All I can remember are a pair of tanned legs, dark shorts, white socks and runners leaping out the door. The next image is of two strapping youths leaping the 7-foot fence, one after the other - the latter heaving my laptop over at the first to cover it. Blank again until I ran out on the street and saw them get into a car waiting and speed off down the lane. Black car, yellow numberplate. Too fast to read the plate.
Book gone. Photos gone.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
I wonder if they looked at my thousands of non-backed-up photos before they wiped my hard drive? Did they admire my favourites? The one of the small white yachts shimmering in the reflection at the Marseille waterfront? My son, so close up you could count the freckles on his nose, but his head twisted at an angle and smiling in a way I never seem to capture normally. The sun setting with a violet sky over olive and indigo lavender fields just out of Eyragues. My kids sitting in the grand window at Chateau La Nerthe playing on iPhones that were also stolen. They wouldn't have read my work, that's for sure. They were French, and my work was not only in English. Broken, incomplete and at some times simply sentences, feelings, words.
C'est la vie, they say. So, I start again. But I can no longer call my book 'A month in Provence' - that's for sure. How about "A month in Provence with 5 days of pictures"?
PS - always back up your work (Preferably not on an external drive that is not connected to a computer when thieves nick off with it).
Book gone. Photos gone.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
I wonder if they looked at my thousands of non-backed-up photos before they wiped my hard drive? Did they admire my favourites? The one of the small white yachts shimmering in the reflection at the Marseille waterfront? My son, so close up you could count the freckles on his nose, but his head twisted at an angle and smiling in a way I never seem to capture normally. The sun setting with a violet sky over olive and indigo lavender fields just out of Eyragues. My kids sitting in the grand window at Chateau La Nerthe playing on iPhones that were also stolen. They wouldn't have read my work, that's for sure. They were French, and my work was not only in English. Broken, incomplete and at some times simply sentences, feelings, words.
C'est la vie, they say. So, I start again. But I can no longer call my book 'A month in Provence' - that's for sure. How about "A month in Provence with 5 days of pictures"?
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PS - always back up your work (Preferably not on an external drive that is not connected to a computer when thieves nick off with it).
Oh Sarah, I am so sorry to hear your laptop was stolen. I can't even begin to imagine the pain you must be going through. Losing pictures and words is unimaginable for me right now.
ReplyDelete*hugs*
Did you lose all the Provence pics...nothing in the memory cards of the camera? I have heard that sometimes there's a way to retrieve photos even *after* they have been deleted from the memory card.
But as they say in the Middle East, may the fleas of a thousand camels infest the crotch of the person who hurt you, and may their arms be too short to scratch.
What a terrible experience :( I'm so sorry to hear about the laptop, specially the priceless pictures and notes you have in them. I hope, like Devina, that there's a way to retrieve the pictures from the memory cards.
ReplyDeleteomg. such an awful experience...but, as they say, turn lemons into lemonade. this could be a page turning chapter in your book. *hugs*
ReplyDeleteNothing worse than something like this to mar the marvellous memories you had accumulated.
ReplyDeleteDo consider the cloud.
Thanks folks. Considering both clouds - the one that comes with an 'i', and the one with the silver lining. In one way, it has helped me realise how many photos were rubbish - the ones I did not need. I know exactly which 10 i would pick if I could get them back.
ReplyDeleteOh Sarah- how devastating. I have no words to make you feel better. Have an extra nibble on some good cheese with vino :(
ReplyDeleteHow horrible! A hard lesson to learn (backing up).
ReplyDeleteEchoing all the sentiments above. Feel for you.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry to hear about your story... :(
ReplyDeleteI hope it won't tarnish too much your memories of South of France.
Love your blog posts and feel at home reading your lovely stories.
Emily, the frenchy from Dubai :)
x
I'm so sorry Sarah...what a horrible thing to happen. When your tweet popped up, I was shocked, imagining all the lovely words that you'd written and the beautiful photos. :-( Hugs from England x
ReplyDelete