TPM

I've been working on my dad's site for a while now... TPM Quality. TPM - Total Productivity Maintenance... hehe~ Anyone wanna guess what it's all about? My gf Doca actually has studied about TPM a year ago! Interesting eh? hehehe. Classes start at 1pm and i'm in the library now~ *so borin* sigh~

Surprise Surprise

Gee... guess what? Turns out my indian teacher (Mr. Raj Lewis) - the one we've been expecting became white! Seth... mmm... okay, so Mr. Raj isnt around and the replacement is our new Chaplain Mr. Seth Leamon... MDiv graduate from Andrews University. Ethical Models is the class and well, I'll see what there is to learn from this guy :)

Class has been pretty boring - too much information on the first lesson with too many definitions. Our lecturer has probably not taught before... Anyways... the class is so huge - some people are lying on the ground sleeping too! Amazing...

It's my last class and guess what? I can get a signal here - whee! ONLINE! :P BLEAH!

From the Library

Doca just went back to her room - can't stand th extremely long wait till the class starts at 1pm. It's about 9:35am right now and Im in the library - surfing and getting updates for my softwares~ hehehe... plus blogging. I've got a little bag of cookies and a bottle of water that Doca left for me and well, in the comfort of the library, I think I'm gonna enjoy myself for the next few hours~ heehee :D

The number of new students astounds me - more and more each semester - good for the school, but its getting more crowded :S This campus is kinda teenie and so many students on campus can only mean overcrowding. The nursing students will be having a 2 year tenure here instead of a 1 year stay - according to a brief talk with the president two days ago~

Well, I'm gonna check for more software updates and play a little NBA Live 2006 while I'm here! Might as well - btw, Michael Cordy's The Mirical Strain is a pretty good book - a very nice read if you asked me. Try pick it up at your local bookstore! Tata for now~

Class time changed

Its realy irritating... the class time changed from 8am in the morning to 3pm in the afternoon - basically scewing up most of the plans for my week. I'm wondering if I should add/drop classes instead so that my week's time-table won't be so messed up :S

First day!

Officially the first day of Inter-Semester.... first class - Social Psychology... starts in 10 mins... *ooh* see ya'll l8er!

That was my little ride - the little Red Honda Wave 125cc :)

Another pic that sendy took - thats me... err look so fat! :P

Thanx Sendy, for this pic - sorry i wasnt able to print the pix for u :( Send me your address - I'll send u a nice 4R collage!!!!

Thursday!

Class is almost over and I'm sitting in my little corner blogging... just learnt that my group's presentations have been the most sought after, being highly praised and rated by our lecturer! Woohoo! Hope that the members in our group (Group 4) will all score A's in this course! The presentations are all about the New Testament books of the bible (Introduction to the New Testament).

It's been a pretty tiring day and I'm looking forward for tomorrow to come (TGIF day) cos it'll mean that the stressful week is almost over! This class ends on Sunday and we'll be celebrating by heading out to Sunday market for a celebration on Sunday night - courtesy of our lecturer Dr. Khamsay! Yeah!

Lets see what I need to get done by this week...
1. Wash my bike
2. Clean out my room
3. Complete my term papers
4. Take Doca out on a date
5. Register for classes
6. Read my book (I got it at a discount used book store in Chiang Mai) - The Miracle Strain (Michael Cordy)

Lets talk about the book that I'm reading at the moment... in a sentance, it's a psychological/religious/scientific thriller. There's some brotherhood of the second coming of the messiah who needs the help of Dr. Tom Carter who's the world's leading geneticist. Dr. Carter is desperately trying to find a cure for his daughters fate - brain tumor that is inevitable. The brotherhood needs Carter's help to identify the Messiah and offers him a chance to look into the genes of God...

Yeah, that's the best I can do for a summary of the book that I'm reading at the moment. I'm gonna stop here... Kishen's doing his presentation and it's rather interesting - talking about the original writings of Paul (manuscripts).

UPDATE! :D

Played basketball and man, did I have fun! heehee :D played 3 games and though the team I was on lost three times, we still had fun... yay :) haha weird~

Reading Reports

Reading reports have been driving me nuts these past few days. Reading bout 400 pages a day and reporting on them - contrasting 2 books and having to summarize them before giving a reaction that should be twice as long as the summary with a conclusion at the end... man... it's insane, but it's what you've got to do to earn 3 credits in a week. Tests every single day too - i'm burning out! *faint*

I just finished my reading report for tomorrow and I am so tired - just emailed it in to my lecturer... *phew* - big sigh of relief! Watched MI:III today - pretty good show! Hoping to catch the Da Vinci Code soon. I downloaded the High Definition Trailer - it's fantastic! hehehe... the girl's kinda cute too.

Well, that's it I guess... I'm gonna hit my bed now - uber tired from the long day. 8 - 5pm of studying again tomorrow + presentations and tests :( sigh... I'm glad that it's gonna end this coming sunday, being the last lesson. Take care ya'll! I'm still elated that my results were excellent! Gonna be on the Dean's list! WHeEeEeEEeEEEee!!!

Day 5: Thursday 18th May 2006

We're on the train on the way back to Bangkok and then up to Muak Lek, Saraburi, where Mission College is at right now. The day was pretty long and we had quite an adventure today.

The day started with us having breakfast at Paddy Field hotel, Arak Road, Old City of Chiang Mai. We'd decided that since we forgot to go visit the hill-tribe village, we'd go up Doi Suthep again, past the Wat, past the King's Winter Palace and to where the villages were.

Doca taking a big bite out of her food!


We went up Doi Suthep, with Vivian at the back of Espy's bike with Sendy and Doca and I on the other bike. We stopped at a waterfall on the way up and had some pictures taken :)




The ride up the mountain was pretty normal and nothing that was out of the ordinary but it was getting colder, more wet and slippery. The wide two way road became a narrow lane that did not have a kerb, plain tarmac that slithered through the dense forest. Visibility wasn't that great with clouds obscuring our vision.

About 4km after the King's Winter Palace, on that little winding road, there was a fork - one led down (steep) and one went up (steep too!). We decided to take the road that went up to a Hmong Village that was supposed to be some 7km from where we were at. About 1.5km in, Doca and I heard someone scream and Doca looked behind and saw that Espy's bike had spilled! I quickly turned the bike around and went down to them, checking to see if anyone was seriously hurt. We've all gotta thank God that no one was seriously injured, just minor cuts and abrasions from the fall. The bike survived pretty well, getting away with only a broken right mirror (which was replaced when we went down). Espy and I carried the bike back up and set it right - and Vivian got onto my bike for the rest of the journey up.

Espy and I getting the bike back up. Sendy's picked herself up and moving over to Espy to see his wounds. Doca's moving to look for some stuff to clean the wounds.


The ride up was slow and with much caution cos the roads were uber slippery! We finally reached what seemed to the the top and had to get off and walk the rest of the way because the tarmac became mud...


We walked for quite a ways, probably 2km in the dense forest trail... fog, cold and a slight drizzle and reached a camp site... it wasn't a village... it was a camp site. There, we found a sign that said that the Hmong Village was another 3km into the forest on a really bad muddy road. We weren't prepared to walk the whole way and we turned back. It started to rain pretty bad up there on the mountain and we took refuge in a little hut for the Park Ranger. We waited for about 10-15mins and then decided that we had to get down. The time was already around 3pm and we were all starved, not having eaten since breakfast!

The buffet house was the place we dined at again and well... Doca, Vivian and I had an experience driving in a big carpark and then at a multi-story motorcycle carpark! It was SO fun! Don't have pictures of the place but man, it was a real interesting experience!

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That's the end of our Chiang Mai trip :) Hope you guys enjoyed reading all this... I really did enjoy the holiday! Naka's and Nako!!! Take care :D

Fantastic Results!

I'm like totally elated! Checked my results today and my results were fantastic! My GPA went up and so did my CGPA! 3.6! WOOHOO! :D Feeeeeeeeeeeel the smiles? hehehehehe

Day 4: Wednesday 17th May 2006

Day 4 of the Great Chiang Mai Trip saw all of us (Espy, Sendy, Vivian, Doca & myself) plan to head up to Doi Suthep, a mountain 1.68km in height that is closest to the city of Chiang Mai. It's only less than 8km from the city itself! We got our bikes (I got a red Honda 125cc street bike and Espy got the blue one (semi-auto step-through gear shifting type) and 'cute' green helmets that made us look like VIETCONG - according to my gf who's Vietnamese. Well, it was about 11am after we'd had breakfast early in the morning, washed up, planned our trip and decided that we would:

Drive up to Doi Suthep

Visit the Doi Suthep Temple

Visit the King's Winter Palace

Visit a mountain hill-tribe village

Of all these we only managed to fulfill the first three because we literally forgot that we wanted to visit the mountain hill-tribe villages! Dang! Well, we went up from outside of hotel, helmets on and passengers loaded.


The ride there was a little interesting... I went off-course because we aren't really supposed to have three people on a bike. I saw cops and freaked out so I missed a turn where there were the men in green (police in thailand wear green - a yucky moss green color). We later found the right road thanks to Doca who asked someone along the street and were back on track towards the mountain! There's Doca and Vivian (at the back of the bike that I was riding.


We finally reached the top of the mountain (not really the top... but the place generally regarded as the summit cos there's a big market there with stores and the temple) and took a picture there - check out the clouds at the back of us. In the background you can see a red colored pickup truck - those trucks there are the taxi's. You pay them anything between 20 - 60 baht to take you to places - cheap travels. They're the same as local taxi's back in Singapore in the fact that you have to flag them off from the road. The main differences are that you don't have air-conditioning and you have to speak to the driver and settle on a price before you set off - there's no meter.


Espy and I face off at the carpark area :D


The Wat (Temple in Thai) at Doi Suthep is really really really high up - a super long staircase to get up. We opted the lazy man's way of getting up and down by paying 20 Baht to get onto the 45 degree elevator up the slope to the temple! hehehehe :) At the top, we were treated to a very nice temple - gold plated! Woo :D


We then headed up about 6km up the mountain from the temple to the King's Winter Palace. It was supposed to be good - nice palace grounds with a huge garden that was a sanctuary for over 300 species of birds and i can't remember how many species of plants! We weren't disappointed when we arrived there - very nice place to have photos taken too! NO KIDDING! Wedding pictures here would be a blast! We spent our tie there taking some pix of ourselves. haha!











We were feeling so hungry after that so we decided to leave - forgetting that we had wanted to visit the mountain hill-tribe villages that were up in the mountain! How silly huh? Well, our stomachs led the way and we headed down the mountain towards Chiang Mai city again. We were riding down to Chiang Mai when I saw a big sign saying "BUFFET 79 Baht!" WOW!! I stopped and the 5 of us dug into extremely delicious Japanese and European food!


There's Vivian outside the store, posing with the sign that I saw!


Doca's enjoying herself here! So much sushi and its ALL U CAN EAT!!!


After the meal, we went our separate ways again - Doca and I then headed down to the National Museum of Chiang Mai, hoping that it would be a good experience. Turns out that the place had hardly anything and all we got was a shot of Ganesh, the Hindu God (Son of Shiva). We didn't go in cos the brochure they showed us was horrible... we decided we didn't want to waste our time there. Doca is wondering why we didnt go in.


We then headed to Pantip Plaza cos I wanted to look for some software We ended up eating at the burrito house! Nice burritos and enchiladas!


It was around 4pm I think, and we decided to go driving around. We visited Chiang Mai Lotus before meeting up with the guys at the night bazaar again where we had some food at a restaurant called "Fatty Restaurant" - notice that pic? That dude is carrying a big ball of fats... yuck!







The food at Fatty's wasn't that great so after that, we went our ways again and Doca and I explored the little lanes... finding a VEGETARIAN FOOD OUTLET!!! We popped in and man.... so cosy and cool! The food was GREAT too! :D











That's the end of day 4 :)

Chiang Mai Trip (continued)

So I've posted up the first 2 days of the trip - quite a lot already right? Here's more...!

Day 3: Tuesday 16th May 2006
The day started with Doca & I going to the zoo - it was a lot of torturing walking! Walked so much and so far, up higher and higher and higher we went. The zoo is built into a mountain side... so you can kinda imagine the walking we did.








After the zoo, we were both so tired that we just slept the afternoon away. So tired! Too much walking. My legs were aching, that I do know! When we woke up, it was almost time for dinner... lets see... the zoo was like almost the whole morning and afternoon - I don't think we ate lunch cos we were so tired! Well, we dressed up to go shopping! Doca wore her new skirt that she got the night before at the night bazaar! We hopped into a red taxi and went to the Central Airport Plaza.



This was where I got a pair of jeans for my brother Jeremy :) Nice jeans!!!


Here's the store where I got myself and Jeremy some boardshorts and tee shirts! Oh yeah! Great bargains!


Doca standing all dolled up with nice shoes (i got em that nite too!! so cheap! heehee :P) n all outside the taxi.




We had indian food for dinner later that evening after walking a little more at the night bazaar! Nice cosy place with excellent indian food... uber nice :D so filling too! Nice ambience eh?


Eating air...


Eating more air...


FOOD!! GLORIOUS FOOD!!


Cheap 30min foot massage at the night bazaar for the aching feet!


Thats the end of the 3rd day :)

My Chiang Mai Trip!

Day 1: Sunday 14th May 2006
Doca & I decided to skip the princess' arrival on campus cos we were gonna take the train first~ Well, our trip started with us reaching Future Park (Rangsit) near the airport/train station kinda early. Ended up sitting at starbucks surfing the net (wireless access at starbucks). That's Doca chatting with her friends at starbucks!

After that, we left and went across the road to Major Cineplex... we wanted to bowl but ended up doing nothing. We had some food after that :D Check out the really colorful pix!


I kinda wasted some money... 50 Baht playing some catching game and I didn't manage to catch anything! Watches and stuffed toys! So evil... designed to make it look easy but NO way!!!

Here's the bowling alley we were at - but all the lanes were booked so we couldn't bowl.

A view from the section between Don Meuang Airpot and the Don Meuang Train Station

The train station!


The train FINALLY arrives!!!

Here's the food that we got on the train - it's the night snack! Cakes n orange juice!


Day 2: Monday 15th May 2006
We were on the train and it was morning! Such a long night sitting and my back was aching really bad... a look out the window was cool~

We finally arrived at the train station and were greeted with a very COOL surprise... literally. We weren't prepared for the very cool weather at Chiang Mai. Outside temperature was around 26 degrees Celcius! Indoors was cooler! GEEE - we didn't bring any warm clothes :S

Doca decided that we should walk to the Old City where the hotel the 5 of us would stay is at. We started walking and crossed the Ping river.

Finally we reached the hotel - we took a taxi half way cos it was so far... hehehehe

Some pix of the first day :)





A very funny "Do's and Don't's" sign.

We had japanese food that evening! Yummy! BIG BIG bowls! Bigger than our heads!


THe night bazaar was after that :D YEAHHH!!!


OKAY... more updates later :D