Good morning dear Friends
First and foremost, I would like to apologise for not having been as present in our community in the last few months as I would have liked to but I must say that this new chapter in my professional career has proved to be a new beginning in more ways than one.
I would like to reassure my Friends who may have been wondering if this new chapter was a happy one that although I am working twice as hard - which is an understatement for anyone one who knows what working in Hospitality really means in terms of working hours and unsociable working schedule - everything is working out to be just fine and I am really enjoying the challenge.
I have never been shy of trying new things and my appetite for new horizons took me over the years to places as diverse as New Zealand, Australia and Canada for my work and now England for a little more than a decade.
This is with great sadness and certainly apprehension that I packed the world of my happy little victorians earlier this year for this move not knowing how long it would be until I could finally open the magic box again
This new chapter in my life has involved many changes on a professional level and also personal level and I am trying to make the most of my very rare days off to go out and discover new places and occasionally try to do new things.
I now realise that it was nothing short of a miracle that I was able to juggle managing a very busy 100 bedrooms hotel and what it involves of responsibilities and bringing to life the ambitious project of recreating a world of happy little victorians for the Summer Garden Party on Regent St.
Thoses who are familiar with creating ambitious Playmo dioramas already know the amount of work involved in it in terms of preparation, and setting up but creating a victorian tale that involves telling a story through a multitude of characters evolving in different decors demands not only quite an imagination - which I never lacked of - but a considerable amount of time to set up, light up, photograph, edit and post each episode.
I happily dedicated most of my days off in the second half of 2012 to creating episodes for my victorian tales as crafted as I possibly could in order to thank those who participated with creating custom made characters working up to 14 hours each day off in my "preparation board room" which became for the occasion a mini "movie set", most of the time realising than the day had gone by as I relentlessly worked at setting up the best possible scenes.
This is something that I cannot possibly dream of doing now when so much of time is involved in my work and that I am too much of a perfectionist to cut corner and deliver a cheap version of what I inteded to deliver, just because I do not have the time anymore.
I will not bother you with personal details, but I am not embarassed at all to speak about a serious depression which affected me for years and which very nearly got the better of me and that I need to make the most of my rare days off by going out and about to clear and refresh my mind.
I was extremely lucky to get over this personal ordeal and somehow found the way back into the light only helped with my determination to survive this challenge.
My happy little victorians are carefully packed in a mahogany chemist chest of drawers with a multitude of small drawers lined with red velvet with each holding its treasure of accessories both Playmobil and on a 1/12th scale including mountains of food, of course.
Should I work part time, I would have no problem at all fitting my victorian tales in, but managing a busy hotel is already such demanding task in itself that I cannot possibly consider resuming my tales without putting my own balance in danger towards a burn out that I already know far too well.
So my Friends, I hope that you did not mind me speaking to you all from heart to heart and that you will forgive me from taking a break from my Regent St tales directing while I am embracing the biggest challenge of my life : "being Happy and above all being myself"
I am sorry that I created a sense of anticipation when I ultimately did not deliver the complete tale but I still marvel at the fact that I was able to complete two entire chapters juggling a beyond busy hotel and spending entire days off jumping around my preparation board with my head buzzing with ideas, making sure that the figures will show their better profile with one hand and directing the light with the other, pesting when a figure would fall at the very moment I took the picture and sometimes re-shooting a scene if not an entire episode if not to my standards...should there have been a camera over my head, I can assure you that you would all be in stitches watching me acting like a busy bee at springtime
There is no doubt that I will one day resume my Summer Garden Party on Regent St as I will always have an unfinished business taste until Maria Malibran's performance closes the final chapter.
I will of course, be delighted to send the custom made characters to those who would like to and in the meantime, I thank you from the bottom of my heart
You will all be in my heart and in my thoughts
Karim
