Author: nlpnow

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

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
Books Thoughts

White Cargo – History missing from my History

We only know what we know, and yet we think we know it all.

Whilst searching for a copy of White Gold by Giles Milton telling some of the history behind the enslavement of Christian Europeans by the Sultans of Morocco, (see article White Gold – History missing from my History), I came across the book White Cargo by Don Jordan and Michael Walsh.
The book’s synopsis says, ‘White Cargo is the forgotten story of the thousands of Britons who lived and died in bondage in Britain’s American colonies.‘
What? I never heard of British nationals in bondage or enslaved before, well yes now I have read White Gold. Yes, black Africans slaves as depicted in Hollywood movies, in America’s south, in the cotton fields, and also in the West Indies in the sugar plantations, but not white British.
I had been taught a little about the American War of Independence in 1776, about the abolishment of slavery by the British and the work of William Wilberforce, first by making it illegal for British ships to carry enslaved African in 1807, and then the passing of The Abolition of Slavery Act, on August 24th 1833 by the British Parliament, meaning the act of slavery by the plantation owners was abolished.
There are many sources of information about slavery, and as I have written, we are only taught what we are supposed to learn. Typical of this is a great little web site, I believe a British school web site in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which outlines and gives a lot of information, click to visit, Reading this work, one would as I did, assume that there was only black slaves, there is absolutely no mention of the white slave market.
In White Gold we can see that white slaves were probably enslaved in the Middle East and North Africa before the black populations, and in the book White Cargo, the treatment of white transportees by ships were just as bad if not worse than those from Africa, with lack of good food and water, and little room. This was because African slaves when they were shipped could be worth more long term, as they would be sold in the slave markets for the rest of their lives, whereas the British slaves would be sold for maybe 5 or seven years only.
White Cargo tells the history of the problems faced in England, of vagabonds, thieves, urchins, gypsies, undesirables roaming the streets and countryside, especially after the European wars and returning soldiers had no wealth or income, so the only way to live was to beg or steal. It tells the story of the political unrest in England, Scotland and Ireland, the fights between the Kings and Queens, the Civil War in the UK because of the King’s belief in the divine right to rule. It tells the story of the religious unrest between the Anglican and the Presbyterian populations of England and those of Scotland and Catholic Ireland.
How could the politicians reduce the prison population?
How could they rid themselves of the anti English soldiers of Scotland, and the Irish?
Way back in 1578 a British knight or the realm Humphrey Gilbert was given leave by Queen Elizabeth to found a colony in the new land of America, the first blueprint for England to colonise North America. He was following in the footsteps of the Spanish and the Portuguese. Sir Humphrey was not to complete his journey until 1583, failed to estabish a colony, and died in the process.
It was Sir Humphreys half-brother Sir Walter Raleigh that took over the project, seeing it as a business venture with eager business partners, especially Sir John Popham and Sir Thomas Smythe, who headed-up a company to set up the colonies, the Virginia Company.
In 1607 Popham now with a subsidiary of the Virginia Company, called the Plymouth Company founded the first colony, but this failed a year later. But six hundred miles south the rival subsidiary London Company had set up along the James River called Jamestown. Many deaths occurred due to illness and hunger.
A foothold was made.
Now they needed skilled labour, and attracted a few people (indentured) with a promise of 100 acres after 7 years of service in the new land of Virginia, Others invested money to secure 500 acres, and 600 settlers embarked for Virginia in 1609.
The new colonies needed more labour, and there was a solution. The over population of the Engli
sh prisons and the unwanted people off the streets of England. Laws were passed enabling vagabonds to be shipped to America, including a rising population of street children. They would be sold to the estate owners for say 7 years, and became chattels that could be sold.
 
For those who wanted a new life but could not afford the fare, they would be indentured to a landowner, a master say for 7 years, again becoming chattels, who could be sold.
The hours were long, the labour hard, with no pay, just poor quality food, little clothing, and hardly any housing. Many died before the end of the seven years.
English, Scottish and Irish prisoners, kidnap victims, children, the unwanted where shipped out by the thousands, there is an estimate of over 300,000, to become indentured slaves. 
More and more laws were created to control the indentured slaves and the prisoners, all in the favour of the planters and landowners, often meaning that the term of indenture would be extended beyond the 7 years.
The more indentured servants the landowners brought in, the more land they were awarded, and thus their estates grew.
The main crop in Virginia was tobacco, but in the Barbados in the West Indies it was to be sugar, and a separate colonisation took place there, just as  brutal, with many loosing their lives to the harsh conditions and treatment.
It was in 1619 that the first Africans were to arrive, when one John Colwyn Jupe in command of the English ship the White Lion, sold twenty odd humans he had captured from the Portuguese, the first African coloureds to enter the slave market. But it was not to be a tidal wave, Many decades later there was still only a few hundred in slavery, it was the white English that made up the bulk of the indentured slave trade.
In the early years the two groups of slaves coexisted, working and living side by side, often the Africans being treated better than the whites, as the whites were indentured for a limited time, and the Africans were for life. It made economic sense to look after the life time slaves.
Some Africans even became landowners and owners of slaves themselves, treating their slaves just a poorly as the English owners. One such African was Anthony Johnson accumulated 1000 acres, naming his plantation Angola.
As more and more black slaves became available for lifetime slavery, more and more laws were passed to control them, barring such landowners as Johnson the right to buy white slaves, and then eventually laws making black slavery hereditary.
It is stated that in the early 1600’s white slaves outnumbered Africa by 20:1, by the end of the century it was still only 50:50. Economics then played its hand, for it was better to have a lifetime slave which would cost less than a white European slave, which would have a limited indentured term and who had a higher mortality rate.
White slave trade still continued to flourish even after independence until 1785 when the British Parliament admitted that the ports of America were closed to the importation of convicts, the Americans had refused to accept the unwanted English prisoners.
Another chapter started, as England had to find another dumping ground. This was to be Australia.
CONCLUSION FOR ME
Why was I not told this history at school?
Why was I not told that in reality, America was formed by the unwanted, prisoners of Britain?
Has my view of how America was formed clouded by the unreal Hollywood movies?
Were the Ingalls family, with the little girls Mary, Laura, Carrie, and Grace, from the series Little House on the Prairie, ex indented slaves?
Do the Americans themselves really know their history? As in my case and I expect the majority, they have not been told the whole truth, just what they need to know, and that is it.
The above is just a quick overview of a great book that contains a lot of information about white slavery, the formation of America. A good read if you want to know more.
I do not condone and I despise what I have read about slavery, but now realise that there was just as much suffering for Europeans as Africans.
I think all nationals should read this book, and other books like it to get a fuller and more knowledgeable idea of our world history.
Categories
Books English Sayings Thoughts

White Gold – History missing from my History

As I have been writing about over the few days, I have been learning so much about what I did not know. Part of history was missing, and Missing information, Bronze Age. How my understanding has been wrong in the article Interpretation gone wrong, how I got information that I understood one way, but was to mean something different to the person giving me the information.



Over a year ago, I saw a snippet of information on a news program which said that people from towns of the south coast of England had been abducted whilst attending church, and were forced into slavery by Moroccan sultans.



“Oh yes“, I thought. Pull the other one, it has bells on. I had never heard of that story before, perhaps it was information to promote another film like the Pirates of the Caribbean or in the next sequel to Indiana Jones series, ‘Indiana Jones and the Jewelled Zimmer Frame‘.



I was whilst working in Bahrain I was introduced by Phil Edwards, to a book by Giles Milton, and called White Gold, which told the story of white slavery, giving more information on the abductions I was so uniformed about.



White Gold tells the story of one young Ccornish boy in particular, Thomas Pellow, who was enslaved for twenty-three years, and how other Christian Europeans were taken into slavery by Islamic slave traders in the great slave markets of Morocco, in the towns of Salé, Fez, Meknes, Marrakesh, to name but a few.



It tells of the tyrannical sultans, especially Sultan Moulay Ismail, who ruled Morocco with a heavy hand, himself and his black guards killing by the most horrid methods, torturing at a whim the white slaves. Sultan Moulay wanted the best and the biggest, bigger and better than the Palace of Versailles,of King Louis XIV.  Sultan Moulay wanted the biggest, the best palaces, forts, gardens, armies, riches, and he could only obtain and build these riches with labour, mass human armies of white slave labour.



Labour was hard to come by, but the Barbary corsairs who were also known as the “Turkish Corsairs“, “Ottoman Corsairs“, or pirates, based in North Africa, in towns such as Tunis, Tripoli, Algiers and Salé, soon learned that they could make more money in the slave markets from selling humans than they could from the ships and cargo they captured, such as silks, spices etc.



They would raid ships in the Atlantic and in the Mediterranean, especially the Straits of Gibraltar, and no Governments could stop them. Whole crews would be enslaved, from the captain down to the galley boy.



Not only would they capture ships, but as mentioned above, they would raid towns around the Mediterranean, in countries such as Italy, Spain, up into the Atlantic, Portugal, France, Holland, England and Ireland as far as Iceland. Russia. They would take to whole community. Even North American merchant ships were also targeted.



From the early 1600’s until the early 1800’s, it is thought that between 1 million to 1.25 million Europeans were enslaved. Once caught, they would never be released unless ransom money would be paid, and that was not often, or they died in the underground holding pens, not seeing the light of day for years, living with vermin, disease on little or no food. 



Men would be put to building work, labouring, or being part of the European renegade army the Sultans kept. Women were put into the harems. The slaves were sold throughout the Islamic world as far away as Aden, Alexandria, Cairo, Istanbul and the Ottoman Empire.



Another aim of the sultans on the Barbary Coast against the European Christian slaves was to convert them to Islam or get them to Turn Turk. Many were tortured into Turning Turk, and those that turned or became apostatized, were disowned by their families, friends and the establishment back in their home country, and any remote chance of rescue would be lost.



Many treaties were signed, but were never honoured for long, if at all, and it was rare if any slaves would be repatriated. The might of the European navies could not match those of the corsairs, these often would be under the command of white European Christian’s, who became very rich and established themselves in lavish surroundings.



Also taken into slavery by the Sultans would be black African guards, who were taken at an early age to be trained and become fiercely loyal to the Sultans and the regime, to be the absolute masters of the white European slaves.



None of this important history was taught at school, even if I knew of the Kings and Queens of British history, James I, James II, George I, and Queen Anne, but not one mention of the white slaves of North Africa.



We were again taught what was told to be taught. I had learned that the British had enslaved millions of black Africans for the American British Colonies and West Indies, how wrong it was, but nothing about how white Europeans were enslaved many years before.




We only know what we know, and yet we think we know it all.



OK, so what else is missing from my knowledge. More to follow.



An interesting book which has enlighten my knowledge, well worth a read.

Categories
NLP

Ambiguity

In NLP the use of words, phrase, sentences which have more than one meaning are called ambiguous, and they can have profound effects on people, participants and clients, in understanding and change.

Milton Erickson was a user of ambiguity in his language, and as Richard Bandler and the other co-founder of NLP, the linguist, John Grinder, modeled Erickson, thus the art and usage of ambiguity became part of NLP.
His use of stories are a form of ambiguity, in that what does story refer, to the content of the story, or what he is trying to change. I will tell stories or metaphors in my courses. My story of having breakfast in a hotel in Ankara (Turkey), and the first morning how thick the orange juice is, but each morning the waiters water the orange juice down in the dispenser, keeping the level on content the same, until there is no content, just water. Am I referring to orange juice or trainings of other course providers, where the content of the course is passed from person to person, trainer to trainer?
You can say that an ambiguous statement can be a metaphor but also an analogy, structuring the language differently and used with making the difference. An analogy is a the process of transferring one piece of information of a subject onto another subject or  piece of information by giving examples.
Ambiguous words are words that sound the same but have different meanings. They may have different spellings. In English, (sorry for my foreign readings, you will have to find your own in your own language), there are many examples.

 To, too, two To =’s the movement toward, ‘going to bed’. linking ideas (verbs, objects etc) ‘ oranges are sweet to taste’. etc.
Too =’s indicating excess ‘too big’. having in addition ‘he has a computer too‘.
Two =’s having a numerical value ‘she has two (2) handbags‘.


Paw, Poor, 
Pore, Pour  		 Paw =’s the foot of a dog or four legged animal..
Poor =’s not having much wealth, or lacking in something, ‘his knowledge is poor‘.
Pore =’s small hole, say where we sweat from. To read eagerly, ‘he pored over the book‘.
Pour =’s to dispense liquid, ‘please pour me a cup of tea’


 Sun, Son     Sun =’s A star around which a planetary system evolves.
Son =’s The male offspring of a mother and father.


 Sea, See, C See =’s To perceive with the eye, or mental vi
sion.
Sea =’s A large body of salt water.
C =’s The third letter of the alphabet.


“As the father went to sea/see, the sun/son rose up enabling him to gain more than he ever expected………………..”

That sentence could have many meanings, it is what the listener, who goes on a Transderivational Search to make sense of it, gets from the understanding that counts or is important.

Thus, in my article Interpretation gone wrong, the use of the word “follow” was ambiguous, and I took it the wrong way, for me the way it was not intended.

Categories
NLP Thoughts

A story behind a pigeon orchid

There are so many metaphors, so many analogies in our daily life that can be used to transfer information to others at a deeper level without them being consciously aware of what is being said.

Part of the power of
Milton Erickson and thus what Richard Bandler and John Grinder incorporated into NLP is the use of metaphors.
Milton Erickson when working with clients, friends of foe, would relate a story of perhaps his friend John being able to do certain things, go about doing an action in a different way, overcoming difficulties. It was whilst listening to these stories, metaphors, that the client would try to make sense of them, understand them, to go on a Transderivational Search, and in doing so would place their own understanding on what Milton Erickson was saying.
They would place their own “cat on the mat” on the analogy.
Our brain does not know what is reality at a subconscious level, what is real or what is just a thought. Yes of course most people can tell the difference on a conscious level the difference of reality and internal thoughts, but certain types of people, as depicted in the film about John Nash, A Beautiful Mind, do not have the ability to distinguish between the two states.
Thus, as a metaphor is being told, the client, the listener, will be processing the story “as if it is real” at a subconscious level, but putting their own understanding upon it by linking it to previous experiences or learnings. Once a memory trace is in the head, the brain, a story, an idea, it cannot be removed, giving the listener to possibility of choice.
I love telling metaphors in my courses, taking an idea, a comment, and weaving a story or metaphor around it to get a message across.
Sitting in my garden here in Bukit Mertajam, Malaysia, there are many plants trying to grow. I say trying to grow, because the builders of the house had removed all the nourishing top soil, leaving a virtually inert sandy land, devoid of any nutrients, life giving growing material. The best way of growing plants is to grow them in pots. The grass lawn, struggles to cover the whole area, leaving patches of gravel which seems to emerge from deep below the surface, further depriving the struggling grass any foothold.

      
The heavy tropical rain, further washes away any nutrients from the soil.
Yet plants seem to survive, although growing much at a slower rate in the tropical heat.
One such plant in the garden is a palm tree, which over the eight years it has lived in the garden, has not significantly grown.
Growing within its’ stems or leaves, attaching itself to the truck of the palm is an orchid, a Pigeon Orchid, which takes its’ food from the air itself. The high humidity keeps the orchid wet enough. It again does not grow very fast, and causes no problems to anyone or thing, in fact it just goes unnoticed most of the year.
 
A pigeon Orchid roots itself to the truck of a palm,
But once a year the Pigeon Orchid sends out stems and for just one or two days, when there is a sudden drop in temperature, with wonderful perfumed flowers developing, white, fragrant, with a yellow
tinted throat. so delicate, clean. A beauty to behold.
A pigeon Orchid, resembling a pigeon in flight.
Notice 3rd from the top.
It brings with it a shock of beauty that makes you pleased that you have this in your life. Happiness, joy and love reigns.
Just as suddenly as the blooms have developed, the flowers are gone. Just two days. But you know in your heart that the experience can never be taken away from you, and if you can just wait, you will have that happiness, love and joy again, as the blooms come back, perhaps even stronger.
With the right environment, providing nutrients and food, caring and love, even the grass may grow.
Categories
Memory Mind Maps NLP PhotoReading

NLP, PhotoReading, Memory and Mind Map Courses in Malaysia

Great news.

We have now finalised dates for this months (January 2009) courses in Malaysia.
I conduction with a company in Kuala Lumpa, Malaysia, we will be offering the following courses :- Please note that this partnership never happened, and NLPNOW seek other partners.

PhotoReading      – 13-15 January 2009 (2.5 days)
Mind Maps            – 16
January 2009
NLP Practitioner — 7 days from 18th January –
24 January 2009.

For details of the courses and to book please visit the web site of NLPNOW, click on the links above, or telephone
NLPNOW (Malaysia) +60174491308 (mobile)


Please note that the above partnership never happened, and NLPNOW seek other partners.
Categories
Uncategorized

Part of history was missing

Life has been one learning curve, and the more I learn, the more I know I do not know.

There are times when I am frustrated with my lack of knowledge on a subject that others can freely talk about. Times when I cannot converse with others because of my lack of language skills.
There are times when I listen to others talking on a subject that they have little or no knowledge about, yet they talk as if they are the world’s expert, filling listeners with their views, resulting in rubbish, misinformation being passed on.
I remember my mother saying “Oh I will not eat that, I know I wont like it, my friend said it was horrid.”
When I asked, “Have you tried it yourself, you might like it?“
Her reply would be, “No I have not tried it. I know I wont like it.” 
I endevour to try everything, anything, to enrich my knowledge, learn new ways, learn new ideas, perhaps that is why I have such a rich portfolio of training skills I can offer to clients and participants, I am always adding to my knowledge.
If I have tried something and did not like it, at least I can speak with knowledge and say “no thank you”, or I can give an informed view from my perspective, my understanding.
I thought I had a good education. but I was I suppose lazy in that I could have learned more. Perhaps if I had knuckled under at college and spent more time learning the French language, I would not have the problems I have now in speaking other tongues.
But I was only taught what was on the school Curriculum, what the teachers were told to teach us. As a result I came away with a certificate which said I had a knowledge of history, I was educated. 
I thought I knew it all. I was an expert, after all, I had my certificate.
How wrong I was.
I was taught and had read about the Second World War. I had listened to my Uncles and their stories about what had happened to them in that war, my Uncle Vernon in his scout truck racing through France. My Uncle Frank who was in the Signals Unit of the RAF (Radio Operator) in the Nordic countries, but he never spoke about his war, I never knew that part of his history. Why would an RAF person be based in a foreign country, and would never talk about his experiences?.
I had watched the big movies of the 2nd World War. Reach For The Sky, The Dam Busters, 633 Squadron, Battle of Britain to name a few.
I thought I knew it all.
Last year I started looking into the British WW2 fighter aircraft, the Spitfire and the Hurricane, and read books, researched, visited museums, talked to ex pilots, and yes I know I have only just scratched the surface. I read about the war in Africa, and how the island of Malta was very important strategically and had to be defended at all costs against the German and Italian forces. How the Hurricane aircraft was sent to Malta to defend the skies. How the Hurricanes began to win the war, pushing the enemy back into mainland Europe.
Once the enemy was back in Europe how the British gained a foothold in Italy or to be precise Sicily, and the Hurricanes gained the upper hand against the Italian Airforce.
I was relating my new knowledge, or lack of knowledge to my good Italian friend and colleague Gianni Golfera, discussing what I was learning about our mutual past history and interests in aircraft, and mentioned about the Hurricanes in Sicily, and the white slave trade, (more to follow), that had affected many European countries in the early 1600’s to the late 1700’s. Gianni had heard nothing of them, but he knew a man who did, his Grandfather.
A few days later, Gianni contacted me to verify what I had told him was correct. There had been a big white slave market in Europe which also involved Italians, and that the Hurricanes had been in Sicily. His Grandfather had been an Italian Fighter pilot, and had been involved in air battl
es with the Hurricane.
He told how his Grandfather was flying on patrol over the sea near Sicily one day, when he was attacked by two Hurricanes. Gianni’s Grandfather flew for his life and dived to sea level followed down by the two British Hurricanes. Due to miscalculation, due to inexperience of the British pilots, both Hurricanes crashed into the sea, Gianni’s Grandfather was safe.
No where in all the books I read was there any mention about the lost of these two Hurricanes. There was plenty written about how good the Hurricanes were. So were the Hurricanes as good as I had read? Were there flaws? Was what I was reading one sided? Was I only being told what the powers that be (educators, the governments) or the author wanted me to know?
Why are we told what others want us to know, and only that? Why is there so much missing from our history lessons?
Do we know it all?
Hang on. A white slave market?  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
Thoughts

Old School Friends

I left school many years ago, the Chase Terrace Secondary Modern School in Staffordshire, a Midlands county in the UK. From there I was sent to a college of further education in Wednesbury, the Staffordshire College of Commerce, which was many miles away from my home town.

I was the only one from my school to take this route, and as a result, left behind my old school chums, and found new ones from different areas of the wide area of the Midlands, I lost contact with these old chums. Where are you now, Paula Dawes, Philip Green, Ronald Rose, Stuart Richardson?

To make matters worse, my working career started in the the new field of computers, which non of my old class mates had entered, and a new set of friends emerged.

My career in computers led me to moving home many times, afar a field as Saudi Arabia, again, leaving old friends behind and aquiring new ones on the way.

It is now years later I am wondering where these old friends are.

In the UK, and I expect in many countries now, there is an internet service call Friends Reunited, a site which has been going for many years, maybe predating some of the social networking sites such as Facebook. This service allows a registered person to enter in schools attended and the dates, thus allowing old class mates to make contact again. This has been further expanded to work places etc.

It was on Friends Reunited that I have found old class mates, seen what they have been doing, where they are now after all these years.
But there has been for me no physical contact, phone or eye to eye. Not like people I know who still have very good contact with ex school friends, perhaps seeing them through and sharing the different stages of their lives, the boy/girl friends, the marrage, the children, the divorce or seperation etc.
Quite different to my wife Mee Len, who over the last few days has had calls and get-to-gethers with old class mates, in Bukit Mertajam, Malaysia, recalling past memories of teachers and their nicknames. Recalling old class mates, with their good points and bad. Telling where people are, how they are progessing, the stories.
Miss Loh (Science Teacher), Mooi Hua, Tai Leng, ?, Mooi Mua, Margaret Tan, Choo Moi's husband, Chooi Moi, Mee Len, Mary Siam, Gaik Lian, Kooi Yin     Kooi Yin, Tai Leng, Gaik Lian, Mee Len, Lim Booi, behind settee Mee Len's sister Mee Wah
It was good for me to witness this getting together. How friendships may never end. How once they were in groups which never mixed at school, but now over time these divisons do not exist, and they are one.