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English Courses NLP Travels

Monday, the day before my birthday

Here I sit in an apartment in Istanbul, Turkey. I should have been in Ankara today delivering a course, but it was canceled at the last moment. At least I did have a late lay-in, an extra hours sleep.

Having just completed a six days courses here in Istanbul on NLP, which included giving three sessions a day to participants of an English language course, I think I deserve a rest. But, the next course they want me to run starts next Saturday, and now do I fly back to the UK, or stay here?

If I stay I have five days of nothing to do, but then I can catch up on my work.

If I fly back to the UK, I have the cost of the travel, plus I will not get back until Tuesday and then have to fly Friday mid afternoon.only really three days free.

What about the loved ones how will they take my decision?

I think I’ll stay. With Skype I can keep in touch.

I can try this blog out.

I can rest. People keep telling me to take it easy after my heart procedure. Now that was a shock to the system.

At 93 years old, yes 93. You see, in certain countries, especially Turkey, people want to know each others age. when I get the participants on my courses to introduce a fellow participant, they will say:-

“this is Fred, he is a doctor, and he is 45 years old”

so I am 93 coming to 94 tomorrow.

Yes at 93, I felt 18, I have done many things, I was fit, I am a Master Scuba diver with over 600 dives to my name all over the world, and it was on a training course in Antalya, Turkey, my translator, Asu, having heard my stories I tell to the participants, asked me to take her diving from the access point there was in the hotel grounds where the training was taking place. Being a responsible diver, I said I would go only after she got her diving qualifications from the school on-site.

She did to my surprise go and get her certification. On her last qualifying dive she ask me to accompany her and her instructor, which I did. I had difficulty in clearing my ears, equalizing the pressure in my ears as I descended, so I kept at a shallow depth, only to find the whole world spinning five minutes into the dive. I had to abort the dive. The instructor, took a look at me and saw a small amount of blood coming from my nose, and rescued me, me a Master Diver. I will never live this down, I will never dive again.

I found that my ears were blocked, I could not hear well, so on return to the UK, I went to my doctor, only to find  I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and yes, I had had pains in my jaw and neck.

That led to many hospital check-ups, the result being that I had a narrowing of an artery in my heart.

Oh Poo Poo. I needed a stent put in my heart, a small cage like device, that they insert in the artery which will be expanded, to allow to blood to freely flow again.

I amazed me that this procedure can be carried-out in a day, you go in to hospital in the morning, and leave in the afternoon.

The procedure is done whilst fully awake, and I watched on the monitors as they placed this stent in my heart or angioplasty. I felt nothing. I am glad I have learned hypnosis, I needed it.

They gave me tablets that I now have to take ever day for the rest of my life, to reduce the clotting ability of the blood, so now when I bleed, I bleed for a long time, to lower my heart rate, now about 54 BPM, compared to the average male of 78 BPM, to lower my colesteral, and yes, I was told to loose weight.

I thought I would be up and running quickly, after loosing weight, lowering my colesteral, and changing my diet, or what it seems, not eating and starving. Oh I miss my Mars bars, my chips, my pizza. I find that I have to slow down, my brain perhaps has slowed down, perhaps it is the tablets I am on.

But, I can still perform, I still can give a first rate course, the feedback from the Stage Hypnosis course participants was more than positive, as was the feedback from yesterday, and I have more courses to give.

I know lots of it is in the mind. I take control of my thoughts and I will and am winning, although now I realise that at 93 I must slow down a little.

Eat that elephant a little slower, so I do not put on weight again. (click to see entry)

 
Read about follow-up at Penang Adventist Hospital for a CT scan