Here is a taste ot the new book

Introduction.
         As I was writing the first two books, often there was memory overload. I carried a note-book and pen wherever I went to record the incoming recollections. There were, and are still so many of them, and many of them weren’t able to be included in the books for one reason or the other, usually to do with keeping the flow of the narrative, or they interfered with chronological order.

      I was in Papua New Guinea in July/August of 2007 operating a live-aboard dive boat in the Kimbe Bay area on the island of New Britain. We were broken down and were availing ourselves of the use of the facilities and good will of Max and Cecilie Benjamin at the Walindi Resort. We were having parts and personnel flown in to make the repairs and so we often had to use the resort bus to make the run in to town or out to the airport. One morning I booked the bus for yet another futile trip to town hoping parts had arrived at the depot. Our driver for the day was Shannon Seeto, a guy of Chinese descent, brought up in PNG and educated in Australia. He was doing environmental consultancy work for the nearby Mahonia Na Dari conservation center and moonlighted occasionally as the Walindi Resort bus driver.

      It was a hell of a road in and out of town, having fallen into neglectful disrepair over a number of years, and after a return trip we would all be thoroughly shaken and stirred by the time we got back to the resort. This particular day, on the return trip, to pass the time in conversation I asked Shannon about his Chinese heritage. It was strange to hear him speak in his broad Australian ‘G’day Mate’ accent. I told him I had been in his mother country and I related to him a funny experience I had had as I traveled across the continent. We both had a good laugh about it and it was our way of breaking the tedium of the drive.

         When we got back to the resort, and I back on board the boat, a hint of an idea began to form in my head. I sat down at the ships computer and typed out the story I had just shared with Shannon. I re-read it and it occurred to me that this could be the first of a series of short stories that I could put together from my left-over notes that were waiting for me on my desk back in Australia. I printed it off and put it in my briefcase.

       It was another month of drama and disaster before I managed to escape back to the safety of my home in north Queensland, and it was not too long after I got settled that I began to put together this book from that stack of notes, beginning with the story I told to Shannon as we made another bloody awful roundtrip to Kimbe for stores and parts. So, my thanks to Shannon Seeto for the idea and inspiration for this little effort.

        The book, by its title is the random collection of many of those yarns, in no particular order, just as they come off the stack. Also included are contributions by friends and family members. Not too many though, they’ll come in another book which hopefully will show just how extraordinary and diverse we human beings really are. I’ve caught a few of the mad buggers in this book, I hope you enjoy the stories, recognize your own potential and then go do it!
Rob.