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Lines from New Zealand
On a dull Tuesday morning in early October 2008, I lost my battle to save our business and property—a French provincial styled restaurant and homestead on a vineyard estate—and with it my job, my reputation, my balance, my clout, my life’s savings, my mind—my life as I knew it. Afterwards, I began writing like a madwoman, and in time a book took shape describing a myriad of experiences and the long journey back to just being me.
After our epic loss, we lived for a year in one of the highest houses in Christchurch with an unparalleled view of the Pacific Ocean and the curved coastline. That house of Up Above Down Under and those mercurial skies saved my life. We now live in The House of Cluck-Cluck where I still spend endless hours in our rambling country garden as I dig in the soil tenaciously for answers about my life.
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Lighthouse Stories
Lighthouses remain a fascination to most people. The light beam still flashes a warning to all shipping and acts as a guide to safe harbour in rough weather, but unfortunately the lighthouse keepers are now a thing of the past. Modern technology has meant that satellite navigation where signals can be bounced off satellites to turn engines on and off and fog signals can be operated from ashore without the trusty keepers. The lights still twinkle and backup systems ensure ships still have guidance to safety. No keepers, alas: they have all been made redundant. The way of life of the lighthouse keeper is now well past.
The reader of my stories should gain an insight into what being a keeper was all about. The working details provide a fair look at what makes a lighthouse function. The short stories cover a wide variety of different locations including the Channel Islands. Characters within the service are as varied as the lighthouse but there is always a story to tell given the nature of the work and the importance of safety at sea for shipping. As always, it’s the sea that is the master in everything that happens but humour keeps rearing its head to remind us of the simple things in life; it constantly raises a smile.
Although lighthouses are now unmanned, the public is still curious about their history and what a keeper's life was all about. This book and its stories perhaps can give an insight into a time when keepers were essential to safe passage.£3.50 -
Life, Death, Tai Chi and Me
Picture this: you wake in a hospital bed. Searing pain courses through your body from your toes to your head. On your head, there is a hole where they’ve placed a drain to counter the effects of the terrible subarachnoid haemorrhage you’ve suffered. You open your eyes, and the botched blood still remains in the right eye, as does the appalling double vision. You struggle to pull yourself a little more upright and reach over to the table with trembling hand to get the eye-patch to cover the now weeping eye.
There’s the hustle and bustle of the Intensive Care Unit beyond, and a TV plays in an adjacent bed. Every sound is muffled and distorted, like profound, dismal cathedral bells. This is hell. You struggle to sit up some more, pushing against the paralyzed right foot that slips helplessly against the sheets. You lean over again to hit the button for the bell that summons the nurse; more morphine is needed for the exhausting pain. Tonight, you will suffer a near-fatal catastrophic seizure brought on by blood seeping into the brain.
Life, Death, Tai Chi and Me - My Brain Injury Journey is the incredible true story of an epic struggle to defy the odds and survive the most profound physical and mental trauma.
If you've had a brain injury or know someone who has, if you've ever wondered what a near-death experience is actually like, if you've been intrigued by the power that martial arts can have on one's mental and physical resolve, if you question your own mortality and your place in the universe, or if you want to know what it's like to come back from the dead, then this book is for you.£3.50 -
Life's Too Short to Wear Dull Shirts
Graham Badrock was born in 1954 in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. That indeed made him a baby boomer. Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, life was uncomplicated and easy. He recalled asking his father, “Are we middle class, Dad?”
The family didn’t seem to go without, and it wasn’t until he was older that he had time to reflect on his good fortune. As he grew older, his leisure time was spent trying to find a girlfriend. When found, they embarked on a wonderful adventure, indulging in things that today might be off limits to their children.
They moved to Balnarring on the Mornington Peninsula several years after being married. Had the ‘Don’s Party’ times in their spa, much to the delight of the neighbourhood.
Tried to learn to sail and almost drowned, conquered rock climbing with a degree of terror at Mt Buffalo.
Grew up finally and moved to the Victorian town of Bright. Ran a bed and breakfast for over 19 years until the novelty of being nice every day took its toll. Finished signwriting after 45 years as technology caught up with him, thank God.
Travelled all over the place, Norfolk Island where they almost crashed and escaped Lord Howe Island.
They say, “Everyone has a story.” This is ‘his’ so far.
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Life's Golden Thread
This is an account of the life of a Jewish psychiatrist growing up in Melbourne, Australia in the 1940s and 1950s as a child of a traumatised immigrant mother who had a limited capacity for love. The consequence of this was poor self-esteem as well as an inability to become emotionally separate and realise his potential for love and relationships. Another result was a difficult first marriage, the psychological manifestations of which are discussed in the context of growing psychological self-awareness and eventual emotional re-birth that also contributed to a deeper understanding of psychotherapy. Dr Rose discusses his medical student days culminating in his decision to study and enter into a career in psychiatry that was varied and rich in nature. He subsequently had successful careers in the fields of psychotherapy, treatment of sexual difficulties and forensic psychiatry. Dr Rose gives considerable detail with rich anecdotes of his life in each of these fields including de-identified case descriptions. He describes his experiences of working in the mental hospitals of Victoria. He also describes his experiences in the 1970s and early 1980s in the field of sexology at a time in which many of the experts led colourful lives, as well as his rich experience in civil and criminal forensic psychiatry. Finally, Dr Rose writes about his surprising encounter with Christian religion and how this together with his second marriage led to the sense of fulfilment he has today. A golden thread has indeed been woven through his life.£3.50 -
Life Without My Family – Lone Survivor of Eleven Children
Nothing could have prepared me for what I was going to discover during my mother’s funeral. The level of trepidation I felt as I drew closer to my destination was held at bay only by the knowledge that my only surviving sister, Elizabeth, would be there with me, to keep each other company, and to share in the pain of bereavement. We had lost nine of our siblings, some as toddlers, and others as grown women.
My sister met me and walked with me towards the crowd of mourners, crying in each other’s arms as we walked. Our mother, our rock and prayer worrier had gone. We had lost a total of eleven people altogether including our dad. Our mother was put to rest. I returned to England after ten days not knowing that would be the last time I would see my sister. She passed away less than a year after my mum. Out of eleven siblings, I was left alone.
This is the story of my journey through life as a lone survivor. It is the story of how I have embraced my healing and found purpose for living despite my loss.
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Life After Reconstruction
Life After Reconstruction is my story after genital reconstructive surgery. It follows the events of what happened in my life after I wrote my first book, Wings for the Butterfly, published in Germany and in Poland. After the book came out, I thought I would be famous on the spot. Instead, I ended up in a worse situation than I was in; from living in my own flat to being in a refugee home. In the refugee home, which was not supportive for the process of sexual healing after reconstruction, I met up with other forms of traumas, perhaps worse than my own. The result of the hostile environment in the refugee home was the tension that heightened the already frightened sexual restoration, leading to numbness once again and even more rage which eventually became uncontrollable. In order to understand myself better, I became involved with trying to understand the people I came to live with, trying to understand their problems, to the point of understanding that we are all looking for pure love that was denied to us in the formative years.
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Letters from Canada
Andrew Glen was born in Scotland and emigrated to Canada in 1912. Initially he worked as an engineer in Toronto, but in 1923 bought a small farm on the outskirts of Pickering. He continued to work on the land for the remainder of his active life and for a period in the 1930’s he contributed a regular column to the ‘Toronto Star’. He recorded his detailed observations of the changing seasons and farming activities related to the time of year. This book presents a selection of these rural essays, originally written between 1931 and 1938. As social history, these essays presented a vivid picture of a way of life unfamiliar to city dwellers at that time, and now provide a reminder of farming skills, implements such as ‘The Old Binder’, and procedures no longer witnessed by current country folk. His descriptive skills were extended to his animals and we meet amongst others ‘Trotsky the Pup’, The Crazy Cow’ and ‘Lazy Lou’, one of his horses.
Many of the articles contain a sprinkling of philosophy and politics. Andrew and his wife Dorothy had been staunch members of the Toronto Labour party and he became one of the founder members of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in 1932, precursor to the National Democratic Party of Canada. This amalgam of talents and interests resulted in his ability to link up the moods of nature with his own hopes and aspirations for the future.
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Let That Dark Horse Run
Have you ever wondered why someone snaps? Just lose it mentally? Forensic experts conduct investigations to answer these very questions. Sometimes there are glaring reasons and sometimes there are not. Most would never understand the depth of the mental suffering of the person in question. This of course doesn’t absolve the person from any dastardly deeds. The mind of the individual may reach a fork in the road. That mind could either take the right fork to commit suicide or take the left fork and kill those who have perpetrated the most grievous harm towards them. Or further still, they could just keep going straight and suffer horribly, dying a little every day. Did anyone know of their mental suffering? Did he or she try to obtain mental health care? But there was no one and no one cared or helped. I suppose you wonder why and how that I could possibly speculate? Please read on…
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Last Ghost To Kill
Last Ghost to Kill is a powerful book that delves into the often-overlooked pain of parent abandonment. It offers a safe space for those who suffer in silence to share their experiences and begin the healing process from their own traumas. With a compassionate and understanding approach, this book seeks to start an important conversation and provide the tools needed for individuals to overcome their abandonment issues. Whether you are struggling to cope with the emotional aftermath of parental abandonment or seeking to support a loved one who is, Last Ghost to Kill is an essential read that will help you navigate the complex emotions and find a path towards healing and wholeness.
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Karmic Connections
A Sensational Window of Opportunity awaits you within the confines of these pages...
After a near-fatal accident, the author tells of the experiences that led to her recovery and further enhanced her existing spiritual belief system by pinpointing the issues you face in this life. You are shown how to identify them and ultimately release those blockages. She says: “… we are here not by accident but rather design.” And uses this as a platform to guide you, enhance the quality of your life, to enable you to evolve to a new level of understanding.
She was catapulted into a world of self-discovery; a privileged world which has offered profound experiences which she generously shares with you through her own personal story and that of her coterie of friends. Although she has the gift of clairaudience (to hear), something she denied for many years until she was prompted by her ‘guides’ to begin recording her amazing experiences to pen this manuscript. Ground-breaking information has been given to her courtesy of the Universe which is pure and true and provides a glimpse into the world beyond the linear of time as we consciously know it; one which provides us with the ability to manifest physical healing through a kaleidoscope of visual meditation techniques culminating into a pathway of cellular harmony.
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Just Sign Here
If you think surgery is only about the drama of an operating theatre, then you should read this book. A delightful collection of anecdotal stories that will take the reader on a journey from boyhood aspiration through surgical training and on to consultant surgical practice that spanned the millennium. All is laid bare as the author describes his joy, anger, frustration, and sadness of life in the clinical environment and beyond.
It embraces a period of transition when clinicians were transformed from self-regulating professionals into paid employees controlled by political diktats from Brussels and Westminster. It is an entertaining account of a period of momentous change and advances in the world of surgical healthcare. A penetratingly candid page turner that will make you laugh, cry and huff with indignation.
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