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AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
On a Saturday afternoon in 2012, Ben’s life changed forever after a serious road traffic accident put him in a life-threatening situation and in an induced coma. After pulling through against all the odds, Ben had to navigate through living a normal life after surviving a traumatic brain injury. Not coming to terms with his new limitations, Ben carried on with life, keeping himself busy and throwing himself into everything that came his way. He got married, continued to work full time and had a child. It was after his daughter was born that Ben finally reached breaking point and finally asked for help. Whilst he was being treated by a local brain injury service, Ben’s life was turned upside down again with another life-changing event, putting further strain on his recovery.
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A Seasonal Footprint
My journey has been of global proportions. The sometimes spectacular, sometimes sombre, often-times splendid, at times spiritual, most times satisfying, brings perspective to the distinctive scenes each season displays. Each holds its own ‘colours’.A viewing of the ever-changing landscape emphasises the where, the what and the when. But, when the traveller pauses to reflect upon an exploration, an event, the deeper meanings of life may surface in the how and the why of personal experience. A journey becomes a pilgrimage when one’s life goal is placed in the knapsack. This book offers a personal reflection on a ‘journey’ that is still on-track to ultimate reality.
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Beef Cubes And Burdock
The rural landscape of John Phillpott’s boyhood has changed irrevocably over the last half-century.The elm – that celebrated ‘Warwickshire Weed’ of folklore – has been lost to disease, urban sprawl continues apace and motorways now disturb the tranquillity of fields that once knew only the sound of cattle, birdsong and the rumble of the farmer’s tractor.But paradise lost? Not quite, because the river flows on through the valley as it has done for millennia, the rook ‘parliaments’ can still be seen high overhead and the bells of the church that has stood on the hill looking out over the Swift Valley for a thousand years still call out to the faithful.Beef Cubes and Burdock is an affectionate glance over the shoulder back to a time when the pace of life was still dictated by the rhythm of the seasons rather than the touch of a computer keyboard.
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Broken Heart
Broken Heart tells the story of a lifelong racing cyclist with a long list of achievement who falls down to earth with a bump on receiving the news that his heart requires urgent medical attention. David has to drop his lifelong passion and come to terms with the realisation that he will need to undergo open-heart surgery. Shock, fear, and denial are just some of the emotions he has to work through.David tells the story of how he dealt with life-threatening moments and the anxieties this news brought him, as well as the adventurous and unexpected events which unfold in the months following open-heart surgery.
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Driving in Reverse - The Life I Almost Missed
Author Lindsay Wincherauk is down on his luck and headed for midlife collapse. Working two dismal jobs to pay his trendy Yaletown rent, grieving the sudden loss of two friends and family members, and dumped by the love of his life – Lindsay looks for the nearest exit. He decides on a whim to escape to Europe with his buddy Dave. By a twist of fate, his life turns completely upside down when he attempts to renew his passport and discovers he’s the main character in a dark family secret. Reeling from the shock, Lindsay grabs his bags and blasts through 11 countries in 31 days. Wincherauk’s story moves at breakneck speed as the author describes his flight through pain and madness, spinning into surreal side trips where he meets an inferno of wild characters. Back in Vancouver, while driving a suicidal man to work, a light goes on and Lindsay knows what he must do: write his story. He’s come precariously close to self-destructing and knows that until the hidden pieces of his life are uncovered, something would be missing. Writing his way through the dark chapters, with wit and candour, he breaks through to the other side – “reborn”.
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Fear, Hunger and Hope
As World War II drew to a close, the German city of Goerlitz became divided along its river; the right bank assimilated into Communist Poland and the left bank into remaining Germany before eventually becoming part of the German Democratic Republic (GDR).Christa-Sheila Duggal was born here a few years before, in 1937. She writes of her formative years under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers' Party and how it impacted her and her family.As her family attempted to piece together their lives after the turmoil of the war, Duggal returned to school to a new message from teachers about the marvels of communism; her city by then was divided more than merely the river which ran through it.In Fear, Hunger and Hope, Duggal uses an intriguing blend of memories and anecdotes and a keen eye for historical fact to craft this fascinating memoir of a childhood lived in a turbulent, divided city. It is a truly unique, first-hand chronicle of 20th century history.
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From Rehab to Life
Whether in or out of trouble, please say this serenity prayer on a daily basis: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference." Thy will be done.
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Go for It - My Journey
It was at dessert time when I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew older. Still today, I do remember my answer, “An engineer, because with my Meccano set, I can build so many things.”In Go for It, Dominick Dehette recalls the heady days of the 1980s and early 1990s, when his work as an engineering consultant took him to southern Africa, China and all over Asia at especially interesting political times.Dehette’s account combines an engaged eye for detail with the more-philosophical viewpoint of the seasoned traveller.
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Golden Orchid: The True Story of an Only Child in Contemporary China
Amid the hustle and bustle of teeming contemporary Guangzhou (also known as Canton), capital of Guangdong province, an ordinary blue-collar Chinese family of three copes with a life-threatening crisis. As an only child"”the product of China's harsh one-child policy"”the daughter of the family must care for her mother who is in the late stage of colon cancer. This is the story of that struggle. That child takes the reader back in time to see the marriage of her parents through the eyes of an only child. Growing up alone without the love and support of a sibling, how does the only child bear the filial responsibility so deeply influenced by traditional Chinese culture? How does she deal with the dilemma of keeping secret from her mother the terminal nature of her cancer? How does her mother's deathbed account of her life change the daughter's understanding of her parents' generation? The true life story is unique both in its depiction of ordinary life in today's China and in its universal picture of an ordinary family dealing with its past and facing its grim future. This young woman, typical of China's one-child generation, tells a tale that ranges from grim to comic, revealing human frailty as well as faith and extraordinary courage.
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How he Robbed me of my Three Baby Daughters
My three daughters were aged between one and five when they were taken from me by their father. He had denied his relationship with the underage girl that he was involved with. When they were finally found out, and he had lost the teaching position that he loved, both he and the girl ran away together and no one knew where they had gone. My daughters and I were resettled into a bungalow in the Bolton area in Lancashire; unknown to me, their father found out where we were living. He turned up there unexpectedly one day and took my children from me. He told me that they were going on a four-week holiday, but it was seventeen years later that I saw my three daughters again. My daughters were brought up in Copenhagen by their father and the young girl who later had two sons by him.
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How to Best Help an Autism Mum
Life changes rapidly when a child is diagnosed with autism. As parents, we are shell-shocked, laid bare, unsure as to where our new circumstances will lead us. With the right travelling companions, though, any journey becomes an adventure.
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I'll Call You Pod
Having discovered that there is no official RAF history of the 1950s covering a particularly fraught period of the Cold War in Germany, the author decided to write down everything he could remember from that time when he served as part of the RAF’s 2nd Allied Tactical Air Force. This book is based on his memories, supported by the information recorded in his log books, in the hope that it will give future generations a wider as well as deeper view of this era.In addition to recounting the minutiae of RAF life, ‘Pod' recalls his career from National Serviceman to Flight Lieutenant, and the drama of flying the first jet fighters close to the border with East Germany.Part history, part memoir, I'll Call You Pod will appeal to anyone with an interest in aircraft, the Cold War as seen from the air and on radar, and life in Her Majesty's Royal Air Force in the mid-twentieth century.
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