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Uncategorized

Up to £100 Trade In at PCWorld on your old computer

Up to £100 trade in off the cost of a new computer from your old computer at PCWorld. Now there is an offer.


PCWorld offer of £100 trade in on an old computer

For a number of years I have visited my local PCWorld, Dixon’s, Dixon’s Digital, (all part of the same organisation), in my local town of Kingston upon Thames , being attracted by the electronics, the gadgets, and I have spent good money with them.

People who know me, know that if there is a gadget, Phillip has to have it, I am compulsed to buy the gadget. I get it to work, understand it, use the facilities it offers, and soon after, it gets regulated to the back of a cupboard, being replaced by the latest gadget.

I travel a lot around the world, giving trainings, seminars, presentations, speeches, and shows, and I need a light, good notebook or laptop to do my work on stage. I use the internet to keep in touch with the world, Skype for telephone communication, Slingbox to watch British TV in my hotel.

PCWorld had in the past their own fantastic laptop badged as the Philip’s Freevent, a really good fast computer, small with a good battery life for use on an aircraft, train or in remote areas. So far I have had two in the last four years, but PCWorld stopped selling them, so the latest laptop I purchased was a HP TouchSmart tx2, not a machine I am especially happy with.

The first Philip’s Freevent served me well, but the keyboard started playing up, which was easy to overcome, I used a USB detachable keyboard, but it was not a good solution for traveling, so I purchased another Philip’s Freevent, again a great computer, cheap but good.

OK, you buy cheap, you get cheap. The keyboard on the first Freevent started failing, the case on the second cracked, but it still functioned, until the keyboard started to fail. No problem, both had served me well, and with effort are still operational, not good enough for my travels. So I brought a HP TouchSmart tx2 from PCWorld about one year ago, I am not 100% happy with it, but I made my bed and I must sleep in it.

Yesterday the second Philip’s Freevent battery detached itself from the computer, the plastic retaining clips had failed, deteriorated,, fell off, meaning the battery would not stay in place, but I can still use the mains supply. No problem as I do not always take it on my travels.

Then I remembered PCWorld’s offer, £100 Trade In, why not upgrade.

I visited the local store and the salesperson said the offer is for “UP TO £100“, I would have to take the machine to the in-house technician who would value my old computer.

I was told my old computer was worth nothing, zero.

The computer did not work I was told (although he did not test it). Well yes it does if I used the mains supply or hold the battery in place, and it would not stay in place as the plastic clips had deteriorated, not by my misuse.

The case was split, well yes it is the poor quality of the plastic Philip’s used for the casing, not by my misuse or dropping thr machine.
 
The keys showed signs of wear, well yes, I have used the keyboard to work, isn’t that what a person does with a computer. I did not use poor quality paint or stencils.
 
The outer casing was marked, well yes I had used it and traveled with it all over the world, that is what we buy a computer for, to work on, it was normal wear and tear.

It seems that PCWorld will give £100 trade in, only as long as the old computer is in pristine condition, or straight out of the box. For every mark, for every fault like missing keys, the price goes down.

PCWorld, why would someone want to change a computer which was pristine, working 100%?

PCWorld you are using a marketing strategy to get people into your store with the offer of a trade in, but then nothing is offered.

I have been a loyal customer of yours for a number of years, and in business it costs a lot of money to gain a new customer, someone who will return and spend more money with you.

PCWorld you have lost my custom, and I wonder how many more customers by your trade in offer that is misleading.

I will now shop it DABSMaplins or Amazon  in future.

No wonder your stores are empty of customers.

Categories
NLP

NLP Practitioner in Istanbul.

                                                                                                                              Türkçe versiyonu

Good news for my Turkish friends, as I will start another Society of NLP Practitioner course, lasting 7 days in Istanbul from the 17th April 2010.

For many years now I have been visiting Turkey giving courses in Istanbul, Ankara, Gaziantep, Antalya, to name but a few places, including NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner, to the requirements of the Society of NLP.

Having had trained with Richard Bandler himself, being a Licensed Trainer of the Society, and being on his assisting team for many years, participants know that they are being given NLP as Bandler teaches.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s books, he states that to become an expert in a subject or discipline, a person should have been involved, learned, used the subject for 10,000 hours. Certainly the participants will have that time in me.

So I hope to see you all in Istanbul, and on other courses I will be giving in PhotoReading, Mind MapsMemory and Hypnosis in the near future, all given under the license and agreement of the originators.

For more details of the NLP Practitioner course in Istanbul 17th April 2010, please visit www.nlpgrup.com.

Categories
NLP Phobias

Phobias, Fears and Confidence Building.

All of a sudden, my telephone has not stopped ringing from people wanting help with their phobias, fears and confidence building, and I have to be careful how I answer the calls, as these are not unwanted calls I wrote about.

So, today saw me in Central London, working with a client who would not travel on the tube (metro). She also had a fear of escalators.

A phobia is an irrational fear that has got out of hand.

A phobia is a learned reaction to a stimulus or situation that creates an internal response or feeling which is inappropriate to what is happening.

Symptoms can be very varied, from panic attacks, extreme sweating, blushing, fainting, the list goes on.

If something can be learned leading to an irrational phobia or fear, then an alternative better response can be learned, and that better response run to the stimulus or situation.

This learning of a new response can be installed in a very short time, I usually only work with a client once, and for as long it takes for the new response to be installed, two minutes or ten hours.

I do not use an office, I do not have a consulting room with a couch, and I do not usually have clients visit me. I go to my clients, or I meet the client wherever the fear or phobia takes place, a departure lounge of an airport, a swimming pool, open spaces, in a dogs kennel, a hospital or dentists waiting room, wherever is suitable.

I have worked in a swimming pool in Sri Lanka with a lady who I had just met with a fear of spiders, and within minutes we were searching the bushes in the surrounding gardens for spiders.

So there I was in a crowded London street near a London Underground Tube station entrance, surrounded by shoppers, tourists, families and groups of friends unknown to me, with a client who just wanted to be like other people racing about us, getting on with their life.

Unseen by others around us I went to work, we were just two people talking, with me being a little more animated than normal. It was as if we did not exist to people.

After a few minutes, with a smile on her face and happiness in her heart, we entered the tube station, walking down the steps into the ticket hall to buy a ticket, through the barriers to ride the escalator down to the platform.

She tried to get those unwanted feelings of what had been, but they were just not there anymore as we stood waiting for the train along with many more passengers.

We chatted, and watched others not even noticing us, passing through many stations until I got to Waterloo, my stop, when I bid her farewell, never to see her again, as she can now move on in life, do the things she had wanted to do.

Oh I love my job. 

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Uncategorized

The Blackburn Buccaneer and the Avro Vulcan at RAF Hendon and Fleet Air Arm Museums

Reading the history of two of the British RAF iconic aircraft, the Blackburn Buccaneer and the Avro Vulcan in Rolland Whites books, Phoenix Squadron and Vulcan 607, plus my past memories and travels coming across the aircraft, I needed more information, to get the feel of the aircraft.

One of the great traditions and part of the culture of the British people, is a sense of the past, the history of the nation.

Rightly or wrongly, we hoard, we hold onto items which are from the past, we rebuild castles, ancient monuments, we store them in galleries, in museums, we preserve history for generations to come. Sometimes these items are from British history, sometimes these artifacts are from other cultures, there for all to see and wonder at.

It was written, a nation is not a nation without its’ history.

History builds the culture of nations, the population has something to build the future upon, to be proud of.

Britain is rich in museums and collections of artifacts of history, and these collections include the armed forces.

I needed to see firsthand a Buccaneer aircraft, to try and understand how a small aircraft manufacturer, the Blackburn Aircraft and Car Company, starting in 1914, could go on and build, design and build, which in its’ time, such a world beating, innovative aircraft.

I needed to witness the size and shape of the Vulcan, that was built not so many years after the end of the Second World War, would only be used in anger after thirty years in service, winning many competitions against the mighty American USAF jets, again with its’ iconic shape and design features which where world beaters.

My first visit had to be to the RAF Museum Hendon, in North London. The free to enter museum is housed in a number of large buildings, The Battle of Britain Hall, Historic Hangar, the Grahame-White Factory, the Milestones of Flight Hall, and the Bomber Hall.

My aim on this visit was to see the RAF Buccaneer S2B which the RAF flew as late as the Gulf War.



RAF Buccaneer S2B on display at RAF Hendon, London

I needed to get a feel of the plane, to understand the shape the size of this world beating plane.



RAF Buccaneer S2B on display at RAF Hendon, London

Parked in a restricted area of the museum due to renovations, I was kindly given permission to enter the great aircraft’s space, to view the plane at close quarters, the folding wings and nose cone, which reduced the area required to park it, especially on an aircraft carrier.

The Buccaneer was designed for low level fast flying to get below enemy radar, and its short wings gave superb handling characteristics, but at low speeds needed for landings on carrier decks, the designers came up with an innovative idea of bleeding compressed gases from the engines, vented through the wings to give extra life, and the tailplane was designed with variable incidence for fast or low-speed flight. The then conventional bomb doors of an aircraft were just that, doors that opened outwards, but the Buccaneer’s doors rotated within the fuselage, and with the Coca Cola fuselage shape reduced drag. The two seater jet was designed in tandem, with the navigator behind the pilot, and in the S2B model the aircraft were fitted with powerful Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan engines.


        
A RAF Buccaneer S2B RAF Hendon Museum

I then had a feeling to view a Naval Buccaneer, after all, the book Phoenix Squadron was about the British Navy Fleet Air Arm flying from the carrier Arc Royal to reinforce Britain’s right in Belize. The Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm Museum houses two examples of the Buccaneer, the original S1B with the low powered de Havilland Gyron Junior turbojet engines and the updated S2B which the RAF flew.



Folding nose cone on a Buccaneer
Royal Naval Fleet Air Arm Museum
RNAS Yeovilton

I knew that at RAF Hendon they had a Vulcan, but I could not see it. Upon asking an attendant, he pointed over my right shoulder, and it was there, and as I looked it was. Perhaps it was a case of  George Millers’ 7 +/- 2 or the Monkey Video, but there it was in a corner, a massive aircraft, too big to get into my camera lens.



Avro Vulcan, RAF Hendon Museum.

The Avro Vulcan, later with the powerful Olympus engines which were destine to power Concorde, where introduced in 1953 as part of the RAF’s “V” force, being the Victor, Vulcan and Valiant, built to counter the perceived threat posed by the Soviet Block and to deliver nuclear bombs.

The main characteristic of the Vulcan was the Delta Wing.



Avro Vulcan with delta wing

Conceived in 1947, the virtually hand made Vulcan, entered RAF service in 1956, and used as a deterrent against nuclear attack, and was not used for delivering real conventional bombs until it was due to retire in 1982 when it was used to drop 21 bombs on Port Staley Airport runway in the Falklands war, as told in the book Vulcan 607.

Seeing this wonderful aircraft in RAF Hendon, being able to stand under the massive bomb bay, brought home to me the flying skills needed to get from the UK to the Falklands and back again in the Falklands war.

We are lucky in Britain to have such museums, places of interest to visit, to learn, to see, to research, to gain knowledge.

Let us hope that we all learn from all our past history.

Categories
Uncategorized

Is it a coincidence that I get more telephone calls

In my previous articles of my blog, Timeshare Advisory Service a Scam and I don’t believe it, I write about how I instinctively know when I am getting a “cold”, unwanted call, which makes me mad.

I do not want cold calls.

After my first posting, Timeshare Advisory Service a Scam, I got a telephone call from the Indian sub continent, purporting to be an organisation, TPS, offering to register my telephone number to stop nuisance calls for a fee I expect of over £250, when TPS gives the service for free.

Spooky.

How did that person ring at that precise time to offer their service? I must have bee sending a message out through telepathy and picked up by the hard working call center worker.

Not long after, I had another telephone call from another nice sounding lady, with loads of noise in the background of people talking on telephones. Obviously another call center.

She politely led me through a spiel of how her company could help me resolve any problems with my timeshare. Firing well rehearsed questions and statements, “Was I satisfied with the high increases in management fees?“, “have I seen their advertisements on Chanel 5 (UK TV)?“, all to no avail, as I said I was extremely happy with my timeshare holiday week.

I asked for her company’s’ web address, just in case I needed help in the future, which was www.itra.net. I later find out that this is International Timeshare Refund Action, a “no win, no fee” service.

We ended the call in a pleasant way.

Spooky.

Why did at that moment I get a telephone call offering me a service, when clearly I had been thinking about the potential problems arising from owning timeshares?

Again, my telepathic powers must be working overtime.

This has to be more than coincidence.

I am reading a book at the moment The Psychic Tourist by William Little, is it a coincidence that I am getting more telephone calls on a subject I am working on, unwanted telephone calls, or is it some psychic force?

I must finish the book to find out.

Oh, just before I have finished this article, I have another call from a lovely Indian girl, offering me a five year contract to stop nuisance calls.

Categories
Mind Maps PhotoReading Travels

What a difference a day makes

Although I have traveled to Milan in Italy, I have not ventured from the Concorde hotel where I am giving PhotoReading and Mind Mapping iMindMap courses, it is an enjoyable time,as I take participants from unconscious incompetence towards unconscious competence.

The participants visibly get more confidence and better with each hour, and the difference after a nights sleep is very evident.

It has not only been the participants who have changed but also the weather.

Arriving early Thursday morning, to a little snow in the air, to cold rain on Friday and Saturday, this Sunday morning there is not a cloud in the sky. Now for Rome tonight.

 


View from the Concorde Milano

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Uncategorized

Gong Xi Fa Cai, Happy New Year

To my many Chinese followers Gong Xi Fa Cai, Happy New Year.



This year it is the Year of the Tiger, and the New Year falls 14th February 2009, Saint Valentines Day.

So to my female followers, if you received flowers or a card and you do not know who sent it, think of me, and where is mine? Next year, perhaps you could send me a card or chocolates, as I do not like flowers much.

To my Italian friends. I will be in Milan from 18th February until 21st, and then in Rome from the 22nd until 26th, giving PhotoReading and Mind Maps courses. You can still join the courses by contacting Fabio Cucinotta at E-mail info@metodogolfera.com or visit the Web www.metodogolfera.com. You can telephone on Numero Verde 800 91.32.64 or Cellulare 334 50.29.667.

You can give me my Saint Valentines Day card and present then.

Categories
Books Thoughts

CT Scan at the Penang Adventist Hospital

Back in March 2007 I wrote in my blog Monday, the day before my birthday, how I had to under go an angioplasty, that is to have a stent inserted into a constricted artery in my heart. A common procedure.



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.


As I monitored my own health, my well being, I began to notice changes, I had slowed down, at one time I noticed my short term memory had gone due to the drugs I was taking then, and I had aches and pains, one in the right side of my neck. Just a dull pain, like a stiff neck after a bad nights sleep.

I sometimes got an indigestion pain from eating too many cashew nuts or too much beef, (yes I am strange), and as I reported these to my doctor in the UK, my medication was modified. But I felt like a hypochondriac, always having something wrong with me. I was like my old Mazda RX7, getting on in years, a collectors item, worth its weight in gold, but bits and pieces wearing out and needing replacing.

My visits to Malaysia with the high temperature and humidity makes my ankles and feet swell, not an uncommon symptom for non tropical climate living visitors I am told, but when I mentioned something else, I was taken, against my wishes, to a local doctor, Doctor Tan Hong Ping of the Pusat Pakar Union practice in Alma, Bukit Mertajam.

Dr Tan listened to my story and put my mind at rest, along with others, but suggested that I should have a CT Scan on my heart at the Penang Adventist Hospital, just to see if anything was wrong there.

A starvation diet was requested, well no food after 12 midnight, for my 9am appointment. A quick check of my blood pressure and heart rate, which needed to be slowed down a fraction, then it was into the CT Scan room.
A very simple procedure, just to have an intravenous drip placed into the arm to feed a dye into the blood stream, which will then show- up on the CT Scan, it as a matter of just to lie there and follow instructions.
An arch was remotely moved into position over my chest, with its internal components spinning round, and the instruction to hold my breath three times was given. The only uncomfortable part was when the dye was pumped into my blood stream, this gave a warm sensation in my ears and the same warm sensation in my private parts. Interesting.
That was it, let the computer do the rest, to give a three dimensional representation of my heart, and for me to go back the next day and get the results.
So of we went, to visit Queensbay Shopping Mall, the Borders (MY) bookshop, and for a book to present itself, to jump off the shelf, I was not even looking for a book on that subject, consciously that is, that will change your life. Those who have taken my PhotoReading course will understand.
Categories
Culture

Train Spotting – Malaysia

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+38 in, compared to standard gauge tracks of 1,435 mm or 4 ft 8+12 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.

Categories
NLP Remote Viewing

The Men Who Stare At Goats. How much do we need to know?

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 At 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.