I'm back!

Photo Copyright: Jan Mangan, Bioneers Conference 2009

I was locked out of my blog and calendar for a couple of weeks, when Dreamhost, which hosts my website, suddenly switched servers. I couldn't get the new settings to work on Blogger. I felt kinda lame - and finally put out a call for help on my latest monthly mailing.

Cue trumpets, horns and drums. Cue flags waving and urchins cheering in the streets. In rides my old college friend, Alpesh Doshi, to the rescue!

Alpesh was one of the first people I connected with when I began college at the University of York. His family was from Kenya, had emigrated to the UK when he was a child. Just talking to someone with Kenyan roots made me less homesick. We were on the committee of the Overseas Students Association together. He teased me constantly about my un-fluency in Gujurati. I tried (unsuccessfully) to drag him and his girlfriend Belinda out on anti-war marches. He introduced me to the desi culture of Leicester, where his family lived.

Alpesh spent almost two hours on the phone from London with me yesterday, on a painstaking trouble-shooting mission to figure out the problem, and fix it. He was amazingly patient, persistent, and good-humored - even when I didn't know my FTP server password. While he worked, we caught up on our lives. He now runs his own tech consulting firm, Fintricity. Belinda is a kickass partner in her City law firm. They have two children (!!!)

Thank goddess for old friends. Thank goddess for tech wizards. Thank goddess for incredibly generous tech wizard old friends.