Rumble: My Head Fell Off the Cabinet

Things I have to say, part 1:
I got this hat in 2002 as a good-bye present from the staff in our Afghanistan and Pakistan offices. It is an Afghani Chief's hat.
A colleague of mine kept on referring to it as my 'ead. I understood 'head', and had no clue what he was talking about. "Nice 'ead!". "Gee, well, thanks, I had it all my life!". "No, the 'ead, not your 'ead!" Anyway, since then, I referred to my hat as my 'head'. This morning, it fell off the bookshelf, where it had been sitting quietly for the past few years. My 'ead fell down.. (and was nicely dented).

Anyway, that is besides the point, also besides the point is that I got this 'ead at a party the Islamabad staff threw for me the evening before I was to fly to my new duty station. That was just before Martin and Robert thought it would be a good idea to have a 'last one' in the Islamabad UN club, and they introduced me to a bottle of "Skone Aquavit". I could not remember much anymore after that. I do remember, I missed my plane the next morning, and had the worse hangover ever! I went back to the office. Martin and Robert looked at me with a real wide grin, and C. turned her head away... I must have had a look with question marks on my face, as Robert said "You don't remember anything anymore, do you?". Well I did not. Apparently, we got pretty jolly, started to dial everyone who was so unlucky to have their number stored on my mobile phone. 'Last numbers dialed' revealed we called all over the world. Once again my public apologies to all!!! I know it must have been late in Sydney, and early in California! And sorry if I said anything to offend you!
During that 'dark' period, we seemed to have run into C. plus husband who had a late dinner in the club. I must have made a disgrace of myself, as since then, C.'s husband does not want to talk to me anymore.
Martin also told me that the traffic cop did not think it was funny when we stood at the crossroad on the way back home, and I pulled out a whistle from my pocket too as I claimed to do a better job than him.
I think that was the last time I got drunk.

Anyway, that is besides the point! Besides the point! THE POINT IS: I took "my 'ead falling off the bookshelf" as a sign. Now we are getting serious here: I started this 'The Road to the Horizon"-blogsite as a way to publish the short stories I wrote in the past years, months. I started the blogsite three weeks ago. It was the first time I published a blog, or published anything -for that matter- on the Internet myself. Little did I know that I was going to get so much response and readers... In just the last two days, I had 436 visitors from 24 countries. (thanks NeoCounter and Clustrmaps for the figures!). Scary!

While writing and publishing the articles, I also found that 'merely publishing' the eBook (that is what I like to call 'The Road to the Horizon': a dynamic eBook - dynamic as I publish the stories as I am writing and editing them), was not really taking advantage of the blog features:

• I started to add pictures, video and music links, links to other websites
• I could get interactive feedback on the articles
• Could connect to 'equally minded' bloggers
• Writing a short story takes a week from start to finish. That is too long for blogs which need more regular updates.
• The short-stories are typically too much of a long-story for a blog-reader. Several of you indicated you wanted shorter stories

On top of all of this, while writing the eBook short-stories, I also discovered that in the grey corners of my memories, many small-stories or anecdotes started to pop up, which were too short to publish as an eBook story. But still interesting enough to publish. So where better than in this blog to publish them?

SO: As my 'ead fell off the bookshelf, I got the idea to separate the blogs and the eBook stories. The latter would get into the eBook directory (appropriately called 'My eBook Chapters' - see top half of the right column on this page), The 'Most Recent Posts' will then show all publications as I am posting them. Most recent first. The non-articles would get a title prefix-ed with the word "Rumble". A nice distinction, no? I tell you, I have my moments of enlightenment!

In all of that, I probably confused you. If so, forget about what I just told you, and continue reading, and giving me feedback.

Things I have to say - Part 2:

I am writing a couple of new short stories, but it might take a while before they are publish-able. The main reason is that I am busy editing another eBook: Verslaafd aan de Horizon or 'Addicted to the Horizon'. I wrote it thirteen years ago as a logbook of my first three expeditions to the Pacific and Antarctica. It is published (in Dutch) in a blog format, and looks pretty cool. I am adding pictures at this moment. So even if you do not speak Dutch, go and have a look at the pictures! Here is a screen shot of the title page:

So you will have to excuse me now, as I have more work to do. Enjoy the reading and continue feeding me with comments on the eBooks-stories. Or this blog. And fill in the survey in the right column please....

For the latest eBook story, click here to read " How We Conquered the Mountain "