How often have you
delved deeply into that dimly-lit foreboding place you rarely dare to tread -- the
deep recesses of your walk-in closet?
Whilst bravely searching for those old sneakers you could swear were
buried in there beneath the snorkel gear and badminton set, crouching down …
you touch it … all slinky and smooth. No, not that, it’s that favorite tie you haven’t seen
since possibly your 20th high school reunion. And there’s more: the pants and jacket you
must have worn that same Shiraz-fueled night and just thrown in a bundle
waiting for the next visit to the dry cleaners. What a find. A whole great
outfit -- you'd forgotten you even owned. Thought it had been long ago donated to Goodwill.
OK, now imagine doing
the same thing with your computer.
I can’t remember a
time when I didn’t write. Long before Microsoft, when Bill Gates was just a
high school dropout; when my ‘portable computer’ weighed more than my 70lb
baggage allowance on British Airways. Countless floppy disks, countless files
and folders -- articles, ideas, chapters all gathering dust. Until the day I’m
looking desperately for the password to Lands End online shopping account. In
the dark recesses of dusty folders with unfamiliar names I stumble upon my long-forgotten
gem: Of course I had ignored and forgotten about the yellow 'New folder' that contained another
yellow folder that was entitled ‘Notes From an Idiot Abroad’ -- it should really
have been called ‘A great book that you can publish a few years from now once
Amazon has invented the Kindle’.
Inside that long
forgotten folder was my next book: I
TRAVELLED THE WORLD AS LOST LUGGAGE.
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