Categories
Travels

A bath with a different view, Istanbul

Today I find myself in Istanbul, having meetings, giving presentations to staff and teachers, interviews with the press, eating and a little sleep.

I am staying in an apartment on the Asian side of the Bosphorus in Istanbul on Bagat Street  THE MARMARA SUADİYE. This residence comprises of 32 furnished apartments, with mine on the 11th floor, with views of the sea and three islands and the Bosphorus, with all the shipping and ferries taking goods and people to various places. Oh, how I enjoy this city of Istanbul, it is alive, and the ferry crossing is a joy.

And here in the apartment with its’ large lounge and kitchen, massive bed, I could need a search party to find me if I over sleep to find me in the bed, plus a bathroom with a view.


The large sitting area and kitchen in the Marmara Suadiye, Istanbul

I can relax in a warm bath, with views over Istanbul, and flowers to keep me comfortable. Just luxury, and a pity I have to work.


Flowers in the bathroom of the Marmara Suadiye, Istanbul

Categories
NLP

Milan here we come

An early start again to the airport, as I set off for Milan to give a two day Master NLP Practitioner.

It may seem as if I am a jet setter, to far flung countries, but it is not like that.

I arrive, and get straight to work delivering the course.

In the evening, after closing down, tidying up, getting back to the hotel, it is time to eat, then to bed.

At the end of the course, I usually catch the last flight back to the UK or to my next destination.

So, it is rare that I see any new places, as I am in and out.

I am often asked, why not spend an extra day?

This trip I will return Sunday evening, and the very early Wednesday morning I set off for a three week trip to Turkey and Italy. The stay in the UK of two days does not give much time to wash and iron my shirts.

But I love my job.

Categories
Uncategorized

Water under the bridge

In reply to a message regarding my 50 Euro fine by Trenitalia for not validating an 11 Euro train ticket from Rome’s Airport, Leonardo da Vinci Airport or Fiumicino, I replied it was “Water under the Bridge“.

In an overseas telephone conversation to a non British person, I was asked what did I mean by this English saying.

It means that something has happened, but it has finished and is no longer important.

So I was fined 50 Euro by Trenitalia, but it happened, there is nothing I can do about it now, so I can let any bad thoughts go, it is no longer worth thinking about.

Usage examples:-

I was once very close with a person, we argued and refused to talk to each other for a long time, but that is water under the bridge, and we became friends again and talk all the time.

I was married once, but the marriage failed and we divorced, so that time of my life is water under the bridge.

Categories
Travels

Getting to Rome from Fiumicino Airport

Rome’s Airport, sometimes known as Leonardo da Vinci Airport, is still referred to by its old name – Fiumicino, after the city it’s near, an it is said taking the train to Termini Station in Rome is easy.

There is  quick walk from the airports arrivals to the rail station, but for an average traveler with a suitcase, multiple escalators can prove a handicap.

I arrived at the airport from London with British Airways, and needed to get to the NH hotel Leonardo Di Vinci hotel in Via dei Gracchi to start the  PhotoReading and Mind Mapping course, and had little time.

I went to the ticket office and purchased the 11 Euro ticket and asking the ticket clerk when was the next non stop shuttle train (well not at stations) into Rome.

“In the next minute“, came the reply, “platform two.“

With a large suitcase, full of the bits and pieces I need to give the course, plus my computer, I raced to platform two to get on the Leonardo Express shuttle train which leaves every half hour in each direction.

My mind was set on getting that shuttle train, especially as you have to climb four steps onto the train, and with a heavy suitcase this is not easy.

As I got inside the carriage the doors closed and off we went.

Soon after leaving the station on a graffiti covered train the ticket inspector came down the carriage, and I happily handed him my ticket. That is where my trouble started.

“This ticket is not valid.” I was told.

But I had just brought it.

I had not validated it, and was fined 50 Euro’s, and my ticket was canceled, so the whole journey cost 66 Euro’s.

Yes, my fault, I had not read the ticket.

How many people actually read the ticket?

I had in the past been told about validation of tickets by Elena my Italian translator, but my mind was set on the single task of catching the train.

The validating machines are not that noticeable, and I cannot recall any signs informing people to validate tickets. Yes they are yellow.


Trenitalia’s ticket validating machine, do it, or be fined 50 Euro, you have been warned.

How many tourists, business people, travelers get caught out by not validating tickets, not knowing Trenitalia’s system?

Why don’t they have a validating machine within the carriages like they have on the public buses in Bologna?

On arrival back in the UK, I told my story to the taxi driver, plus the story of Tranitalia’s “First Class Standing” ticket (click to read), and his reply confirmed that many people get caught out and fined.

You have been warned. Have you been caught out?

Categories
Mind Maps PhotoReading

PhotoReading and Mind maps in Rome

Now back in the UK having to wash my shirts and re-polish my shoes after four days in Rome giving a PhotoReading and Mind Mapping course.


Some of the participants on the PhotoReading and Mind Maps course, Roma, Oct 2009

Over twenty people attended the courses in the old Jolly now the NH Leonardo Di Vinci hotel in Via dei Gracchi, 324, Roma, and included some previous attendees, ready to practice PhotoReading and Mind Mapping.


Working on their PhotoReading and Mind Maps, Rome 2009 

Now I must rest and then prepare for Milano next weekend for an NLP Master Practitioner.

It is a good job I love my job.

Categories
Mind Maps NLP PhotoReading

Be prepared, and Sure and Steadfast

I was never a Boy Scout, but I do like their motto, Be Prepared. I was in the Boys Brigade, the ones that wore the long trousers, with their motto, Sure and Steadfast.

Tomorrow is an early start when I travel to Rome to give another PhotoReading and Mind Maps course.

Despite telephone calls, salesmen trying to sell me things and services, trying to understand people and the messages they are really telling me whilst telling me something else, being led down the garden path by others and being aware enough not to let it happen, catching-up on my administration work, I have been able to get all my “stuff” ready for my trip to Rome.

My teaching aids are ready, my suitcase is packed, my shoes are clean, I have checked-in on-line for the flight and picked my seat, and the taxi is booked to pick me up at 5:30am.
 
I am prepared, and I am sure that I will be steadfast in my delivery of the courses.

Categories
NLP

Türkiye’de NLP Kursları, NLP in Turkey

Today I have had great news, the final dates and agreement of more NLP courses in Gaziantep, Turkey, for this year, 2009.

In co-operation with GAP (GAP Danışmanlık) and Mehpare Kileci, we will holding a Society of NLP Practitioner course, 24th October – 30th October, and the Society of NLP Master Practitioner course from 3rd November – 8th November, both 2009.

It means quite a tight schedule for me as the weekend in between the two courses, the NLP Practitioner and NLP Master Practitioner, I am to be in Milan being one of the trainers for NLPItaly’s NLP Master Practitioner, my two days being 31st October and the 1st November, so I will be flying in my sleep or sleeping whilst I fly.

I know some of the participants in Italy are looking forward to being with me again in Milan, so I have to make the journey. I will not let you down guys.

For the participants attending the Master NLP Practitioner in Gaziantep, I hope that we will be joined by a very good friend, fellow NLP Trainer and colleague, Alessio Roberti. It will be like the old days when we worked together many years ago, introducing NLP into Italy. It will be fun and a great time.


Phillip Holt

Alessio Roberti
training in 1999

Categories
Mind Maps PhotoReading

PhotoReading and Mind Maps in Milan Italy

I am now back in a raining Kingston upon Thames in England after four days in Milano, Italy, giving a PhotoReading and Mind Maps course.

Held in the Concorde Hotel we had twenty nine participants in a warm, sunny, strangely shaped long room, which added to the warm and friendly atmosphere.


PhotoReading and Mind Mapping, Milan, Italy, October 2009

Thank you all for the effort you put into the four days, your hard work, fun, enthusiasm, eagerness to learn new ideas, techniques, only helped me to give you even more. It is when I get feedback from the participants, plus chocolate cake, that love my work even more, to face challenges and new ideas with relish.

We got through six books each participant brought into the PhotoReading course, with articles, and learning, and I am always amazed how people can talk with authority about their individual books.

I am sure that all of you will put to good use the knowledge gained, to be able to read more very quickly to get what you need from written material with PhotoReading, and to use Mind Maps to remember and recall so much more information.

I know we will meet again, maybe this week in Rome, visit COACH4LIFE.it web site for Photoreading and Mind Maps courses in Italy, or even if we only meet on the internet like Facebook.

Ciao.


PhotoReading and Mind Mapping, Milan, Italy, October 2009

Categories
Thoughts

Loosing a friend

It is always sad when loosing a friend, a relative, and today I have lost a friend.

Perhaps that friendship has had its’ problems, perhaps due to language, perhaps due to beliefs, perhaps due to culture, perhaps due to clashes of personality, but it is not good to dwell on what went wrong, but to remember the good times.

Some weeks ago my brother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer, and gradually he went down.

Today he lost his fight, and has joined his ancestors to watch over those that remain.

I feel a little empty, but I must keep my state high, as I have nearly 30 people here in Milan waiting to start the last day of the course I am delivering.

Life continues for the rest of us.

Categories
Mind Maps NLP PhotoReading Travels

Carpe Diem. My work starts off again in earnest

There are some situations one can plan for, and some we can not.

Sometime times we plan ahead for what we presuppose will occur. It could be for a business meeting, a presentation, a meal with friends, a date with a loved one, a wedding, our health, our future.

How often does what we plan happen as we planned for it to happen? Rarely, as so many outside forces influences the outcome, beyond our control.

Not even Darren Brown, a mentalist, a magician, an illusionist, a hypnotist, a person who has studied NLP, and has now become a television personality performing the most amazing feats at this time on TV weekly, can predict the future. A couple of weeks ago on “live” TV he predicted the results of all numbers drawn in the UK Lottery. How did he do it? Well, as I said he is a mentalist, a magician, an illusionist, a hypnotist, a person who has studied NLP, and an illusionlist.

I remember being on a TV program by Granada and Discovery TV, Extraordinary People, commenting on another performer Jess Rose, and his performance was amazing, yet predicable. That is to say, I still do not know how Darren Brown does what he does so well.

I too do not know what will be happening in the coming weeks.

I will be in Milan, Italy, from Thursday till Sunday, presenting a PhotoReading and Mind Mapping course at the Concorde Hotel, and the following week in Rome giving the same courses to another set of participants.

I have a plan of what I am going to do, what I am going to teach and present to them, and I am preparing and planing the trip.

Already, things are not going to plan.

I have heard my normal translator will not be with me, and who will be my new person, I have no idea. I have no idea of how good they will be, or have they worked with me before.

My laminating machine I use to prepare a handout has finally gone to the scrapheap in the sky, halfway through producing the final product.

I have hoped to have heard from people so I can plan for future dates, but the telephone stays silent.

Poo Poo happens and will always happen.

Am I disheartened? No.

Slightly unhappy? Yes.

Poo Poo happens, so there is only one way forward, accept it and get on with solving the problem with joy and fun.

Both my sister-in-law and her husband in Malaysia have cancer of the liver and stomach. The prognosis is not good, in fact the end is very near.

The husband has given up, and has done for some time. Yes he is very ill, but he does not help himself, expecting other people to do the fetching and carrying, his wife has taken the same attitude.

It is a big struggle to get the sister-in-law to do things for herself, not to give up. To get out into the garden to see the beauty of the flowers, to listen to the songs of tropical birds, to hear and watch the ever changing heavy tropical rain storm.

Carpe Diem. Seize the day. Enjoy the day. We do not know what will happen.

So, I am looking forward to starting my next tour of many countries, meeting new people and old friends and challenges.

I am planning ahead, but will have to make adjustments, like going to buy a new laminater, which I can do with a smile on my face and happiness in my heart.

So where ever you are in this small world of ours, enjoy what we have now. Be kind to yourself and to others. What you give out, you will get back.

Enjoy.