Sunday has been so hot, even for the animals. It was reported that parts of the UK were hotter than the Caribbean and the Canaries.
A squirrel too hot, splayed out.
For the last few weeks I have been rushing around in the skies between the UK, Turkey and Italy, at enjoying the company of many people both participating in, and helping with the courses and presentations I have given.
At “95”, it appears I am falling apart at the seams.
The zip in my trousers fell apart. So, it was a less expensive suit from Erol in Taxim Square, Istanbul. It was not like my last encounter, (see My Trousers are Undone) with my memory failing me.
The heels of my shoes wearing away whilst in Gaziantep. Now I know why I take glue with me on my travels.
A crown off one of my teeth coming off, and a filling in one of my back teeth falling out.
The handle from my suitcase breaking, a bad design by Samsonite. Then the locking mechanism on another Samsonite suitcase breaking. Good for Samsonite, they replaced that lock free.
The case on my new Philips computer beginning to split.
Will I get paid for the presentations I have done?
Then on a routine blood test I find that my blood sugar levels are a little high. I do not want diabetes, so I must watch my sugar intake. It is difficult when living in hotels and eating in restaurants as I seem to do. So, I was called back to the doctors. Blood pressure fine, a quick check on the blood sugar level seemed reasonable, but then.
I happened to mention a vision problem, not so much a problem but a change. I then find myself in the emergency eye hospital. Now I must await the report on that.
Oh Poo Poo, I am falling apart.
It was a long trip back to the UK from Gaziantep in Southern Turkey with very little sleep. The delay, this time due to radar problems at Ataturk airport. I think I had about three hours sleep before catching the flight back to London.
Now I must prepare for my next trip and training in Italy this Thursday, for PhotoReading and Mind Maps, in association with Gianni Golfera, and then early Monday morning, a flight to Istanbul to give a talk at the Quantum Leadership Conference, or in Turkish, Kuantum Liderlik. Plus, I have to catch-up on post and messages that have built-up over the last few weeks.
It is good to look back on the good times I had over the last trainings, and have much to write about but no time to do it in.
I doubt if the hotel I am booked into in Milano has free internet, unlike the hotels of Turkey, so for the next few days I will post no blogs.
Sorry folks. Or do I hear “thank you”.
PS. If you want to tryout the software iMindMaps for free, click on the picture.
It is 10:30pm on Sunday evening, and I have just finished a 7 day NLP course in Acibadem, a district of Istanbul on the Asian side. I am sitting in a temporary lounge waiting for the 11:30pm flight to Gaziantep to give a 6 day NLP course plus some presentations, which starts tomorrow at 9am.
I think I will get little sleep tonight, having a scheduled arrival time of 1:00am.
Still, I can look back on a really great course. The ladies were a challenge having so many differing characters and learning styles.
Where are you Ivy and Bob Bailey who lived on the same compound as me in Jeddah?
In the NLP course, we covered so much ground, from the history of NLP, anchors, the Meta Model, hypnosis through to the Six Step Reframe and the Fast Phobia Cure.
We had laughter and tears, but all came true at the end, with sad goodbyes, and promises to see each other in the future. I look forward that.
Now, although tired, mentally and physically, needing sleep, it is too quiet.
After all these days of talking, there is no-body to talk with. I tried to contact people, but they must be out enjoying themselves with their friends.
Then I get a call from Mehpare, the sponsor and organiser in Gaziantep, checking that I am on way and OK for the start of another NLP course (click for details) 9am tomorrow.
Talking can be a great thing, even when tired.
As a young boy, in fact up until I left my parents home to start looking after myself, or in English we would say “flown the nest“, I remember the waking-up process I did.
I refer to one way in particular that involved my mother.
My mother never slept, or that is what she said, but many a night, I would be kept awake by her snoring, something I do not do, snoring that is. She would insist that she had not slept, and nothing would alter her belief.
Although she never slept, there would be different times of the morning she would wake-up, depending on what she would have to do. If I had school, she would be up before me. If it was the weekend, it would be later.
But, if mother was up, then everyone else would have to be up. If mother was asleep, then we had to be quiet. “We” being my father and myself.
It seems to be the same with some of the hotel guests I share the many hotels I stay in.
I have noticed that Middle Eastern families are very close and large often using several rooms. They allow the children to run up and down the corridors late at night, they leave their room doors open, and instead of using the hotel telephone systems or walk to their friends room, insist on shouting, their voices booming through the hotel. And, for some reason, they seem to have to shout to each other, even if they are standing face to face.
The walls of a hotel, are often thin.
My German (I think) next room neighbours, plus their friends, brought back the memories of my mother and previous hotel experiences, as last night at 11:30pm, someone started knocking at the door of the room next door.
This went on for five long minutes, as he shouted his friends name, and banged on the door. Surely after no answer on the first knock he would have realised his friends had left him and gone out, that they were not in.
Then this morning, at 7am, the same person came again, knocking the door, and shouting for his friends, this time in the room.
They could have been in my room, because it sounded like it. As they opened the door, they laughed and talked in loud voices, then headed off to breakfast, banging the door shut.
So OK, I am now awake.
Gives me something to write about.
“flown the nest“, is a saying that refers to young birds, that once they have been fledged, the parent birds have finished feeding them, they leave the nest, perhaps never to have anything else to do with their parent birds.
As I have said before, it seems I do not sleep in the same bed more than ten days in a row, and this trip seems to follow the trend.
I came to Istanbul for a few nights, then flew down to Gaziantep for two nights, back up to Istanbul, staying on the European side in the Seminal Hotel for a few more nights.
As the venue has been changed for the NLP Practitioner course I am now giving, to the Asian side of Istanbul, I have been move across the Bosphorus, to Kadikoy to a hotel overlooking the ferry port. Click to see video of the dolphins in the Bosphorus.
The hotel is called the Deniz Hotel, deniz means sea in English, and I was told I would have sea views.
The Deniz Hotel, Kadikoy
Well I can see an island from my bedroom window. An island with car and bus traffic racing round it.
I do have a mosque opposite. Early morning prayer call starts at 5:30am. I know, it wakes me up as they call for believers from the loud speakers on the minarets.
It is good to have variety, to have noise, to have life about me, because it means I am alive, and long may it last.
It is not what is on the outside that says what is contained on the inside.
I do like a breakfast, and sometimes rather than going to have breakfast in the hotel restaurant, I will have a supply of breakfast cereal and some milk. Having a cereal means I can have a snack whenever I care to.
I decided to buy some muesli breakfast cereal from a local supermarket in Istanbul, Dia, (owned by Carrefour), and came across a box showing Dia‘s logo, with a small window insert in the box which allowed me to see the contents, which was suitable to my requirements.
Getting back to my accommodation and with my mouth watering, I opened the box to get at that healthy muesli, I was shocked to see how much was actually in the box. Less than a quarter of the box was taken-up by the plastic bag containing the cereal.
Will I visit a Dia supermarket again?
No.
That made me think about some of the couples I see as I travel.
How is it that an old man can attract and marry a younger woman, and visa versa?
How is it that an ugly looking person can marry and make a lasting relationship with a beauty queen or a hunk of a man?
It is obviously what is on the inside and not what is on the outside. It is their character, the love, the friendship and kindness that they give each other, that gives such happiness, not what they look like or what they wear.
Sometimes we do not like what we see in ourselves. We are over weight, our hair is too short or too long, the wrong colour, our teeth are crooked, our legs are too fat or too thin. Some people need help to see them through this self dislike, to help them to accept themselves as they are, to learn what is on the inside is more important.
It is when the falseness of the outside packaging is stripped away that the truth emerges.
Dia SA, do not expect me to shop with you again. How many customers have you lost due to the false lies of your packaging?
After my trip into Istanbul, Turkey, enjoying the sights of the tulips of the 3rd International Tulip Festival of Istanbul, and the dolphins in the Bosphorus, (click to see article), it has been a week of continuous work and travel, hard but enjoyable.
After my arrival on Thursday, that evening I gave a talk to a full room of very receptive Vodafone staff.
Friday was taken-up with meetings and preparing for the weekend with Denizbank, presenting to over 300 members of staff, skills that will help them in their work and private life.
Monday morning saw me up at 4:45am to catch the 6:20am flight from Istanbul Ataturk Airport, to the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep to start a two and a half PhotoReading course, organised by Gap Consultancy.
At the end of the PhotoReading course I caught the last flight that evening back to Istanbul, to be ready for another presentation to over 150 Denizbank staff in their wonderfully presented Academy building.
Today, Friday sees me with a spare day to reorganise my brain, catch-up on paperwork and emails, as we reschedule one of the training days, enabling me to prepare for the next stint of sixteen days of continuous training, both in Istanbul and back in Gaziantep, a corporate training for Amway, and two NLP Practitioner level trainings, organised by Gap Consultancy in Gaziantep and NLP-Time in Istanbul.
Access to the internet has been limited, so this has allowed me to concentrate on the presentations and training, but has meant that the daily blog has fallen behind, plus being unable to answer my many emails.
This is a catch-up day.
I did not get much sleep prior to leaving for Turkey, waking up at 3:30 am, knowing that I had a taxi to take me to Heathrow airport at 5 am to catch the Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul.
I had a talk scheduled for the staff at Vodafone (Turkey) at 5:30 that afternoon, and I was tired, I needed sleep and rest. I think I got some on the four hour flight, interrupted by the serving of breakfast, the crying young babies, and the endless throbbing noise from the engines and air conditioning.
Upon arrival in Istanbul, should I take a coach into the center of Istanbul, to my hotel in Taxim Square, The Seminal Hotel, or should I take a taxi. The coach should be 15 Turkish Lira compared to say 30 Turkish Liar for a taxi? I was getting late, 1:30 pm, I needed to get to Vodafone for about 4:30pm to prepare myself and the venue. Taxi was the only answer.
I quickly got into the standard public yellow taxi (34 TDH 59), and in broken English the taxi driver made some conversation with me, playing some Hip Pop CD music, and wearing some wrap-around sunglasses.
Then I heard the words, “Traffic, Istanbul, problem.”
Whenever I hear those words I know that the driver will take me a long route. so that the meter will charge even more.
Oh well what can I do? I need to get to Taxim Square, and there is no other way. There was nothing else to do but to relax, stay calm and enjoy the ride. And, it was a great ride, because it is the 3rd International Tulip Festival of Istanbul, and along the road they had planted thousands of tulips, now fully in bloom. I could not capture the true wonder and splendor of the colour.
2008, 3rd International Tulip Festival, Istanbul, from taxi 34 TDH 59
Sure enough, when it was time to leave the coast road to head into the center of Istanbul, he said again, “Traffic, Istanbul, problem.” I could see a queue of cars, and said OK as he headed straight on, following the coast road.
All was well until we hit another queue of traffic. He lost his temper, hitting the steering wheel and shouting in Turkish.
Me? I just laughed and said “yavaş, yavaş.” This means “slowly, slowly.”
We edged slowly forward, him complaining, me looking at the ever increasing charges on the meter. There was nothing to do but keep my cool, stay calm and centered. (Mustapha, Fred, Antonio).
It was then as I glanced out of the side window overlooking the Bosphorus that my eye caught a dolphin breaking surface, its’ dorsal fin and tail fully visible. Then another dolphin, and another. They just kept appearing. There must have been fifty or more, obviously feeding on fish. A TV cameraman was trying capture to this sight. I had only my mobile phone to capture this scene, so believe me there are at least three dolphins in this picture. (see video of another view of dolphins click here)
Really there are dolphins in the picture not just TV cameraman 
After 15 minutes watching this sight and crawling slowly forward, we came to a break in the central barrier, and without a word he sped quickly through it and raced back in the opposite direction, the meter still adding up, to join the queue he had originally tried to avoid.
Oh Poo Poo. Keep centered and strong Phillip. (Mustapha, Fred, Antonio). Nothing you can do.
Half an hour later we arrived in Taxim Square, and the meter read 43 Turkish Lira. Oh Poo Poo. I gave him a 50 Lira bank note.
He looked at me and said “OK?”
I was having none of it, I wanted my change and a receipt. And this was not the first time this has happened to me. (click to see previous article).
I had one hour to get to my hotel, and then start my journey to Vodafone , but I had seen some great sights, sights that those who have lived a lifetime in Istanbul have never seen. see video
Today I have an early start to catch the 6:55am Turkish Airlines flight from London to Istanbul. Thank goodness it is not British Airways, with all the trouble with the new Heathrow Terminal Five. Knowing my luck, my bags would arrive in Ataturk airport and I would be in New York.
There is a lesson to be learned from the BA move into Terminal 5. It is a lesson I learned from my days in computers.
Never buy something that has just launched, the product or service has not bedded down, has not been snagged, that is, had all the faults identified.
So, tomorrow night, I am giving a talk to Vodafone (Turkey).
I am well rehearsed, and my translator knows me well. So, I am looking forward to a great night, and the start of nearly one months training.