Tales of my life

It's holiday time!! Just sat for my last exam yesterday. Got to say that this exam season has been the least stressful one ever and that's with working on project at the same time and having Jerica around for the whole study week (had the most fun time and I'm expecting you to come back here pretty soon!! ;) ). So big thanks to all those who took some time out to pray for me. YOU are the greatest!!

So right now, I'm experiencing sore arms and legs. Was dancing the night away last night choreographing a dance for GoldRush. Make sure you are at the Every Nation Community Centre, this Friday, 7.00-9.30 pm. Let's say for now there will be some spinning, flipping, dipping, kicking and a whole lot more. Had so much fun making the dance. It'll be amazing!! Alright, and i'm off for another round of practise. Remember people, Friday, be there..

By the way, church was awesome today!

After church the other day, Josh came up to me and ask if I would like to be there for his baptism. It's difficult to express how I felt at that moment. Honored, joyful, happy and proud. Yeah, a mixture of those and alot more.

So it made me think, it doesn't take much to make me happy. Here's a few things that would make me smile..

• seeing friends I walk with grow to be a better person (what a great investment!!)
  
• a simple acknowledgment (recently a friend thanked me for all I've done..guess what, it made my day!!)
• hugs from friends that cares for me
  
• a smile from a friend sitting at the other side of the hall
• a word of encouragement

I need to stress that I don't do the stuff I do expecting people to repay me in some ways. Even if it goes unnoticed, it really doesn't matter.

So tomorrow we're driving out to the Waimakariri River(picture) and I get to witness a brother make a public proclamation of the love and saving grace of God and the life he has choose to live!

Congratulation to three gorgeous ladies on their graduation. Very honored and proud to be part of it =) Take note of those beautiful flowers ;)

p/s: glad I don't have a gf.. Flowers are expensive!

So I made it.. :)

This was what i went through last week. 6 assessment due in 5 days, one after another, among which are a 3000 word work report, 40% design assignment, 2 test worth 20% and 25% each and the designing and modelling a go-kart suspension system ready and fit to be manufactured (can't wait for race day!)..

After quite a few late nights in uni, reality sinks in and I came to the conclusion that this is not doable.. Amazing huh, how at your lowest point God picks you up and takes care of everything. Thats when the bible verse in the previous post (see below) really came to life for me. Indeed I came to a point where I gave up and surrendered it all to God. The sense of peace is just indescribable.. As days pass, all of a sudden things aren't that difficult anymore.. I mean it's not like i just don't care and let God take care of it. But rather than feeling like jumping in front of a car everytime i cross the road, it all seems very manageable. It was still hard, but it helps knowing theres a big guy covering your back ;)

Now that the madness is finally over (for the next one week at least), I'm looking forward to a good rewarding break. Maybe the next few days would be just relaxing but i'm looking forward to building relationship with people, going into the wild and exploring the unknown (Abel Tasman here i come!!YEAH!!) and futsal! All that stress should give that ball a good beating..better if it ends up in goal (hopefully not anyone's face or bum)..Sadly it'll be all work again after that but i'm gonna enjoy my holiday! Oh and also I'm borrowing Nisarg's PS2, so swing by to hang out if any of you are keen!

Alright, time to hit the sack. Only had 3 hours sleep last night. I miss my bed..

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!! Don't drink too much but party hard!


Oh, by the way, two more days of work and then it's holiday for me!! Looking forward to a good break and being back in Christchurch! Also I received a great news yesterday. I might be able to work on something very close to my heart for my final year project. Continue to pray hard people. Help me make a difference. =)

Time for the most anticipated moment of the week!! It's that time again when Raymond updates his blog!! (Yeah right..) Haha.. Gotta say the week has been rather eventful.

The Christmas Function was quite average. Food was ok, drinks were plenty (think the bar tab at the end of the night totaled nearly $4000) the people were average.. Haha.. Guess I'm not assimilated in the Working Adults class yet..

Working life has been good. Came to realise how alcohol is such a big part of the NZ working culture. BECA provides a fridge full of beer every week just for those who wanna chill out after work on Friday. They even have someone responsible to fill the fridge up every Friday morning. Then every once a month, theres this Young Professionals day at the pub just down the road. Someone told me its because some young working people felt that Tauranga is lacking young people so this event was started. I guess free flow of beer does draw young people.

So last week I went down to site twice! Went to Morrinsville to check a chemical storage facility and then to Waihi gold mine. Its great going to site and running way from the office. Way more fun to work in the outdoors. Also, you spend 1-2 hours in the car travelling and still getting paid for it! Haha.. I'm going to be sent to Auckland next week for two days. That should be great fun.
They gonna put me up at this hotel and I get $50/day for food. Haha, yes, I feel important.. Oops, all I've said is my treatment up there. Well, really I'll be working. Going to work with Lion Nathan. They are relocating and merging with another company. All I know is that I'm gonna go down the construction site and do some sketches and measuring some stuff. Not that I care what my task is.. all i know it's two days of holiday and I get to catch up with friends :) so people up in Auckland, I'm coming your way!

I'm beginning to appreciate the weekends more now. Climbed up Mount Mauganui yesterday and today. Haha, yes thats two days in a row. Different company so that makes it all worth it. On Friday went with Tim and some other guys. We started climbing at 8pm so by the time we got up there..it was BEAUTIFUL! The lights from the city and from ships afar and orange skys.. Simply magnificent.. Then today went up there again with Claire. Wasn't quite the same during the day but just as beautiful as well. It's nice just to do something and enjoy being around people who builds you up and encourage you. Quality fun time - LOVE IT!

Oh by the way, as a parting note, I'll leave a picture of my cuisine last week. Miss all the asian food so decided that I would cook myself a treat. Received alot of compliment about it as well. Try guessing what is it. I'm sure it's not that hard ;)

It's been a week now since I reached Tauranga. Other than the early morning starts, I guess everything has been pretty good. Been waking up at 7 every weekday now...Not that I could sleep in much longer anyways since sunrise is like 5.30.

Stuff I've done over the last week:

• been compiling a data book on a chemical filling facility. Darn thats a boring tedious job, been doing that for the last four days so today I decided I had enough of it. So today, I started going to the project manager after I did every section he told me to and ask for what should I do next on it. Haha, guess what.. After 3 or 4 rounds of that, he got quite sick of me coz he couldn't do his own work so he told me, "I guess theres really not much you can do on that anymore". Lol.. I was struggling to contain my joy and tried hard not to smile.. Hahaha.. Then I was told to check some calculation on a pressure vessel coz the number doesn't adds up and I manage to find whats wrong ;)
• Hang out at the beach with Tim after church on sunday. Man, the beach stretch for miles and what beautiful waves... Might learn how to surf if i get the chance
• Went to a small group. Quite cool bunch of people. Played touch with some of them today as well. Darn my fitness is real bad. Time to work on it

Stuff to look forward to

• BECA Christmas Function tomorrow! It's at the golf club at the Mount so should be quite posh. Free food...what more can a poor student ask for ;)
• Camping at coromandel? Well, dunno just yet. The small group i went to plan to go i think in 3 weeks time... We'll see how i connect with them over the next few weeks.
• BBQs..BBQs..BBQs..
• Probably gonna head to Auckland for one weekend soon..Would be good to visit some friends especially since its only 2.5 hours away

Well, till then... SEE YA!!

*darn..why did the bullets turn out so girly?!! Anyone know how to change that?
01/12 - bullets corrected.. thanks cy

So I’m now in Tauranga. Tauranga is a really nice place. Weather is awesome most of the time and loving the pace the city live by. Guess I’m really not a big city kinda person.

First day blunders
Work started yesterday. The Tauranga office is really relaxed. I started on Friday (yeah, weird day to start work) and it so happens to be “dress down day”. I put on a polo shirt and jeans as I don’t wanna dress too low on my first day. Some ppl even came to work in t-shirt, shorts and slippers. Thought that was pretty cool. Oh, and you also take your own break and lunch time. Being new I don’t know when is the best time to take a break so I end up not using my two 10 minute breaks. All you need to do is just fill up your time sheet against what project you are working on and the client would be billed accordingly. Kinda funny thinking the client gets billed $30-$40 for an hour of my time. Worth it you think? I certainly don’t think so! Haha..

I’m assigned under the heavy industry team. The first half of the day was pretty boring. Had to read some Work Instruction/Health and Safety thingy and fill up a quiz after that. Did two sets; safety in office and working with hazardous material. Really didn’t want to fail it so I took quite a long time answering the questions. Guess what, I got half of it wrong for the hazardous material one. Haha, but I pass anyways. Guess they pass everyone just as long as you read it up and fill in the quiz. The latter half of the day I was scanning ancient 200 pages worth of engineering drawings. Darn that was boring and frustrating since the big machine was not really in the mood to cooperate. Then I had to scan a project file. Didn’t realize some of the pages were stapled together. Guess it was getting late and I was already really tired. I lined the whole stack of document nicely on the scanner and pressed start. It end up ripping the first few pages apart. Haha… Oh well, it’ll surely get better. Apparently on Monday I’m gonna do some calculation on pipe stresses, some mixing plant project in Auckland. Got no idea how to do it, but it’ll be good. ;)

My first South African Brai
Last night I was invited by Katherine for dinner. Kat’s house is very impressive. Its located on a hill with lots of avocado trees and heaps of farm animals. Felt like I was back at my village, only that it’s way cleaner and tidier here. Those were the days, waking up in the morning and collecting chicken and duck eggs. Anyways, the main event of the night was the Brai. A brai is what South Africans call a barbecue. I just love barbecues. Think I had at least 4 in the last 2 weeks. There was this guy last night, he is just hilarious. He just reminds me how unique kiwi sense of humour is. Just can’t help bursting into laughters everytime he speaks. What a joker!

Seems like it’s going to be a good summer this year… All I need to do is just make a few more contacts at work then it’ll be sweet..