Categories
Thoughts

When things go wrong

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.

Categories
Culture

Train Spotting, today

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.

Categories
Culture

Train Spotting, a very British hobby

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.

Categories
Uncategorized

Two’s company, three’s a crowd

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.

Categories
NLP

Society of NLP Master Practitioner course in Milano

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.

Categories
NLP

It is good to be adaptable

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.

Categories
Eating Out

A habit that is too strong to stop. Jack Frost or Il tuo Gelato

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.

orLands' End Women's Reversible Quilted Long Down Coat

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.

Categories
Thoughts

There’s no place like home

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.

Categories
Mind Maps

Mind Maps in Turkey

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

Categories
Thoughts

Sometimes I feel like a petrol pump


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.