Despite quadruple heart bypass surgery, fear of failure, and concern also at being labelled a copycat for repeating the theme of the movie The Way—walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in memory of a lost son—64 year-old Melbourne writer Michael Thornton takes on the often gruelling 800km Spanish pilgrimage.Michael's 27-day trek from St Jean in southern France to Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain is plagued by self-doubt at having to walk 25 kilometres a day for a m...

From choirboy to cowboy . . .In 1967, fresh from boarding school humiliations, and having lost his father to alcoholism, gangly teen Michael Thornton was packed off to a tough sheep and cattle station to work as a jackaroo. He was to learn the wool trade from the lamb up, under a boss legendary for working his farmhands in an almost military regimen.Tasked with the dirty, disgusting and downright dangerous jobs, jackaroos are the dogsbodies of our farms. But ...

For the first time, a book exists that compiles all the information candidates need to apply for their first Docket clerks job, or to apply for a better job.What you'll find especially helpful are the worksheets. It is so much easier to write about a work experience using these outlines. It ensures that the narrative will follow a logical structure and reminds you not to leave out the most important points. With this book, you'll be able to revise your application into a much stron...

Australia has five million baby boomers. Seventy-one-year-old Michael Thornton is one of them. He is so pissed off about the state of things,he's listed 3,300 gripes.Among them:otherwise bright folk, from the PM down, who say 'amount' of people instead of 'number'Australia's richest person is said to earn $33,000 per minutebeing beaten at Scrabble by his Filipina mother-in-law, English being her second languageleaf blowers

Taking risks is how humans learn. It is how humans have always learned. A person sees a problem, takes in the available information, and tries a solution. It is in that process - whether the goal is understanding a Shakespeare play, figuring out an algorithm, or writing a theory of history - that engaged learners make breakthroughs, be those breakthroughs individual, group, or societal.In this book, three experienced practitioners describe how to re-imagine teaching spaces - conven...

Transform workplace safety from a stressful legal burden into an empowering risk management strategy that protects teams. Whether you are a small business owner navigating compliance or a supervisor leading daily operations, this actionable guide equips you with the confidence to build a secure, productive environment. Stop treating accident prevention as a simple checklist and start fostering a genuine culture of care.Perfect for your daily commute or professional upskilling, this...

What would you sacrifice to remain forever young? The Picture of Dorian Gray is a haunting gothic audiobook that explores beauty, vanity, and the hidden cost of a life lived without moral restraint. Through rich psychological tension and atmospheric storytelling, this classic work of gothic fiction draws the listener into a world where appearance conceals corruption and pleasure slowly erodes the soul. Revered for its depth and elegance, this story remains as unsettling and releva...

When Jack Hitt set out to walk the 500 miles from France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, he submitted to the rigorous traditions of Europe's oldest form of packaged tour, a pilgrimage that has been walked by millions in the history of Christendom.Off the Road is an unforgettable exploration of the sites that people believe God once touched: the strange fortress said to contain the real secret Adam learned when he bit into the apple; the sites associated w...

The Camino de Santiago is a walk across northern Spain. No one is quite sure of its origins which predate the Christian era. Today the majority of walkers are Catholics who regard it as a pilgrimage which is the main reason why it attracts people from all over the world.The minority are a mixed bag of people who follow other religions and some with no set beliefs which includes the author. Historically the Camino has been walked by a spectrum ranging from Kings and Generals to pett...

Noel Braun yearns to walk the Camino, the ancient pilgrimage route that leads across France and Spain to Santiago de Compostela. Since the suicide of Maris, his beloved wife of forty-two years, he has struggled to find himself. But is it pure madness? He's an old bloke. At seventy-seven-years, he should be sensible, act his age and relax in a rocking chair. Can his body and spirit withstand the demands? Can he leave family and friends behind? Noel believes this is a journey he MUST underta...

'From the helicopter I could see the property's waterholes surrounded by paperback trees, its red-stone cliffs lit by the rising sun. And grass, endless seas of grass. Here was the vision splendid: Nat Buchanan's grass castle. Gurindji country. And my country, Australia.'This is big country, the outback, home to the largest cattle and sheep stations in the world. Yet few of us know what goes on behind the farm gate. What's life really like when next door is 500 kilometres away, and ...

"I'd never done anything crazy like this before – a pilgrimage walk. I was not a hiker, and I wasn't a Catholic. In fact, I wasn't even sure I was a Christian. On the last government census when I had to state my religion, I'd said I was a Buddhist, mainly because they've had such a hard time in Tibet and I felt they needed my statistical support.I was also not an adventure traveler. For me, adventure travel was flying coach. All this backpacking and wearing of heavy boots and flyi...