We got home last night, after a lovely dinner with friends for Valentine’s day . We had the most devine Greek food at my newly favorite find Yamas (meaning ‘to good health’). The most awesome (I know I say awesome a lot, but I really mean it!) little place in Somerset West. It’s totally unpretentious, cute in its own way and you always feel at home. Barry, the owner, knows us by name and he is such a nice guy! If you haven’t been there before, you have to go there. But make sure to book via sms (076 031 6563), his place is always full!

Just like Barry’s restaurant, I love to be just me. What you see is what you get. I am who I am and I do what I do, because I love it! Apart form taking photos, I love to talk. For a long time I haven’t talked that much on the blog. I’ve mainly been sharing photos, but I miss the talking! Blogging for me is like telling stories. It also helps me to share my thoughts, dreams, hopes and fears. And in general, I love to share my experiences. But if you’re not a fan of my ‘randomness’ and story telling, just skip over this post, to the photo posts, because for this one you’re going to need a cup of coffee, maybe two :)

On the way home from dinner last night, I was debating with myself whether I was going to go and answer some emails or whether I was going to bed. My eyes said ‘go to bed.’ my head said EMAILS. But then I decided to ignore my head for once and just take a nice long bath! While lying in the bath, thoughts flowed through my head and then I realized it was already February. Ok, can anyone please tell me where December and January went?

My life was really flipped upside down in December. The break in was a real shock to me and while trying to be strong in the situation, I don’t think I really realized what happened to us. The one day that it really hit me, was when I realized I will never ever have those all those photos back. Even though so many things were stolen, my hard drives where the only thing I really wanted back.

The day after we found out what happened, I did a blog post about the break in and I offered a big reward to the person who found my hard drives.

After the blog post, I decided to share the link on Facebook and Twitter, to spread the word. I knew that my camera gear was ‘above average’ household contents and that the cameras and lenses would probably be sold in the second hand market in South Africa. My gear was also probably going to be circulated within the professional market, as I own quite a nice Nikon kit :) So my only option to spead the word quickly, was to use my social media channels.

(Now just quickly on the topic of social media. Social media changed my life, my business and how I see the world! If you’re not using social media efficiently for your business and marketing, this is something you should seriously invest in! If you’d like to read more about Iaan’s next social media workshop at the end of the month, read more here.)

After posting the link about the break in on Facebook, it spread like a fire. It was really incredible. I’ve never seen any post being shared so many times. The people out there (and you’re probably one of them) embraced the pain with us and helped in every way they could. We received tons of emails (I’m still replying to some of them), Facebook messages and tons and tons of Facebook likes. I think there was more than 1000+ likes on my blog, as well as Facebook. The link was also shared more than 120 times, which in incredible. And needless to say, the traffic on my blog spiked like never before!

With all of this said, I realized that social media really does build a community. A community of people all around the world, that can change things. That can support. That can help. That can embrace a cause. And in this case, it felt like you all gave me and iaan a huge hug, by just ‘liking’ or ‘sharing’ the post with your friends.

Now here comes the crazy part! Within 30 minutes of posting the link to Faceboook, a guy called Peter Lambert phoned me. Peter is a photographer in Cape Town and he also owns a camera rental business. I met Peter at my first workshop about 3 years ago. Peter told me that he saw what happened to us on Facebook and he might know where some of my gear is. Seriously!!!?

Peter then told me that he bought two lenses from a second hand dealer the day before, and that the kit this dealer bought from another guys, sounded just like min. (This was now 3 days after the break in) I then asked him to check the serial numbers on the lenses he purchases and I couldn’t believe it myself, but it was an exact match of my lenses. I gave a loud scream of joy (sorry Peter!!) and then Peter gave me the details for the second hand dealer.

Iaan and I then took the details to the Somerset West Police station (where we reported the burglary the day before) and told them the whole story. We had our first lead. And at this stage, I took on the persona of Nancy Drew!!

The police then took us to the dealer to see if we could find more of my gear, as well as to find out if he could give us more information about the guy/s he purchased the goods from.

A looooooooong story short, the police arrested the dealer. Got more information out of him. Then arrested two more guys, where they found more of our stuff. (most of my camera gear has been found, but there is still lots of other things missing…) Then they received more information of where all the stuff came from and 6 people further, we had the identification and details of the people that actually broke into our house.

The two people who robbed us, were out on parol at that moment. They have also been linked to 22 other similar cases! They are professionals and they also confessed that they were the ones that robbed us. At this stage it’s still an ongoing court case.

I have received some emails from photographers that ask if the guys knew us and if they targeted us etc etc. Just to be clear, this was not the case, we were just unlucky.

But luckily we had a very good network via social media. And withing minutes, we received information, which in reality is actually a bit crazy! And with the incredible Somerset West police force’s help, the guys were in jail within 7 days! Which is something really unheard of.

I want to give a very special thanks to Peter for contacting me, as well as the police for their incredible hard work. We are forever grateful!

Amongst everything the police recovered, they also found five of my hard drives, unfortunately they were all formatted, except for one! I still can’t believe it! 2010′s photos was still there. I cried when I opened the hard drive and found all the photos of my clients, as well as my and iaan’s trip to Europe and the USA all there. It was the best feeling in the world! I don’t think photos have ever meant so much to me before!

I scanned through some folders and there I found some photos that reminded me of some of the best times in my life! One of these times were when iaan and I traveled to the USA for the first time. We met up with some awesome photographers at WPPI and we spent time with one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met David Jay!

Those were some of the best memories I ever had, and there in front of me was the photos that reminded me of those times. I’m so incredibly grateful to have those photos back.

Ok, so this post is suppose to tell the story of the break in and I totally lost track there… Iaan thinks I’m totally nuts, because when he asks me to tell him how my day was, I start with three days ago and then I talk for hours. Somewhere along the lines, I realize I’m totally off track and then I tell him about my day…This post is kinda like that :) Because in my mind every thing is linked. :D

I don’t know if you realized, but I’ve been a bit quieter on the blog lately. Not because I don’t have anything to say, but because I’m thinking. My mom use to have a guy working in the garden once a week. She would give him his tasks and then she would leave him to do it, but many times she would go into the garden and ask him what he was doing, because he was just standing there. But then he would just answer back. “I’m thinking”. For the past 6 months I’ve kinda felt like that in a sense. I’ve been thinking.

So now you’re probably wondering what I’ve been thinking about. I’ve been thinking about the burglary, why it happened, why us. I’ve been thinking about how to back up your work as a photographer in South Africa. I’ve been thinking about insurance and how to keep an inventory about the stuff in your office and house. I’ve been thinking of how I can get the builders to finish the house and actually start making the house look pretty. I’ve been thinking about what my goals are for this year and the next five ahead. I’ve been thinking about my business, Kiki and The Pretty Blog and how we can grow them. I’ve been thinking of how I can use photography to make a change in this world. I’ve been thinking of how I want to improve my businesses and how I’m going to change some processes to serve my clients better. I’ve been thinking of ideas of how to actually manage my inbox, so that I don’t go insane. I’ve been thinking of how I want my new site to look like. I’ve been thinking about blogging and how much I love it. I’ve been thinking about the future and how I can influence it. I’ve been thinking of how I can plan more workshops this year (promise!!). I’ve been thinking of some exciting personal projects. I’ve been thinking of reading more. I’ve been thinking of how I can eat healthier and gym more :) and I’ve been thinking of how this year can be totally awesome. So yes, I’ve been thinking a lot. And though the next months I will be sharing more on all these thoughts.

Through all of this I knew that I’m ok, Iaan is ok, and that makes everything ok. We’re blessed to have life and we’re going to live it to the fullest. And to top it all, I totally believe 2012 is going to be rockingly awesome!

*watch this space to read more about all the things I’ve been thinking about*

Ps if this blog post makes no sense to you, just ignore it and pretend you never read it :)