Categories
Thoughts

Big mouth

It must be the heat here in Bologna, Italy, driving me to say the wrong things.

I can now understand why people in Bologna leave for the whole of August for a holiday to the seaside, the mountains and other cooler places, as the temperature last night in the bedroom never went below 32 degrees. I was perspiring all night, drinking over 1 litre of water, and not going to the toilet.

The days are even hotter.

It is a time that I have to say what is on my mind, to communicate with others, new ideas, new concepts so learning can take place.

But perhaps I said too much, as I have had my head bitten off, for expressing my opinion.


Need to reactivate the alarm system in my brain which rings a big bell, flashes a big bright red light just before I open my mouth to say something. A warning should be going off in my head :-

     “shut up”

Perhaps it is the heat, or the fact that I can talk to someone, after all my life style means I am on my own most of the time in my own world, making my own choices which are appropriate for me and only me, and when I am with other people I forget that they have choices too, that may not be the same as mine.

Oh Poo Poo. Life is such a load of Poo Poo.

Still another day starts, and a new hand of cards have been dealt to me. I hope this hand will be a winning hand, and I think it will be, as I believe I can make the right choices from now on.

Categories
Thoughts Travels

I thought my boat had come in


Deserted back streets of Bologna, Italy.

Yesterday was the Italian festival of Ferragosto or Assumption Day, and as I wondered the streets of Bologna, visiting churches, admiring the buildings, the back streets, I reflected on this festival, of how friends were getting together, in their homes, the beaches, the mountains, any where other than the hot streets of Bologna, and how I was alone with my own thoughts.
 

Interior of Convento Padri Agostiniani, Bologna, Italy

I also noticed other people walking by themselves, and wondered why they were alone, what was going through their mind, and decided just to smile at people as they passed.

I was happy as I got a reaction, they smiled back.

I walked on, and what little Italian I know, I decided to use.

I gave a smile and said “Buongiorno” (good morning), and that also created a reaction, a reply of “Buongiorno“.

Perhaps I was raising the spirits of the others like me, walking the streets alone.

But that was as much as I conversed in italian, until I got to a gelateria, an ice cream parlour, seen on nearly every Italian street corner.

I love my gelato, my Italian ice cream. (see the articles on Jack Frost, Milano), and in the 35 degree heat, I decided on buying a cup.

Walking slowly down some of the 42 km of arched walkways, I savoured every spoonful, my mind concentrating on not missing one mouthful of the gelato, when two very beautiful young ladies overtook me, then stopped and turned back towards me, speaking in Italian.


Via Zamboni arches, Bologna, Italy

My heart jumped, two wonderful young Italian ladies, by boat had arrived.

Then my heart hit my shoes, I did not understand a word. My attempts at talking Italian gave a bewildered look on their faces, “Non parle italiano, sono inglese“, (I don’t speak Italian, I am English).

With a shrug of their shoulders, they turned, and walked away, leaving me alone again, but happy with my gelato and my own thoughts.

Categories
Culture

Ferragosto, A National Holiday in Italy

Today, August 15th, as in every year in Italy is a holiday or festival, called Ferragosto. It is the day when Roman Catholics believe the Virgin Mary is supposed to have ascended to heaven

Ferragosto or Assumption Day, is a national holiday, and most businesses are closed including shops and restaurants.

It is said that major cities like Milan and Rome empty, as people leave for the beaches and mountains. Here in Bologna, the locals head for the hills and mountains, to meet with friends, to talk have fun and have barbecues.

I was informed that in pre Christ days the Romans’ honored the gods on this day, August 15, with a celebration they called Feriae Augusti. So like many Christian holidays, traditional holidays have been incorporated into religious beliefs and holidays.

It is not the only day it seems Italians stay away from work in August, as the whole country seems to close down for the month of August.

I will have a wonder around the city after the mid day heat and see if there any celebrations I can witness, Else I will stay indoors catching-up on sleep.

Categories
Thoughts

I am continually learning

This last week has been full, my brain needs a rest.

Here in Bologna in Italy, like all people, I have been learning new things, about myself, others, cultures, history, language, many many things, and it has sometimes been very hard and frustrating.

As I walk into a building, I notice a new picture, a new design, a new word on a notice board in a language I struggle with, because I only speak the English language. Yet that word has entered my brain, every new experience, sight, sound, smell, taste or touch has become part of me and will stay with me. I learn new things every second of the day, I am continually learning.

But why is it that some things are easier to learn than others?

I have a curiosity in most things, I want to know how things work, what makes people and things tick.

I am motivated to learn, and I have desire.

Yet some things are easier to absorb and remember than others, even using the same learning strategies.

Why is it that I can learn how to deal with electronical devices?

How is it that I can work out how a mechanical device works, and repair it?

Why is it that I can hear a word or a phrase in a foreign language, repeat it back, but then it disappears from my mind?

My whole week has been a roller coaster of ups and downs, as I master and learn and think I understand, the next minute I realise it has gone, what I had understood now confuses me.

Or has it?

But that is the learning process for me and many more of us.

There are many types of races, especially horse races. Some races are on the flat, and some have hurdles or fences. Some of the race tracks are very flat, some have hills to climb up and to go down. Some race tracks have curves and corners, whilst others are a straight line from the start to the finish.


Some horses prefer flat racing, some horses are better over fences. Some horses prefer left handed curved courses, others right handed, and still others cannot handle curves. Some horses have to wear blinkers because they become distracted by passing scenery.

No one horse is the same as another, they have preferences. It is up to the trainer and rider to see the potential, and to bring-out the winning streak, to improve and strengthen the weaknesses.

As we learn, it can be like being on a race track.
 
There could be many hurdles along the way which will slow the learning process, as long as we overcome the hurdles we will learn. There may be many distractions, many times we may not know what is around the corner. As long as we run the race to its’ conclusion we will overcome the frustration.

There can only be one winner in a horse race, as some horses are quicker and better than others and are in the right race for them, but as long as we finish the race we can all be winners of our own race, and at least we have taken part, and become part of the group.

Categories
Thoughts

41 shirts, 4 trousers

41 shirts, 4 trousers.

I did not think I had so many, but now I know I have as that is how many i have ironed, and there are more in a wardrobe that I have not worn for a long time.

    I hear of people who love ironing, they find it relaxing. Really? I do not hate it, but do not like it.

Still, although I am slow, I do it, but if anyone would volunteer to do it for me, please let me know, with your terms and conditions.

But now I am ready for my next trip abroad, starting tomorrow, I will be able to pack clean and ironed shirts.

Pity they are always creased when I get the other end, or arrive at my destination.

Categories
Thoughts

Frustration

Today has been a frustrating day.

Trying to get a letter from the British Tax system has so far proved impossible, and I have been trying for months.

Today I tried again. I telephone the help line to be greeted by the inevitable, “All our agents are busy, please try later.”  then the line drops, as I am cut off.

Eventually I get through to get “if you want this or that, press button one………”, after what seems ten minutes I get to talk to a human, who tries to be helpful, but even after talking to someone else, tells me to contact my tax office, and gives me the same number I had just telephone him on.

I search for the tax offices’ telephone number holding my details, this is in Ireland, and me, I am in England. On finding the number I telephone, and it is answered by a young lady, who says I would have to telephone a special number, again I was given the same number I originally called.

Calm, I informed the lady that I had called the special number and they told me to telephone her office. I was told that they were not allowed to take telephone calls, and that I would have to go to the inquiries desk. Still calm, I said to her I was in London and her office is in Ireland.

I thanked her and ended the call.

I rethink my problem, and decide to go to the local tax office, yes a local office, but not one that deals with my tax returns.

On arrival, still very clam, keeping state, I relate my problems to a lovely lady, who is at a loss as what to advise, and says that the local offices do not have tax officers, that all tax affairs are now and have been for years centralized in large offices such as Ireland. She gave me a number to telephone, it was the same telephone number I had started with.

She kindly offered me a choice of two telephones that I could use in the office. I picked one and got the “if you want this or that, press button one………”, which I pressed, but nothing happened, and I gave up that phone.

When I tried the second phone I got  “All our agents are busy, please try later.”  

Eventually I got through, and a nice guy listened to me and said he would organise my letter.

I wonder.

Categories
NLP Travels

Sometimes sad, sometimes astonishing, sometimes fun, sometimes hard work

It has been a quick trip from Rimini in Italy, back to the UK, flying out the same day to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a few days of meetings and giving training, back to the UK for a couple of hours, to go to Milan to be part of the training team for an NLP Practitioner, then back to the UK.

Jet lag? 

There has been no time to get it. It is a matter of keeping state and not allowing it to happen.

The whole trip has been sometimes sad, sometimes astonishing, sometimes fun, sometimes hard work.

I was sad to leave yet another fantastic group of 60 participants in Milan starting their journey of learning NLP, having teaching them important aspects of NLP, anchoring, sub modalities, state control, including Antonio, plus other elements of the Practitioner course.

After handing over the course to Claudio Belotti, another NLP trainer I have worked with for many years, seeing him develop into a great, with Elena Martelli my translator, we headed for lunch at New York New York, a great restaurant near the Stazione Centrale.

My flight back to the UK was from Bologna, a wonderful city, which by Trenitalia Eurostar train, only one hour away. The UK is way behind Italy in the modernisation of their rail system, with the Italians laying a new track from northern Italy to the south via important cities, perhaps halving the journey time.

Previous journeys on Trenitalia had been a strange experience, having to travel first class standing. (click to read).Yesterdays journey did not fail to make me smile.

The Eurostar train glided out of Milan’s Stazione Centrale (the Central Railway Station) ten minutes late, with the lady train manager racing up and down the carriages shouting something in Italian into her hand phone. 

I must learn Italian one day.

Shortly after leaving the station the train came to a sudden stop, but soon started again, and continued its’ very high speed but smooth journey to Bologna, with Elena and myself sitting back in the laid back second class seats.

An announcement was made by the train manager in Italian about the journey, and she repeated it in very good English.

Then the restaurant car made and announcement, and I saw a smile cross Elana’s face, but being given in Italian, I could not share Elena’s hilarity.

The girl on the public address system repeated the announcement, again in good English.

She said that the restaurant car was in the center of the train, and then commenced to say, that first class travelers would be receiving complementary coffee, croissants, newspaper, water, the list went on and one what the first class travelers would be getting free of charge.

There was no mention of second class travelers.

It was as if she was saying, “you other lots of sub standard travelers, look what you are missing, you should have paid a little bit more, and you would have got all that too.”

Categories
Uncategorized

Back in the UK, but not for long

Today I find myself in the UK, but not for long as I will travel this evening to Milan, Italy, to give co-present on a Society of NLP Practitioner course.

The flight back from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was much the same as another flight, well a little more uncomfortable.

I like a window seat, and the nearer the front the better, as I can usually get off quicker, thus get through immigration at the front of the other passengers, plus the ride of the flight is smoother, there is less aircraft movement than in the tail section. By having a window seat, I can usually rest my head on the bulkhead of the plane, and thus sleep.

The problem of a window seat is that if a pee pee is required, the passengers sitting in the aisle and or mid seats have to move so that I can get in and out. This can become difficult if the flight is long haul, and the fellow passengers are asleep, or as yesterday, the passengers are old, overweight and are invalids or disabled, and find moving difficult and painful.

The MAS Boeing 747 flights to and from the UK and Malaysia do not offer much leg room or seat area, and the fights are always full, with passengers taking advantage of the cheap flights from South East Asia, and Australia and New Zealand. The service is second to none, and the stewards always ready with a smile with any request.

The aging Asian sitting next to me, needed help in getting in and out of the seats, walking to the toilets, opening the food packaging. The lady was so overweight, the drop down table could not fully fold down because of her tummy being in the way, so I offered my already crowded table for her drinks, holding her meal tray as she tried to get comfortable, helping to adjust the pillows, fasten her extended seat belts, not easy when she was sitting on it.

I was last off the aircraft, as I was locked into my seat as they waited for wheelchairs, always the last people to be unloaded.

I was not concerned, my situation was far better than the aging couple sitting next to me now faced in their life, and the situation I had felt in Malaysia, and guess what, as I use the eye recognition system, IRIS, in passport control, by-passing the long queues, and my suitcase was one of the first to be delivered on the conveyor, so I was one of the first out of Heathrow. 

Categories
Travels

A visitor on the 26th floor Villa Angsana, KL

It was late afternoon sitting in the 26th floor Villa Angsana apartment in Kuala Lumpur, when it appeared to be a large piece of paper float past me in the strong breeze coming through the open French windows.

It soon became apparent that it was not a piece of paper but a moth, and a large one at that.

I had a mixture of shock, fear and amazement at the size a beauty of this moth.

It rested a while, then flew of again.


Lyssa zampa, a moth from Malaysia

Lyssa zampa (Butler, 1869), from in the family Uraniidae (subfamily Uraniinae). It’s colour can vary gray to brown depending on the light. It is one of the largest moths in the Malaysian Peninsular, the largest being the Atlas Moth. The wingspan can be 100-160 mm., and flies from June to August depending on the location. Commonly found in primary forests or secondary growth.

Categories
Thoughts

Don’t Judge a Book by its’ Cover

As a PhotoReader, PhotoReading Trainer and now an avid book reader, I am almost pulled into a bookshop as much as I am into an electronics or gadget shop, they all have a mysterious power over me.

I search the bookshelves for books on subjects near to my heart, on subjects I may be researching, on authors I have read before and enjoyed.

But, how many times have I been caught out by seeing a book, buy it, take it home and start reading it, and find it all too familiar? It is as if I have read the subject before, it all makes sense.

I look on my bookshelves for books by the same author, but I cannot see the book I have just purchased and finding so familiar.

Then I spot one, take it off the shelf. The covers are different, but the title is the same.

I compare my new book to the old, and they are both the same inside. The author or the publisher have just changed the cover. Maybe the author has added a few new words, a new section, but the book and contents are the same. 

I have found in the past few months that as I was loosing weight, it would be best to take some dietary supplements, especially vitamin C due the all the travelling I make, and found a product called Berocca which I feel has had some beneficial effects upon me.

My brother-in-law, nearing the end of his life and as of yesterday in hospital with spreading cancer, has not been eating, fruits, meats, anything for weeks, and thus his body is lacking the nutrients it needs to exist, he has now mouth ulcers, his lips are dry, cracking and bleeding, his gums are in a bad way, a sure sign of scurvy, the lack of vitamin C. I remember my tablets, and we get him to start drinking the effervescent drink, and his condition seems to improve, even with the small amount he takes.

I search the shops here in Malaysia for the same product, as in this global society and market we live in today, it will be sold here as well as the UK, and eventually find it. The packaging has the same colours and artwork, but the box is a different shape, so I am drawn to compare the ingredients, the composition of the product itself, and guess what, they are different. The UK Berocca product has more ingredients, and the quantities of ingredients that each product share are different, yet the tablet looks the same.

This tablet is not the only product that I have eagerly purchased because I am familiar with them, used to, aware of in my home country of the UK, yet when I buy it in Turkey, Italy, China, Peru, they are different.

Cadbury’s chocolate seems to be totally different here in Malaysia then in the UK, due I am told to the hot climate, as the UK product would melt in the tropical weather of Malaysia.

In Italy, I eat pizza, and love it, yet in the UK after eating a pizza I suffer from indigestion.

KFC is different in Malaysia as it is in other countries although, like McDonald’s, the restaurants and menus look the same. They cater for local tastes and customs.

Some people exploit human nature to be comfortable with familiarity, our need to have what we are used to.

In China, the books of Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling are like in any country, very popular, so much so that a whole new industry has been born on creating new books with Harry Potter in the title, even having the same classic style of book cover. Apparently the list includes, “Harry Potter and the Hiking Dragon,” “Harry Potter and the Chinese Empire,” “Harry Potter and the Young Heroes,” “Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Harry Potter,” “Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-up-to-Dragon,” “Harry Potter and the Big Funnel,” “Harry Potter and the Golden Armor,” “Harry Potter and the Crystal Vase,” and on and on.

So we have to be aware, that is to say, do not judge a book by its’ cover. Is it the real thing?.

We as human beings are like books, and people say they can “read people like a book”. We put on an outer covering, we hide behind a mask, we show a persona. a character we wish to show, and for the world and others judge us by.

Like books and products in different countries, different societies and cultures, will be changed to be appropriate, to be suitable and be acceptable, it is with us as human beings. We as humans can and do change.

A Managing Director of a large company will have to be strong, a leader, a decision maker when in the office hours, but if they use the same characteristics in the home, they will be and are in trouble. A nurse in a hospital has to be hard, decisive yet compassionate, but will act different when with their loved ones at home even if they stub their toe.

Yet, unlike a book or a product, we humans can change of our own free will, and we do. That is what makes humans what we are. We can and do change, we have choice if we so wish. That is what NLP teaches us to do, have choice to make changes, and to make changes.

So perhaps a person who has been hard, unforgiving, a tyrant throughout their lives can change at the end.

A person who has shown compassion, love and helped others thought their life in a caring profession, can become very demanding, and aggressive at the end.

It is said that a leopard cannot change its’ spots, perhaps not, but has it shown all its’ characteristics to us as an observer before? Have we seen or witnessed all the persona? Are we aware of all that is beneath the covers, the capabilities, personalities?

As a lasting thought, perhaps we should all look beneath our own covers, see ourselves as other people see us, before we judge others.