve come to rely on this blog to keep my thoughts straight until it was snatched away from me. Suffice to say, I felt utterly lost.

So the last couple of weeks were kind of spent harassing the 1&1 call center to restore my stuff. It was tough but I was quite dogged, and thank god it’s all back *virtual hugs to all my blogposts*.

But look at me here jumping the gun, let’s begin at the very beginning. Are you ready for this blogpost-post-website-restoration? It’s gonna be a long one!

Up until June 8th I was living in the comfortable bubble of Jeddah life, imagining that writing little notes about my upcoming projects, enjoying Tuesday Skype sessions and chasing after three toddlers in the temperature controlled environment of my penthouse was a tough job. Then, I took a flight to Karachi.

Welcome to a world of insanity and hospitality; of broken streets and street lights and the most incredible food; steeped in so many (too many) difficulties and an unbelievably hopeful people. Of potential.

I could feel the stickiness on my face the moment I stepped out of the airport. That’s how humid it was. Typical pre-monsoon rain weather in this gorgeous city of water. It was that moment, when I smelt that faint smell of rain-on-the-wind that I knew I had missed it. That despite all my typical expatriate-used-to-a-life-of-luxury-in-a-richer-country behvaior and words, arriving here had smacked me in the face with a truth. Karachi was and is home.

It was Ramadan when we arrived, so you can consider those days wasted as we struggled to fast as the humidity sucked the water from our bodies. Then, of course, Eid celebrations began and, as if that wasn’t enough, there was a wedding in the family. If you know anything of Pakistanis you know our weddings are seriously lavish (even the monetarily non-extravagant ones) affairs, simply in terms of our levels of enthusiasm and the abundance of color. (for those who don’t know, picture a slightly muted version of a Bollywood film). So yeah Skype sessions were ongoing, projects needed planning and weddings were in full swing. Not to mention the weather stayed humid (still no rain) and we remained determined to wear our most glittery and blingy outfits.

Basically those days passed by in a total haze.

Then I spent a week on getting the website restored. At the same time I had a mom and kids event coming up which needed planning and a bunch of meetings and calls to get the ball rolling on some social media work. So it was basically a see-saw between having heart palpitations about all my blog data and running around meeting people and trying to get work done.

Anyway, website came back. Just in time for the massive tsunami of work that accompanied The Untold Edition. That’s going to need a separate blogpost to explain that is. Now I’m back in Jeddah, still hung over from the crazy amount of work and fun that project was. It has snowballed into an epic project that I still don’t know how I’m going to execute but I’m totally determined to not let go off. And the blog has suffered, I know. And Jonathan just sent us an email a few days ago saying ‘as long as you update your blogs, you’ll be ready for the assessment’ *gulp*.

Okay, so that’s that. I’m going to get my bearings and begin dissecting exactly what happened over the last few weeks, and also update the blog with the things it seems to be missing. Glad to be back 🙂

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