Category: Travels

Another trip to Turkey

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 07/08/2007

Today I have finalised my plans for my next trip to Turkey to give training in NLP, Mind Maps and Memory skills.

The dates – should you wish to attend – will be:-

            NLP Practitioner (Society of NLP)   11th – 17th August 2007.
            Mind Maps                                      18th August 2007.
            Memory Skills                                 19th August 2007.

More details can be found on the NLPGrup web site www.nlpgrup.com

I love my work, as I meet so many people, and together we go on a journey of discovery of how we as humans interact with and communicate with the world around us, and how we interact with ourselves. Yes interact with ourselves, with our inner mind and our conscious mind.

As we take the journey, changes happen, they have to, as every experience we encounter will have influence upon the way we understand the world, how we interpret what is happening to us, meeting new people, seeing new sights, hearing news sounds, tasting new tastes.

For some it will be a new journey, like taking an overnight bus trip to far of lands, taking a cruise ship across the oceans, or catching a flight to different countries and cultures.

Some will come across experiences that will amaze them, some will come across experiences that will shock them. It is these experiences that enrich our lives, they give us the learning to be able to cope with our future life, to see things in perspective about our previous life.

I love taking this journey with the participants, as it is like helping someone to cross a road, we also have to cross the road with them.

For me the journey we will take is a well trodden one, I have done it so many times, and it is a joyous journey, one that I also enjoy finishing, because I know I will feel good at the end.

Just like my flight to Istanbul on Friday, the journey may be difficult. There will be procedures I will have to go through, booking-in, security, there may be turbulence in the flight, the food may not be to my liking, and I do not know who or what will be waiting for me at Istanbul Antaturk airport.

One thing is for certain, the clock will continue to tick, time will not stop. The time in Turkey as I write this blog may be 12:00 mid day, people may be eating their lunch, but here in London it is only 10:00 in the morning, I have only just had breakfast.

Time as we perceive it, is only relative to our own place in space. We must learn to enjoy what we have now, for do we know what is at the end of our journey?

Let us plan for a good outcome on our journey together.

Memory Mind Maps NLP Phobias PhotoReading Presentations Radio and TV interviews Recommendation Travels Videos

Business Matters TV program in Sri Lanka

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 06/08/2007

In 2003 I travelled to Columbo in Sri Lankato give courses in NLP, PhotoReading, Mind Maps, and was asked to take part in a TV program called Business Matters, hosted Parakrama Dissanayake.

The podcast TV progam lasts about ten minutes and will take a little time to download depending on internet speed. Enjoy.

For those wishing to take part in future courses in Sri Lanka, please visit the web site www.nlpnow-lanka.com or contact Maxwell de Silva or Hemantha Wickremasinghe on SRI LANKA 011 2345257.

Travels

UFO’s over London

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 05/08/2007

I am not one to fantasize, not one to take on board weird and wonderful ideas without investigation, but last night, Saturday 4th August, I have no explanation as to what we saw.

Saturday had been a beautiful day, cloudless, sunny and warm, and Mee Len wanted to visit her sister Mee Chee near Leatherhead, half an hour’s car ride from Kingston upon Thames.

We spent an evening putting the world to rights over a meal of chicken and salad, feeding the daily arrival of foxes the leftovers, and left for home about 10pm.

After putting my car to bed in the garage, we walked back to our flat through the gardens of Norbiton Hall, under a cloudless and for once a star studded sky. It is rare to see stars in London to high light pollution from street lights and the human population.

Looking up we saw two bright orange lights high in the sky, flying west to east.

flying saucer Bukit Mertarjam, when the family were outside in the garden celebrating Chinese New Year. These 5 or 6 flame like lights hovered in the night sky, then one would suddenly speed up and move slowly away. It took a time that these were paper lanterns with a burner suspended in its’ balloon like structure, thus making it a hot air balloon, as seen on recent Thai Airlines adverts.

What we saw last night were not these hot air balloons they were traveling too quickly.

They were not aircraft waiting to land at Heathrow or just taken off, as there were two aircraft in the stacks to be seen and heard.

As we watched, the three lights went overhead with no sound. Helicopters would be heard, I could hear the two other aircraft.

As they flew off towards London the lights disappeared, indicating that the light source was pointing forwards and directional, thus we would not see the light from behind.

Then another light appeared flying on the same path.

Must be helicopters, perhaps military, that was the only explanation, a little too fast, but then we will never know.

Going to bed at 12:50pm, I listened to BBC Radio Five Live, and I caught the last sentences of a discussion of strange lights in the sky, but heard no concussion.

Were they UFO’s? index

Memory Mind Maps NLP PhotoReading Travels Videos

Preview of a TV program with Phillip Holt in Sri Lanka

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 04/08/2007

In 2003, I appeared on Sri Lanka’s TV program called Business Matters with Parakrama Dissanayake, talking about NLP, PhotoReading, Mind Maps and how to achieve excellence.

This is a preview, whilst I load the whole program.

Download podcast now (click).

Travels

Another weekend. More food and no hot water.

Post author By nlpnow
Post date 29/07/2007

This weekend we have been visited by our niece Pei Theng Ng, a Malaysian national, who has just finished her degree at the London School of Economics (LSE) in London. She has now decided to get her MSc at the University here in Kingston upon Thames.

Basil Diner (click to read and see menu). It is a good quality restaurant, serving fantastic food for a reasonable price. The problem is the location. Parking is I think a problem, thus diners are few. Such a pity.

Dim Sum. (C4more).

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Oh Poo Poo, (click to understand) there is no hot water again, such is life, be a good uncle, do what I have to do.

Travels

Replacement of railway bridge in Kingston upon Thames

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 28/07/2007

As I have written in a previous entry, I hardly use my cars at all. We are blessed in London with a great public transport system, that is cheap, frequent and reliable. For under £7, you can purchase a travel card, and travel throughout London all day on trains, the underground (metro) or buses.

All is well if the systems works.

There could be engineering works, strike by the transport workers, the wrong sort of weather, (eg snow), there could be leaves on the rails so that the trains cannot move, a passenger intervention or a passenger taken ill. These excuses wil cause delays or cancellations.

Then the system does not work. But, this is OK if one knows in advance, you can take and make alternative arrangements.

I happened to notice a road sign which said that the main road into Norbiton and Kingston upon Thames, London Road, would be closed between August 7th till August 16th for bridge replacement.

SouthWest Trains would inform their own staff what will be happening so that travelers can make alternative arrangements, if they are to close the railway line.

Travels

Oh a hot shower

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 27/07/2007

The simple things in life comes to he that waits.

Today we have hot (ish) water for showers and washing.

Since the flood one week ago, and the lack of hot water as the boiler room was flooded, I listen and watched a some residents became frustrated and some angry.

These people seem to get through life by shouting, abusing others, venting their frustration with their anger.

Here in Norbiton Hall, we have a parking problem. Although there are roads in the complex, there is just enough space to have perhaps one parking space per flat.

Around the streets of Kingston upon Thames and Norbiton, they have strict parking enforcement, with parking wardens ready to place a parking fine ticket on any car not displaying a parking permit, paying to park on the street, or that their time has run out. It is both expensive to park here, and even more expensive to get caught not paying to park.

As our estate is private land, we can park for free, but then the office workers in the area try and use our spaces, visitors or shoppers do the same, as do residents from other areas. Using our limited spaces.

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Residents now have more than one car per flat, especially those flats where they have multiple occupancies, students (were do they get the money, I thought they were poor) from Kingston University, more and more immigrants, all putting more strain on the limited spaces.

So the management have placed a parking badge scheme, each flat has the right to a parking badge assigned to a specific car, plus one visitors permit. This can be abused too, by people letting family, friends or others use the permits.

If there is a car parked in the grounds without a permit, we have a security firm who will clamp the car, and it costs the owner a lot of money to get it freed. There are plenty of warnings at the entrances to the estate, but some who choose not to notice or think they can get away with it, pay the penalty.

When these people loose their temper, get angry, shouting and cursing, not only do they upset the staff, other residents listening to them, but also themselves in a big way.

There are rules why we have to have the system in place, else the residents will have nowhere to park. But, some people only see things from their point of view, there cat on the mat. (click to read).

There was no reason to get upset about the lack of water, it was a simple thing that got resolved, and now we can appreciate the simple things in life.

Travels

The Simple Things in Life

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 26/07/2007

It is the simple things in life that we become unaware of in our daily life. Perhaps it is the Miller 7+/- 2 (click) where we are only aware of a very small amount of the vast information about the environment around us.

Here in Norbiton Hall we are still without hot water since the floods. (click to read story). The engineers to repair the boiler come at about 8am in the morning and leave at just after 2pm. What a job, and they can charge a very heavy fee for their work. I must be in the wrong job.

Just to turn the hot water tap on and have a shower seems so natural, it is when there is only very cold water that you appreciate what you do not have.

My travels and training courses take me to many parts of the world, and I can be away for weeks at a time. That means I do not use my cars, they just sits in the garage.

Modern cars have lots of electronics that are using electricity power even when you are not using the car, so the battery becomes drained. It was when I went to use the car yesterday, that I found that the car battery was dead, no power, I could not even open the car doors. It is times like this that you appreciate just what it is like to jump into a car and go to where ever you want.

I probably do 1,000 miles a year in my two cars, so I spend more on replacing batteries than I do in petrol or gas.

The telephone system has not been available, so I have not been able to contact people or use the internet for a while. I felt quite lost. Not only that, the supplier of the blog was updating their software, so I could not access my site, I felt very frustrated.

It is when we become too used to our friends and loved ones, they are always there, that we take them for granted. It is only when they are not there, and we need some help or love that we miss them.

I must become even more aware of what I have and appreciate it, even the simple things.

English Courses Travels Turkish

Life is just a short road

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 24/07/2007

For most of the day I could not forget Dr. İbrahim Halil Zarif, a participant over the past few months on courses held in Istanbul, learning English.

I saw a quiet, considerate man, who always had a smile for all.

His life was taken along with his wife, by a gunman, leaving small children to face the rest of their lives without loving parents.

Life is but a stopping place along the road to eternity. We all have different journeys to take, different paths, and it is along the way that we meet others, to learn from them love, kindness and compassion.

Let us that remain to take that final road, pass on and teach to others that love, kindness and compassion, especially the children.

Travels

Today has so much going on for me.

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 23/07/2007

Still no hot water, so no shower, (click) but I have had a full wash-down, and it was invigorating to say the least.

But is that so terrible?

I was in contact with NLPGrup in Turkey today, and was told some very upsetting news, that one of our English participants had passed away, along with his wife. It appears he and his wife were murdered by the ex husband. What a waste.

I have listened to the reports of the floods in the UK, how people are without fresh water, electricity, have lost their homes, their personal belongings. The little amount of flooding we had here in Norbiton Hall was nothing. (click to see pictures and videos).

Last year I was giving an NLP training in Antalya in the South of Turkey, and Asu, my translator at the time, pestered me to take her scuba diving, after all I am a Master Diver, (click) with over 600 logged dives around the world. But she had to get qualified as an Open Water Diver before I could buddy up with her. This she did at the hotel where we were holding the training, and on her last qualifying dive I joined her and the diving instructor.

I experienced great difficulty descending, with pains in my ears. After a couple of years with no diving, I expected it, I could not equalise the pressure in my ears. Slowly I got to about 3 meters (9-10 foot), and decided that was deep enough for me with the difficulty of equalisation.

The dive continued. But then the whole world began to spin, something I had never experienced before. I had only one option to abort the dive and surface.

The dive instructor said I had a little blood coming from my nose, and rescued me. Me a Master Diver, a Rescue Diver. I felt stupid.

For days after I could not hear well, my ears were blocked, and upon my return to the UK, I went to see my doctor. I had high blood pressure, plus I report slight discomfort in my neck.

I was sent for tests. After many tests it was found that I needed a Stent placed in my heart, one of my arteries was getting blocked. No wonder I was feeling tired all the time.

A very easy procedure was done. Fully awake and with no pain, I watched as they played inside my heart, placing the Stent, which they blew-up like a balloon to widen the artery, allowing the blood to flow.

A near miss for me.

Shortly after that on resuming my travels and training, I awoke one night to find blood coming out of my ear.

Panic. What was going on. I am in a strange country, Turkey, with no medical knowledge of what was happening.

The tablets I was taking since the procedure are designed to thin the blood, so if I cut myself the wound takes a long time to stop bleeding. If I bang myself, I bruise easily. I lay on my side with the bleeding ear uppermost so that the wound would heal.

This resulted in a blood clot or plug in the ear, and nothing I can do has removed it, syringing did nothing, putting oils in the ear, nothing.

That was last November 2006, it is now July 2007. I have been waiting for a hospital appointment to remove the plug since. Many appointments have been made, but each one has been canceled at the last moment by the hospital. I have arranged my trips abroad, my work around them, only to find that they put back the date.

Today is the day, and I have had no cancellation.

Perhaps I will get it seen to today, it should be quite simple to do.

Perhaps not.