Slave To The Bean Unleashed

Bill Barnett has released his fourth written collection of columns, rants and random dispatches titled “Slave to the Bean”. The book starts out on an oddly disturbing note:

“I’m sitting bare-naked on an airplane at 38,000 feet up in the sky, and can’t help but be absolutely mesmerised by my left foot. It’s been said the human condition is flawed, though in this instance the fatal error is a gaping hole in one black sock that has grown an evil head and been cast out into to an uncaring world.

Let’s skip the nude toe scene and take a moment to reflect on this year, which somehow descended into disruptive chaos. Maybe better to just say the world is bent over and choking with a case of bad juju. Even the spin-doctors have gone stone cold mute like those stone faces on Easter Island.

And yet, throughout the days of no end or no beginning, I’ve found myself amazed, perplexed
and somewhat disturbed by the scenes playing out before my eyes. ‘Bah Bah Black Sheep’ is playing in my mind’s playground as I try to make sense of all this sheer randomness.

During the year I burst out of the seams of Asia, headed Down Under, hip hopped the Equator to Africa, took on Europe and as usual returned for quick doses of North America. El Nino was my seatmate,
as my usual magic bus journeys skyward encountered hostile erratic weather that constantly pushed me to the edge of my seat.

The days we have in this crazy mixed up existence should not be discarded or wasted. Never get too comfortable or sedate, as the adventure remains just a keystroke away. Taxi ride, plane, train, boat or just opening the door and walking beyond that familiar neighbourhood… you never know when you will fall down an adrenalin-infused rabbit hole.

Of all my travel seductions, Asia remains my dark, haunting, slightly debauched mistress. The attraction can perhaps best be explained by the maxim that in the Old World, history is in the books, while in the New World, there remain endless opportunities to catch unwritten history up around every bend.

That’s where the edge is, just past that sharp left turn coming up at any moment. But don’t blink, or let your mind wander, as you might miss it.”

To read Slave to the Bean online click:

http://issuu.com/thephuketinsider/docs/slave-to-the-bean