Experiencing technical difficulties

Let's start today with a sad story. If you can't be bothered with my whining, skip to the important bit at the end. Otherwise, please indulge me for a few minutes.

Last night, my iMac died. :( I knew it was old and needed upgrading and it was on my "to do" list but you know how it is, I just hadn't got round to it. I even had my external hard drive on my desk ready to back up, but was busy deleting unused files in the name of streamlining. I've learned the hard way. I've had the Mac mended... BUT the hard drive is dead as a dodo and, due to my lax backing up, I have lost everything from the past 12 months.

On the up side:

• Photos ... not so bad, as the children won't let us take photos of them any more anyway, so we probably haven't lost too many of importance. Although all my albums seem to have disappeared and they are in random order.
• Calendar ... happily, I uploaded everybody's birthday to Birthdayalarm.com only a few weeks ago, so that's ok
• Emails ... I'll get over it I suppose. I was due for a clearout.
• Music... I don't download much music so most of that is there.
• Stampin' Up!® business resources... thankfully, I have been uploading lots of these to my new team forum. 
• Stampin' Up!® contacts... again, thankfully I use MailChimp for my newsletters so my mailing lists should be intact.
• The computer is now upgraded as far as its advancing years will allow. So my son is happy about that. 
• It wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be. 

On the down side:

• Email preferences ... still wading through these as it's definitely not one of my strengths. Struggling, if I'm honest.
• Calendar... all my plans and dates to remember have gone.
• Email contacts ... still not sure about these. I'm so used to typing the first two letters of somebody's name and having it appear automatically.
• The big one: my accounts. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh! Really wanted to put my tax return in early this year and now I have to start from scratch. I cannot begin to tell you how gutted I am about this. 
• It's soooooo time-consuming. 

The important bit:

Please be patient while I try to sort out this mess. I may well have lost your email address so please drop me a line to say hello. However, don't expect a reply in a hurry as I've not managed to configure that particular email account yet. 

Also, if you have emailed me in the last few days and are awaiting a reply, please send your message again. 

I have lost my calendar, so if you have a party booked, PLEASE let me know the date and time, just in case I don't have it written down on my paper calendar.

That's all I can think of right now. I have learned my lesson and will be backing up at least daily from now on. The new operating system will make it so much easier. 

And if you know anybody local who can work magic on Apple Macs, please let me know. Although the prognosis was dire, I live in hope.