Tag: Istanbul

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Thoughts Travels

The return home to Taxim, Tunel.

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The time to leave the office/training facilities in Kadikoy, Istanbul came and I ventured into the cold afternoon to travel back to my accommodation in Taxim Tunel.

Taxim Square is if you like the Piccadilly Circus, the Leicester Square, the Times Square for Istanbul, many mass meetings are held there, with a large presence of riot clad police in attendance, it is where people meet, lovers, families and friends, a of fun, happiness. It draws people in via the buses, yellow taxis, the short Metro only perhaps six stations. Taxim Hill is a pedestrian only shopping area, recently being repaved (twice), with a twin trolley/tram service passing each other midway.

Taxi Tunel Underground Train
Taxi Tunel Underground Train

At the far end, where I stay is Tunel. This is a tunnel that links this part of Istanbul to the lower area near the Bosphorus called Karakoy, from here I catch the ferry to the other side. This tram tunnel the world’s second oldest metro was built in 1871. Again a twin tram system passing in the middle. The whole ride lasting only a couple of minutes (1.5). No chance of missing a station there are only two. But, it save a long hard and steep walk from the ferry to my flat.

A ship passes through the Bosphorus
A ship passes through the Bosphorus

Half way across the Bosphorus, we passed a large ship heading towards the Black Sea, to my amazement racing along side was a pod of dolphins breaking water as the swam against the strong current flowing towards the Aegean Sea. The dolphins swam at ease with each other, the never seem to make a mistake, make a wrong turn, hit an object, they are one with their surroundings, their environment. Why do we humans make so many mistakes, make the wrong decisions? We have much to learn about what is happening around us. For those who have worked with me, remember Phillips sausage.

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Coaching Culture Hypnosis Memory Mind Maps NLP Phobias PhotoReading Presentations Radio and TV interviews Stage Hypnosis Travels

Kadikoy. Another day. Care needed.

It is still cold and raining here in Istanbul, with the high cold wind making “white horses” on the Bosphorus.

The TV crew arrived nearly two hours late, to film only a few minutes, I am very careful on what I say. A few months ago, an article appeared in a Turkish national magazine, which although not mentioning names, implied me as a trainer of NLP and a hypnotist could walk into a bank and robe them of their money.

Why am I so poor?

Also, they implied that women were easy pickings for me, so be careful. At 95, I do not have the energy to do such things, plus certain persons would murder me, and I do not like pain.

Some four years ago, I was approached by a TV production company. They asked if I could teach someone with no knowledge of hypnosis within two days to become a stage hypnotist (see http://www.c4stagehypnosis.com), and on the second night, that person would perform in front of a live audience a stage hypnosis show. Not only did I do it, but along with another twelve people. The course has been held twice a year since, producing many successful hypnotists.

Although I asked the TV production company what was the outcome they wanted from the program regarding stage hypnosis, the good points or the bad, they said an unbiased view. The program was broadcast with the title The Darker Side of Stage Hypnosis. With nearly twenty hours of filming captured, less than ten minutes was shown.

By editing, showing what is good for them, the press can bias the news to suit themselves. How was it that during the Gulf War, the British was for the invasions, yet that little stretch of water called the English Chanel gave the French a different view of being against the war. We are brainwashed.

So I was very careful what was said. Let us see the outcome next Sunday at 10am on Turkish Expo TV.

Categories
NLP Travels

My Birthday

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Today was my birthday, here in Istanbul, but nothing to do. Ho Ho.

I was asked to go to the training school (NLPGrup) to complete a certificate, and that is on the Eastern side of Istanbul, and I am staying on the Western near Taxim Tunel.

Istanbul is in two parts, the Eastern and Western sides, with the Bosphorus dividing the two, being the border between Asia and Europe, with about 13 million residents.

Crossing the Bosphorus
Crossing the Bosphorus

The journey across the Bosphorus takes about twenty minutes, and it is a time to relax, to take in the sights either side, the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia Mosque (The Pink Mosque), and many old palaces.

Today it was so grey, cold and with driving rain as the photographs show, but inside the ferry I was warm.

Bosphorus
Bosphorus

The Bosphorus links the Aegean, the Med to the Black Sea, and ships all shapes and sizes of all countries carrying different cargoes pass through this narrow passage. To sit and watch the passing of these ships on the bank of the Bosphorus eating a Kumpir (hot jacket potato, filled with various filings) and a Turkish coffee brings to you how small our world is.

The one Turkish characteristic which does get at me sometimes, is the wish to be first. OK, I’m British, and we British are a nation of queuers, if there are more than three people in a line, we will join the line, knowing nothing of why we are waiting. But, the Turkish people just push in front, that also happens with the driving, especially the taxis.

Yet the people are so nice. They will take time to talk to you. I had a great conversation with my taxi driver on the way home tonight, trouble was my fare went up from the usual 6 lira to 10. Oh Poo Poo. Perhaps the traffic was very bad, or as the taxi drivers say:-
                                                                    “Istanbul, traffic, problem.”

Yes traffic is the same the world over, London, Paris, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur.

So early to bed, I am told that Sky TV wants to interview me tomorrow.

Now that’s another day.

Categories
English Courses NLP Travels

Monday, the day before my birthday

Here I sit in an apartment in Istanbul, Turkey. I should have been in Ankara today delivering a course, but it was canceled at the last moment. At least I did have a late lay-in, an extra hours sleep.

Having just completed a six days courses here in Istanbul on NLP, which included giving three sessions a day to participants of an English language course, I think I deserve a rest. But, the next course they want me to run starts next Saturday, and now do I fly back to the UK, or stay here?

If I stay I have five days of nothing to do, but then I can catch up on my work.

If I fly back to the UK, I have the cost of the travel, plus I will not get back until Tuesday and then have to fly Friday mid afternoon.only really three days free.

What about the loved ones how will they take my decision?

I think I’ll stay. With Skype I can keep in touch.

I can try this blog out.

I can rest. People keep telling me to take it easy after my heart procedure. Now that was a shock to the system.

At 93 years old, yes 93. You see, in certain countries, especially Turkey, people want to know each others age. when I get the participants on my courses to introduce a fellow participant, they will say:-

“this is Fred, he is a doctor, and he is 45 years old”

so I am 93 coming to 94 tomorrow.

Yes at 93, I felt 18, I have done many things, I was fit, I am a Master Scuba diver with over 600 dives to my name all over the world, and it was on a training course in Antalya, Turkey, my translator, Asu, having heard my stories I tell to the participants, asked me to take her diving from the access point there was in the hotel grounds where the training was taking place. Being a responsible diver, I said I would go only after she got her diving qualifications from the school on-site.

She did to my surprise go and get her certification. On her last qualifying dive she ask me to accompany her and her instructor, which I did. I had difficulty in clearing my ears, equalizing the pressure in my ears as I descended, so I kept at a shallow depth, only to find the whole world spinning five minutes into the dive. I had to abort the dive. The instructor, took a look at me and saw a small amount of blood coming from my nose, and rescued me, me a Master Diver. I will never live this down, I will never dive again.

I found that my ears were blocked, I could not hear well, so on return to the UK, I went to my doctor, only to find  I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and yes, I had had pains in my jaw and neck.

That led to many hospital check-ups, the result being that I had a narrowing of an artery in my heart.

Oh Poo Poo. I needed a stent put in my heart, a small cage like device, that they insert in the artery which will be expanded, to allow to blood to freely flow again.

I amazed me that this procedure can be carried-out in a day, you go in to hospital in the morning, and leave in the afternoon.

The procedure is done whilst fully awake, and I watched on the monitors as they placed this stent in my heart or angioplasty. I felt nothing. I am glad I have learned hypnosis, I needed it.

They gave me tablets that I now have to take ever day for the rest of my life, to reduce the clotting ability of the blood, so now when I bleed, I bleed for a long time, to lower my heart rate, now about 54 BPM, compared to the average male of 78 BPM, to lower my colesteral, and yes, I was told to loose weight.

I thought I would be up and running quickly, after loosing weight, lowering my colesteral, and changing my diet, or what it seems, not eating and starving. Oh I miss my Mars bars, my chips, my pizza. I find that I have to slow down, my brain perhaps has slowed down, perhaps it is the tablets I am on.

But, I can still perform, I still can give a first rate course, the feedback from the Stage Hypnosis course participants was more than positive, as was the feedback from yesterday, and I have more courses to give.

I know lots of it is in the mind. I take control of my thoughts and I will and am winning, although now I realise that at 93 I must slow down a little.

Eat that elephant a little slower, so I do not put on weight again. (click to see entry)

 
Read about follow-up at Penang Adventist Hospital for a CT scan