Category: Travels

Categories
Travels

A great night of football

In the early evening today, my host and organiser Mehpare of GAP Consultancy here in Gaziantep, told me that Necdet, her husband, had invited me to the big football match between Gaziantepspor and Beşiktaş J.K.

It has I think been nearly four decades since I last went to a live football game, at a time when my favourite team Wolverhampton Wanderers (Wolves) were a team that could beat any other team. From then until now, I had watched football on the TV, being able to see close-up, views from different angles and replays.
On a cold night we arrived extra early, in fact one hour too early, but that was good as we were able to savour the local food, to return to sit in the comfort of a box.

Gaziantepspor v Beşiktaş J.K. 20/02/2009

When the game started it was like yesterday since I was last at a match and I was really enjoying the game. But then I missed a piece of the match. I was immediately upset that I had not paid attention at that point, but a thought quickly raced through my brain giving me a sense of comfort, I would see the replay.
Hang on. I was not watching the TV, there would never be a replay. Am I stupid or something? My mind was in conflict for a split second.
Strange how the mind plays tricks with us, how it assumes something will happen because it always does.
Once I got my brain into gear, I was able to enjoy the experience even though Gaziantepspor lost three nil.
Categories
Travels

It is snowing again

It takes two flights to reach Gaziantep in the South of Turkey, which went as usual, me just sitting there eating the rather unappetising food which the airlines promote as 5 star cuisine. Well it did become interesting, as the plane took off late from London’s Heathrow airport, leaving only half an hour to disembark from the London-Istanbul flight, TK1992, get a visa, pass through immigration and get from International arrivals terminal to the domestic departures terminal to get the Gaziantep flight, TK0696.

I made it, using my prior knowledge of the system and the culture of other countries, pushing in, jumping the queues. Very un-British, as we as a people are born to queue. If a British person sees two people standing one behind the other, we will join the queue. We will not know what we are waiting for, but we will wait.
As we descended into Gaziantep airport the captain gave us the obligatory arrival information, obviously being read from a pre-written script, which has blanks in it so they can insert the arrival time, weather conditions and temperature. The captain made his announcement and said that the temperature was “-0” (minus zero). How can the temperature be minus zero? 

Is this an example of a glass being half empty or half full?
Yes it was cold when I came out of the airport, but there to greet me as snow, it was snowing again. I had thought I had seen the last of the snow for this part of the year, and this far south in Turkey, not far from the Iranian and Syrian borders.
This morning, as I look out of the apartments window, over looking the rolling hills, more snow is falling. What a contrast to the last time I was here.
Still work calls. I must prepare myself for the start of a string of courses I will be giving in a number of countries in the coming months. No time to play or try out snow boarding as I did in the sand dunes of Peru.

The snow covered landscape in Gaziantep, February 2009.
The normal landscape in the hills around Gaziantep, Turkey. July 2008

Categories
Travels

Sand Boarding – Peru

My walk into Richmond Park on the day of snow here in the UK, brought back many memories of good and happy times. One of these memories came back as I saw some young females sitting on a snow board having real fun racing down the slope of snow. See article.

Sand dunes in Peru
Sand dunes in Peru

Some years ago on a tour of Peru, the party were taken to an area of sand dunes, near the tiny Oasis town of Huacachina, four hours south of Lima, and we raced up and down steep slopes in a large sand buggy.

The roaring sand buggy which race up and down the sand dunes in Peru.
The roaring sand buggy which race up and down the sand dunes in Peru.

Eventually, we stopped on the crest of a small dune, and the drivers pulled out some snow or sand boards.
The younger members were eager to tryout this new experience, and I looked on thinking, “should I, shouldn’t I?”
All attempts to stay on the board more than a couple of feet (meters), ended in them face down in the soft dusty sand.

Others tried to stand on the sand board, not Phillip Holt.
Others tried to stand on the sand board.

There was no way I was going to attempt that, I could see me breaking a leg, arm or my neck in the attempt to ride the sand board. But, I hit on an idea, why not lay down on the board? Just as much fun.

Phillip Holt getting ready to sand board
Getting ready to sand board.

The others looked on, as me at “95” grabbed a sand board, and hurtled down the dune, head first, and I did not break anything.
Soon the others followed my method, and great fun was had, as we progressively move to higher and higher dunes, reaching unbelievable speeds.

Yes that is Phillip Holt on the left, hurtling down a very steep sand dune in Peru.
Yes that is me on the left, hurtling down a very steep sand dune in Peru.

For weeks later I was finding sand in my clothes, shoes, socks and underwear, the fine sand penetrated everywhere.
I always say, “Try it, you might like it.” So come on, make that booking, take that flight, and go to places and try new things now.
site index
Categories
Travels

Snow in Richmond Park – Memories

Yesterday in the UK there was a snow fall, some say 20cm, and as always, the country cannot cope with the extreme weather. Schools were closed, buses stopped running, trains failed to arrive, and people could not get to work.

Being a country having a temperate maritime (mild) climate, one that is neither too hot nor too cold, the infrastructure, the services that in other countries are available to cope with such events are not cost effective to put into place in the UK. If we only get snow such as we did once every 20 years, then why spend money in buying snow plows.
So wanting to get some exercise, I slipped my way as I walked up to Richmond Park to enjoy the sights and fun of the snow covered vista.

Richmond Park, (UK), Snow falls, then people have fun.

Hundreds of people, families and children were arriving by the minute to enjoy the fun in the snow of Richmond Park, with snowboards, sledges, plastic bags, cardboard, all sorts of materials to sit on, to race down the snowy slopes.

    
    
Richmond Park, (UK), People having fun in the snow, on snowboards, sledges, plastic bags, cardboard, all sorts of materials to sit on.

The whole experience brought back so many memories of times in the snow, playing, being cold, the crunching of the snow under foot, being able to get back into a warm inviting room. 
It also brought back memories of my time in Peru, boarding down sand dunes.
Categories
English Sayings Thoughts Travels

Missing information, Bronze Age.

A couple of days ago I wrote about Part of history was missing, about how perhaps we are only told as a person, an individual, as a class of students, as a community, as a nation, what those in power want us to know. They miss out what may influence to think one way, and put in things that make us believe another.
I can think back not a few years ago, to a war that split the world.
Without going into the rights or wrongs, I do not want to be involved with that, there are too issues, ifs and buts, I found it incredible to look at the belief systems of others, the understandings of different nations towards that war. Some nations were for it, others were vehemently against it.
If we take the UK (Great Britain), there was a majority for the war, yet in France there was a movement against it. But there is only fifteen miles of sea, a small stretch of water that separates the two countries. Why were the two populations taking or having two different views, understandings or beliefs as to what was going on?
At the time, I was traveling in Italy, and giving a presentation at a big congress in Bologna, housing one of the first universities of the Western World, a beautiful medieval town, full of history. I was told not to leave the congress hall, as there was a strong anti British feeling, and I could come to harm. Of cause I did, to marvel at the wonders of the town.
But why did the town folk (students) of Bologna have such a differing view to the situation than that I had, which was really neither here nor there?
Why were there so many multi-coloured peace flags hanging from balconies and windows? I had not seen one in London.
The answer is what we are being fed by the friends, colleagues, the media, newspapers, TV, radio, the establishments, the politicians, the religious leaders.
We are influenced by what information we are being given, it influences what we believe and understand.
Often there is a lot of missing information, as per the article on the way brain processing information, the deep structure and surface structure of understanding.
On a recent trip to Gaziantep, where I was and do give courses in NLP, Mind Maps and others, my host Mehpare Şayan Kileci of GAP Danismanlik took me to visit a glass museum in the town, Cam Eserler Müzesi. This museum has a glass blowing demonstration areas, fine silverware jewelry making demonstrations, and a museum of glass artifacts second to non.
 
Cam Eserler Müzesi, Gaziantep, Turkey
Glass Museum, Gaziantep

I was really interested hearing the history of the glass bottles and bowls on display, what they were used for, their odd shapes, but what got me pondering about what I was being told, was what I was taught at school about bronze and the Bronze Age history.
My mind said, and my understanding and belief was, yes there was a Bronze Age in the British history, and as I was told no different, assumed that the discovery of the making of bronze came from Britain. No-one told me that perhaps the discovery of bronze had come from the North Caucasus regions perhaps from the Maykop cultures. 
I had been taught history from the British point on view,
Suddenly my belief system was called into question, here was proof of something different to my understanding. At this museum I began to question my history lessons. There was so much missing in my knowledge.
Later whilst working in Bahrain, I came across a book and was told about white slaves in the British history. Something I was never told about in my history classes. More to follow. 
Categories
NLP Travels

The map was not the territory

I have written a number of articles on the NLP phrase The Map is not the Territory, (click here to read some of them), but yesterday it became a reality.

All my working life I have had to visit customers in strange towns and cities, in countries where I could not speak or the language so I could not read the road signs, where they drove on the wrong side of the road, and I always get there, even before the advent of mobile telephones, GPS and satellite navigation.
Today when I visit 1-2-1 clients in their home, for phobias or fears, addresses I have never been to before, I would find my way, reading a map, asking for directions, transcribing instructions into my own shorthand which I can read at a glance when driving, planning ahead.
Since the coming of satellite navigation aids, like Tom Tom, and I have installed one on my PDA/mobile phones (Another gadget – I love gadgets), I have used this means of navigation successfully, only once being sent to drive across a railway line which was for walkers only. My fault I had the wrong settings.
Here in Malaysia, I have not got a satellite navigation system, there are no A-Z road maps published that are up-to-date or even published at all, and the old friend we were to visit from days gone passed in Saudi Arabia, could not give verbal instructions as to get to her house in Ipoh, a town I had never visited before, she could only give her address.
Armed with this information, her home address, I searched the internet, surely there would be a means to find directions.
Sure enough, and the only one, was Google, which gave a highlighted map and written instructions.
The written instructions were a little confusing to me as the street names meant nothing to me. Jalan? Bulatan? Distances were given in kilometers and meters, meaning nothing to me, my brain works in miles and yards.
Our friend we were to visit had said that when we exited from the North-South Highway, we would within 50 meters come across a big shopping complex of Jusco and Tesco, she would meet us there, but she failed to say take the second exit from the North-South Highway, and as per the Google map instructions we took the first, so there was no shopping complex nor Jusco or Tesco.
No problem, we had the map and instructions, and I had asked that each new direction be given a long time before I reached the turning or junction so that I could plan ahead, reading out the distances, so I could gauge in my head and on the map where we were.
All was fine. Then one instruction said “Turn right at Jalan Pasir Puteh” after 1.4km. There was a set of traffic lights with a right filter, but I could see no road name, so I turned right. It must be a major road to have traffic lights. We were to proceed 3.4 km.
The road came to an abrupt end, it literally ended at the base of a wall surrounding a house after 2km. Obviously this was the wrong right turn.
So back I went to the traffic lights. 50m further on was another set of traffic lights, with a right filter, and as I approached, I could see the road name Jalan Pasir Puteh mentioned in the written instructions.
Go 3.4km the instructions said, and we could notice landmarks on the printed map as we drove past.  The map was correct, we were going in the right direction.

Ipoh Map

Actual location marked with the arrow.
Jalan Pengkalan Barat 8 
Looking at the map and instructions, it said “Turn right
at Jalan Pengkalan Barat 6“, and although I could not see a road name sign, there was a row of shops or buildings and the turning on the printed map, so I turned into the road.
The printed map clearly showed to take the fourth right after entering Jalan Pengkalan Barat 6, and there was a big marker, “B” which showed the destination.
The written instructions told something different. “Turn right at Jalan Pengkalan Barat 5” then “Turn left at Jalan Pengkalan Barat 8“.
The map and the written instructions did not equate, they gave different instructions.
I followed the map, as it had been correct so far. but the passengers in the car followed the written instructions.
Our maps we were using, the representations of the real world were different.
Not only were the written instructions and the pictorial representations we were using different, but they did not correspond to the real world, or to reality.
Yes, using the pictorial map we arrived at Pengkalan Barat 8, but it was not Jalan Pengkalan Barat 8 but Persarian Pengkalan Barat 8.
NOTE. Jalan means in Malay (language) “large road”, but taken to mean “Main Road”, whereas Persarian means a “playground”.
After much searching we eventually found the correct street, certainly not the one indicated by the pictorial map, and not the one in the written instructions. See map above and the black arrow, compared to the “B“.
Maps and instructions are guides. We have to be there, we have to experience the real world to make absolute sense of the real world around us.
Even then, it will be our own representation, our own understanding of what we have seen, heard or experienced, not other peoples.
So, The Map was not the Territory.
    WRITTEN INSTRUCTIONS

16. At Bulatan Bahagia, take the 2nd exit onto Jalan Leong Boon Swee     1.4 km 
17. Turn right at Jalan Pasir Puteh                                                                        3.4 km 
18. Turn right at Jalan Pengkalan Barat 6                                                            0.3 km 
19. Turn right at Jalan Pengkalan Barat 5                                                            61 m 
20. Turn left at Jalan Pengkalan Barat 8 
              Destination will be on the left                                                                    14 m 

                   Jalan Pengkalan Barat 8, Taman Pasir Putih, 31650 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
Categories
Culture Thoughts Travels

Happy New Year

A Happy New Year, I hope 2009 will be the first of the best years of your life.

Some hours ago, as the we entered 2009 here in Malaysia, it was nothing different, many people had gone to bed, the change of the year paid little significance to the people around me.
It is the Chinese New Year that is the major time for celebration, this year at the end of January.
But to me the Chinese New Year has little significance.
It is the same with most of the festive celebrations around the world. In the UK, Europe, America, Christmas is the most important time of the year, a family time. People start saving for the next Christmas as soon as the old one has finished.
Yet, in the Middle East, Turkey, Christmas has no significance at all, it means nothing. Perhaps Eid, or Eid ul-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, is the most important time of the year.
As I sat here in Bukit Mertajam, Malaysia as the old year passed by and 2009 entered, I was updating my SlingCatcher software, so that I can continue watching UK TV from my home in  Norbiton Hall, Kingston upon Thames, England, everyone else had gone to bed. A few fire crackers were going off, but apart from that, I was alone and quiet.
I was then thinking, about friends in Bahrain and Turkey, just finishing work, for it was still only 6pm, 31st December 2008 there. In Italy it was only 5pm, I had only just finished talking to friends there about future engagements/courses. In the UK, they were probably just having their afternoon tea and biscuits at 4pm, yet on the East Coast of America, they were probably just waking up to start the last day of the 2008 year. A friend in Australia must be well asleep by then 3am. 
So what is time? Is it a construct that we humans have to use to understand where we stand in our existence. Time fits nicely into our lives, as the Earth rotates around the Sun every 24 hours which we have defined as a day, and there is a 365 cycle to this rotation which we have defined as a year.
But it is all relative to where we are standing on the Earth. 
What is the actual time? What is the actual day?
Have we got the figures right even then, because we have had to adjust our watches by one second on the 31st December 2008, to get them accurate again with actual time. Not only that, every four years we have to add on and extra day to get our timings right.
What about peoples idea of celebrating the New Year?
We in the Western/European world are now 2009, the Gregorian calendar starting January 1st, today.
Come the 25th January, the Chinese will celebrate Chinese New Year, which is 4707, the Year of the Ox. which is also known by its formal name of Yi Chou. 己丑.
In the Muslim world they follow the Hijri calendar, it is now 1430 AH. Their year approximately 28th December 28, 2008 (evening) to17th December 17, 2009 (evening).
It is all down to our culture, our beliefs, our up-bringing, which is so deep seated we will fight over who is right or wrong.
Everything is relative to how we see the world we live in.
Let us make the best we can our our world and the others, by respecting each others New Year.
Categories
Culture English Sayings Travels

Wedding Meal

Weddings are a big celebration time in any country, a time of joy, a time of sadness.

It is a time for joy that two people have chosen to spend their lives together, to share with each other the ups and downs of life, to learn to give to the partner more than you get back, to communicate, to talk.

It is a time of sadness, when one relationship ends and another starts, in that the parents have to learn to let go, that their child has left the nest to find their own tree or place to start a home, to be making their own choices and decisions in life.

It is the same the world over, the only difference is the way the ceremony is conducted.

Mee Len was invited to the celebration meal of the wedding of her old school friend, Mee Siam Ho‘s daughter Su Ann and Teil Hong.

The hotel hall was packed tight with guests, not just one wedding diner, but two, with a small six foot wooden screen dividing the celebrations. The other group seemed to be celebrating with a Karaoke sign along, ours was a more “getting to know you” meal, with old friends and relatives getting together again.

Mee Len had left her schools, The Convent School in Bukit Mertajam  and the MBS (Methodist Boys School) in Penang, many years ago, and Mee Siam had invited many of the old girls to the wedding meal.

Unlike western or European wedding meals which are served on individual plates, the Chinese way is to serve the helpings on a central serving dish in the middle of the table, and those at the table help themselves.

I have often talked in my courses of how a whole fish is served on the central server, and so it was last night.

Pomfret (Tau tay) Fish
Within minutes the flesh of the fish was consumed, leaving just the head and bones, just like a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

Pomfret (Tau tay) Fish bones

Another dish served was a suckling pig, a young pig that has only fed on its mother’s
milk. The piglet is killed between the ages of two to six weeks, and roasted, only being served on such special occasions as a wedding diner.
Suckling Pig
Within minutes of the wedding diner being finished, the place was empty, unlike other cultures where there would be dancing and drinking.
Categories
Travels

Nature in its raw – Snails Mating

By taking time, and looking about, allowing what we would not normally see, we will learn so much more.

Dr. Win Wenger calls it Side Bands. (click to read article). Stopping and notice noticing the small signals that often pass us by. Visit Project Renaissance,

Malcolm Gladwell in his book “blink writes about our senses which are telling us, giving us, information, but we do not recognize that this information is there influencing our decisions without us knowing. We do not notice noticing.

So as Win Wenger teaches, when something happens to us, it could be a change in our breathing rate, a sharp intake of breath, a quick glance to something. we should stop and recognize that something, what caught our attention, why did it catch our attention, notice noticing it and learn from it.

I call it Phillip’s Sausage. Being aware of what is in the peripheral vision or awareness. click to see article.

I had this experience some months ago in the UK when I noticed some strange ladybirds or bugs in the hedgerow outside the apartment in Norbiton Hall. They were Harlequin Ladybirds, (read Ladybirds the Answer), a newly introduced insect to the UK.
 

Harlequin Ladybirds

I was walking around the garden here in Bukit Mertajam, Malaysia, that I noticed a rather large snail shell, but it was something else that caught my eye. Something that I never seen before.


Snails Mating

There were in fact two snails, one on the back of the other and a strange white protrusion joining the two.

This is I realised something I had never witnessed before, the sex act of two snails. I had never considered how snails reproduced.

After a little research, I found the following facts.

Snails are what is called a hermaphrodite, that is they have both male and female sexual organs, or genital apparatus, and is located behind and to one side of the snails head.

Obviously, there is the requirement to have two snails to reproduce, and when one sexually active snail finds another, it will fire a calcified dart, (love dart), which will penetrate the other snail. This act will stimulate the other snail to receive and exchange the sperm sack or spermatophore to fertilise the eggs.

The eggs are produced internally, and about one month later, the snail will lay eggs (40 – 60), possibly underground, after which at about 14 days the eggs will hatch.

See and visit Strange Monster Creatures

Categories
Thoughts Travels

Santa did not call

Well Christmas Day has come and gone again.

Part of the family (over twenty) arrived for a Xmas feast in the evening, from babes in arms to the oldies, all tucked-in to so much food, we will be eating the left-overs for days to come.

But Santa did not come to my house. Perhaps it is because we have no chimney? No gifts. No wrapping paper. No unwanted socks. No clothes to take back to the shops to exchange for something more suitable.

Maybe, I might get a belated present one day when I get back to the UK, something I have wanted for a long time, slowly unwrapping, revealing that very special thing.

Well, actually I did come down to a special gift, left in my office.

Cat poo.

Being so hot and humid, the windows and doors are always open, but grills stop any intruders getting into the house.

It is a strange Malaysian custom for me, as most homes are like prisons, grills guarding every entry point, even every exit point, (is someone keeping me a prisoner?), inside the window or outside. I have even seen apartments at 20 floors with grills at the windows.


    
Grills inside and outside to stop intruders.

So the cat must have got in during the evening, and not realising an extra guest, the windows and doors were shut as we slept.

Poor thing, must have got hungry, and eat some of a bun called a kaya pau, steamed white dough with a wonderful jam filling (Kaya), and it could not have agreed with its’ stomach, because it left me with a present, loads of poo poo, runny diarrhea, smelly, and …….. I will not go on.

Not only had I the cat to clean up after, the floors to wash, but we have another overnight guest. A fruit bat.



Sorry too dark for my flash, but you can see the fruit bat’s eyes and shape

Every evening, fruit bat will come and hang from one of the porch wooden beams, and after getting a supply of wild fig or other fruit, will munch away, hanging there up-side-down. Within minutes it seems to come out the other end, landing on the car or floor tiles. It dries every quickly and is very difficult to remove.



Fruit bat droppings on the car

Like life, poo poo happens, (click to understand oh poo poo) just get on with it and have a laugh. (visit the ok.poo.poo web site for jokes)