So, wow… I’m here.

I have tested and edited and re-written & changed, added articles, subtracted them too, learned some web programming language and OMG, I’m 50% done which means… Launch!

Today is my birthday and now it’s Kalinago’s too

If you’re really lucky in this life you’ve got a person around that kick-starts you, you know, makes you go further than even your own expectations - who throws you support when you didn’t even know you needed it.

I’m one of those extraordinarily lucky people with a wonderful gang of people who fit that description.

One of those people is Andrina Rout. Andrina gets special mention because of just how insistent she is at making me realize my potential.

When I first arrived in Deutschland around 4 years ago I had had to leave my computer behind in Ecuador and my brand new boss, an Aussie running a great language institute here, Fokus Sprachen, who hardly knew me from Eve, was shocked to hear that I was a writer without ‘ze’ necessary equipment to even type an email let alone anything else.

She gave! me an old laptop and on that wonderful machine with its missing keys and no a: drive, I wrote my first full-length screenplay and started SimplyConversations.

Years later, after supporting my struggle to convince a Publishing House to buy the materials, being as dismayed as I that photocopiable materials aren’t commercial enough (ie. profitable ;-( - and yes, they’re probably right: but hey I’m not in this for the millions, these blessed things work…)

Anyhoo… Andrina came round to my house late last year, insisting that she just had to have some of the lexical sets and at my dithering as we sipped tea and nibbled cookies, she said the most incredible words:

“Sell them on-line, Karenne”

So six months later here I am.

Thank you, Andrina. Thank you for buying the first sets, for testing out the functionality of the site, for editing the long-winded system explained and for providing all those useful tips and corrections.

Thank you for being a great mentor.

And while I’m expressing my gratitude, I have got to say KUDOS to my writing posse: Writers-in-Stuttgart.

You guys really stepped in and saved me from overwork! I’m so pleased with where we’re going and looking forward to all we’ll be doing over the next years.

Thanks to Gus Hagelberg for designing this gorgeous layout, choosing just the right photo and matching all the colours to it and most especially for patiently dealing with my freaking out, for carefully and clearly easing me into CMS = 5 Stars!

!That’s me…pulling my hair out

Friends, family: TA for not telling me to my face that I’ve been so horribly rude working round the clock and ignoring you. Thanks for the great feedback, guidance, love & support. Marty, thanks x a million for taking the gorgeous photos!

And most importantly, thank you thank you thank you to my amazing students who have tolerated being guinea pigs over all these years, who screwed up their faces in displeasure when a question was badly written, who told me with annoyance that I’d made spelling mistakes, who reminded me that I really must bring in the Control sheets to EVERY class (Yes, Martin G, I mean you - you too, Martina)…

To my groups who asked excitedly “are we going to play your game today?” and to the students who after class, said “Hey, Karenne - I really learned a lot with your speaking cards”: Guys and gals, you have made me the teacher I am today and you are the reason I wrote SimplyConversations.

Okay, so this actually isn’t the Oscars…it’s a blog, so I’ll end appropriately with: G*d bless the Internet and Joomla!

K