Pandemic in Paradise

Pandemic in Paradise tells my story of pregnancy during a global pandemic. From the challenges of lockdown to the raising of my first child, I share the ups and downs of my pregnancy journey under those strange, difficult, and unique circumstances. Despite the obstacles which COVID-19 and the lockdowns presented, it is also about celebrating the gift of my son.

Random Musings of a Disorderly Mind

Have you ever woken up wondering what the day will bring? If this includes fishing around inside someone’s intestines, being sent photos of bodily fluids, or even pretending to be dead, then you may just happen to be a surgeon. If it includes retrieving arrows, knives, and other foreign bodies from various anatomical locations, then you may be a trauma surgeon. If it also includes rescuing patients from spitting monks and overdosing pharmacists, then you probably work as a doctor in Southeast Asia.

From the relative safety of a 1970s UK medical school to the extremes of modern-day Cambodia, enter the world of funny, sad, baffling, and, at times, unbelievable encounters with patients, teachers, and colleagues over five decades.

Mosul Dreaming: An Australian Psychologist in Iraq

In 2017 Diane Hanna was offered a role to provide psychological services to international surgical team, 15km from the front line during the last battle of Mosul, Iraq. The mission had provided her with a restored sense of meaning and purpose, which compelled her to return and continue working in the largest humanitarian crisis since the second world war.

In temperatures above 48 degrees celsius, she forged ahead, recruiting members of her mental health team from the camps of those displaced during the conflict. She established programs and activities, for thousands of women and children who were wounded and traumatised by ISIS. On her day off, she often sat in bed and painted those whom she met from Mosul, whilst unable to leave the guesthouse due to the ongoing dangers outside.

When funding to her mission was cut suddenly, Diane made the decision to stay in Iraq which would change her life forever. Alone, and with a life-threatening condition she was now facing a corrupt medical system, and an increasingly volatile environment. Trapped in one of them most hostile countries in the world, she would need to muster all her strength, knowledge and skills, to negotiate her way out.

Her story will astonish and inspire you. It will make you reassess what it means to serve as a humanitarian worker, and remind you that whatever happens, you must keep fighting and never give up.

Raising Seven

How would you feel if a complete stranger approached you and revealed a secret only you knew? And then said, “You need to get moving on it.” After this encounter in 2009, I knew I had to start writing my memoir and Raising Seven was born.

Our five sons came first and then there were the years of longing and praying for those evasive daughters. I did hear from God during those years that He would fulfil my heart’s desire. He just did not tell me when.

My husband, Al, passed away during the writing of our story. The memoir covers our first meeting in 1966 at the beach town in Lavallette, New Jersey, to the present.

Having seven children was not popular then, or even now. For Al and I thought, this was a blessing not a curse. With the help of scripture, faith in God, the encouragement of family and friends, those years for us became years of joy. The happiness, adventures, pitfalls and struggles of our rambunctious family of seven is the heartbeat of this book.

Reflections On El Camino

‘El Camino’ is the pilgrim’s route across northern Spain to reach the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. This was built on the site where the body of the disciple St James was buried after he was martyred in Jerusalem in 44AD. His remains lay unmarked and unknown for eight centuries until a miraculous light led a shepherd to discover the bones in a cave. A cathedral was built over the spot where the bones were found and it became one of the prime destinations for pilgrims in the medieval era. But the way to Santiago de Compostela was fraught with danger for those pilgrims, with the notoriously bad weather in the Pyrenees, warring kingdoms in the north, civil war and the ever-present danger of invasion from the Muslim Moors who controlled the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula.

This book is a long-distance trek through the countryside, culture and history of the area: from St Jean Pied de Port on the French side of the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela, then onwards to the Atlantic coast of Spain, and finally to Finisterre – or ‘the end of the world’, as it was known in the times of the Roman Empire. It is a journey of over 900 kilometres. But what is the route like today for the modern pilgrim?

Where's Me Teeth

From the mystery of the missing teeth to the urine sample for a goldfish. From the hapless gardener who mows through a power cable, to the debate over fresh or frozen ice to be used in a drink. Why can’t you send an octopus through the post, yet you can take your parrot for a walk?

The frustration caused by the jobsworths of this world and automatic/robotic telephone answering machines.

A humorous and tongue-in-cheek observation of daily life and society. You could not make this up. Life is really stranger and funnier than fiction.

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.

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.

Nationality: Medicine

'Medicine transcends all barriers; it knows no frontiers, it respects all credos and, most importantly, it treats all human beings as equals. Despite the tremendous socio-economic inequalities that I encountered and experienced in each one of the four countries where I’ve lived and practised medicine (Peru, United States, Spain and the UK), I’ve always been proud to find that the Hippocratic Oath is unwavering and equally applied to all citizens. My identity never came from having a certain nationality, speaking a specific language or even from my family genealogy. It came (and still does) from the set of values that the medical profession professes and that I, as a doctor, hold close to my heart. These values are the building blocks of society; without them, everything else crumbles. My “nationality” is medicine and my allegiance is to the human race. The lives and the clinical cases in this book are all real and they tell the story of how the Hippocratic Oath prevails even in the most challenging conditions. They remind us that no matter how much adversity lies before us (poverty, socio-economic instability, lack of resources, etc.), with sufficient effort, creativity and perseverance, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. After all, altruism – the bedrock of medicine – is free of charge, independent of location and always available for anyone who’s willing to use it.'
Dr Carlo Canepa

Of Ships and Shoes and Scotland

The author is a Scot from the small (two shop) village of Whins of Milton, two miles south of the Royal Burgh of Stirling. He has always loved the sea and ships, and was master of the first Australian flag anchor handler, operating in offshore oilfields around Australia.

The book covers a wheen o’ topics – growing up in the Whins, then living in Australia, to which he emigrated in 1968 with his wife and family, to his wanderings in the countries of the Pacific Basin. Later, it also makes some comments on Australians, their character and contentment (and pride) as to who they are as a race of people, living under the Southern Cross.

Ships and the sea are never far away. Also part of this story is the Greek Tragedy of the demise of Alfred Holt, the author having been indentured to that heroic and exemplary Liverpool company as a deck apprentice in 1957. The note, Welcome to Country, says it all as to his worldview of Australians, an attitude almost Caledonian in its sense of directness and curiosity, particularly regarding the workings of the vast world which is all around us.

Recollections

I was born a girl and to my parents, it only meant one thing; I would be a servant to my siblings, husband, dad, in-laws and any other person who crossed my path in life. The happiness of my husband, children, family and extended family was important. I would be a cook, housemaid, sexual object to my husband, a mother, a nurse and all the commitments that come from being a servant wife.

Learning respect and obeying was why I was sent to a convent for my schooling. My brothers were more important than me and when the time came I was prevented from becoming a teacher because I was a girl and that would not be my role in life. I was made to believe that my happiness was not important, only the happiness of others. My mum had been my role model and I firmly believed all that rubbish until my husband died. I was finally out of the cage and into a future of freedom and possibilities. To be able to learn who I was and what I liked. Finally, I was able to think of myself.

My life from the age of two has been a huge rollercoaster and one that I never got the chance to get off until I was 64. I have kept a lot of my experiences to myself as I believed them to be my fault. I yearned for someone to love me and not abuse me and to be my friend and my confidant. The only unconditional love I ever got was from my two boys (my dogs Max and Sam) who left me when they were 16. I cherish and feel blessed by my two wonderful children’s love but it’s not the same.

Scallywag – My Duvet Diva

Scallywag – My Duvet Diva is a true story about a man trying to rebuild his life, and a dog in need of a second chance.

It tells of their adventures together ashore and aboard their canal boat “Bluebell”, of their developing relationship and of their deepening companionship.

Atmospheric, funny, and sometimes sad, it will make you both laugh and cry.

Keep the tissues handy!