I love gadgets and to be able to watch UK TV when I am travelling around the world.

I am a firm lover of Slingbox, as I travel abroad a lot and watch UK TV in the hotels via my PC. I also have a home in Malaysia, and with Sling Turbo and Sling Catcher, I can watch UK TV on my 32" Malaysian TV. OK, when I sit down to watch TV in Malaysia in the evening it is early morning in the UK (8 hours difference).

The problem arose when I was say in Turkey and wanted to watch BBC1 and my wife was in the UK home wanting to watch ITV1, two different channels, there would be a fight as I changed the channel and she changed it back.

To overcome the above I rent a second cable box from Virgin Media which is dedicated to the original Slingbox Clasic.

I decided to experiment with the newer Sling Media Solo attached to the other Virgin Media (TeleWest) TVDrive cable box.

I have my TV connected to the TVDrive via the HDMI cable. That leaves output available from the TVDrive to the Singbox Solo via the SCART (A/V, SD), S-Video, or Component (SD) outlets, and I spent even more money on more cables to try to get remote viewing via the PC working.

I could obtain a very acceptable video and audio signal on my PC remotely, and from my remote PC, control the TVDrive cable box back home, i.e. turn the cable box on and off, BUT, there is no text overlay, i.e. menu, information, shown on the PC when hitting the remote control on my PC, YET, the text overlay appears on the TV back at home.

The answer so far is before leaving home switch the output on the TVDrive to SCART, but then my wife complains about the quality of picture she is watching on the home TV.

Result?

Not the answer. Back to the drawing board.

Great product, great service from Sling Media, but I cannot believe I am the first one to have this problem.

           

        

Being a member of The Kingston upon Thames Rotary Club gives me great pleasure and enjoyment. The idea of Service above Self, being able to give back to the community, to other people, what I have in my portfolio of life experience gives me great joy.

Today, I had the honour to be asked to be part of a small team of Rotarians to visit a local school (The Richard Chandler School), to give mock interviews to 16 year old pupils, so that they can prepare themselves for life outside school, to experience and to gain knowledge of what to expect when being interviewed for a place at university, for a job, and to give feedback on how they did.

Just to listen to a young man who wished to become a creative writer, but failed to mention that he was already doing this on the internet as a so called game, because he thought it was not important, to draw out of another the fact that he manages a young football team, coaching them and leading their training sessions every week, to listen to one saying that he did not think he was sporty because he did not play football or rugby yet was a member of a swimming club, going swimming three times a week, and the enthusiasm of a young man who liked horror movies, yet the more I asked and drew him out, I realised that he did not just look at the film but analyzed what was really being said below the surface, (click to understand) the social messages being given.

I trust my little effort has helped them on their road, to point out to sell themselves, to prepare themselves, and to give them an experience.

I love my work.

        

Travel, means that I meet new people in different countries, but also I meet old friends too.

A very quick visit to Istanbul allowed me to return to a fantastic eating place, La Cantine very near to the historic underground train at Tunel and the terminus of the famous Taxim Hill tram.

La Cantine near Tunel with the Taxim Hill Tram in Istanbul
La Cantine offers a unique wrap, where you can choose a multitude of ingredients.


La Cantine Menu, Istanbul
As soon as I walked in, even after I think two years I was greeted like an old friend, and my favourite wrap was prepared for me, perhaps because I choose strange mixtures.

Sometimes old friends come to my home towns, and I look forward to being with  Mehpare Kileci     of GAP Danışmanlık, and her family in London. Mama Mia.

        

I had been to the Penang Adventist Hospital the previous day for a CT Scan on my heart. Now it was time to collect the results.

So, I give you my heart.

The heart of Phillip Holt seen from the front view

The heart of Phillip Holt seen from another angle showing the (LAD) or

left anterior descending, with the stent shown in white. Further problems shown

in the first diagonal, plagues, again showing in white

        

Previously I had noticed that I was sweating a lot, especially after a long walk, and at that time I when I was working in Istanbul I was staying at a place called Tunel and then walking up to Taxim Square, a twenty minute or so walk. It was a walk I used to enjoy, but was beginning to find I did not want to do, only to arrive in the course with my shirt soaking wet.

I was asked to give a course in Antalya in the South of Turkey by the sea, and my translator at the time, Asuman Yildirim, decided to learn scuba diving in the evenings. I am a Master Diver with over 600 dives under my weight belt, and my metaphors in class obviously was an inspiration for her to take up the hobby. On her qualifying dive I joined her and her instructor, only for my world to turn up side down, literally, I had to abort my dive.

Getting back to the UK, I went to my doctor to checkout my little ailments, and after cardiovascular stress tests and angiogram, I was given the stent, and tablets to take for the rest of my life.

I listened to what the medical professionals had to say what was happening to me, and thought I understood, but really it was like the Energy Saving Lamps articles, all I knew was at the surface level, I did not really understand.

Yes, I was modifying my life style, eating differently, difficult when staying in hotels, eating in restaurants in foreign countries, not knowing what I was eating. I tried to modify my daily exercise by walking more, doing exercises.

I had an idea why, because exercise helps you loose weight and strengthens the heart, and eating good food helps stop the fatty food, cholesterol entering the blood system, thus clogging the heart.

Then there were all these good fats, bad fats, trans fats, triglycerides, HDL's, LDL's, plaque, lipids, cholesterol, hypertension, high blood pressure, figures and measurements that just meant nothing to me.

All I knew was there was something wrong, I had procedure which involved placing a stent in my heart which widened the artery.

It was as if I was looking at the white Energy Saving Lamp, not knowing what was inside or how things work.

        

For my train spotting follows, here are a few pictures of the main West Coast line in Malaysia, taken at the Bukit Mertajam station.

The heavy rail system mostly carries freight and runs on narrow gauge tracks, that is track of 1,000 mm or 3 ft 3+³⁄₈ in, compared to standard gauge tracks of 1,435 mm or 4 ft 8+¹⁄₂ in.


Malaysian Freight Engine in Bukit Mertajam station. Narrow gauge track
Being much narrower, the trains seems ready to topple over at any time to me.


Malaysian Freight Train TG Piandang 26112, Bukit Mertajam
The Malaysian Peninsular railway also links into the Thai State Rail System, a wonderful journey I took in the 1980's from Bangkok down into Malaysia, over twenty-four hours, with wonderful views of paddy fields, temples, tropical scenes to dream about, all undertaken at a very slow speed.

At the moment there is mostly a single track laid, but this is in the process of being upgraded to a dual track arrangement.

        

So, now I know more about Light in our life, Energy Saving Lamps, LED's and incandescent light bulbs , and Energy Saving Lights, becoming environmentally friendly, but not everything. But really, do you really need to know everything to exist, to live, to work?.

Then you know how thinks start to connect? Well they started to connect for me, I needed more information.

In the blog Synchronicity, I found another lost friend I mentioned that I came across three books, they jumped out at me as I walked round Borders (MY) bookshop.

One of the three books I was drawn to is The Men Who Stare Ar Goats by Jon Ronson. I had seen the trailers to the film based upon the book staring George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey and Goat.

The Men Who Stare Ar Goats is supposed to be a true story about what happened when a small group of men - highly placed in the U.S. Military, Government, and Intelligence Services - begin believing in very strange things.

During my journey of acquiring knowledge and becoming an International Trainer and speaker, I have met, been taught by and learned from many talented, influential, initiative, amazing people, people who believe and do strange things.

One of these people was Joseph McMoneagle, a military man, who after a near death experience in Germany in 1970, found himself with extra-sensory perception, to be able to collect information on remote targets, to Remote View.

The Men Who Stare At Goats, is an investigation by Jon Ronson in how the American agencies started with ideas from Lieutenant Colonel Jim Channon to employ new ways of cunning to win wars and the minds of the enemy.

I started reading the book thinking this is just fiction based on facts, as Ronson writes in an easy first person point of view from the interviews he undertook. It is not an academic or heavy work, and my interest grew, I could not put the book down.

I have read perhaps a dozen books on Remote Viewing, (only a small part of Ronson's book is about RV), spent time with Joe McMoneagle learning Remote Viewing, been filmed and tested by a TV crew and by a specialized department from Northampton University (UK) undertaking a Remote Viewing target, so I knew some of the story of the Stargate Project, and the various other names given to the Remote Viewing program.

Ronson makes light of some of the activities the American military and other agencies were doing, it seemed only looking at the complete failures of projects undertaken, of how people involved in the projects were deserved by others. An example given was that it was purported that a photograph was taken of the approaching Hale-Bopp comet being paced by a companion object. This was seen by psychic spies Prudence Calabrese and Dr. Courtney Brown as a Martian space craft. This belief was broadcast by Art Bell on his nationwide radio program over a period of time, and it is said led to the deaths of thirty-nine people, including their leader Marshall Applewhite, Heaven's Gate, who committed suicide, thinking that they would be taken on a ride of the companion object to Hale-Bopp to a higher level of human existence.

He seems to make light of the said ability to "down" a goat or hamsters, simply by staring at them by such people as Guy Savelli.

Throughout my readings and study of Remote Viewing, some of the names given in The Men Who Stare At Goats I had never come across, but then Ronson writes about Joe McMoneagle, Ed Dames, Ingo Swann, these people I did know about. I learned more, I did not know that it was Ed Dames blowing the whistle, telling the world about the existence of the secret psychic Remote Viewers, that allowed the other members of the project to go public, and for me to meet Joseph McMoneagle.

But in the book The Men Who Stare At Goats, Ronson states that McMoneagle's gifts apparently manifested itself after he fell out of a helicopter in Vietnam. But I distinctly remember Joseph capturing my imagination as he told his story, and as told in his book Mind Trek, (page 28 et al), of his near death experience in a restaurant in Braunau am Inn, Austria, leaving his body and watching as they worked on his body, loaded it into an automobile, to be raced across the Germany border to a hospital to be resuscitated.

Who am I to believe? Joseph McMoneagle's own mouth and his book, or Jon Ronson? Am I to believe the other facts Ronson lays out in his book?

It was not until I read the whole book, The Men Who Stare At Goats, that a new picture begins to emerge of what is happening in our world. Strange things. Unbelievable things. Things that have happened and are happening in Iraq, Afghanistan, Panama etc. Things that can be achieved just by using thoughts, the mind.

Is what is in Ronson's book the truth, facts? I have an open mind, especially as I have met and learned from people in that book. I have met, seen and learned from the bio-energy healer Seka Nikolic, author of the book ‘You Can Heal Yourself', who I have seen move people at a distance by pure thoughts.

I myself have and do some strange things, but that is another story.

It is when we look below the surface, look for more facts, how things are done that we understand. It is those that do not look deeper, see things at the surface level, that dismiss strange things as stage magic, slight of hand, misdirection, delusion, fantasy who will be the losers. Ronson supplies this information in his book, but there is so much more to know.

Joe McMoneagle said that psychic spying, remote viewing, downing a goat with a stare is not 100% successful, and some people are better at it than others. But, if the results are better than 50/50, or chance, statistically there must be something in what The Men That Stare At Goats do. As General Stubblebine, who did much to promote "cunning" ways believes, everybody has the ability.

Sometimes it is good to know how an Energy Saving Lamp works.

    

        

Let me continue on from Light in our life, Energy Saving Lamps, LED's and incandescent light bulbs.

The filament type or incandescent light bulbs in the house in Bukit Mertajam, Malaysia, keep on blowing or failing. This is perhaps as they are cheap and low quality, and we have many bulbs in each light fitting. It is a constant battle to replace bulbs. 

Each bulb is 40 Watts, so in the photograph below, there are 13 bulbs, equaling 520 Watts of power consumption. Lowering that by 80% by fitting Energy Saving Lamps would be quite a saving in energy consumption and money spent on electricity. OK, there is the initial outlay to purchase the Energy Saving Lamps.


In one room, three light fittings in BM house,
two ceiling each with 6 bulbs
one wall light with one bulb.
520 watts. 

As an experiment I decided to replace one ceiling light unit of six bulbs with Energy Saving Lamps. Each Energy Saving Lamp being 9 Watts, equivalent to 40 Watts in the incandescent light bulb, that is the same amount of light.

Once fitting new lamps, the change in the light was amazing. Pure white light, daylight, compared to the old filament lights which gave a yellow tinge to the light.

Then I noticed that two of the Energy Saving Lamps appeared much dimmer than the other four. Looking into why, thinking I must have purchased different Wattage lamps, I found that there are two types of Energy Saving Lamps, "Daylight" and "Warmwhite".

Now that is something I did not know existed, two types of lamp. Look at the lables next time.

As I tested the lamps by switching them on and of, why I do that I have no idea, there was a load bang, and the trip switch on the main power supply to the house triggered, and the lights went out.

Investigating I found that one lamp had failed.

Oh Poo Poo. Buy cheap and you get cheap.

In the longterm, is it wise to by cheap, as the product never lasts long?

As I removed the failed lamp it fell apart, revealing the electronics inside.

Wow, it amazed me how many components were there. No wonder the lamps cost so much.

    
The internal components of an Energy Saving Lamp
That made me think.

How much energy has there been expended to manufacture the circuit board, each individual component?

How much manpower with its' associated power consumption was used to put the circuit board together?

I realised how little I knew about the workings of a Energy Saving Lamp.

And that got me thinking about other things to follow.

Um? I wonder if we go through life like that, only looking at the finished product, the outer skin, not knowing how it works, what makes it do what it does?

        

In the UK, the old style light bulbs, the filament type or incandescent light bulb, are being phased out, and now the preferred option is to buy and fit Energy Saving Lamps, which are also known as compact fluorescent lamps.

It makes sense to replace old inefficient tungsten filament bulbs, as they are heavy users of electricity, of power. The basic principle of filament bulbs is to heat a coil (filament), the heated coil glows which produces light, the hotter the coil, the more light will be produced.


incandescent light bulb

So, the byproduct of producing light is the heat, which is wasted energy.

New technology lamps, LED's and Energy Saving Lamps work on different principles.

LED's are illuminated by electrons that run through semiconductor material, the diode, they do not have a filament, therefore do not produce heat, use less electricity and will never burn out.


Light Emitting Diode (LED)'s

Energy Saving Lamps work by a completely different process called fluorescence. In principle, electricity is passed through two electrodes, one each end of a white tube which contains a mercury gas. The electrons produced by the electricity passing through the electrodes at each end of the white tube, strike the mercury gas which generates energy or ultraviolet light which unfortunately we humans cannot see. But, the white glass tube is coated with chemicals called phosphors, and when the ultraviolet light hits the phosphors there is a reaction and more energy is produced in the form of photons which we can see as light.


Energy Saving Lamps

So with LED's and Energy Saving Lamps, little heat is generated and wasted. It is said that 90% of the energy used in the filament type or incandescent light bulb goes on heat. Energy Saving Lamps are said to use 80% less energy and last 10 times longer than old style lamps.

There are the downsides with LED's and Energy Saving Lamps. The Energy Saving Lamps use mercury, and when discarded at the end of their life, the mercury gas can enter the environment and is harmful to it, therefore any old  fluorescence lamps should be discarded responsibly.

LED's are now being fitted to torches, car lights and traffic lights. As they use minimal energy, last a very long time, fitting LED lights to street furniture is very cost effective. But as LED's produce no heat, it was found that any snow or ice that formed on traffic lights was not melted, and thus drivers did not see the signals which resulted in accidents. People have to be employed to clear the snow and ice from the street furniture, rather defeating the cost saving I think.

Great ideas for saving energy and the environment.

Let me continue.

        

In his book Synchronicity, Joseph Jaworski tells his story, his journey of life, and he describes the coincidences that occurred for example meeting and marrying his wife, how things are actually connected, or as C.G. Jung's book title says, "Synchronicity, An Acausal Connecting Principle".

Synchronicity is defined as a meaningful coincidence of two or more events, where something other than the probability of chance is involved. (Jung - Synchronicity, An Acausal Connecting Principle).

I had to return to the Penang Adventist Hospital to pick-up my results from a CT Scan and on the return journey home, we diverted to a new shopping complex on the island of Penang, the Queensbay Shopping Mall, the largest and best in Penang giving wonderful views to Penang's Bridge. (click for other views)


Penang Bridge in the far distance (Jambatan Pulau Pinang in Malay), among the longest bridges in the World.
Parking the car in the open air potholed earthen car park, it was a joy to walk into a modern cool air conditioned complex and the first shop that caught my eye was Borders (MY). My favourite bookshop in the UK which had closed down just before Christmas, here in Penang,  Borders (MY) are very much in business.


Borders book shop
Queensbay Mall, Penang
I am sorry, but I had to visit the store. The set-up, the layout, the whole shop had the same atmosphere as those that had closed the doors only a month ago in the UK.

It was like meeting a long lost friend, I was excited, overjoyed, like a child in a toy shop.

Wondering around the bookshelves I felt at home, the sections were the same, and I kept my eyes open for anything of interest, especially for books published by Prion, who bring together books of a nostalgic literature, Biggles, Sherlock Holmes, King Solomons Mines, books I should have read when I was a boy.

It was like putting on my favourite pair of shoes.

I did not find any books by Prion, but out of the whole shop of Borders (MY), three books jumped out at me from the book shelves, I was drawn to them. It was as if a hand from above had led me to these books above any other books in the shop, they caught my eye, they stood out. They did not have any eye catching features, they were just books, but they had something special for me.

Was I using Phillip's Sausage? I wonder?

Why was I drawn to one book in particular?

This book may save my life. This book has given me a deeper understanding of a subject that I will write about soon, enough knowledge that I can talk with the experts, to be able discuss the subject, and, understand what they are talking about.

Thank goodness for PhotoReading.

Synchronicity happens to me all the time. Why was I to go to the Queensbay Shopping Mall? Why was I sitting in the waiting room in the Penang Adventist Hospital? Why did the Doctor in Gaziantep with Bells Palsy attend my NLP course and after 32 years of zero (0) movement in one side of her face now have 80% muscle movement and control?

As Jaworski says, "the world is not fragmented but fundamentally connected". We should open our eyes and awareness to see the world as one of relatedness, of interconnections, and not as individuality, as separate thingness.

        

Last year whilst visiting Bukit Mertajam, my home in Malaysia, I found and lost a friend, not a close one, we never talked or had physical contact, but I felt a friend. read

After a bad nights sleep, the heat and the high humidity is sometimes too much for me but not for the rest of the family who live permanently in Malaysia, I walked around my garden in the early morning sun.

I then met my friend, or was it another. They all look the same to me.

What a loverly looking face, kind, warm and loving, it seems to be smiling at me as it watches me, watching it, watching me.


Malaysian Lizard, smiling at me in Bukit Mertajam
I cannot find a proper name for the species, so please inform me if you know, until then I will call it "My Friend John".


Malaysian Lizard, My Friend John

        

Whilst sitting in one of the many Waiting Rooms of the X-ray and Imaging Department of the Penang Adventist Hospital, watching the various patients coming and going having different procedures done, a woman has brought out of the MRI scan room in a very phobic state.

Sitting in a wheelchair, her legs were shaking, her hands were shaking and un-coordinated as she tried to stay calm. Her eyes were wide open, flitting from one place to another, one person to another looking for support. She was hyperventilating, her speech was broken and at times unintelligible.

The other patients sitting waiting their turn for their procedures looked on, frozen, perhaps thinking "will that be me?".

The staff offered the woman water, bless their hearts, as they tried to calm her. She was told to take deep breaths and relax, but she still was agitated and shaking.

I decided to go up to her and smiled, getting into her full visual picture, and asked her if she wanted to get rid of that feeling.

She nodded and started to explain she was frightened, phobic of being inside the machine, and telling me what was happening to her. As I listened, knowing already what I was going do, what I was to work on, just getting her into a state of rapport with me, trust in me, to a state of compliance to my instructions, to follow me, I did my work.

Within seconds her breathing slowed down, she stopped shaking, her eyes stopped flitting about, she visibly relaxed, her fears had disappeared and she smiled at me.

I asked her where the phobic fear feelings were, and she could not find them.

I asked her to imagine going into the machine, and she just smiled back at me.

My work was done in a matter of a few minutes the woman was changed.

She looked around at the nurses and smiled in a calm way, and just kept saying it is a miracle.

As she was wheeled away, she turned and with a big smile, thanked me.

I will never see that woman again, but I hope I have given her a new hope a new way in life.

I have helped in one small way to change the world.

I love my work.

Contact Phillip Holt in Malaysia :- 006174491309
Read more on Phobias - CLICK

        

Today I feel like a real man, a man who is meant to be what a man is to do.

For over ten years we have lived in a flat in Kingston upon Thames in the UK, and for ten years we have owned a house in Bukit Mertajam in Malaysia.

For over ten years my tools, my hammers, my screwdrivers, my power drills, my pliers, my wrenches, have sat locked away in a storage cupboard, there has been nothing for me to work on, to repair, to build.

Last year, we shipped many of our things, our possessions from the UK to Malaysia as Mee Len wanted to move "home". Along with the goods, I shipped many of my tools, acquired over a lifetime, my favourite hammer, my do-it-all screwdriver, my wire cutters et al.

On arrival to BM, (Bukit Mertajam, the Malaysians use initials to name towns, BM ='s Bukit Mertajam, KL ='s Kuala Lumpur, JB ='s Jahor Baru, SP ='s Sungai Petani.), late Christmas Day, it was obvious that my one year absence had left some repairs to be undertaken. A window frame which was rotting, etc. Now was the time for me to use my tools, to do what a man should do.


I installed bathroom fittings in our three bathrooms, got hot water to two of the shower units, got the internet phone working again, increased the speed of the internet, installed a new internet network system so the family next door can share our access.

                    
Bathroom fittings, toothbrush holders, mirrors, cabinets, shower units, towel rails
Oh the joy of being able to do what a man is supposed to do, I wish I could do more. Any jobs need doing?

        

It had been a long morning, a drive across Penang, Malaysia, to the Mount Miriam Cancer Hospital to pick-up my sister-in-law half way through her chemotherapy treatment, to bring her home in Bukit Mertajam, and it was long past lunch time.

We stopped at a local "hawker" restaurant, where the food is cooked before your very eyes, and is so cheap, and in the right frame of mind, people undergoing chemotherapy do not loose their appetite, as my sister-in-law added a fish to her chosen food.

Within minutes it was as if the cartoon characters, Tom and Jerry had been at the table, because there in the center, laying on a plate, was all that remained of that fish.

Tom and Jerry fishbones after a meal in Malaysia

        

Where is the food I know? Pizza, kebab, fish-n-chips.

Eating food in Malaysia is an adventure, I never know what is going to come next, what I am eating, what will it taste like, will I like it or hate it.

Fish and sea food is a big part of the dietary culture of South East Asia, especially in the coastal regions, and unfortunately, it is not a food high on my "like list", in fact, I avoid fish and marine food as much as possible. My avoidance of fish does not usually present problems, as most fish restaurants will have a meat dish, and grass dishes, sorry vegetables.

I will try anything, and that includes food, but fish, no thank you, unless it comes in batter, traditionally served in the British fish-n-chips meal.

I think my dislike of fish came from when I was a small boy at primary school, when we were told to eat everything on our plate, as just think of all those starving people who had nothing to eat. Being a trusting and loving young boy I did eat everything, including the bones, and now feeling a fish bone in my mouth makes me want to vomit.

I could never understand why my offer of the unwanted food on my plate I did not want to eat was always refused to be sent out to the starving people.

I must be typically British, only liking bland food, but.in some cultures, the stronger the taste and smell of the fish the better people like it. Here in Malaysia and in the flat below mine in Norbiton Hall in the UK, the stronger the smell that can be produced whilst cooking the fish, the better is the presupposition, or belief is, that the better the food will taste. Oh Poo Poo literally.

So, a small party of the family, staying in our home here in Bukit Mertajam, decided that it was time to go to a small fishing village, to eat at one of the fish restaurants.

I emptied my mine of any idea of having to eat fish, crab, lobster, squid, prawn, whatever, at least there would be rice.

The first dish to arrive was a Horseshoe Crab. Certainly something I had never eaten before, in fact something I had never seen before, only in pictures or on the TV, or its' shell being used as a helmet by Manny the Mammoth in the film Ice Age 3. 

The shell of the Horseshoe crab, also being held by the sword like tail
This strange creature is not a crab at all, but is closely related to spiders, ticks, and scorpions. It is said to be a "living fossil", as evidence exists in fossil remains dating back to the Triassic period some 230 million years ago, and similar fossils from the Devoian period some 400 million years ago. 

The Horseshoe Crab, or as it is also known in Malaysia and surrounding region as the King Crab, has three main parts to its body, the head, the helmet shaped part, the abdominal part and the tail or as it is known the telson, each hard shell like structures.

The crustacean was served up-side-down, and I had no idea what to eat, or how to eat it.


The Horseshoe Crab ready to eat
All I saw was the hard sword like tail pointing towards me, the helmet part filled with vegetables and roe, eggs. The roe or eggs were brown leather coloured, and upon eating them, they were like leather in texture and having no strong taste. But, there was no meat, only eggs. I was told that the only the female Horseshoe Crab is used, and then only the eggs.

Later upon leaving the restaurant, you have to walk past the tanks, buckets and boxes of sea life, waiting to be put to the pot, and then I spied a bucket of Horseshoe Crabs, the top one being upside down. It was then I understood why there is no meat. The body is very small.


A bucket of Horseshoe Crabs ready for the pot
In the next photograph, the underside of the Horseshoe crab can be seen.


The appendages of the Horseshoe Crab

In the lower half of the picture are six appendages, the first pair, the chelicera are the genital pores, whilst the remaining five pairs are the inedible lungs or book gills, which allows the Horseshoe Crab to breath out of water, as long as the lungs are kept wet. As the female lays her eggs on the beaches in sand, and I believe mating occurs at this time, breathing out of water is desirable.

In the upper half of the picture can be seen the "legs" or another six pairs of appendages, each having a distinct purpose and shape. the first are used to pass food into its' mouth. The second pair are used for walking, with the remaining four pairs used as pushers for movement.

So now I can add the Horseshoe Crab to the list of many strange things I have eaten, I have tried this food, and it was not that bad.

        

A HAPPY NEW YEAR
To all my regular readers, to you who have been part of my life, to those who have been in my courses,my training around the world, to you I have yet to meet, a very Happy New Year, and may all your wishes come to fruitions, and may 2010 may be as a great person who has seen my future told me, be a Golden Year for us all.

Apart from the great build-up to the festive season for me, the actual Christmas Day and New Year Day held no real celebrations, as I was flying all Christmas Day from England to Malaysia, and I fell asleep at 11pm New Years Eve, missing the change from the "Noughties" to the "Tennies", (2009 - 2010).

Celebrations were held on New Year's Day here in Bukit Mertajam, not to celebrate the coming of the new year, as in the Chinese culture, the Chinese New Year (14th February 2010), marks a bigger time, the most significant part or festive time of their calendar.

It was the 70th birthday of my sister-in-law, still undergoing treatment for cancer, still requiring attention and constant support.

Perhaps, you like me had time to reflect on the past year, being able to review like my blog here, some of the past year's events that had some significants to us.

During the year, I had lost relatives, friends, acquaintances, maybe through death, maybe because we had different views, maybe because we had found new directions for our lives, our businesses, our work, our downtime, our playtime, maybe because we had found new friends, formed new relationships which conflict with existing relationships, found new things to take our attention and time.

During the year, I had been used, my eagerness to help, to give, had been abused by others many times for their own short time gain.

During the year, I had seen many changes in the world, with new issues facing us including the big Global Warming issue. I had seen town centers changing, with major retail outlets closing down, and new business's with new names and products taking over.

During the year, I had seen many relationships change, new partners, divorces.

During the year, I had been upset by the losses the changes that had taken place.

During the year, I have met many new people, kind, open people, formed new relationships, as I visited many countries around the world.

During the year, I have witnessed people form new relationships with success where others had failed.

During the year, I have seen and helped people make changes to their lives for the better.

During the year, I have seen children bloom and blossom, where once there was failure now is success.

During the year, I have seen new lives been born into our world, human, animal and plants, and watched them grow.

During the year, I have made new relationships in my personal, business and family life.

During the year, I have made old and existing relationships stronger.

During the year, I have given my time and effort willingly and freely, to put back into the world, the community, what it has given me. I joined Rotary Club.

During the year, I have learned many new ideas, subjects and things, and realised that I do not know everything, and that each and every one of us has a different cat on the mat, different belief systems, be those for culture, politics, religion or nationalistic reasons, and no-one is right, no-one is correct, no-one has the whole answer.

During the year, I have realised that I should dwell on the good things that have happened, the good intention each of us have, and the good which will come.

Now in 2010 I hope I have learned from my mistakes that have gone and been finished with, and to look to the future in a POSITIVE way, to give more than I take, to be more tolerant, and not hold a grudge against others who do me wrong or take a different route in business or life to the journey I am on.

There is a Susan Boyle in us all, all we have to do is Dream the Dream of Dreams..

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL 

        

Being Santa Claus is so tiring, flying all Christmas, starting Christmas Eve, through the early hours and the whole of Christmas Day, and with all the preparation for the journey, made me very tired.

Doing all the duties that fall upon being Santa really took its' toll on me.

The whole journey, flying across many countries at over 35,000ft, I never saw another Santa, so it is true, there must be only one Santa, and he did deliver all those presents.

And I only had one mince pie, after all, I must watch my diet and weight.

        

Merry Christmas to all no matter where you are.

Although I have not put up any Christmas decorations, nor erected up a Christmas tree, it has been a period of time where I have entered the Christmas Spirit.

I have been to Christmas meals, where people of many faiths and beliefs celebrated this special time.

I have sent Christmas cards, wishing people my best for Xmas and the coming New Year.

I have enjoyed the Christmas street lights. (See Getting the festive spirit )

I have toured the shops, but tried not to buy anything.

But, for me the best part has been being Santa Claus.

Wearing the big red cloak, with its' hood trimmed in white, keeping my head warm in the freezing weather, the fur trimmed wellingtons or gum boots, and having the big white beard, I entered into a different character.


As other Rotary members turned out to help collect money for local charities around the Christmas Tree outside the Bental's Center, they had no idea as to who was below theSanta Claus outfit. They had no idea it was me, I had to tell them who I was.

It was this realisation that me, Phillip Holt, was no longer existing to the outer world, plus I think my natural acting or getting into character tendencies I have in my training courses, and memories of my childhood and my short time with my daughter Vanessa, that I became Father Christmas, Santa Claus.

And that is when the magic happened.

Standing there in the middle of Kingston upon Thames, ringing my hand bell, kindly given to me by Leila and Philip Edwards whilst I was in Bahrain, I could see the young children with their parents walking between the shops, and it only took a wave from me to instantly to get a reaction, a wave back, a sparkle in the eyes, a smile on the face, and a tug on their parents arm telling them that Santa was there.

Their parents brought the young children to Santa, and they stood there with complete trust in this strange character, in the belief that Santa will deliver the presents they desire, the bikes, the PS3's, the WII's, the dolls, and I entered into their world of belief.

I asked the children what their name was so that our little conversation would become personal, and what they wanted for Christmas, and I listened and fed back what they asked for. (NLPer's note)Of course, children have to be good, to have and will behave, if not Santa will not leave the presents, and they have to go to bed early.

 

I ask them if they will leave Santa a mince pie, a traditional small pie filled with mincemeat, a mixture of chopped dried fruit, often alcohol and spices, and sometimes beef suet, as Santa Claus will be very hungry.

I then ask if they could leave Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer a carrot and there would always be a willing yes.

Sometimes if dad was in earshot, he would ask if a glass of port of whiskey be left too, and again a yes would be given.

Christmas morning, the mince pie will have been eaten, the carrot will be gone, and the glass will be empty, all adding to the belief, but I wonder who drank the whiskey.

The small encounter with Santa Claus will end with a sweet being given, and a found farewell and wave, helping the spirit of Christmas continue for another year.

For me, I will be flying with Santa Claus, for tonight, Christmas Eve I will catch the 22:00 hour flight from London to Malaysia, flying all Christmas Day, with perhaps as an acknowledgment to this special day Malaysian Airlines giving a mince pie, arriving in Penang at 22:00 Christmas Day night.

Well I have booked a window seat, to see if I can spot my fellow Santa Claus delivering all the children's presents

        

It's over.

Last night, it was an honour and privilege to be in the BBC Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House, London, to be part of and to say a fond but sad farewell to Richard Bacon's Special Half Hour (SHH).

Instead of half an hour, we had a whole hour, all very special to the SHH'ers.

The only thing I could say, was, at the funeral as we sang Jerusalem, there was a tear and a smile on many a face.


Richard Bacon,Te last SHH (Special Half Hour).
Goodbye Special Half Hour'ers, where-ever you may be.

See other articles on the SHH (click)

        

Christmas in the UK is a very important part of the year, disregarding any religious meanings, it is a time of friendship, a time for giving and relieving, a time to be with the family, it is a special time for children, it has become highly commercialised. (see Getting the festive spirit ).

I have joined Rotary Club in Kingston upon Thames for the fellowship and also to give back to the community through service.

At this time of the year, the club erects a Christmas tree outside the Bentall’s Shopping Center, with its’ lights and Santa’s hut from which is played carols to attract the passing shoppers and to give an atmosphere.

Club members collect money for local charities, each member, where possible, taking turns to stand with a collecting bucket for any donations over just short of two weeks, devoting their time for free.

I was able to devote some of my time to this annual project, and some of this time was to be Father Christmas, Santa Claus, wearing his red cloak and having a long white beard.

It has not been the first time I have been Santa Claus, but by far this experience is proving to be the most rewarding.

Standing there being very conspicuous, many people just walk by in a dream, yet others, knowing the great work Rotary members undertake, placing a few coins into my bucket, sometimes even large bank notes.

But the best reward is to watch the children’s faces as they see me, or should I say Santa Claus.

Young children, and even old ones like me, believe that when we go to sleep on Christmas Eve, Santa Claus attach's his reindeer to his sleigh, which is full of presents for every child in the world, and during the night he delivers each and every present to each sleeping child, often climbing down the chimney, leaving them at the foot of the bed or the base of the Christmas Tree. Santa also leaves little gifts, sweets, an orange, in a sock which should hang from the fire mantelpiece.

But, Santa needs to know what to bring, so often mommies and daddies will take the children to see Santa so he can ask what they want and then prepare the presents for delivery. 

I keep my eyes open for approaching families with young children and wave to them and when the young children see Santa, their eyes light up, their faces beam, there is excitement. They often are brought up to Santa, and then they tell me what they want for Christmas.

        
When they have told Santa Claus, I then ask them if they will be good, to go to sleep early on Christmas Eve, and to leave Santa a mince pie, because "I will be very hungry delivering all the presents".

Often the father will ask Santa if he would like a whiskey left too? Um, I wonder who for really?

Pure magic.

One young boy had written a letter to Santa detailing his list of presents he wanted. He addressed it as:-

Father Christmas,
29 Reindeer Road,
Christmas Lane,
UBS432,
Lapland.
He asked for a range of 15 presents and snow on Christmas Day.

Now I am getting the Christmas Spirit.

So happiness and goodwill to you all.

        

To all who follow my blog, who are linked to me by Facebook, who come across me by chance, my I wish you the very best of the Season, and may all your wishes come true.

If you have asked Father Christmas for your wishes, believe in him like the small children, and you never know, he may visit you, Christmas morning.

        

Santa Claus wears the Richard Bacon, BBC Radio 5 Live, Special Half Hour (SHH) badge in Knigston upon Thames.

As part of the annual charity collection by the Rotary Club of Kingston upon Thames, members raise a Christmas Tree and dress-up as Father Christmas.

It was my time as Father Christmas today, and it was an honour and privilege to wear the SHH badge to bring joy and happiness to the shoppers and children.


Rotary Club's, Kingston upon Thames, Father Christmas wears the SHH badge

Rotary Club of Kingston upon Thames
Even more on the Special Half Hour Club of BBC Radio 5 Live 
Special Half Hour, Radio 5 Live
More on the Special Half Hour badge of Radio Five Live
All Entries

        

One door closes another door opens article can give us the principal that an opportunity may become closed or unavailable to us, but more often or not, if we allow or we stay aware, new opportunities will show themselves. See Being Aware, Awakening.

It is the onus of ourselves to take advantage of these chances or opportunities, as there could be a limited time period of time, or a Window of Opportunity. Miss this window of opportunity, and it may be gone forever.

Often we may find that a window or door of opportunity has been offered us, but when we go to enter we find that the door has been closed on us again, but we have been offered a set of keys.

Which key is the one to open the opportunity? That is the question.

I have worked with many people who have had problems, and they continue to live with those problems, they fail to leave those problems behind they, to look for other ways to solve their ways of doing things, living their lives. They fail to leave, and close the door and windows, and lock them afterwards.

Then there are those that leave the one door that has been closed behind them, see that new door or window of opportunity, only to be presented with a set of keys to unlock them.

They try the first key, but that fails to unlock the door or window. They try the second and that fails, The third and fourth, and so on, each failing.
 
Just like Pavlov and his conditioning of dogs, by ringing a bell each time they were fed, the dogs would link food and the ringing of a bell resulting in salivation, and when just the bell was rung, the dogs would salivate, so is the same with the trying of the keys failing to open the door or window of opportunity, people often give up.

Even though they have only tried one or two keys and have failed and there are many more keys left to try, they are conditioned to failure and give up trying.

Perhaps we give up to this conditioning too early, the next key could have opened the treasure chest.

Perhaps we failed to notice that the keys we tried were too small or too big for the keyhole, we failed to sort the keys into the most likely ones that would lead to success.

We should be more aware of our actions and choices to take advantage of opportunities, take action, and keep trying. As Charles C. Manz said, "Most failures are not really failures – they are simply challenges in progress".

But we should also be aware that we are being "sold a pup", being "led up the garden path" by the person offering the keys, the fact is that perhaps there is not a key to open the door or window.

Shops, businesses often advertise special offers, keys, to get shoppers into their store, but when we get there, the offer has already gone, has many conditions attached to it, or the product or service is poor quality. Low cost airlines advertise very cheap flights, but fail to tell prospective travelers that there are limited seats available, or that there will be a booking fee, a baggage charge, extra taxi fares to pay because of the distances to travel from far away airports  etc, which when added-up will cost more than a scheduled airline.

Sometimes we are drawn into doing something when there is nothing for us in the beginning.

        

For a number of years now, I have been providing training in many countries around the world, where there are different cultures, beliefs, and religions.

Being born a Christian, the Muslim country of Saudi Arabia was an especially interesting experience, which taught me to be tolerant to other peoples beliefs, as in the 1980's when I spent over five years in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
 
In the Kingdom, any religion other than Islam was not tolerated, and any non Muslim holiday was banned along with any trappings that went with that "festival". Thus Christmas cards were never seen on shop shelves, no Christmas trees or pictures of Father Christmas could be seen, and certainly I was not allowed a day off on 25th December, Christmas Day, to celebrate, although I did sneak off at lunchtime I remember, to go and join others sitting on the beach to enjoy Christmas dinner.

So it has been for a number of years since the 1980's. I have found myself in non Christian countries during the month of December.

For my non British readers I better explain.

The holiday period of Christmas held every year in December, is in the UK the most important holiday of the year. It is a time when families and friends get together for love and friendship, not withstanding the religious aspects, but as this period is celebrated by many non Christians I will leave this aspect out.

Gifts are exchanged on Christmas Day, and of course, children go to bed on Christmas Eve (24^th) knowing that during the night Father Christmas visit every child, coming down the chimney to deliver and leave their presents.  

The two main days of Christmas are the 25^th December, Christmas Day, and 26^th December being Boxing Day.

Boxing Day, also known as St. Stephen’s Day, is believed to have got its’ name by the practice of the upper classes who had exchanged their gifts on Christmas day (25^th), allowing the lower classes or servants to have the next day off (26^th), and giving and distributing gifts of money, clothes, food to those less fortunate often in boxes for easy transportation.

In the UK, nothing moves on Christmas Day except those people traveling to visit friends and families. Schools, offices and factories are closed. No buses run, no trains race up and down the railway tracks, often the last train to leave is at 10pm on Christmas Eve. No shops are open, no theaters or cinemas open their doors. No restaurants serve food. It is a special day where everything is closed.

Boxing Day is nearly as bad, as the country slowly awakens, some buses and trains run, but on a limited timetable. Some shops open to start the Sales of heavily marked down priced goods. Very few restaurants open as everybody has over eaten the day before and have loads of turkey meat and Christmas pudding left over to eat.

This festive period is started over a month before Christmas Day, with shops selling all the paraphernalia that goes with Christmas, the cards we send to each other, the decorations we put up in our homes and in the streets, the gifts we exchange (often unwanted), the seasonal food we only buy for that period, and the children becoming excited at the prospect of Father Christmas visiting.

 
Christmas lights in Kingston upon Thames late at night

The spirit of Christmas is built up day by day, and people get more and more excited, being conditioned to expect and want the special festive season.

But for me, working in countries during the month of December,  where Christmas does not exist in their culture or belief system, I miss this build up, this conditioning, and as I have got older the festive season has lost its allure, I have not entered into the spirit of the season.

This year, due to the postponement of courses I had been asked to give, I find myself in the UK, and I am beginning to enter into the spirit of the season, and perhaps if you indulge me, I will report on some of my up and coming experiences.

See other articles:-    Being Santa Claus in Kingston upon Thames 
                                      Santa joins the SHH (Special half Hour) Club

        

There is an English saying that says, "as one door closes another opens".

In the town center or market square in Kingston upon Thames there are many shops, some small and some large.

One of these shops is Borders, and as in the articles Relationships change - Borders and Yes it is true, they are lost to me, I wrote that the company is closing much to my displeasure.


Borders bookshop Kingston upon Thames to close
Only one year ago the shop next door to Borders, a very old established shopping chain, (99 years), once found in many British high streets, called Woolworths also failed and went out of business, and for a year the large shop in Kingston stayed empty.

Today an established Swedish outlet opened a new shop in the old Woolworth's premises. Clas Ohlson's hardware shop is called usefulshopp. The new Clas Ohlson stores sell useful items, from electrical and multi-media products, hard-to-find kitchen and bathroom accessories, to tools and gardening equipment, or to me gadgets, my wonderland.


Clas Ohlson usefulshopp, Kingston upon Thames
I spent a happy few hours wondering around the shop eyeing many products I am sure in the near future will find their way back to my home.

So as Border's doors must surely soon close, I wonder who, what or when will the company be to take over the premises, and if what they sell will be attractive to me as te open their doors.

Border's shop, with its' historic 300 year old stairs, has occupied the premises for only a few years, yet they have found a place in my heart, but like most things in our life, nothing lasts forever, and something else will take its place. Every week it seems a shop closes in the every town, sometimes a new shop takes up residence, and sometimes the old retailer reopens its' doors revamped and better, renewing perhaps a stronger relationship in the partnership of retailer and shopper.

        

Yes it is true, my "local" favorite bookshop will be closing.

Braving the rather rare English inclement weather today, I again faced the cold darkness of the heavy clouds, and walked down to the town center of Kingston upon Thames to get my exercise. Even though it was just after lunch, the cars had their lights on, as the skies darkened, and I had to dance around the puddles of water from the previous downpour.


A cold wet walk into Kingston upon Thames along Old London Road
I still cannot believe my "local" favorite bookshop, Borders,will be closing, but it is. The shop windows are empty of any merchandise, just signs declaring the closure. I will miss you.


Borders bookshop closing Kingston upon Thames

        

The weather here in the UK today is a mixture of sunshine, showers and heavy rainstorms with claps of thunder. The high winds are driving the weather fronts quickly over Norbiton Hall, like moods we often find ourselves in, sometimes up, and sometimes down, sometimes in a dark period sometimes in a more enlighten period.

It was whilst communicating with a great friend over the internet that a very dark cloud swept over, so dark that I could not see the keyboard even though it was mid day. The rain came down from the skies leaving the road outside like a river. (click to see video).

Soon the cloud passed over, but the rain still fell in the bright sunshine, and the beauty appeared, a wonderful rainbow over the roofs of Norbiton Hall.

Life goes on, and somewhere there will be a rainbow for us all if only we are aware and look for it.


A rainbow over the roofs of Nobiton Hall

        

It is said "nothing lasts forever".

I have had a long relationship, which is going to come to an end I fear.

When the relationship finally comes to an end, I will have a period of time when I will feel lost, empty, longing for the days when I go and visit for my pleasure.

The book shops own by Borders here in the UK, has gone into administration, that is to say that the company could soon cease trading, that they are trading at a loss.

I love researching for information, reading books, more books and more books, and Borders was my favorites book shop. Their selection of books was wide a varied, their staff always willing to talk and impart knowledge.

As with friendships, business relationship, associations, circumstances change, and sometimes the circumstances are out of our control, and the relationship must come to an end.

Sorry to loose you as you are coming to an end Borders, I will sadly miss you, Now I will have to find a replacement for you.

        

It was a privilage to be able to give a talk today to Kingston upon Thames Rotary Club about the work I do around the world, giving training in NLP, Hypnosis, Stage Hypnosis, phobia cures,PhotoReading, Mind Maps and Memory techniques.


Kingston upon Thames Rotary Club

        

I have put my thoughts down in the articles I am like a theatre and I am a theatre on tour, and I would like to add some advice I had from a great American Stage Hypnotist and trainer, Jerry Valley whom I learned such a lot from, enabling me to become a Stage Hypnotist myself.

He said that the performer, the actor, the trainer is not the star of the show, it is the audience, the participants who are the stars.

If ever the person on stage, the Stage Hypnotist, the leader, the trainer, ever becomes the star, then the show is over.

It is an idea that I have taken into all my trainings, courses, presentations.

I am not the star.

I may be the leader, the person the people or participants follow on their journey of learning. I may be the guide, but that is all I am. I must take the people on a journey, using whatever may be in my toolbox of training and communication skills to paint a picture so that they can understand what is being said and that they can make the changes they seek, to place and install what has been taught  into their lifestyle.

Some people may appreciate my style of imparting information, others may not. Some people like jazz music, some people like opera. There is a place for all styles, and to experience different styles can give us choice, perhaps being a jazz fan and experiencing opera for the first time will enhance the appreciation of jazz, perhaps listening to opera for the first time will enable you to become equally a jazz and opera fan at the same time, perhaps listening to opera for the first time will mean that opera becomes the preferred style, or perhaps it means that opera becomes a type of music that will be never visited again. But now you have choice. 

I know that I have touched many hearts in my journey, and that I have helped people to gain and change, so I am looking forward to the future to meet many more, in many more countries, being able to offer many styles of training.

        

Too many times I am aware that I am to wrapped up in my own problems, and not seeing the wider picture, of what is happening to other people, to listen what they saying to me, what information they are giving me, in fact, what information is available to me in the outside world.

As I watch other people, I also observe the same attitude, people just wandering around in their own world, missing vital clues, missing opportunities, missing messages of change, missing signals, even missing money just waiting to be picked up on the street. (see Playing with Phillip's Sausage).

These clues, these messages are picked up. Not perhaps consciously, but certainly subconsciously, and we fail to recognise the signals the subconscious gives us, we let the opportunities pass us by.

We are too centered in our vision, which is called foveal vision, we are too aware of our own internal dialog to hear and notice external sounds, we are too attentive on our own state to notice the feelings, smells and tastes that are all around us.

Perhaps it is George Millers' 7 +/- 2, where we delete, distort and generalise, resulting in our own Map of the Territory, or cat on the mat.

By becoming aware of the peripheral signals, messages from the outside world, signals both internally and externally, perhaps by using La Salsiccia di Phillip, Phillip's Sausage, by having an active dialog between our conscious and unconscious, being aware what the subconscious is telling us, we can enhance our world, as Freud said making "a decisive step towards a new orientation in the world and in science", or Gregory Bateson said to be in "uptime" or having the use of "loose thinking".

Our subconscious, unconscious mind does notice these signals or messages, and we have to start to notice them. Our eyes will look at an object, but we fail to see consciously what we looked at. We make movements, perhaps a change in step, perhaps by a hand signal, perhaps a change in our breathing, our heart rate.

Why are we making these signals?

What to they mean?

Bateson stated that we should :-

        a) use peripheral vision as opposed to foveal vision
        b) focus on external sounds instead of our own internal dialog
        c) have no excess emotional thoughts and to be in a physically relaxed state.

Walk around the streets, and start to notice the signals you have missed before given by the unconscious mind.

For example, when you notice you take a deep breath in, STOP in your tracks STOP what you are doing, and go back just before you took the deep breath in and ask, "why did I take that deep breath in?"

When you notice your eyes flicked to an object, even for an instant, a fraction of a second, STOP, and ask, "why did I look at that item, what did I notice?"

When that involuntary movement happens, STOP, and ask,"why did I make that movement, what did I notice, what do I notice now?"

By stopping and noticing what happened to you, what did you notice that you were unaware of, you will begin to see more, hear more, feel more, to start to have an active dialog between our conscious and unconscious, to have what Robert Dilts calls in his book From Coach to Awakener, an awakening, or Dr Win Wenger of Project Renaissance called Side Bands.

        

Yes I am a theatre, as I wrote about in the article I am like a theatre, but I am a theatre on tour.

My work takes me around the world, China, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Italy etc, giving courses, training people, passing-on knowledge, and working with people, and unlike the UK where I also give training, I am not the producer, I am not the organiser, I co-produce with the local organisers who become part of the theatre.

As I guest, as a co-producer, and sometimes a member of the actors or training team, I have to fit into their style, their play, their script, their culture, their understanding, their requirements.

My trainings can be said to be something like a theatre production is Mama Mia, Cats, in the West End of London or on Broadway in New York. That is my play, my musical, that I have rehearsed, that I know, that I am comfortable with and people come to see that.

Then I am asked to be part of someone else's production, someones else's training, to join a team of actors working on an operatic production in La Scala in Milano.

I have to be ready to change my performance, put on a new set of clothes, a new costume. Yes it will be uncomfortable for me at the beginning, and it could be strange for those that come to see the production, like knowing a famous pop star suddenly singing an opera, a comedian changing roles to play in a tragedy.

It is good to be adaptable and to love my profession, my job.

        

Some years ago, a participant attending one of my courses said to me that "I am like a theatre".

This confused me, and I did not have chance to asked why I was like a theatre until the next day. All sort of ideas raced through my mind as I tried to unravel the saying.

Was it that I was run down, repeating the same production time after time?

Was it that I was producing material which was for a small specialised audience?

Was it that I am only open certain times of the day?

What was it?

When I met with the participant again, I asked what did they mean "I am like a theatre".

It was explained that, I was like a play in a theatre.

I am the author, putting together the content of the course, and arranging the sequence of the content so the participants can follow.

I am the producer, often arranging the venues, the facilities, handouts, the dates, the advertising and marketing.
 
I am the theatre manager, making sure that the facilities and layout of the room/s are correct.

I am the stage manager, arranging the running of and the timing of the course, making sure any assistants and translators are doing the job correctly.

I am the administration, or the back office, collecting the course fees, printing the certificates, sending and receiving messages, keeping the diary.

I am the musicians, making sure that the appropriate music is played at the right time.

I am the director, keeping the course on track, making any changes that need to be made.

I am the actor, standing in front of the participants, giving the information.

That is what I love about my job.

        

Today I have had so many things go wrong, but the worse one has been my trusted Chinese dual phone, iPhone mobile phone giving up the ghost, becoming dead, stopping working, and I have had to dig out my old HTC Diamond, a mobile phone I am not that impressed with.

I am most unhappy, but what can I do? I have had the Chinese phone for about six months, and did not pay that much for it, it is a gadget and I enjoyed it whilst it lasted, it has broken, so I must get on with life.

If I went about from this moment on with a cloud over my head, to be in a depressed state, feeling sorry for myself, I would force myself into a deeper state of "nobody loves me", "my phone does not work, what am I to do?"

It is just a phone, like other people, I can go back and be with my old companion, all I have to do is switch it on, put the sim card in, and away I go again.

It may seem strange at the start, getting used to the old ways, but if I put that strangeness to one side, and put a smile on my face, life will continue, and I will be happy, and after all, are you really interested in my problems? I doubt it.

Too often we try and draw other people into our unhappiness, our feeling of strangeness, our being unfamiliar with what we are, where we are or what we are doing, and try and bring others down into our state. I see this happen sometimes in my and other trainers courses. Perhaps one or two participants may not like the style of the training, may not understand what the trainer is giving them, and tries to influence the other participants, bring them down into their world of unhappiness. This is a situation I love, as then I can use my skills to correct the position.

Today I have had to do it on myself, change my state, use my Oh Poo Poo. I have too much to do to let a broken phone draw me down into the depths of unhappiness.

        

I must admit, when non British participants on my courses around the world laugh at the hobby of Train Spotting, as they can not understand why the British, and Germans and French, do it, or what joy they have from the hobby, I have often thought "why do todays train spotters do the hobby?".

Catching the train into London's Waterloo station in Central London on a fairly regular basis, we pass through the railway station of Clapham Junction, Britain's and possibly Europe's busiest station for train movements, with over 100 trains passing through per hour.


A Train Spotter at Clapham Junction
Whilst relaxing on the journey through Clapham Junction, I have often spotted Train Spotters standing on the platforms, photographing and noting down the details of the trains as they pass by. So, I decided to stop and talk to one and ask what do they get these days as against when I did it in my younger days.

I met John on another platform, who had traveled a considerable distance to spend the day in Clapham Junction, and he told me his story.

Having retired some years ago, he and his wife needed to take up a hobby to keep them occupied. His wife a keen photographer suggested they combined their two hobbies so they could travel and be with each other. Unfortunately his wife died, but John's interest in trains had been reawakened, and now he travels the country Train Spotting.

John said that every Thursday he travels to Doncaster, another major British railway station, to pursue his hobby of Train Spotting, and there could be up to one hundred others there.

As I talked to John about what he gains from the hobby, I began to understand that each train which before today looked the same to me, had its' own life, where it was made, how long it had been in service, what modifications had been made, what was the power of the motors, how many passengers would it sit and hold, where was its' home base.

As I listened, I was taken in by John's enthusiasm and knowledge. He told me why certain trains were built in the way they were, that nearly every train now new to Britain was built in other countries, Canada, Japan, Italy.

On my way home I visited a newsagent selling magazines, and in the hobby section, there seem to be more magazines for train enthusiasts than any other hobby, so there must be a demand for the information.

Come on the rest of the world,  join us British and take-up the Train Spotting hobby. We are not that strange are we?


Train Spotter John at Clapham Junction.

        

Whilst undertaking exercises in the NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner courses in the many countries I go to, I ask participants to recall perhaps their hobbies, and as an example I will mention the British hobby of Train Spotting.

In non UK country courses, Italy, Turkey etc, the participants look at me in a very strange way. Train Spotting? Am I deluded? Am I mad?

As a boy, yes many years ago, I remember riding long distances on my bicycle with my friends, to stand by the mainline rail track from Manchester and Scotland to London, the Trent Valley Line, to collect train numbers and  and train names. Those were the days of steam trains.

Each train would have its' own characteristics, but be a member of a "class" or type of engine, and each train would have its' own individual number and most likely a name.

Depending upon the use of the engine, hauling passenger carriages or goods trucks, the speed required, and the distance to be covered, so the "class" of train would change.

The configuration of the wheels of the engine would also distinguish the type of engine. There are two types of wheels on a steam engine, non powered wheels often small wheels called pilot wheels, and larger powered wheels or driving wheels.

      
In the first animation above there are four small pilot wheels at the front, six driving wheels, and two pilot wheels, (coloured red), making it a class 4-6-2. The second has four small pilot and six driving wheels and no rear pilot, making it a 4-6-0 class engine.

Each class of train could also be given a name, the last steam locomotive built by British Railways the Evening Star class was a 2-10-0 type. The Britannia class was a 4-6-2 as was the Clan class.

Full details including photographs of the classes of trains would be listed in a small book in the I-Spy series, a must to have for a boy train spotter like me, which could be crossed matched with my hand written notes of spotted trains, when and where I saw them.

Oh power they had, and the wonderful smell of the steam locomotive, the mixture of coal smoke, steam and oil. I used to love to stand on a bridge to be enveloped by the steam as the train passed beneath.

Those were the days.

        

In a previous article, Sometimes I feel like a petrol pump, I wrote Two's company, three's a crowd, and I have had questions as to what this English saying, or idiom, means from friends in none English speaking countries.

Two's company, three's a crowd, can refer to when a couple will go out for a romantic meal and the woman takes her mother with her. Thus the romantic meal will be uncomfortable, in fact, unromantic.

Two's company, three's a crowd, can also be used when referring to too many people being present at an event when the event was designed to be for a small number of people (two), but is usually only used when referring to two people, as above.

        

With perhaps sixty participants on the Society of NLP Master Practitioner course in Milano it was a great weekend for me to train the people in my style Sub Modalities, suppressing the critical voice and future pacing.

I love working with large groups, there is a different dynamic, and it is really interesting to watch the participants in how they receive my information, how they accept or reject what I am saying, and how participants try to influence others and how others are influenced.

I find it easier to train large groups, the larger the better. When there are just a few people participating, individual personalities, rise to the surface and can influence the outcome of the course, whereas in a large group, these strong personalities become subdued.

Some participants perhaps do not like being in a large course, rather having a near one-to-one training experience, but as long as I can get the participants to stretch their comfort zone, working on exercises with different partners, they will have a better experience and learn more.

Yes I had to adapt to a training session I did not expect, but I know the participants left on Sunday afternoon having gone to a deeper level of NLP than they expected. And yes, there is a reason I tell a story about Singapore and my mother.

        

It is good to be adaptable, especially when training, and that is what I am happy in doing, to arise to the occasion when circumstances require change.

As part of the training team, or guest trainer with NLPItaly, I am asked to give weekend training and asked to cover certain elements of NLP for the participants, so mostly I know what I am doing. This was so this weekend, I had prepared my work with handouts on my one and only day back in the UK.

I met on my walk to the Hilton Hotel a fellow trainer who informed me of the plans for the week end. It had changed, everyone else knew except me.

Oh Poo Poo.

Still that is the fun of training, here's to a great weekend for everyone where ever you may be..

        

A habit is defined as:-
                                         "the involuntary tendency or aptitude to perform certain actions which is acquired by their 
                                            frequent repetition; as, habit is second nature; also, peculiar ways of acting; characteristic 
                                            forms of behavior"

Some people state categorically that an action that has to be undertaken twenty-one (21) times to become a habit. I disagree with this assumption or presupposition, as it only took me twice or three times for the habit of eating ice cream when in Italy.

In Milan today the temperature must have been at the maximum 11 degrees, and it was a cold 11 at that, as I strolled to the Duomo Basillica, (click for pictures) from Stazione Centrale (the Central Railway Station), where my hotel, Hotel Auriga, is located. Tonight, the temperature is even lower, but I needed to get out of my room, to stretch my legs, and there was only one place I could think of going, Jack Frost or as it is now known, Il tuo Gelato. Read What ever has happened to Jack Frost?

I could not stop the need for ice cream, the urge deep inside me. Yes I could not stop my habit.

I must have looked a sorry sight, a man, alone on a cold night, walking back to my hotel, eating ice cream, when everyone else had their thick Michelin Man coats on, with scarves wrapped around their necks, and wearing woolly hats to keep their heads warm.

or
But now back in my room, I have a feeling of satisfaction having had my ice cream, and I think I like my habit too much to give it up now.


Here's to tomorrow night.

        

Now I am back in the UK, the image and voice of the Good Witch from the North in the story and film The Wizard of Oz and her saying "There's no place like home" (click) keeps rolling about my head.

Also, there is nothing more comfortable than my own bed.



It is not that I am not more than happy where I stay, in fact the hospitality, the quality and yes the comfort given to me could not be better, and even I have a fridge called after me, "Phillips' fridge", my bedroom and more in Gaziantep, but there is nothing like sleeping in my own bed.

It seems that I do not sleep (alone) longer than a week in the same bed, as I travel from one country to another. I may stay in the same hotel on each visit to a city, but it is rare that I am given the same room.

Not having the same bed on a regular basis gives rise to a big problem for me, as happen to my first night back in my own bed.

It could be my age, or, it could be that I drink too much prior to going to bed, but often I wake up wanting to go to the toilet for a pee pee.

Last night I woke up at about 3am, and as I became aware of my needs I entered into confusion.

Half wake and half asleep, where was I?

The dim light coming through the window curtains told me I was in the bedroom in Gaziantep, but my conscious mind said I was somewhere else, but it could no figure out where. It took me a few moments to realise I was back in my own bed.

Another situation I have to be aware of when I wake up in the middle of the night, and there is no light to orient myself by, as happened in my last stay in Gaziantep when there were many times of electricity cuts, where is the bathroom?

Instead of going into the bathroom, did I go into the wardrobe cupboard. Now that could be embarrassing.

Once I have satisfied my requirements, I have to fine my way back to the bed. Ouch, I should have not left the suitcase there.

Oh "There's no place like home" even if my temporary bed is known as "Phillips' bed".


There's no place like home from The Wizard of OZ
Some countries will not see this video as YouTube is banned.

        

It was the last course of nearly three weeks of trainings, seminars and talks in Istanbul, Gaziantep, with a weekend in Milan training an NLP Master Practitioner.

The last course was a Mind Mapping course in the offices of  GAP (GAP Danışmanlık).

It is always good to see faces seen on previous courses, mixing with new participants.

A great day.


Mind Mapping in Gaziantep

        

Sometimes I feel like a petrol pump in a petrol station, only there when peoples tanks are empty, so that they can get a top-up and then go on their journey.

I am there to fill people up with knowledge, learnings, to make changes, give additions like accessories to a car, to wash the windscreens so that they can see better, polish their paintwork, pump their tires up.

It is good to see them leave my forecourt like a new car, with enough fuel for the next part of their journey wherever that may take them and whoever may be going on the journey with them. Sometimes I wish I too could make the journey with them, but two's company and three's a crowd.

Then I wonder where I can fill my tank up.

But I love my job, and I do have enough in my tank to give to others if they want it.

        

In a hall so full of students, so full they were sitting on the stairs, I had the honour of giving a presentation of how they could enhance their memory skills and an overview of Mind Maps.

The University of Gaziantep has a number of academic units including Gaziantep Üniversitesi Naci Topçuoğlu, or the Vocational School of Higher Education.

Helped by Mehpare Kileci for the translation, we were on stage for nearly two hours of interactive fun and learning.


Phillip Holt on stage with Mehpare Kileci at Gaziantep Üniversitesi Naci Topçuoğlu
Large numbers of students crowded around at the end of the talk to ask questions, so I hope they learned from the presentation.

        

The end of another course for NLP in Gaziantep. A chocolate cake.


The end of the November 2009 Master Practitioner in Gaziantep.

        

Today we finished another Society of NLP Master Practitioner course here in Southern Turkey.

Great fun was had by all the participants, my translator and myself, as we learned so much together.

Good luck my friends.


Participants on the NLP Master Practitioner, Gaziantep, Turkey

        

It has been a quick trip to Italy, to deliver as part of the training team of NLPItaly's for the NLP Master Practitioner course in Milan, two weekends, with twenty-four fantastic participants having fun together, whilst learning great NLP techniques such as Time Lines, Future Pacing, Perceptual Positions, with yes Antonio and Phillip's Sausage.

The temperature may have been warm inside the training room, but outside, although pleasant, for me that is, it is obvious summer is behind us. People are wearing coats, scarves and woolly hats, but me, I only had my suit and no coat, resulting in Elena my friend and translator telling me off.

I was happy in the evenings to have something to eat in a restaurant, having good conversations, relaxing with good food, knowing that we would walk to my favourite ice cream parlour or gelateria in Milano, Jack Frost.

Friday night Elena and myself went for a pizza very near to Jack Frost, so that we could have an ice cream after the meal, but when we went to Jack Frost's shop, it was closed, its' shutters down, and no signs as to why. Perhaps we had arrived late? We had eaten at 10pm.

Saturday night we dined with a friend his wife and new son, and travelled some distance to Jack Frost, but this time it was early evening, but still it was closed.

Our life was at an end. What would we do without our gelato, our ice cream? We made our way back to our hotel trying to think where there may be a gelateria.

We asked a hotel doorman, who said to go back to where Jack Frost was. We asked three youths dressed-up for Halloween, and they sent us back towards Jack Frost. Oh well, "Try it, you might like it", came to mind, and we went back, just a bit more effort for us.

Two shops down was a new gelateria I had never seen before, "il tuo gelato".


The new Jack Frost, il tuo GELATO
Elena and myself looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and decided to try it.

My first words to the shop assistant as we entered "il tuo GELATO" was what happened to Jack Frost? Her reply was that this was it.

Sorry "il tuo GELATO" will never be the same as Jack Frost, but I suppose I might get used to it.

So I must visit the new shop "il tuo GELATO" at least three times to get my brain to learn and accept the new shop.

That is my excuse for eating more ice cream.


il tuo GELATO

        

It is always sad for me when a course closes, as it is time that the participants, the translator and myself go our separate ways.

We have traveled a long journey together, discovering our deeper self, and with the NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner, no matter which country I may be in, it gives me great satisfaction to notice the differences achieved by each and everyone, differences that they had wanted, and even some they did not notice yet.

Part of the NLP Practitioner Society of NLP course involves the Fast Phobia Cure,  (  Türkçe versiyonu ) removing phobias in one easy session of only a few minutes.


Duygu Akinal in Gaziantep holding some creepy insects in her hands, after the fast phobia cure
Here we can see the lovely Duygu Akinal (orumcek) in Gaziantep holding some creepy insects in her hands with a big smile on her face after only a few minutes of the Fast Phobia Cure. Just before I worked with her, only the words of bugs, and she would be itching, and fear etched her face.

Oh I love my job, being able to help people, being able to help people help themselves and others.

Thank you to the participants on the Gaziantep NLP Practitioner course of October 2009 for your input and willingness to work with me.

Now I must sleep, as I have to be up at 2am to catch two planes to Milan in Italy to give part of an NLP course there.

SLEEEEEEEEEEP

        

Today, 29th October, is Republic Day in Turkey, and is celebrated with half a day holiday yesterday and a full day today.

Flags will be everywhere, as the Turkish people show with pride their support and allegiance (Turkey, a proud people. ) to their country and founder Ataturk. (click to read about Mustafa Kemal Ataturk ).

At mid day yesterday, guns were fired from Gaziantep's castle, signaling the start of celebrations, sending the population of pigeon's of the whole of Gaziantep into the sky.


Gaziantep's castle over the rooftops.
Happy Republic Day Turkey whoever you are and may be. 

Her kimseniz ve her neredeyseniz...:"Cumhuriyet Bayramınız Kutlu Olsun!"

        

I have achieved many great things, helped many people over problems, including to stop smoking, overcoming fears and phobias, gaining confidence, stopping over use of drugs and alcohol and loosing weight.

The one great thing about NLP is the it is quick, with me one session, and it is long lasting, forever should the client want it to be.

For the first time in all the years I have been training around the world, I became ill in a course. Well, I did not become ill in the course, but it hit its' height, its' worse in the course.

I am very careful what I eat usually, because I know about travelers diarrhea.

The fact is, that different parts of the world, different parts of countries and towns, have different germs, different bacterial, and these reside in water and on food. Our stomachs build up resistance to bacterias, or the ability to kill these bacterias, and if our own bacteria come across one that they have never come across before, Oh Poo Poo, we get sick, we get food poisoning, diarrhea and vomiting as the body strives to rid itself of the harmful bacterias.

Cooking usually kills off unwanted bacteria, but we do not cook grass or salads, and I had some salad. Also I eat some yogurt, which I suspect could have been old.

Oh boy was I ill. Even the participants realised I was bad, and they gave me a break. But, the show had to go on, and with my attention on Fred, Antonio, Mustapha, - you will have to do my courses to understand these names, we got through the day, and i lost weight.

Now I am off to Milano, so no doubt with all the ice cream I will put back on all the weight I lost.