Category: Thoughts

You’ve got to laugh

Post author By nlpnow
Post date 25/11/2008

I have been very busy these last two months, giving courses and presentations in the UK, Italy, Turkey and Bahrain. I have been educating myself becoming a Master Trainer with the computer software for Mind Maps, iMindMap.

The whole trip was to be three months, lasting until 15th December, but one company canceled the arranged courses I was to do, leaving me a huge bill and difficulty in rearranging flights. Not only have I lost out, but participants have lost-out, some have had to rearrange holidays and work, my translators have also lost work.

OH POO POO

So today I am off to the UK for an early bath.

It is no good crying over spilt milk, so you’ve got to laugh.

If you have lost a contract, a loved one, a set of keys, a romance, visit http://www.ohpoopoo.com.

NLP Thoughts

Web of lies

Post author By
Post date 17/09/2008

I recently read a report credited to the WEB pioneer, London born Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

The report indicated that a few people with deep personal issues, can spread those beliefs very easily by making them very believable.

This can happen with just one person making a statement, which then becomes a deep seated belief in others.

In 2004, the British Sunday Times published the following :-

“Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who champions the alleged link between measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism in young children, stands discredited for misleading his medical colleagues and The Lancet, the professional journal that published his findings.“

Wakefield had published that giving the MMR injection was the cause of autism. that there was a link between the two.

His research was flawed.

He did not disclose the fact that countries that did not give the MMR injection to children had just as high an incidence of autism in the population as those countries that gave MMR.

He did not disclose that he was being funded by people who were seeking evidence to use against MMR vaccine manufacturers.

He did not disclose that symptoms of autism showed themselves at the same age as MMR was given.

He made an assumption that A caused B.

In NLP terms, Cause and Effect.

The result was that parents did not allow their children to have the MMR injection, and incidents of measles, mumps and rubella increased.

THE END OF THE WORLD. Yes, recently we were to expect the end of the world with the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) particle accelerator on the Swiss French border, which would create a black hole swallowing up the Earth.

Some people believed it. Others who did not believe still had the seed of doubt planted in their brain, “perhaps it is the end of the word“.

There have been many cult religions, where followers or believers, follow the teachings of one person, as if what is being said is nothing but the truth. The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project in Jonestown, in the USA Waco.

Misinformation, wrong beliefs can sow those seeds in others.

A fellow trainer Jonathan Altfeld on his first visit to London told me his father had said to him, not to travel to London as it was a bomb site. His father had been in London during World War 2, and that was his belief of what London was like.

Another trainer friend Jill Lawday had been told not to travel to Turkey by her family, as the country was lawless, a dangerous place to be. She found as I have that it is one of the most pleasant countries in the world, and the people kind and considerate. OK, I have had the apartment is was staying in broken into, and I have been taken advantage of, lost money, but perhaps that was my fault, and will happen anywhere.

I was in contact with a friend who will be traveling for the first time to the UK and London, and they stated to me that they have their umbrella ready for the trip.

Where has that idea come from?

One person who had an experience of visiting London and it rained, presupposes (NLP Meta Model term) that it always rains in London. They then spread the news of their belief, and others take it up, and spread the misinformation.

Annual average rainfall in London is around 600 mm, compared to New York at 1173 mm, Jerusalem at 450 mm, Beirut at 600 mm, and Istanbul which is 650 mm.

From the Mayor of London’s web site it is stated:-

“London receives less rainfall per head than cities like Madrid and Istanbul, and our average annual rainfall (just below 650mm) is less than Addis Ababa (1200 mm).“

Be prepared, yes. I have been very wet in the middle of the desert in Saudi Arabia during a heavy rainstorm. It is very rare that I need an umbrella in London as I do in any country I travel to.

We need to remember one persons understanding or Map of the Territory is not the truth, but a representation of the truth or reality, and certainly not ours.

Anyway, my friend, when I meet you in London soon, I hope you do not have your umbrella with you. If you do, I will hit you over the head with it.

Try it, you might like it.

Thoughts Travels

Fags End

Post author By nlpnow
Post date 10/09/2008

In recent years, the UK as with other countries, have introduced strict no smoking laws.

Gone are the days when I sat in a restaurant, and a nearby smokers smoke drifted across my face.

Gone are the days I went into a bar and came out after an evening enjoying myself with colleagues or friends with my clothes smelling of cigarette smoke.

Gone are the days I walked down the railway platform following a smoker, my air space full of cigarette smoke, whilst the smoker was in fresh air.

Don’t take me wrong, I am not against smokers. As a reformed heavy smoker myself, I know the joy of a cigarette. Thirty years ago I gave up, but I still hunger for that same satisfaction on occasions.

The UK law restricts smoking in any public building or work space. This has resulted in workers having to stand outside the offices if they want to smoke, no matter what the weather is.

Next to my home, Norbiton Hall in Kingston upon Thames, is an office block called Clarendon House, home to many small companies whose employees must follow the law on smoking.

On the glass front entrance door can be found a notice:-

NO SMOKING
and
PLEASE DO NO SMOKE IN OR IN FRONT OF ENTRANCE

So what do the employees do? Go into the grounds of Norbiton Hall, and smoke there.

No problem, it is in the open, and some nicely maintained gardens.

But, why do they have to drop the FAG ENDS, the stubs, on the floor, stamping them out, and leaving them for other people to clear up.

*Fag ends left by Clarendon House occupants in Norbiton Hall*

I have a good mind to sweep them up and post them through the Clarendon House letter box.

I’m becoming a grumpy old man.

Tags cigarettes, Clarendon, fags, grumpy, House, Kingston, litter, London, man, no, Norbiton, Norbiton hall, Old, Road, smoking

Thoughts Travels

Change often goes unnoticed

Post author By nlpnow
Post date 08/09/2008

Change often goes unnoticed, perhaps because it happens so slowly, or we do not want to have change so we block it out, or it happens while we are being distracted by something else.

The previous months have been full of warmth, goodwill, happiness. It was the summer months.

I have been training and travelling to many places, in Turkey, Italy, Malaysia, Bahrain and many places in the UK, I have been very busy.

Ok, there had been down days when it was cool or wet, but the rest was sunny, bright, warm, making me feel good, young at heart, happy.

Now, suddenly, change.

Here in the UK, as in other parts of the world, we have had bad weather. The sun has disappeared, we seem to be under a dark cloud every day. It is raining. It is cold.

Suddenly, people here in the UK are wearing warm clothing, jumpers, coats.

Gone are the Gucci sun glasses.

Today I went for a walk and had a visual signal that change was with us.

Under a heavy clouded sky, standing by the fast flowing cold river Thames, swollen by recent rains, I noticed that the river birds, swans, geese, ducks, were fewer in number than there had been in the summer, restaurants had less people eating at outside tables, but more noticeable were the trees on the opposite bank of the Thames.

The River Thames at Kingston upon Thames in September 2008

The leaves were changing colour, they were not green but yellow.

Oh Poo Poo, change is happening. Best make the best of it.

Thoughts

Alpha Group Resales

Post author By nlpnow
Post date 05/09/2008

Owning a timeshare holiday can be very beneficial, rewarding, but there are many pot holes you can fall into, many people trying to make a quick buck out of people, mostly hiding behind laws and legislation that is not international so cannot be enforced in another country.

Having a timeshare in Spain, for nearly twenty years in the very up market town of Puerto Banús, Marbella (Málaga), and it is called Club Jardines del Puerto. I love the place, to see the many large yachts in the harbour, the expensive cars, which drive round the harbour at night, and the diners at night sitting in the open fronted restaurants.

In the evening, I like to go early for a meal, say 8pm. It means that it is too early for most diners, thus there is the possibility to be seated at a front table, so I can watch people passing by, watching me, watching them. I love it.

In the last couple of months, companies have telephoned to say that they have a buyer for the timeshare if it is to be sold.

I am always careful of cold callers, people offering special deals over the telephone. Offering commission for windows installed ten years previously, (see Weatherseal Windows, do you think I am stupid?), special deals on mobile phones and purporting to be a service provider, Orange or Vodafone.

The latest call was from a company called Alpha Group Resales.

They said they have a purchaser who wishes to buy the timeshare at a very good price, and potential buyer had put a deposit down with the company Alpha Group Resales. Worth considering I think.

There would be a number of contract stages I was told, two I believe, that would be gone through, before the sale would be finalised.

Firstly, could they have my credit card number.

“What for?” I asked.

They would take £995 (UK Pounds Stirling), as a form of guarantee in case I pulled out. It would be paid back upon completion of the sale.

This smells of a scam, a con, of somebody trying to extort money from me. Why should I have to pay up front? Why would they not take commission from the sale?

“How did these people know about the timeshare?” I asked. “Oh they viewed the flat.“

Strange, why didn’t the resident management team of Club Jardines del Puerto contact me? I had not appointed this company to sell the timeshare. How could they sell something or take a deposit when they did not know if the timeshare was for sale in the first place?

I asked for Alpha Group Resales telephone number, and was given 0035314428485 . That is a Southern Ireland telephone number, surely the telephone number would be a Spanish one?

I asked them if they had more details, a web site, references.

They gave me a telephone number of 08712041621 which they said was for the Timeshare Advisory Service. An 0871 number is a national call rate number in the UK, which can be diverted to any phone line in the world.

I asked them to call back.

Yes there was a web site, www.alphagroupresales.com, but the site was not listed in any search engines.

Strange?

I checked on “whois“, a web site which gives details of the registrant of a domain name, dates of registering and who owns the domain name. The domain was first registered or created 8th July 2008, less than a month ago, so not a long standing company, and registry expires 8th July 2009, so they do not intend to trade for long. It has the owner details restricted.

I checked for the Timeshare Advisory Service on the search engines. The only reference I can find to a company with such a name is in Queensland Australia, with no website and no telephone number.

Searching on the web for the telephone number 08712041621 reveals that other people have been given this number, and that the whole set-up is a scam.

There is another resale company mentioned in this type of scam, again asking for £995 payment up front from the seller. This company is Holiday Network Solutions (HNS), with a very nice looking site, but no address or location nor any telephone numbers, the only way of contacting is via the on-site inquiry form.

It seems many people have reported being conned by this company out of £995. The credit card companies refuse to pay back, as there was a freely entered contract between the parties.

It appears that once the £995 is paid, the so called potential buyer will back-out, and another purchaser will be found, offering a substantially lower price. Obviously the seller will say “no deal”, but the £995 will not be repaid, as the seller has broken the contract by refusing to sell, or they will delay supplying the next potential buyer for a year, by which time the company and money has disappeared.

I hope if you are reading this blog, it has reached you before you have parted with your money. This scam is rife.

Oh Katie Bond of Alpha
Group Resales did call me back, but when and I said I would not continue as I had seen the scam on the internet, the telephone went dead.

Intuition can be a powerful tool.

NLP Thoughts

Don’t cry over spilt milk

Post author By nlpnow
Post date 30/08/2008

Continuing my getting rid of stuff, in English we my say “clearing the decks“, it was time to let go of some of my connections.

These connections were telephone lines and internet services.

Prior to ADSL, cable, high speed internet connections, when dial-up internet was the only way to get to the world wide web, I decided that I would have to install two telephone lines, and that was basically supplied by one company, BT.

This coincided with a new supplier entering the communications arena, TeleWest, later to become Virgin Media, installing for the first time their infrastructure, cables and services into the area, giving telephone, internet and TV in one package, via high speed cable.

I went with the new supplier TeleWest, having two telephone numbers, 0208 286 9554 and 0208 286 9553 . Great numbers for my business, especially to have two numbers following. I could use one for landline (telephone) communication, and the other for data and fax.

The new suppler also gave internet access at a reduced price with the package. Always glad of an offer, a bargain, I installed their internet, knowing I would gain in access speed to the internet.

But I retained my old BT number, I had too many associations to it. People knew the number, I had web sites giving that number for my business, my internet was connected through it.

The ISP also housed my web sites.

I was very comfortable with the arrangement.

This meant that I had two services, two telephone lines, two internet providers, and two bills (invoices) to pay.

I was still comfortable with the situation. It served my purpose.

My special telephone number 0845 130 6213 for my business was directed to the first installed BT telephone. This is useful, as my business and private life were kept separate.

My Slingbox TV service, which allows me to access British TV via my home TV, live from where-ever I am in the world from my PC and the internet, was on the old internet (ISP) connection.

But it has come to a time when I needed to sort myself out. I had paid too much out.

The old ISP had associated with another ISP, sold out. No consideration of how I felt.

Did I need the hassle?

It meant work, to transfer services from one telephone system to the other, to reinstall services I had been using on the old internet service to the new.

Some of these services needed passwords, log-in names, keys. But during my clearing out, my shredding of paperwork, I must have disposed of this information.

Oh Poo Poo. BIG OH POO POO.

I hit the roof. My temper boiled over. I swore. My blood pressure hit new highs.

That was the reason I never throw anything out. Paperwork, nuts and bolts, screws, old manuals, anything. They will be needed in the future, and here was the example.

Then I realised what I was doing to myself, getting worked up was making the situation worse. It was not solving the problem. I needed to calm down.

With the help of the NLP technique I call “Fred“, “Antonio“, “Mustapha“, I took control of my state, I became calm, strong, and was able to workout a new strategy.

I realised that it was no good crying over spilt milk.

Do not cry over spilt milk
Crying over spilt milk is a loverly saying which I describe as the following.

Take a carton or bottle of milk, take the top off, and take it to the sink in the kitchen.

Pour the milk down the drain, and watch it disappear, leaving the empty carton or bottle.

The milk has gone. Finished. It is no good crying over it.

The clock still ticks away, time does not stop for anyone.

Once I stopped beating myself up over what was gone, what I had lost, I was able to sort myself out in a rational calm way, and approaching the problem from a different view point, I soon had everything sorted.

No more paying out for something that was no longer needed. The suppliers were happy to take my money, doing nothing for it.

It takes a lot to let go of what you are comfortable with, but there comes a time when things no longer fit the purpose, their services are no longer appropriate, it is then time to say good-bye, move on.

Thoughts

Weatherseal Windows, do you think I am stupid?

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 28/08/2008

Back in January 2008 I wrote a blog about Weatherseal Windows titled Did I upset you? Unwanted telephone calls. I was receiving telephone call after telephone call after telephone call, trying to sell me more replacement windows, a patio door or a conservatory. Very useful for the flat, especially as it is on the 2nd floor.

Today they started again. A telephone call.

The caller with a French accent, told me that I was due a rebate on the windows that were installed in 1999.

After nine years? I asked.

That was because they placed a sign outside when they were installing the windows, and from that Weatherseal Windows had four recommendations, and thus I was entitled to 5% commission.

Well I know no sign was place anywhere, and no photographs were taken by Weatherseal Windows, and I certainly would not recommend Weatherseal Windows.

But no, the salesman was adamant that I was entitled to 5% commission, and that I would get a letter in the next week confirming this.

Come on Weatherseal Windows I was not born yesterday. What’s the catch.

All the salesman wanted me to do was if in the next few years I wanted anymore work done, a patio, a conservatory, new door, please PLEASE consider Weatherseal Windows.

OK I would consider you Weatherseal Windows if I wanted to put a conservatory half way up the side of a building.

Being nice I did not say that, but on being asked if there was something I might consider in the future, I thought why not a garage door. I have not got a garage, but perhaps in the future I may get one for my Mazda RX7 car.

He admitted that they did not make garage doors, but perhaps I could have a normal door plus a patio door.

Are you stupid Mr Weatherseal Windows salesman?

OK I said.

Then I was asked, had I seen the brown Weatherseal Windows vans in the area today?

No.

Well they are in the area, and they would like to visit me this afternoon to give me a quote.

“Sorry I am going out NOW.“

“Then this evening?“

“No, I will not be back until 11pm.“

“We will be with you at 9am tomorrow then.“

“No I will be catching a 6am flight.“

THE CRUNCH CAME.

“Then you are not eligible to the 5% commission.” and the telephone went dead.

Weatherseal Windows take me off your data base, I do not like your sales tactics, trying to get a salesman into my home.

Oh I am getting grumpy in my old age.

Eating Out Thoughts

Today has been about communication

Post author By nlpnow
Post date 25/08/2008

It has been as if nobody loved me. No communication for a long time. The today. Wham.

I have had long conversations with people in Turkey, colleagues in the training field, a couple of participants. From China an old friend and colleague. Across to the USA, two contacts, Bahrain a long email from colleagues, here in the UK more contacts.

It has been good to catch up with news. What people are doing. What has been happening in their life. What has not happened. Hearing about new friendships, old failed relationships, new jobs, new opportunities.

We have made plans for the future, courses, meetings, presentations. Loads of discussions.

I do not expect that the plans will all be completed on the dates set down and agreed upon, perhaps they will never happen.

As other situations crop-up, courses have to be rearranged, meetings rescheduled, but then that is the nature of my work, and in some cases it is the good side of my work as I never know what I am doing.

But it can also be the downside.

There are times when I have made plans with people, only to find out that because of circumstances the plans cannot be put into action. It could be due to health, the weather, other conflicting courses, lack of participants, lack of suitable venues, holiday periods, other peoples problems, many possibilities can interrupt plans.

When this happens it leaves me empty, not only in my timetable but also my lets say in my heart. If it is me, then have I lets my colleagues and clients down. If it is my colleagues who have had to change plans, why did it happen, did I do everything I could have.

But when we get back in touch and communicate, things can be sorted out, it is then that I know somebody loves me.

Ahhhhhh. Life is good. Tomorrow another plan, a very early start at 5:30 am, another trip away.

I can then go for a relaxing cup of hot chocolate, and watch the world go by.

Relaxing Bentals shopping center Kingston upon Thames
PS. Thank you Deniz for telling me off, I deserved it. And Zümrüt, I hope your visit to the UK is all you hope for.

Thoughts

Car for Sale

Post author By nlpnow
Post date 21/08/2008

Any one want to buy a car?

Now that I expect the Mazda RX7 sports car will be back on the road, and I will have no need for the other car a Mecedes-Benz C230 Elegance first registered in 1996, I have decided to sell it.

Mercedes-Benz C230 Elegance
In the end there was no sale, no-one wanted to buy so I gave it away.

NLP Thoughts

I will get my own back

Post author By
Post date 20/08/2008

Today I am still throwing away loads of stuff. Every day I seem to get rid of such a lot of stuff, and yet I find more and more.

As I was filing my old tax returns, I came across this drawing I did in 1986, and it got me thinking.

I have had some bad news. I have had some bad things happening to me. I have had people taking advantage of my better nature. I have had people not telling me the truth. Loads of Oh Poo Poo experiences.

Yes I feel hurt.

Should I take offense? Should I seek revenge? Should I get my own back?

No. It will only get me even further into a depressed state, enter into the dark abyss.

The drawing made me laugh, to see the funny side of life.

Just accept what comes to us, smile, life goes on. So make out of it what you can.

Good luck and enjoy. See more jokes at http://blog.ohpoopoo.com/ (click to view)

Drawing by Phillip Holt 1986