Category: Travels

Is it a holiday today?

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 22/04/2007

As I sit here, and a sunny Sunday morning, in a period of time that has been the hottest for a very longtime in the UK, I am listening to the radio, as runners of the London Marathon wait with anticipation the start that will see them put to use all that they have been preparing for, perhaps months, and I think about the marathon I will be embarking on tomorrow morning.

I will be up at 5am to catch one of the first flights out of London’s Heathrow airport to go to Milan, Italy, to give a PhotoReading course. On arrival I will go straight to the Hilton Hotel and prepare the room with the helpers and Elena my translator, for the start at 1:30pm.

My Turkish colleagues want me out in Istanbul as soon as I finish in Italy.

Do I fly direct or come back to London? What do they want me for? How long do they want me for?

We start Monday and not Saturday? Its a holiday in Italy on Monday, but not in the UK.

I am getting confused.

Monday in Italy is Liberation Day, it is celebrated on April 25th, and commemorates the liberation of Italy in the Second World War, and especially the lives of those who served as partisans in the Italian Resistance are especially honored.

Not only is it a holiday in Italy but in other countries too. Turkey celebrates Sinai Liberation Day, or perhaps it is called the National Sovereignty Day or Children’s’ day for example. I have asked a friend in Turkey, they say it is Children’s day, but my diary says Sinai Liberation Day, I am more confused. (Can someone help me here, post a comment please.)

We all live in our own little world, perhaps not knowing what is happening to our next door neighbour or to the person next to us. In the UK at Christmas, the whole world stops for two days, Christmas Day (25th December) and Boxing Day (26th), yet in other parts of the world, life goes on as normal, the two days have no significance at all, the work as normal.

As I travel such a lot, I have to prepare to step outside my normal understanding of British thinking, our celebrations, and consider other cultures and beliefs.

Open your eyes and ears to other understandings, use Phillip’s sausage.

As the runners of the London Marathon have prepared for many months or the run, so have I, my course materials, my passport, my tickets are all ready, my mind is ready to accept, make changes to my plans, and do a great job.

Travels

Hot off the Press

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 21/04/2007

I am by nature an inquisitive person. I need to know how things are done, what makes things work. I like to experience new adventures, well within reason, to do. I will try anything.

As most people, I read a newspaper, wanting to get the latest news, and every morning I would buy The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, whichever newspaper caught my eye that morning.

I was and am aware of the bias, the agenda, the political stance that the newspaper owners, editors, and reporters can put on any report in newsprint.

Culture Thoughts Travels

Norbiton Hall, Kingston upon Thames

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 20/04/2007

Ten years ago, we gave up living on a boat, our Dicken’s Class 50′ ocean going vessel named Mr Toots, (click to see), and swapped her, with a friend Richard Morris, for our flat. Where are you now Richard?

I have often wondered where the name of the estate with 192 flats, Norbiton Hall came from. Here is what I have found out.Norbiton Hall aerial view

The first clue obviously is that the estate is in the village or district of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, (Click to view film), called Norbiton, south west of London, and within the M25 motorway.

Another clue is a blue plaque on the outer wall of the flats which says:-

HERE FORMALLY STOOD NORBITON HALL
BUILT IN THE 16TH CENTURY ON LOVEKYN’S CHAPEL LAND
IT HAS BEEN THE RESIDENCE OF
RICHARD TAVERNER
GEORGE EVELYN
MR ANTONY BENN
THE COUNTESS OF LIVERPOOL
AMONG OTHERS

I decided to research in the library and museum. What was here before these flats?

The first records I found for Norbiton was for 1174 when Henry II bestowed the Manor of North Barton to the Knights of Anjou. The word Barton I suspect being derived from the Saxon word “beartun”, meaning to store grain.

In 1309 Edward Lovekyn founded Lovekyn Chapel, still standing and in use opposite the end of Old London Road, and standing in the grounds of Tiffins Grammar School, at the start of London Road. It is said that most of the lands in the area belonged to Lovekyn at that time.

The plaque on the wall of the chapel says :-

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — *Lovekyn Chapel plaque*

“The Lovekyn Chapel founded 1309 by Edward Lovekyn bailiff and member of the butchers’ company of Kingston: rebuilt and re-endowed 1352 by John Lovekyn stock-fishmonger and Alderman and four times Lord Mayor of London: confiscated to the Crown 1535 granted to the Kingston Grammar School 1561 by Queen Elizabeth.”

There is mentioned that in 1532 a certain Mr Erasmus Ford who owned the land, complained bitterly to King Henry VIII, as some of King’s men had cut down 35 prime elms, it is presupposed to help built Hampton Court, which is not far away from Norbiton and Kingston, up the River Thames.

The Evelyn family in 1588 used the property to store and make gunpowder.

What building existed then could not be found, but there is reference of a building in 1631 as being newly built in brick and had 13 hearths. There is mention of the Jenkinson family owning Norbiton Hall in 1681 when major renovation and alteration was undertaken, saying that 43 persons could be comfortable sat for diner.

There were two large estates in the area, the one I researched Norbiton Hall, and the other which should not be confused with the Hall, which was Norbiton House or Place, the two estates divided by the London Road. Both areas prior to the 19th century being primarily agricultural land.

Norbiton Hall‘s grounds were to the north of London Road, the road was said prior to adoption by the local authority a difficult place to negotiate, as carts would become stuck for hours from the resultant mud and ruts after rain.

Norbiton House or Place was to the south of London Road, bordered by Cambridge Road and Coombe Road. The house and grounds were palatial, with the owner a rich merchant, a Mr Pallmer, trading in the West Indies, spending most of his money on the estate, eventually becoming bankrupt. He would open the grounds for the public to enjoy at weekends. The house was of more grandeur than the buildings at Norbiton Hall, having 23 hearths.

Opposite Norbiton Hall is St Peters Church, which was built in 1842 by Gilbert Scott in the Norman Style.

It was at this time that big changes started to occur in the area. By 1838 the Enclosure Commissioners alloted land from Norbiton Hall for development, and with the introduction of the railway line to Kingston and Maldon, the Norbiton Hall estate was split into two and got smaller. By 1873 there was only 12 acres left, and in 1882-4 the then owner drove a road though the estate calling it Birkenhead Avenue, named after the families favourite town. Land was sold in small plots to build houses adjoining the new Avenue.

In 1829 the estate was purchased by Mary, Countess of Liverpool, and her cousin Robert Jenkinson who was Lieutenant of Dover Castle, a well to do man, and was known as the squire. He died in the mid 1850s. The Countess died 1846. Lord Liverpool who died a year before the purchase was Prime Minister for 15 years, and was responsible for the erection of Kingston Bridge, the first stone being laid 1825 and opened 1828, replacing an earlier bridge which was documented crossing the Thames since 1219.

Norbiton Hall was acquired from John Guy 1864 by William Hardman, for 8000 guineas, he was to become Mayor of Kingston, magistrate and recorder, and was knighted in 1885. As a justice he had rooms in the hall which he used to hear cases against local villains on a daily basis.

In 1884 Norbiton Hall was advertised for sale with 4 servants bedrooms, 5 best bedrooms, dressing and bathroom, drawing dining morning and billiard room, library breakfast room. But the grounds were only 2 acres left and sold in lots.

A Mr E J Cave lived in the house for an annual rent of £200, and in 1884 brought the house for £3500, but it went into a long decline.

In 1933 a planning application was submitted for the land to be to become a dog racing track but was rejected by council, and subsequently by the government on appeal. Soon after the hall was demolished to make way for the 192 to flats as we see them today.

The back of Norbiton Hall, in Birkenhead Avenue.

Same position about 1925 with post box and tram lines

Norbiton Hall c. 1930

Old Photographs Copyright R.H.Byran
Reproduced with permission and fee from
Kingston Museum April 2007

See a film of Kingston upon Thames taken on a sunny day in April 2007, click here.

See Pictures of the London Road flooded in July 2007, click here.

See aerial view of Norbiton Hall, click here.

See Cycling Improvements in London Road, Kingston

English Courses Exercises Hypnosis Italian Memory Mind Maps NLP PhotoReading Travels

My Italian Translator

Post author By
Post date 19/04/2007

Some of my first exposure to training NLP was to take place in Italy with my good friend and colleague, Alessio Roberti of NLPItaly. I remember sitting in a small piatsa in a wonderful walled town called Città Alta, the upper part of Bergamo with its rich heritage of art and history, discussing a forthcoming course.

Alessio and Phillip

Città Alta Bergamo

I do not speak any language other than English. It is not out of disrespect of peoples tongues, just as people who have worked with me know, I am hopeless at speaking another language.

After many courses over the years Alessio Roberti has grown his company to be perhaps one of the best NLP training organisations in the world, and along with other subjects and the publishing arm, has become the successful person he should be. I am privileged to be involved with him.

One of the translators in Italy who has work with me for a number of years is Elena Martelli.

PhotoReading course in the Hilton Hotel.

Please Elena, coconut, liquorish, and toffee ice cream, all in the same cone, perhaps following a Baffu pizza.

Memory NLP Travels

A Bad Head Day – Migraine

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 15/04/2007

Today I woke up full of enthusiasm, ready to do so much.

I had a shower, and was about to start on another project when I knew I was about to start another migraine.

Today I took for really the first time a migraine tablet, Rizatriptan 5mg to knock to attack out at the start.

I went to bed, and started to listen to the radio, BBC Radio 5 live, it was the F1 race from Bahrain.

As I listened, I could not work out what was going on. Logically somewhere I my brain I knew it was the F1 race, and from Bahrain. But where was Bahrain? What was F1? I knew I knew the answer but it was not there, I could not answer my brain.

I heard the word Ferrari, but what did the word mean, but I new it was a racing car, but I did not, and David Coulthard, who was he? But I knew.

My brain really slowed down. It took a long time to answer a question.

My heart rate slowed down to 48 beats per minute, the average for a man being 74, or 70 for a woman. Since my angioplasty and taking tablets including Atenalol, my heart rate has slowed to 58 BPM.

After three hours I was able to function again, feeling tired, and a little slow, I am able to write my blog here, helping perhaps others to understand migraines.

At the age of 17, I was diagnosed as suffering from migraine, and had many tests to try and seek the cause of these debilitating attacks, skull x-rays, EEG’s, blood, eyes tests, allergy tests, you name it, nothing was found that caused them. I was getting them every week.

As I got older they became less frequent, until I believed they had all but disappeared at about 28. I will discuss the age of 28 in a later blog.

Over the years I have learned that I will know when a migraine will start, I will get impaired vision, part of what is in front of my eyes will not be there, in other words as I look at a face, I may be aware of the left eye but the right eye will not be there. It is at this time I prepare for the attack.

For me, I drink a lot of water, I have an idea that dehydration has a factor in the attack. Perhaps I need to detoxify, get rid of those unwanted chemicals that have built up in the body.

I worked with a friend, a chiropractor, and we discovered a point on the outside of the left leg, just above the knee, a place where you will find a “valley”, lateral aspect, or between two tendons/muscles. By pressing into this depression hard, (it can cause pain, so good), it can relieve the symptoms of migraines or headaches.

I then experience extreme pain, especially in th eyes, my skin colour changes, some people say to green and gray, and I completely evacuate my body, after which I sleep for a few hours to awaken like I have had the flu, washed out.

Migraine is a is a neurological disorder, the most common symptom is an intense and disabling episodic headache, and are usually characterized by severe pain on one or both sides of the head, and can be accompanied, with or without visual effects or auras, by photophobia (hypersensitivity to light), phonoophobia (hypersensitivity to sound), also it may cause pain, nausea and tiredness.

Migraines are not caused by or they have an absent of serious head injuries, strokes, and tumors, and the recurring severity of the pain indicates vascular headaches rather than tension headaches. They also have a tendency to be genetic.

Three quarters of adult sufferers tend to be female, and there are indications that hormonal, including intestinal tract serotonin, can cause attacks.

I am still convinced that migraines are initiated by the blood supply, perhaps problems with the blood vessels, or from a 2005 investigation, a patent foramen ovale (PFO), or a hole between the upper chambers of the heart, allowing uncleaned blood to go directly from the right side of the heart to the left without passing through the lungs to be cleaned or detoxified. Now I know why I drink a lot of water.

Another theory is known as cortical spreading depression , which causes depressed neurological activity in the area of the cortex of the brain. This leads to irritation of the cranial nerve roots by the release of inflammatory mediators especially to the trigeminal nerve. It is thought that this can be caused by electrical charges or depolarization of the brain.

Migraine attacks may be triggered by:-

      • The weather
      • Allergic reactions
      • Bright lights, loud noises, and certain odors or
      • Perfumes
      • Physical or emotional stress
      • Tension headaches
      • Seep patterns Changes
      • Exposure to or Smoking
      • Irregular meals
      • Alcohol or caffeine
      • Menstrual cycle
     • Birth control pills
      • Foods containing
              • Tyramine (red wine, smoked fish, cheese)
             • MSG (Monosodium glutamate)
              • Nitrates (bacon, salami)
              • Chocolate, nuts, peanut butter, dairy products, fermented and pickled foods

Different treatments can be given, and medical advice is suggested. Some of the treatments are as I described above and :-

      • Good sleep patterns
      • Regular meals
      • Avoid achohol and caffeine
      • Suck ice or ice cream, it is said to cool the hypothalamus
      • Analgesics, aspirin, paracetamol
      • Serotonin receptor agonists, Tripans on medical prescriptions or Sumatripans over the counter
      • Caffeine
      • Beta blockers, Propranolo and Atenolol (I take Atenalol everyday, so this did not work for me)
      • Antidepressants
      • Botox
      • Butterbur from your herbal shop
      • Acupuncture
      • Acupressure (as I described above)
      • Relaxation or self hypnosis. (contact me for more information)

Migraine can be life threatening in extreme cases as it can lead to strokes or heart attacks especially in females.

If you get a headache, if you do not get the symptoms as described above it is not migraine, but migraines come in all shapes and sizes. Seek medical advice.

Look after yourself.

Travels

Beautiful Day in UK

Post author By
Post date 14/04/2007

After meetings in Kingston today, a walk around the shops and riverside was the call of the day.

The hottest day in April for the UK since 1949, saw shoppers and families wearing summer clothes, sun hats and sun glasses. People sat next to the river drinking and relaxing.

Children fed the swans that flocked to eat from the food thrown to them.

Charter Quay, Kingston upon Thames

Swans in Charter Quay, Kingston upon Thames

Swans on the River Thames in Kingston upon Thames

See the video of Kingston upon Thames, click here.

Electronics NLP Travels

Skype and Dualphone 3088

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 13/04/2007

I am a technoholic. I love gadgets. If it fits what I want and new, I must have it.

My NLP strategy is simple. V,K,A,K. Looping around K and A, until I get that internal urge.

I also am a firm believer in VoiP (Voice over the internet Protocol), especially Skype, (www.skype.com). (Pronounce without the “E” on the end).

This technology allows people with internet access, speakers and microphone, and a computer, to talk for free as if it were normal telephone, using free software. I also allows people to chat via the keyboard and screen.

An advantage of Skype is that there is a free version for your PDA or mobile phone. If you can find a free WiFi hotspot, and your phone is capable of connecting, you can make free or cheap calls.

Perhaps not all your friends are on the internet, do not have Skype installed, then what do you do?

Use your access to Skype as a normal phone, calling you friend’s landline or mobile phone with SkypeOut.

This service connects you to the internet, routes the call you wish to make over the internet, then it emerges near your friend landline phone, in what ever country they live, thus you only pay for a local call (approximately, sometimes cheaper), and the quality is just as good as a normal telephone line.

You can even purchase a special Skype telephone number, SkypeOut, you can call mine 0208 816 7962, and as long as you are logged into Skype on a computer, anyone can, call that number, and I will receive it, no matter where I am in the world.

This is all very well, but it requires a computer to be on all the time. Expensive and I am thinking, Global Warming.

So I come across a new product, the Dualphone 3088 a phone that you can connect to the normal PSN (Public Service Network) landline, and via a supplied transmitter base unit, which is attached to the internet router, becomes a stand alone Skype phone.

Now you can receive and make either a normal telephone call or cheap Skype calls from the same wire free hand unit.

I have to have it. I set it up, and it works. For three weeks. Then it will not connect to the base unit for internet access.

After 35 years in the computer industry, having studied computing and business at Brunel University, I have a little knowledge of software and hardware. I can build my own radio transmitters and receivers as a Radio Ham, call sign, G8YJQ.

I tried everything I know to resolve the problem. I reset the base unit, the handset, the two routers I have installed, remove the power supply, re cable, and reread the installation manual and advanced trouble shooting web pages. Nothing.

I contact the manufacturers support helpline. They give me instructions that cannot be achieved, to change settings of the base unit, but that can only be done if I have a connection, and I do not. Me thinks a standard reply to problems that they send out.

I search the internet for a solution and come across a Dualphone 3088 forum, where users of the unit post comments. It is full of complaints. Yes there are many with the same problem I have, but no answer of how to overcome it. I find a similar forum on Skype, and yes entries are there too with the same problem, and no answers.

Obviously there are a major faults in the Dualphone 3088, hardware (firmware) or software, and they have been known for months.

Yet, these two companies continue to promote and sell the unit. Why?

Undaunted, I spend hours trying to get the Dualphone 3088 to work.

Why wont the base unit connect to the router, yet the landline function works?

Why wont the base unit reset, even after removing the power supply?

Then success. I did nothing different to what I had done many times, the base unit connected to the router, and then the handset connected to the base unit.

I am back on-line.

Sometimes it is better to wait until the new has become old, all the faults have been found and corrected, a new release has been issued.

Sometimes it is better to wait unit the price comes down. First releases are often very expensive, as the suppliers try and recoup their investment.

Wait until you have reviewed feedback from previous users, ask others, look at web sites. www.nlpnow.net for my training.

Will I ever learn?

Phillip Holt’s Skype name nlpnow.

Other offerings of VoiP are MSN (www.msn.com), Fring (www.fring.com), EQO (www.eqo.com), SoonR (www.soonr.com), AvanTiMobile (www.avantimobile.com), to name but a few. Many ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) also offer their own version of VoiP.

Books NLP Travels

A warm day in the UK, Influencing? Global Warming?

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 12/04/2007

Today back in the UK is like a summers day. Not quite a blue sky, a haze hides that, but not a cloud to be seen.

As I sit here, reflecting on my trips, I am thinking about the impact, the influence I have on the world.

Are my actions changing, influencing other people, the environment, the future?

My training courses certainly are. Many participants come into the courses with personal issues, they want me to wave a magic wand to change them.

I can change people very quickly, I will remove a phobia with NLP, in one session, just by conversation, the quickest probably a couple of minutes, stop people smoking, give confidence.

I will teach people how to use their Memory better, use tools like Mind Maps, new strategies of using their brain, so they have better choice from their expediences or internal knowledge base when faced with life.

I will teach them how to acquire information faster with Speed Reading and PhotoReading, so that they can have the knowledge and wisdom to advance in life.

I will teach them state control with Hypnosis so they can learn how to relax and help each other.

I will show them how they can apply what I teach into areas of their life, maybe for a profession like Stage Hypnosis, become a Certified Hypnotherapist with the NGH. To use the newly acquired knowledge in education, business, their personal life.

My courses are not for me to make the changes to the participants, but to teach them how they can make the changes.

Yes I influence lives.

How about my travels?

I fly to different parts of the world, so my carbon footprint is larger than the average person.

In the UK we are recently being bombarded by the press, environmentalists, goody goodies, saying that we should fly less, so that we do not pollute the atmosphere. But if I did not fly, I would not earn money for myself and the country, and the seat would be empty, the plane would still fly without me, so that is a waste of resources.

I look at all the new and old cars that are increasing in numbers in all countries, belching exhaust fumes into the atmosphere. I stand in Taxim Square, walk through Sisli or Kadikoy in Turkey or any town in the world and have buses spew diesel fumes into my face, so bad, I have to hold my breath.

I looked at the new summer houses placed like little dolls houses on the lava flows of Iceland, knowing that they would be heated, where does that heat go? Is that not contributing to the Global Warming?

As I fly over many countries looking down, I see factories polluting the air and countryside especially in India and China. I see rivers flowing into the sea, and know that the drains, the sewers have emptied their waste into the rivers upstream, and I can see the pollution spread out to sea like tentacles.

On visits to Malaysia as we depended into KLIA airport, we flew through a layer of smoke created by the forest fires in Indonesia, the smell penetrating into the aircraft. Once on land, the smog, much like we used to get in the UK in the pre 1960’s.

I think a professor from a Scandinavian country said that, if each person in the UK was to switch off the unwanted appliances and lights, a total saving of seven hours of pollution per year would be saved.

Yes we must do what we can to save this planet of ours, but the whole world must do it together. Governments must change. Industry must change.

We all influence others by our actions. Like a butterfly may flutter it’s wings in the Amazon Jungle, it will cause a flow of air which will spread, maybe to create and influence the weather system on the other side of the world.

We all live in our own world. It is our map of the territory, our understanding.

As we look at our world, the area around us now, that is what we see, hear or feel. (VAKOG).

When people feel down, depressed, stressed, they are in their own world.

By changing the way you see the world around you, see more, knowing that by changing your actions, the way you stand or sit, what you say, the way you think, you will influence yourself, others around you and the world too.

Be positive in your thoughts and actions.

Look for the good in others. It is a presupposition in NLP that all persons actions are for a positive intention.

Life is never static, we are changing, developing, it is influencing us as we are influencing it.

Lets us influence it in a positive way.

Travels

A Trip to Iceland – The Blue Lagoon

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 11/04/2007

The last day in Iceland.

The tour company have a transfer bus service from the hotel to the airport.

But they offer an add on tour to the transfer service, a visit to the Blue Lagoon.

As we approach the resort of the Blue Lagoon, steam from the geothermal spa and factories that capture the hot water that is piped to the surrounding area and Reykjavík for heating, showers, etc, rose to the sky in brilliant white.

Blue Lagoon, Iceland

The road leading up to the spa, meanders across the lava plain, and we pass a milky blue lake. The bus disgorges its’ passengers, giving us about two hours to experience the spa, and we follow the pathway cut out of the lava to the main building.

Here we are given an electronic tag and a towel. It is a good job we had taken a swimming costumes.

On changing, I followed the signs to the blue lagoon, entering a warm room, with steps leading into a large pool. At the far side of the pool there is a door. Walking across in warm waist deep water, I open the door, and there in front of me is the outdoor milky blue-green water, steam gliding into the air from the surface.

People were up to their shoulders in this warm water. Even standing with my bare chest to the elements, I was not cold, unlike the lifeguard, standing on the edge of the lagoon in a full arctic survival suit.

www.icelandholiday.is

I joined Mee Len, and we waded across the lagoon, the water reaching our upper chest, people were not swimming, just standing there, enjoying the warmth.

On the far side people placed white mud like mixture on their faces, to give some unknown treatment. It reminded me of the mud bath I had taken in Antalya with my host, the owner and a participant from the NLP course, Asu my translator and an assistant, sitting there like a little Buddha.

On washing off the mixture, the taste of the water was very salty, but there was no smell of volcanic sulfer I had expected.

Perhaps this treatment will make me look younger than my 94 age.

Soon the experience was over, and a short two and a half hours flight on Iceland Express, we were back the UK.

The world is a small place.

Visit my web site www.nlpnow.net .

see other Iceland entries, click

Travels

A Trip to Iceland – Whale Watching

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 10/04/2007

Me and the sea do not get on. I get sea sickness.

I remember many years ago, with a group of fellow scuba divers, we borrowed a large motor launch, and sailed out into the Red Sea, off Saudi Arabia, to Fifteen Mile Reef, to spend two days out at sea, diving as much as possible. I spent much of the time being sea sick, turning every colour you could think of.

Strange I was later to live on a boat for six years, a 52 foot (16 mtr) ocean going Dicken’s Class vessel, Mr Toots.

I was prepared, I had my sea sickness tablets, and I took one before leaving the hotel.

A short distance from the Hotel Klopp, is the port of Reykjavík, not large, but full of ships.

see other Iceland entries, click