Category: Travels

The aftermath of the floods (click) we experienced in Norbiton part of Kingston upon Thames, has not been as great as others in the UK. many homes and businesses have lost everything they own, as the flood waters entered their premises, especially in the counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. After receiving one months rain in a couple of hours, the infrastructure, the drainage systems could not cope.

Here in Norbiton, yes we had the roads flooded, but the water soon disappeared, and transport got back to normal as if nothing had happened. A few premises were flooded in the area, but for us in Norbiton Hall, (click to read history), our communal boiler room, that heats all the 192 flats hot water needs, was flooded.

The boiler room is underground, and the site manager David Flynn told me that the room was flooded to waist deep. I suspect that means that all the electrics, the controls will have been damaged, perhaps the fuel supply will have been contaminated, and the boiler no longer works, therefore we will have no hot water for days.

OK, no big deal, who needs hot water? But how do we wash or take a shower?

Cold water? Yes. But this is cold, cold water, sorry too cold for me. The UK is not a tropical island, or Malaysia, Turkey or Greece, sunning themselves in temperatures near 40 degrees. There it is great to have a cold shower.

The British culture still has the concept of baths. Long tubs in which we lay down and soak ourselves for a longtime. 

                                                         

Today we have had a really bad storm, more like a tropical downpour with thunder and lighting.

So heavy was the rain that the road outside the flats of Norbiton Hall, (click to read about), London Road, Kingston upon Thames, where I live became flooded, not unusual as it has happend before, but bad this time.

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Another video.

                                             


Another video of the floods in Kingston upon Thames.

                                             


I think I will stay in until the water goes.

The aftermath. (click to follow link).

I have been in Turkey since June 15th, four weeks, delivering training every day except one, from 9 in the morning until after 7 at night, perhaps with half an hours break. But, I love my job.

The hours I work do not give me time to relax, after standing in front of people for nearly ten hours each day, the last thing I want is to socialise, go dancing, drinking, all I want is my bed, a little TV to switch my brain off, and a shower.

The type of work I do also takes me to different parts of the world as groups, companies invite me to give trainings to their organisations or to the public, which means I live out of a suitcase, leaving me only a small space to pack a limited amount of clothes.

I often forget to pack sufficient clothes for my trips. This time it was trousers. The heat, the length of time I am here, I needed an extra pair, plus some shorts because of the heat, so I had to buy some.

I also often forget to pack enough toiletries like soap, shampoo, deodorant  etc, and this time I did not bring nail clippers. My nails my finger nails are getting too long, but I am not going to buy another nail clipper.

Shirts? I usually pack enough, having a variety to choose from.

I usually give the shirts after I have worn them to the hotel to wash and iron them as I have no facilities. I did this two days ago having a couple of  clean shirts left, for the next two days.

But they have lost my shirts.

Oh Poo Poo. What do I do now? I do not want to buy more, I cannot afford more expense, but I may have no choice, I cannot go in the course in an old shirt, the participants would not get anywhere near me, they need to be washed, and I cannot go in bare chested.

Oh the joys of  living out of a suitcase.

Today is Aybuke Kurt’s 18th Birthday.

Great cake. Great girl.

Over the last few weeks I have been working in Turkey, long hours, often from 8:30am until 7pm with little breaks. It has placed a big strain on my relationships, but work is work.

The temperature here in Istanbul has not helped. It has been very hot and humid, perhaps not as hot as it is in my home town of Bukit Mertajam near Penang in Malaysia, (click to see personal web page), but there it is expected and the infrastructure is set-up to handle it, with air conditioners a must.

I have been staying in hotels, three so far on this trip, as I say, it seems I never sleep in the same bed more than ten days. Two of the hotels were non tourist or non foreigner hotels, the latest is the Seminal Hotel very near Taxim Square, a typical tourist hotel, full of holiday makers, attendees to conferences, all out to enjoy themselves, staying up until all hours of the morning, and banging doors and shouting to each other before sleeping.

The hotels will have TV’s in their rooms, but obviously the non tourist hotels will not cater to non Turkish speakers, so why provide English speaking TV programs. The Seminal does have CNN news channel, but once you have seen the news, the second or third time the same news is broadcast each hour, makes me want to tear my hair out. The BBC World News channel is unwatchable.

I still watch, especially to see the weather forecast. Why do we do it. Mee Len, my wife, will sit and watch the weather for the next day and will not remember it half an hour later. I am the same, but I want to know what will happen.

This morning, CNN said that Istanbul would be very sunny and hot, no clouds anywhere. I opened the curtains, to see no sun but clouds, and at 2pm in the afternoon, still no sun.

Apart from no sun, we have had rain, and lots of it.

As in a previous article where I discussed what is Great Britain, or the UK, (click to read), so the British flag is made-up of parts, three.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, consists of four (4) countries, being, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, each having their own national flag.

      Scotland                       

      England                        

      Northern Ireland         

      Wales                           

The three flags of Scotland, England and Northern Ireland are overladed to produce the Union Jack.  The Welsh national flag not part of the Union Jack. It was first used in 1801 after the Union of Ireland and Great Britain.

The Flag must be flown the correct way as shown here with the flag pole on the left (note white bands):-

                     Flag pole      correct way      incorrect way


The term “Union Jack” could be derived from the small flag that flies from the bow of a ship, on a flag pole called the Jack Staff.

The flag has been called the Union Flag, and todays common usage uses Union Flag.

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Whilst travelling and training, I will refer to myself as British, but when I have translators, the translation will be made as that I am English. This is also true, I am both English and British. Further confusion comes about when I say I come from the UK or the United Kingdom.

Let me explain.

click here.

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