Category: Travels

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Travels

An Ice Cream Parlour or a Gelateria

I love working in Italy, the food is good, especially the ice cream.

Last weekend (PhotoReading training) was no different, except for my computer loosing all my data and work.

Saturday lunchtime, having had a meal in the hotel we were holding the PhotoReading course, the Jolly Touring, Elena and myself made a quick exit, and walked to my favorite ice cream shop, Jack Frost.

Jack Frost, (Via Casati Felice 25, 20124 Milano, tele 02-6691134), is the best gelateria (ice cream parlour) in Milan, it seems to be open all hours. So many varieties of tastes, and friendly staff.

Try it you may like it.

                    my computer problems at one lick.

Categories
NLP Travels

My ‘annus mirabilis’

‘Annus mirabilis’ is a Latin phrase meaning a year of wonders or miracles. It was first coined in a poem by John Dryden called Annus Mirabilis: the year of wonders 1666. In 1992 the Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth II, used it to describe the year that the marriages of her two sons Charles and Andrew broke down and Windsor Castle caught fire.

For me it has been a journey, firstly by my Angioplasty, or the insertion of a stent in a coronary artery, followed by ever increasing training courses around the globe.

I love my work, there is nothing better than to have delivered a course or courses, in no matter what language, in whatever country, and see participants leaving happy having had learned and achieved so much.

There has been down times, which could have really spoiled my year if I did not know about “Oh Poo Poo” (click to understand), being able to control my state thanks to my knowledge of NLP, and the support and friendship of many around me.

The last couple of weeks has been not good.

Firstly I knew that the company that organises my trainings in Turkey, NLPGrup, would not pay me, despite promises made that payments would be made, deep down I knew the promises were of no value. But, I had made commitments, promises, people and companies were relying upon me to deliver, and they had paid good money to NLPGrup. I did not wish to get a bad name for not delivering.

I was proved right. Still water under the bridge, I will carry on delivering my training in other countries plus Turkey.

My phone system using the VoIP (Voice over the Internet Protocol) DualPhone 3088 stopped working, the base station seems to have stopped working, and trying to get a replacement out of SKYPE or even contact them seems to be impossible.

My mobile phone kept on freezing when people telephoned me, so I was loosing phone calls, the only way out was to reset the phone. (Orange SPV M3100). Plus I could not interface and update mobile phone and computer since renewing my subscription, updating and installing Norton 360 security software.

Perhaps I could get a new phone out of Orange my service provider. But no, they told me to do a hard reset, which meant I would loose all my contacts and diary on my phone. OK I thought, next week after my trip to Italy, I will update the data on my phone, at least I can receive telephone calls.

I had an accident whilst in Turkey, when a cup containing tea collapsed on my computer keyboard (click to read), leaving some keys inoperable. A small portable keyboard solved that problem.

Oh Poo Poo, just carry on.

I had a PhotoReading course last weekend to deliver in Milan, Italy last weekend (2nd – 4th November 2007), despite the early start to catch the 6am flight to Milan from London, I felt good.

With my translator Elena Martelli (click) we set-up the rather small room, creating an unusual seating configuration which worked beautifully. I had no external speakers for my music on my computer, but the sound out of the computer was just acceptable.

The last job was to attach my projector to the computer so I could show slides. When I did the music became corrupted, emitting strange sounds. I knew something was wrong.

I tried to switch my computer of. Nothing happened. This was worse than I could have expected. My whole computer was gone. I could do nothing. No music, no slides, no Mind Maps of the course structure, all was lost.

We borrowed an IPod from Alessio Roberti of NLPItaly, not my choice of music, but it would more than do. Sunday, that packed-up working. Oh Poo Poo.


Thinking I would need a new computer, and knowing I have lost all my data, I put on a bright face, at least I have a good excuse to purchase a new computer, and I have backup, albeit a couple of months old.

I managed to reconfigure my computer, get it working again, by reloading the operating system, but that meant loosing all my programmes, data, videos, photos or contact details, now I am naked, I have nothing, neither on my computer or mobile phone.

It has taken me three days now to get partially back, ready to travel to Milan again this weekend to deliver another course, this time to an NLP Master Practitioner course. I will have my music.

Keep myself smiling, in a good state, that is the key. Trouble is Mee Len is ill, having sickness and diarera, and it has been nearly a week, continually running to the toilet, poor thing, she is so weak, not eating or sleeping well. I am the nurse now, trying to do one hundred things at once.

This has been my ‘Annus mirabilis’, but there is only one way to go, and that is up with a smile on my face, to meet new people and new challenges, and at least I am alive.

Categories
Travels

Who is up and out there?

Yesterday I was talking on the internet to a friend who is in France at the moment, and they were saying that they would like a face to face conversation with me.

The great thing about new technology, if it works, (yes, yet again my Skype Dualphone 3088 phone system does not work), is that we can be in contact with loved ones, family and friends in any part of the world, sometimes free of charge, and at other times, at charges less than a normal landline fee, plus like yesterday actually seeing each other, live, with a video camera.

We have many tools that help us keep in contact, MSN, MySpace, Facebook, Skype, Gizmo, LinkedIn, to name just a few, social networking, business networking, VoIP etc, but this is all electronic, the human contact is not there, the face to face contact is not there.

“Smelly vision” is not with us yet. Yes, we can hear the voice, yes, we can see a video picture, yes, we can read messages, emails and SMS’s. In NLP terms, V (visual) and A (auditory), but K (kinesthetic), O (olfactory), G (gustatory) are missing.

Communication involves all five senses V,A,K,O and G, it becomes a whole body experience, We need the touch of a fellow human being, (or living thing), we need to smell, perhaps the wonderful perfume, Dior’s Poison or Yves Saint Laurent’s Kouros, my favorite eau de toilette, the human odours, the pheromones, the chemicals that affect how our brain reacts to fellow man, and the taste of the moment, the chemicals that float in the air, then into our mouths, touching our taste buds, again affecting our Map of the Word.

All the technological advance miss the K, O and G modalities, especially Facebook, MySpace, Skype and Gizmo etc.

What a shame.

My friend asked what country I was in, and I said the UK, and they said “Oh so close to France”.

Tomorrow I informed them I would be even closer, as I will be flying to Milan, Italy, leaving London’s Heathrow at 6am, to deliver a PhotoReading course, and I will be only 10,000 meters (35,000 feet) from them, not far. But still not close enough.

There are thousands of people at any one time high above us, flying from here to there, for business, holidays, or to have face to face meetings with loved ones, yet how many of us with our feet on the ground know or realise that those people could be looking at us. We are only aware of our little world around us, aware of our own troubles, fights, joys and sadness, our own world.

It is sometimes good to take our shoes off, and put another persons shoes on, step inside their shoes, see things from their point of view or perspective.

If we have an argument, be it between a friend or loved one, between nations or countries, or involving beliefs, if only we could stop, consider and see things from the others view point, to feel how they feel about the situation, to fully involve ourselves in all the modalities (V,A,K,O and G), if only we could meet face to face, perhaps this world could be a better place, a more tolerant loving place, where trust, understanding and love, replaces hate, jealousy, war and mistrust.

If only we could detach ourselves from our world, and look down at what we are doing to ourselves and others, then when we meet face to face, it will be a better experience.

Perhaps then we would change the way we are, the way we dress, speak and share information.

Categories
NLP Travels

Formula for success

BBC World is at currently showing a series on the TV called Formula for Success (click to view web page of BBC World). It combines the excitement of the premier league of F1 motor sport with the insights of business theory and practice.

It tells how working as a team creates a better working environments, higher sustained levels of performance, workable strategies, all over the global markets of business and in sport.

Simply taking the strategies of F1 motor sport, being able to organise and run the sport, the business, so successfully, how these strategies can be applied to global and local business.

Providing training, consulting, talks around the world, I am a global business. Although my business is me, I rely many people in the countries I work in, to work as a team within their own company or organization, and to include me in that team.

Unfortunately I had to cancel a course in Istanbul as there were not enough participants to fill the seats, to pay for the expenses, fees, salaries etc. I apologize to those who wished to work with me, but I will be rerunning the course in the near future.

This rearrangement of my schedule meant that I had to fly back to the UK 2 or 3 days early. I arrived at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, only to find that I had to pay a £50 penalty for changing my flight dates. 

I telephoned my local UK taxi service to meet me at London’s Heathrow airport on my arrival, usually half an hour after landing, but normally they arrive later, meaning I am standing around waiting for them.

The Turkish Airlines aircraft did not go to a normal stand, which would allow a gantry to be placed on the aircraft so we could get off, obviously we would have to get off by stairs and bused to the airport terminal. Sure enough the coaches arrived, and the passengers raced to get all there baggage out of overloaded overhead lockers, pushing and shoving to get to the doors.

Looking out of the window, I could see that there were no stairs, so alighting was not going to happen straight away, so I sat still, which proved a wise move, as five minutes later, the captain announced that there would be a delay, as there were no stairs available, and asked passengers to sit down. Most did, but those who MUST be first at all cost, pushed even more forward to be first.

I just smiled to myself.

It was 1 hour 40 minutes later, that the stairs arrived. Oh I did feel sorry (not) for those standing all that time.

Once the stairs arrived, some passengers still pushed to get off the aircraft, yet we would all get on the same bus and leave the aircraft for the terminal.

What was the point of pushing and trying to get one place ahead?

Because I use the Iris system that means I do not have to show my passport, the technology recognizes my eyes and lets me through passport control. It is fast, so I am in baggage collection usually first. As a frequent flyer, they usually put a label saying “Priority”, but it seems that means put the bag on the carousel last. And so it was yesterday.

I waited and waited, which made me even later. That meant the taxi driver having to wait, so I had to pay him waiting time plus extra parking fees.

The whole travel and world business, needs team work, trust and honour, to honour agreements to the best of our ability. Sometimes teamwork is not implemented, and the good work of others fails.

Categories
Memory NLP Travels

Browned Off

In the English language we have many sayings, some of which have a similar saying in other cultures and languages.

“Browned Off” has a meaning that one has had enough of a situation, the situation has gone on too long, that one is “fed up“.

Perhaps you have been talking to someone and they continually tell you the same story time and time again, they will not shut up, you become fed-up of hearing the same thing, you become bored, upset, you switch off.

Perhaps you ask someone to do something, and no matter how much they promise to do that thing, to pay an invoice, get or make a drink, organise or produce something, they fail to honour that promise, but you keep asking, asking, negotiating, and they fail to deliver, saying “next week”, “soon” etc.

You get fed-up or “Browned Off” of asking, and you stop asking. 

Perhaps you retaliate by not asking them to do anything again, you stop even working, and they wonder why.

This morning I had that experience.

I woke up on a bright Sunday morning, on the last day of a course I am giving in Istanbul.

The previous night I had learned that the clocks were to go back one hour, so that meant I could have an extra hours sleep, which I badly needed.  Trouble was the staff in the company that currently organises my training in Turkey, did not learn of this extra hour, and thus opened the offices at eight (8am). Pity they have no understanding what is happening in the world around, their environment.

I love a shower first thing in the morning. It washes away the body smells, the sweat that we generate during sleep.

As I stand in the shower, with the water flowing down my body, I practice Hara, Mustapha, Antonio, Fred, re-enforcing my power, like a rock, a statue, an oak tree.

Standing there, I also imagine all the Poo Poo that has happened to me the previous day, my bad thoughts and feelings. I give them a colour, black, orange, yellow, whatever, and I imagine these feelings, thoughts being washed away with the shower water, seeing the colour, the feelings washing away, down the body, and as the water swirls down the plug or drain hole, I let those thoughts, feelings, all the Poo Poo vanish.

I looked at the water as it began to run from the tape, and it had a light brown tinge to it, which is nothing if there has been some maintenance work, just run the water for a while.

The more I looked at the water coming from the tape in the bath, the browner it got. It went from a light brown , darker and darker, until it was the colour of mud, and this had been after five minutes. I had turned the tap on with full flow, too much for the water to drain out off the plug, so the bath began to fill up, and I noticed brown deposits beginning to build up.

Five minutes later it was still coming out of the tap dark brown, so for ten minutes I stood there waiting for my shower. It paid off, because the brown liquid started to clear, to get lighter, until it became clear like crystal.

Now I could have my refreshing shower, to clear away the Poo Poo that had built-up. I thought as I got into the shower, what a horrid experience the brown water had been, but at least the rest of the hotel guests will not have to experience it, as I had cured the problem.

I stood there cleansing myself, and looked down into the bath, and noticed a brown ring running around were the water had been.

Poo Poo happens, and it will leave it’s mark on our life experiences, our memories. But we can deal with it. I am ready for a great day for the participants. 

I feel better.

Now I wait for a new day to run, just like the marathon starting here on Sunday, in the empty streets of Istanbul.

Categories
English Courses NLP Travels

Again Sleep Eludes Me

After finishing a two day training in the Bosch company near Izmir, Turkey, I had not heard from the company who organises my trainings in Turkey as to where I was to stay in Istanbul. I was to return straight after the finish of the course on the 9:15pm Friday flight to Istanbul, and start another course 9am Saturday.
 
I arrived in Ataturk Airport, Istanbul, and still no message as to a hotel where I am to stay.

I called a friend, and asked for a bed for the night. But now I find myself wide awake at 3am in the morning. I will be in no fit state to start a nine day course. I am just like the previous night, fighting with my internal mind, and no sleep. If only I could talk to someone. 

On top of that, there are a lot of outstanding fees for my training sessions.

This is the last straw.

I cannot carry on working for nothing, and living on the streets.

So I go on the internet to answer my emails. and notice more invitations to join Facebook, a site that people join as a community, to link with other friends.

I am amazed how addictive it has become to many people. It seems to have taken over their lives.

It is the same as MSN chat lines or SMS mobile telephone messages. It seems that people would rather communicate in cyberspace, not to speak face to face with other people, even when they are sitting opposite to them.

It seems that people spend hours on Facebook, not communicating in the real world, but to virtual friends. Perhaps they neglect to do their normal day to day tasks, maybe, their work suffers, or relationships too.

How often are we absorbed in our own world (or cyberworld), and fail to see reality, the real world around us?

How often have we failed consider the people who rely on us for work we must do, commitments we must honour, friends and colleagues we should have paid attention to?

How often have we overlooked those that love us, that are near and dear to us, that want to give their affection, and dream of getting love and affection back?

Perhaps too often. It is only when we loose these loved ones, friends and colleagues that we realise how we have become so obsessed and addicted to the unreal world, of TV, video games and the internet.

Sleep well world. I will now go and play on Facebook.

And, I apologise to the one or two people who will not be seeing me tomorrow.

Categories
NLP Travels

Another Day, Another Journey

After writing yesterdays blog in the early hours, I was able to sleep. Now I have to re-arrange my sleep pattern, especially as I travel to Izmir in Turkey to give a two day training to staff of Bosch. 

Izmir is the said to be the third largest city of Turkey, and is located on the Aegean coast in Asia Minor, west Turkey, with going back to 3000 B.C. 

I doubt if I will see any of the history or culture of Izmir, from the Trojan influence some 5,000 year ago, through the Hittites involvement, to present days history of Ataturk (click to read my blog on Ataturk) driving the Greeks out on 9th September 1922, to Izmir’s rebirth as a port and favourite holiday destination, as I will arrive late this evening, start the course tomorrow, Thursday, all day, continue all day Friday and catch the 21:45 flight back to Istanbul Friday evening.

Then I have a number of decisions to make. What do I do next? I will put those to one side, as I do not want to loose anymore sleep. They can wait, as I have often done, “it will all come out in the wash”.

“It will all come out in the wash”, is an English saying which means, if we leave things to run, run their course, or go in their natural way, resolution will be found, we will get the answer or result.

I know good things are ahead and await us all.

Categories
Books NLP Travels

There is a Big World out there.

My travels around the world has taken me to most of continents, and many countries. It has opened my eyes to different cultures, beliefs, habits and behaviour.

I happen to believe in evolution, but do not dismiss divine creation. My trip to the Galápagos Islands (see flim of dancing Mocking birds) in the Pacific Ocean, the birthplace of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, helped to seal my beliefs, yet instill in me the understanding of how the growth of the human population is destroying our planet. We are changing the habitation, the species that exists there, by introducing our ways of living, introducing new species that knock out the indigenous species, and removing or destroying plant life and vegetation that sustains life.

I love to take a window seat on a flight, and watch the ever changing world float by there down below me as we fly at 35,000 feet. It looks so flat, and I know that this is an illusion, because I know there are many hills and valleys to be climbed and cross. I love to see the patchwork of fields, criss crossed by roads, railways, and rivers, seeing traffic, cars, lorries, trains, and wonder if the occupants know or realise that someone is looking down on them.

I look at the buildings, towns and cities, trying to work out which place, the name, they are. I see the pollution, mans waste, mans desire for energy, goods and chattel’s, resulting in a haze that is very visible, and have to remind myself that I too have the desire for the energy and chattel’s contributing to the destruction of our world.

It is very strange how it is only in the recent years that we humans have become aware of Global Warming, of how we humans are creating too big a carbon footprint.

Why? How?

The simple answer is our governments, our religious leaders and the media that are feeding us information that they want us to know about, information from their point of view, from their perspective, knowledge and understanding. To brainwash us, to change our understandings, and to influence us.

It is very strange that in recent worldwide conflicts, the British population was in a majority in favour of the conflict, and yet, just 15 miles across a stretch of water, the French had a majority against the conflict.

What caused this difference in beliefs? Information that was being fed to the populations.

It is the same with all beliefs, religion, politics, business, education. It is the information that is being fed to us, that is brainwashing us, changing our beliefs.

It is national or religious holidays where I see these differences most, that I feel or sense big changes in beliefs.

For me as a British citizen, a suppose a Christen, (what I am I do not know as I have been exposed to so many beliefs), that Christmas is so important. The whole of the UK comes to a stop. There are no trains, buses, on the 25th December. All shops are closed, restaurants are closed, cinemas, theaters remain closed. Only the essential services operate in a somewhat normal way. It is a time for the family, the children.

Yet, many people from other countries, other cultures, do not know what is happening in the UK, that it is closed for the day, shut down.

Then, how many people in the UK realised that countries of the same belief system say as Turkey were closed, shut down for their important time of the year, their holiday, where people traveled to send time with their families, where businesses, shops etc were closed?

In Turkey it was their holiday, their Bayram, in other countries it is called Eid ul-Fitr or Id-Ul-Fitr often shortened to Eid. It is the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

For me I could not understand, why, I could not contact people, why were telephones unanswered, why were there none of my contacts on Skype, Gizmo (read about how you can contact me or make free phone calls will ViOP) or MSN?

Many people only see or understand what they have in their world, their country, their town village or home. They have no realisation of anything outside their own understanding, their world.

On a trip to Peru, going “off track”, not to the tourist areas, we came to a village market, where “westerners” never frequent. They were dressed in their typical national costumes, selling their local produce and food. An amazing experience to see other cultures. We were told not to take photographs, as they may take offense, object to this.

All these people dressed in so colourful clothes, with big red cheeks. Yet who were the odd ones out? Who were being viewed as if they were aliens from outer space, with their hiking boots, all weather clothes? Us, the tourists. (Pictures wll follow).

How often do we step outside our own shoes, and see things from a different view, a different perspective? (See the film What the Bleep do we Know– click to visit web site).
                                                

It is when we begin to see things, understand things from others points of view that we will become aware that it is a big world out there, that our Cat on the Mat or Map of the Territory is not that of others, and we can ask:-

         “Who or what put our beliefs in our head, or influenced our thoughts and behaviours?”

Categories
NLP Travels

Your Comfort Zone

It seems that these days I do not have conformity in my life.

I have never had a real 9 – 5 job. Well I nearly did when I first started work at the tender age of 18 at the National Coal Board‘s (NCB) Computer Power site in Cannock in the Midlands of the UK (what is the UK? click). Here we worked twelve hour shifts, eight in the morning till eight at night, and visa versa, keeping what was then the largest computer site in Europe working, after which we wanted to go home.

My work giving training courses around the world, means that it is not every day that I have a course, in fact I would say that nearly 50% of my time is not presenting or training. The other 50% is taken-up by research, reading, seeing clients on a 1-2-1 basis, and clients may wish to see me anytime of the day.

As I said, I give training courses all over the world, traveling to different time zones. My body clock has now seemed to have acclimatised to these ever changing time zones. It seems that I do not sleep in the same bed for more than a week. I do not eat at the same table, or eat the same type of food from one day to the next, and my breakfast is never the same.

It is the bed that I miss conformity and similarity the most. It is the one time when you go to bed that you need to switch off, relax, sleep, and allow the plasticity of the brain, the learning, moving short term memory to long term memory to take place.

There are beds that are hard as if sleeping on a hard concrete floor, there are beds that envelope you like into the arms of your lover, there are beds that are lumpy and the lumps seem to attack one part of the body all night, there are beds that sag in the middle and you continually roll into the dip, there are beds that are so big, that you feel lost and need a map to find your way around, and there are beds that are too small that you are frightened that you may fall out of them in the middle of the night.

I have slept, or tried to, in all of them.

But the pillow you place your head on that causes me the most discomfort.

Some pillows are too high so it feels as if someone is trying to break it off, some are too thin that it seems your head is sinking into the bowels of the earth and will drop off. They cause the neck to stretch and ache all night and give what we say in English “a crick in the neck” or stiff neck. Where in hotels the pillow is not thick enough, I may use folded towels, anything,  under the pillow to raise the height.

There are odd shaped pillows. Once I was sleeping on a heart shaped pillow, oh how I miss that one.

There are pillow with feathers which mould into the shape of your head, fine if you do not turn-over on a regular basis. There are pillows with fibre within, which when new are fine, but with wear and tear, the fibres tend to move to the outer edges leaving a valley in the middle with no support. No matter how you push and shove the fibre, it will not go back into the middle.

There are foam pillows that support well, until the foam begins to breakdown, gets lumpy, so that you can feel the lumps reshaping the side of your face.

Life is full of discomfort.

Try this little exercise.

Clasp your hands together, interlocking your fingers.

Which thumb is on top? Is it your right hands’ thumb or your left hand?

           /images/71606-62901/Thumbs1.JPG” width=282 border=0>

Pull your hands apart, and then thread them together, re-clasp your hands moving one hand up, so that the other thumb is on top, and the fingers are interlaced differently.

It does not feel good, does it?

Now keep interlacing your hands together so that your fingers change position and you get the other thumb on top, and keep doing it for a minute, then stop.

Now check your feeling towards having your hands in the correct position or wrong position.

Not much difference?

Sometimes we need to go outside our comfort zone, way, way outside perhaps where we feel real discomfort.

It is when we do that, we learn to appreciate what we have, and to tolerate those little things that used to upset us.

Categories
NLP Travels

More on noticing Feedback

Yesterday I wrote about feedback. We have to know what to notice so that we act upon what we are being given, and it is often good to get expert advice, instead of reading between the lines, putting our own often misguided understanding onto the situations. Remember the Cat Sat on the Mat. We only believe what is true what we already know and understand.

I had been a little sporty, I enjoyed cross-country running, cycling, and scuba diving, having undertaken over 600 dives around the world. But as I grew older, my exercise regime became less, no badminton or squash, no scuba diving, and yes the inevitable happened I gained weight.

I noticed that I started to get the old aches and pains which unfortunately accompanies our age progression, saying to myself, I must exercise, get myself fit, I would do a bit for a couple of weeks, half an hour each morning, floor, stretching, push-up exercises, then relapse into the comfort of taking it easy.

I noticed a slight ache in my neck on occasions, nothing much, just enough to notice. It seemed to occur when I expended a little energy, but it was OK.

I noticed that walking in the morning up Taxim Hill in Istanbul, that  would be sweating, and on occasions I would arrive in the training room soaking wet.

Still I did nothing, just said to myself, do more exercise.

I put all my energy into delivering my courses, and one in particular was in Antalya in Southern Turkey. My translator, Asuman Yildirim hear my stories and metaphors about scuba diving, and as the hotel we were holding the course had a diving school and diving facilities, she asked if I would take her on a dive. Of cause I had to say no, as Asu had never dived before, and one has to have a diving qualification to hire the equipment and partake in a dive. Even though I am a Dive Master, I insisted she takes a Padi Diving course.

On Asu’s last qualifying session, she ask her instructor if I could accompany them, and the instructor, having had checked my qualifications, agreed as long as I could prove to him I could handle myself in the water upon entering. This I did, but had difficulty clearing or equalising the pressure in my ears.

As I had paid a lot of money to hire the scuba diving equipment, and made a promise, I decided to still accompany Asu and the diving instructor, but stay at a depth on 10 feet or 3 meters.

After ten minutes swimming along above the other two, the whole world began to spin, I was not happy, there was something not right, and I aborted the dive, and the others came up to the surface with me.

Visit my web page to see some of my diving pictures http://www.nlpnow.net/scuba.htm .

Perhaps tomorrow I will continue.

(note 9/10/07, my web sites are again down, as the ISP (www.legend.co.uk or www.thus.com) has big problems, so much so, I am moving to another service provider, sorry for any convenience).