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Timberwolf

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  1. Timberwolf

    Photography

    By Timberwolf,

    Some of you may know that I have been dabbling in photography for a few years now. 
     
    Before I get too far, let me start off at the beginning.  I remember as a kid, back in the late 70s, way before there was digital photography, when you actually had to get your film developed to see what your pictures looked like, I got this little camera for my birthday.  It was a little instamatic, similar to the picture you see here on the left.  The film was in these cartridges like you see on the right. You had to open the back of the camera, insert the cartridge, close the back, and spin the dial until it stopped, then you could take your pictures.  You couldn't open the back of the camera until you used up all the film because it would ruin the pictures you already took.  I think I might have taken about five (5) rolls of pictures, which I don't think I ever got developed. I remember taking this camera on a school field trip to Fort Snelling, and I took maybe two (2) rolls of pictures while I was there.
     
    In the early to mid 80s, my parents got a polaroid, similar to the one on the right, but ours was all black, and I played with that a little bit, not really very much.  One of the things I loved about this camera is that the pictures didn't need to be developed and you could see the picture within minutes of taking the picture.  I thought this was the coolest things I'd ever seen.
     
    It wasn't until about the mid 1990s that I used another camera, and that would have been some of the disposable cameras, like the one seen on the left.  One of the great things about this style of camera was that I didn't have to spend a lot of money on a camera.  I could just stop by one of the local convenience stores and pick one up as I needed, and when I was finished, I could just take it to the local developing center and have it developed in something like an hour.
     
    In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I got a digital camera as a free gift when I ordered some coffee from a coffee company.  I ordered the coffee because I wanted the coffee beans and the grinder.  I didn't know I would get a digital camera with my coffee, so when I opened the coffee box, I was pretty happy and excited to see the digital camera.  There was no display, no zoom or anything special, just a basic point and shoot digital camera and you needed to plug it into your computer to get the images off of the camera.
    I didn't really know a lot about taking pictures at this point, I just pointed the camera in the area and pressed the button.  I didn't think too much about it, like I said, I would just point and shoot.  It wasn't until I moved to Thailand and was with @hirondelle.  When hirondelle and I were getting ready to go to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat, where hirondelle took most of the pictures, but I played around a little bit with the camera.  
    It was during this time, that I kind of started getting pretty serious about taking pictures.  I didn't know a lot about taking pictures back then, so I would just point the camera and press the button.  In 2008 hirondelle and I did our first bike trip, I've written a whole blog post about this before, so I won't do that now, but on that trip I started playing around with our camera more, and I started pictures in what I call wonky angles, but photographers call Dutch angles, which is a picture that isn't exactly square, or at an angle.  Some people like this, some people don't.  hirondelle suggested not taking so many pictures like this, but she also told me about framing my pictures and about what I should look for when taking a picture.  From that day, I started looking at things differently.
    In 2013, @icewlf came to visit us for the first time.  While he was here, we went and looked at a camera shop, and icewlf got me interested in taking pictures again.  So I took some of the things hirondelle taught me and icewlf added to that, so I started looking more and more at framing my pictures better and getting better angles and trying different things to highlight different things in the picture.  
    My favorite picture that I took when hirondelle and I went to Krabi in October 2014, during my schools break, we went to Railay Bay West in Krabi, Thailand.  This was our second time going to Krabi.  One day, we were sitting down watching the sun set and I was shooting some pictures, trying to get some good sunset pictures, and I saw this couple standing on the beach being all lovely, and I wanted to try and capture them with the sunset and the sea, and the picture to the right is what I came up with.  
    One of the things that I loved about this camera is that I could take panoramic pictures.  I could set the mode on the camera to panorama and then point at one side I wanted a panorama of, hit the button and move the camera while I took the picture.  You just had to make sure not to go too fast or too slow and to keep it in a straight light. Below are some of my attempts at doing this.














    After this, I started playing around with hirondelle's Pentax Km DSLR camera.  I'd never played around with an SLR or a DSLR before, so this was like a huge learning curve.  It was a lot of fun learning, and I took some really good pictures.  This was the first time I was taking picture in RAW format.  Prior to using the Pentax, I could edit images and pictures in FireWorks, but now I needed to learn how to use Photoshop, this was another huge jump for me.  If I can find the pictures I took with this camera, I'll make sure to share them here.
    Around this time, I started trying to take better pictures with the camera on my phone.  I started applying the principles that hirondelle taught me to my phone, and mixing in a few things that I had picked up from watching photographers like Fro Knows Photo, Some of these pictures turned out really good.
    My next camera, the one I use now is a Nikon D5500.  I got this in 2016.  This is my first DSLR camera.  When I started taking pictures with this camera, I set the file type to jpeg, and then I started following a photographer that strongly suggested that people should show in raw format, so I started doing this.  When I started shooting in raw, I needed to learn Lightroom.  One of the problems with shooting in raw format is that the images take so long to edit.  I could easily take 100 or more pictures in just a few hours.  For example, when we went to Lincoln this past year and I got to meet hirondelle's friend, I took over 300 pictures during the day. This doesn't sound like a lot of pictures until you go to edit those pictures.  I can get lost in editing photos so easily, peaking and tweaking all the little things, and I can edit one picture four (4) different times in four (4) different ways.  I can see if I'm doing pictures professionally and getting paid to do these pictures, but these are just for fun, and I just don't have the time to edit these pictures that much, so starting this year, I've changed my Nikon to take JPEG Fine pictures.  I'm excited about this as I won't have to do as much editing of the pictures. Below is a gallery of some of the pictures I've taken with this camera.
    I've also been trying to better pictures with my current phone, which is an iPhone 8+.  I've been really happy with a lot of the pictures I've been taking with my phone.  I've been more particular with what I'm shooting and trying to make sure I have it framed better.
    Well, I think I've bored you enough with my photography talk.  I plan on taking more pictures this year, so let's see what happens.
    Always Remember:  Always take the tie to do the things you love.
  2. Timberwolf

    Playing Hockey

    By Timberwolf,

    In 2016, I was approached a couple of hockey players here in Bangkok, Thailand because I did a podcast about watching 2 hockey games here, titled Bangkok Ice Hockey League:
    They asked me if I wanted to be involved with a new ice hockey league they were starting called the Siam Hockey League (SHL), and be their official podcaster.  All I had to do was let people know what was going on with the SHL and do a few interviews with the Player of the Game.  Well, I ended up enjoying being at the rink so much for the hockey that I happily did so much more for them.  I also go the bug to play again, so in 2017, when I went back to the US to visit my family, I decided to pick up some gear so I could start playing again.  I actually did a podcast about this as well:
    Things have been going pretty good.  I've took on a bigger role with the SHL for the second season, which I enjoyed, and I was playing shinny (pickup hockey) every week that they had it.  I was invited to play in their Land of Smiles Old Timers tournament for the Flying Farangs.  What is really cool about this is that @hirondelle has been wanting me to play for the Flying Farangs since I moved to Thailand.  We did OK in the tournament, nothing big, but we didn't lose every game, and the team that won it, we did pretty good against them, so not too shabby. 
    I was then invited to play in another tournament for the Flying Farangs in Pattaya, which was a 4-on-4 tournament.  That was a lot of fun.  We took second place in this tournament, and we ended up playing the best team in the tournament, the Pattaya Predators, in the last two games.  We beat them the first time we played them by getting into their head and controlling the game.  In the second game, they got into our heads and won the game.  Oh well.  There is always next year.
    After this, I was invited to play with the Flying Farangs again, this time in a charity tournament to raise money for a player, from one of the local teams, that was injured in a motorcycle accident.  This tournament was six games spread over 2 weeks.  We won all but one game, which is a game we tied.  This was also a 4-on-4 tournament.  Their were only two bad things about this tournament.  (1) Was that it was so far out, (2) was the ice was really bad.  Very soft and very wet.  If you played in the first game, it wasn't so bad, but if you played in the second or third game, it was really wet.
    Around the time of the charity tournament, the Bangkok Ice Hockey League (BIHL).  I was asked to play for a team called Bunteng which means "to have fun".  The BIHL is run kind of odd.  All the teams (this year there were 10, last year there were 12) are split into 2 divisions, chosen at random.  The teams in the individual divisions play against each other.  After this, the teams are reorganized into the divisions with the better teams in the top division, and the not so good teams put into the lower division.  The teams play the the teams in their respective divisions for the remainder of the regular season.  Then the teams are split into three divisions for the playoffs.  Last year, Bunteng took third place in Division 2.  This year, thought we didn't have a stealer season, we had an OK season.  We lost every game in the first portion of the season, won two games and tied one and lost one in the second half of the season, which put us into Division 1 going into the playoffs!  Now we lost both games in the playoffs and took third place, but that is a huge improvement from last season.  My goal for this season was that Bunteng didn't place worse than they did last season, which they didn't.  Now, I'm not saying this is because of me, but they didn't do worse because of me, so that makes me happy!  @hirondelle recorded every game she was in for, and you can fine them at Dom Dumais Does Hockey.  After the last game, the captain of Bunteng asked me to play on the team next season.  I don't know if I will be asked to play for any other team, but I think, because Bunteng took a chance on me, so I think I will stick with them.
    Another big thing hat happened with me and hockey this past year was that the Flying Farangs decided they wanted to start traveling around the region again.  There was a tournament in Manilla, Philippines.  I was asked to play with the Flying Farangs again for this one, which I was more than happy to do!  We did OK in this tournament, but we didn't win any trophies.  We just had fun.
    For me, one of the be big things about the Pattaya, Thailand Tournament and the Manilla, Philippines Tournament was that the coach had me playing forward in both of these tournament.  I'm not a forward, but it was a lot of fun.  In the Pattaya Tournament, I took a few face-offs, which was aa first for me.  I even won a few.  In the Philippines Tournament, we were playing on Olympic sized ice, which is bigger than North American ice, which was also a first me.
    All in all, I've been having a lot of fun since I've come back to hockey, and I plan on playing for as long as I can now.
    Always Remember: If you feel the bug to do something old or new, give it a go.  You just may love it!
  3. Timberwolf

    Polyamory

    By Timberwolf,

    Tracy and I have made some changes to our life and relationship over the past six months.  Well, I would say more in the past year.  Let me start from the beginning.
    About a year ago, Tracy and I decided to explore our kinky side a bit more.  In doing so, we joined a kinky community to get to know others that were already kinky.  We did some research and found out that there was what's called munch.  Basically, a munch is a place for people to meet up at a normal place, like a bar, pub or restaurant.  It's a place for people to feel comfortable and chat about things and get to know each other.  The community was very welcoming, and we met some really interesting people.  Not long after the event, Tracy and I went to England on holiday.  When we got back from England, we went to a couple more munches before we were invited to a party, which wasn't even a kink play party, it was a welcome back party for a friend of the community, at a house of one of the members of the community.  So we arrived, and we were welcome with open arms by the host.  Everybody was very friendly with us, and we made some really good friends that night.  One of those friends was somebody we reacquainted ourselves with, which was Stef.  Of all the people in the community, we started to develop a close friendship with Stef.
    Over the next 6 months, Tracy and I started talking about maybe opening up our marriage, or more to the point, inviting a woman, and try a threesome.  One of the most important things, for the both of us, was that the person we decided to try this with really needed to be attracted to the both, not just me, and not just Tracy, but both.  The one person that we thought would be good for us, if she liked us, was Stef, because we had already built a friendship with her.  During a birthday party at Stef's house, Stef approached me and let me know that if Tracy and I wanted to, she would like to play with us.  A little later in the night, Stef also talked to Tracy about.  She told us how she thought both Tracy and I were cool and how much she liked us.
    After the party, Tracy and I went home and we talked about it a little bit.  Both of us were quite excited by the idea, but we made sure not to make any decisions then, and went to bed and let things settle in our head.  The next day we talked about it off and on, and decided that would like to try it.  I contacted Stef, and we made a date.  The original plan was that we were going to have Stef come to our place, but we had some issues, and we moved the date to Stef's place.  We arrived, and Stef's, and had dinner just chatted for quite some time.  Don't worry, I'm not going to give you all the gory details or the play by play.  Let's just say that we had a really good night and if anything, it brought the three of us closer.  Over the next few days and weeks, we talked about it, and decided that we wanted to do it again, but this time, do a weekend thing.  This time, Stef came to our house.  We went to a restaurant near us and had a lovely dinner and talked a lot.  We went back to our place and chatted and got closer.  We spent Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday morning.
    About mid December, I found out that Tracy was going to Hong Kong for work during my birthday, and she asked me if I would like to go, and then a few days later, she asked if we should invite Stef, so when we went to a party at Stef's place, early in the night, we asked Stef if she would join us in the kitchen for a moment, and asked her if she would like to go to Hong Kong with us.  This was a big step for us for a few different reasons.  First, Tracy would already be in Hong Kong, so Stef and I would fly out together.  Second, Tracy would have to stay in the hotel her work paid for on the Thursday night and work on Friday, so Stef and I would spend the night together in the hotel together, alone and part of Friday together alone until Tracy could join us later in the evening.  Stef loved the idea agreed.
    Christmas was fast approaching, and Tracy and I wanted to spend it with Stef, so we asked her if she wanted to have Christmas with us, and she accepted, and we arranged another multi-day.  On Christmas Eve, we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Bourbon Street, which does a Cajun Style Buffet which is just delicious.  Sadly, they made a mistake and didn't have our table that we booked, but they made up for it by putting us in a private area, so it was just the three (3) of us, which was really nice.  After dinner, we got a taxi back to our place and opened gifts.  We spent Christmas Day together, just relaxing and played a really interesting game.  On the 26th, we had a nice breakfast and then Stef went home.
    Also, we weren't just getting together for dates.  If there was a munch or a party, or an art night or something, we would see Stef at these.  Stef also wanted us, and those close to her to meet her parents.  This was a big step for Stef, because although her parents knew she was polyamorous they hadn't met everybody together at one sitting.  We got to meet them and they met everybody and we had a lovely dinner and chatted and got to know them.
    The following Monday, Tracy was off to Hong Kong, and I had until Thursday to get to get things organized in my head to go to Hong Kong with Stef on the following Thursday.  I got approval from my school to leave after lunch on Thursday, so I could take care of any last second things, and at 4:00 pm, I headed off to Makasan Station to meet Stef, and we boarded the Airport Rail Link and headed to the airport together.  Once we were all checked in, we sat down for some snacks and beers and Stef gave me my birthday card with a lovely picture in it.  We boarded the plane and off to Hong Kong.  Once in Hong Kong, things were a bit hectic as we had to find the hotel, but it wasn't too bad, and we checked into the hotel, went to the room relaxed.  The following morning, Stef and I went out and about, and I won't go too much into the Hong Kong trip as you can read all about it in the blog post titled Special Birthday Gift.
    Next up was Stef's birthday, which we celebrated a two in one birthday on Tracy's birthday.  Stef booked a lovely dinner at the Sofitel Rooftop Restaurant where we had mussels for dinner and then we went back to Stef's place for a nice night together.  In February, we had quite a few dates.  First, as I said was Tracy's birthday, then we got together on the on the 8th, we had dinner together on the 14th, with Stef spending the night, and then we had another weekend date near the end of February after the Poly munch.  
    In March, five (5) of us went to Pattaya for a dive weekend.  It was our friend Colin and his girlfriend Emma, Tracy, Stef and I.  It was a lovely weekend and we really enjoyed it.  On March 8th, we had our 6th month anniversary, and we celebrated it together.  We also had a date on the 22nd, which was the Thai Election day, and we jokingly called Erection day.. .well, because obviously.
    When all this started out, we didn't think it would be where we are now.  I think the three (3) of us just thought it would be a night of sex, one time, maybe more if we all enjoyed it.  What we didn't expect was that the three of us would end up falling in love with each other.  It's been an amazing ride, and maybe I will right another post about it when we hit the one year mark.  I'm not sure yet.  We are just playing things by ear, and one of the most important things is that we don't want any of the three of us to change.
    Always Remember:  Always follow your heart, it will never lead you wrong. 
  4. Timberwolf

    Problems Fixed

    By Timberwolf,

    So, we recently had some problems with a few of our themes after we updated.  For The Lodge, Fancy Pants and Gamer Nerd to be specific.  The problem was, if I had one of them set as a default theme, and a member wasn't signed in, they got nothing but a blank page.  We didn't catch this right away, because we are always signed in.  We don't know how long it went on because nobody let us know that it had happed unfortunately.  Now we understand that people are busy with their real lives, so that's not a problem.  I would like to thank @Cyrainfor bringing it to our attention.  With working with the theme developer, we finally got The Lodge and Fancy Pants all sorted.  We're still waiting on Gamer Nerd though.
    Please, if you notice anything isn't working the way it should, bring it to our attention right away so we can fix it as soon as possible.  
  5. Timberwolf

    Roller Hockey

    By Timberwolf,


    Sports
    As you all know, I’m a hockey player.  I’ve written quite a bit about it here in this blog, so I’m not going to list all the blog posts, but a brief history, I grew up playing hockey, I stepped away when I was eighteen (18) years old and started again when I was forty-six (46) years old.  I play for the Flying Farangs, a foreign traveling team located here in Bangkok, Thailand.  We play in tournaments in the region, in Bangkok, and against the Thai Men’s National Team.  I also play for the Lion State, which I played with for two seasons before I had my knee surgery.  I’ve also played ball hockey a few times at the British Club as well.
     
    This past year has been great!  Back in September, I stepped back on the ice and started to prepare for a hockey tournament that was coming up in November.  This was the first real hockey I’ve played since before my knee surgery.  We ended up losing all our games on the first day, but we won all our games on the second day and ended up taking first place in our division.
     
    When I was recovering from my knee surgery, I wanted to go roller blading, so I took my skates to a local park where I used to skate before, but they stopped me and told me no skateboarding.  So, I never got to go skating, so that sucked.
     
    Then, on 03 July 2021, a friend of mine contacted me and asked if I was interested in playing roller hockey.  Of course, I was interested.  I’ve been wanting to play hockey again; I’ve never played roller hockey and I wanted to play roller hockey since the first time I got roller blades back in the 90s.  What do I need to do?  He put me in touch with the organizer, who happened to be a guy that I played hockey with one time and chatted with.  He told me what I needed to play, roller blades, gloves, shin pads and a stick.  I added a cup to the list, because you know, you must protect the family jewels!
     
    So, on Sunday, 04 July 2021 I packed my gear, and drove to the place.  We played on a futsal court, which was great as it had a center line, face-off dot, goal circles.  I think the guy that organized it made the nets for us to play.  So, the week before, they used a ball hockey ball to play, but a few guys decided to bring street hockey pucks, and a few of us were using these to warm up.
     
    Once we got started, it was pretty faced paced, and the dark team (not my team) scored an early goal.  That wasn’t so bad, but it didn’t take long for them to score their second goal.  Damn!  That was quick.  Next, we were taking the ball up the court and I didn’t see anybody open, but I did see that I had an opening on the net, so I fired a shot at the net, and buried the puck in the net.  Awesome!  The game went back and forth with both teams scoring goals.  About halfway through the game, we made a new rule, no scoring from the far side of the center line, which was cool.  Made us work a little harder, but no big deal.
     
    It was such a great night!  I had such a blast, and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves.  So much so that we are planning on doing it again the up-and-coming Sunday.  I can’t wait!
     
    Always Remember:  If you ever get the chance to do something that you’ve always wanted to try, give it a go!
  6. Timberwolf

    Social Media

    By Timberwolf,

    So as of today, I've re-added The Northlands to Facebook and Twitter.
    Here is the link to the Facebook page:
    https://www.facebook.com/thenorthlands/ 
    Here is the twitter page:
    https://twitter.com/TheNorthlands 
    Also, if you look in your profile, you have the option to link your Facebook account and/or your Twitter account.
    Have fun!
  7. Timberwolf

    Special Birthday Gift

    By Timberwolf,

    This year for my birthday, Tracy decided to do something really special for me.  See, Tracy's work was having her go to Hong Kong for a work.  She would have to fly out on Monday the 14th, and she asked me if I wanted to fly out on that Thursday, my birthday.  I'd never been to Hong Kong, but it's one of those places I wanted to visit.  I was really excited about this. 
    After we had agreed on this, Tracy asked me if I would be OK if we decided to invite our friend, Stef, to go with me.  So Stef would fly out with me on Thursday night, and we would spend the rest of Thursday night together, and half of Friday, until Tracy finished work in the afternoon, then we would spend the rest of Friday together and all of Saturday and fly back together on Sunday.
    I was all for this, and excited, and Tracy told me she was also very excited about this, so we decided to bring this up to Stef.  When we brought this up to Stef, she was also very excited about it, which made it more exciting for us.
    So the big day arrives.  My birthday.  I finished work early, and headed home to do the last minute things I needed to do before I headed to the airport.  At about four o'clock, I head out for the airport.  On the way there, I met Stef, and we went to the airport together.  While we waiting for our flight, we had shared a couple of jogs of beer and she gave me a lovely birthday card.
    Next up was flight to Hong Kong.  It's not a long flight, only about two and a half hours.  Once we got going, I started watching the movie Papillon (2017).  It was a really good movie, but I didn't have time to watch the whole movie, but I got to watch the last part of it on the way back.
    We arrived in Hong Kong at about 10:30, and made it to the trains before they stopped running, we eventually made it to the area of our hotel, then we had to find our hotel.  LOL.  Quite an interesting journey at that time of night, but it was fun walking around Hong Kong at that time of night.
    When we got up on Friday morning, we headed out to find breakfast.  We walked around Hong Kong for a bit, enjoying the city for my first tie, taking some pictures of interesting things that I saw.  We finally found a place for breakfast and had a really good breakfast.  After breakfast, Stef and I decided to walk around Hong Kong some more so she could show me around Hong Kong as it was my first time.  We saw some really interesting shaped/styled buildings.  There was this one that looked like it would topple over if there was a strong wind.
    I also saw this building that looked like it was made of puzzle pieces, which was really cool.
     And next to this building was a gold building.
    In our wanderings, Stef took me to Hong Kong Park which has some really cool things.  In the outdoors bit, it had some ponds with waterfalls, but then they also had this conservatory in the park.  In side this conservatory, they had some really cool things and a few funny things.  They had a few different rooms areas.  One of the areas was the arid area, and they had these funny little statues in there, which I had to take pictures of, you can find those in the Hong Kong 2019 Gallery.  Outside, we got a closer look at the ponds and waterfalls, and they flowed from one pond to another.  At the lower ponds, they had koi fish and so many turtles.
    After we finished at the the Hong Kong Park, we wandered around Hong Kong a little bit, looking for a bank so I could change money from Thai Baht to Hong Kong Dollars.  All the banks we went to wouldn't exchange the money for me unless I had an account with them.  We did eventually find a currency exchange so I could change my money. 

    It was about this time that Tracy messaged us to let us know that she had finished work and that she was going to go to the hotel that her work had booked her in, check out and meet us at our hotel, so Stef and I hopped onto the tram and headed back to the hotel.  One of the cool things about the trams in Hong Kong is that they look so old.  It's like thrown back about 40 years or so.  Once we got back to the hotel and met up with Tracy, we brought her suitcase up to the room and headed out.
    There was a "Christmas" fair that was going on, but it had been extended to Chinese New Years, so it was still going on when we got there, so we decided to go and check it out.  The fair was situated near the ferris wheel that Hong Kong has which is like the London Eye, the only difference is, it isn't big enough for you to stand up in and you are supposed to remain seated for the whole ride.  I took quite a few pictures from the ferris wheel that you can find in the photo gallery for this blog post.
    After the ferris wheel ride, we decided that since we are at a fair, we needed to get hotdogs and beer, so we found a stand where we could get hotdogs and a different stand where we could get beer.  The bad thing was, we needed to buy tokens to get the beer and the hotdogs, so we went and bought tokens and had beer and hotdogs.  Well, Stef and I had beer, Tracy and a soda.  
    After this, we had some extra tokens so we wandered around looking for things to spend our tokens on.  We found one of the rides, I think it was called White Water Rafting or something like that.  Each boat had four (4) seats, which was perfect for us.  It was a lot of fun.  After that, we decided to head off to get dinner. 
    We decided to have dinner at this Brussels restaurant that mussels.  It was my first time having mussels.  I decided to go with a spicy one that had chorizo sausage, and they were delicious.  Then we headed back to the hotel.
    For Saturday, we decided that we wanted to head over to Kowloon.  To do that, we had to head across Victoria Harbor, so we decided to take the Star Ferry.  I don't know if you know the movie Chungking Express, but it's a movie about this place in Kowloon that is like this apartment complex, with everything you need just in there.  It's actually a really good movie, so it was pretty cool to see the real place.
    While we were in Kowloon, we wanted to check out a couple of sex shops.  I've been to a few in the States, and a few in the UK, so I thought it would be interesting to see what one was like in Hong Kong.  It was packed full of things, and not as spacious as the ones I've been to in the States or in the UK but it was pretty cool.  So many different things.
    After the first shop, we stopped and had lunch, then off to a stationary shop.  Can't pass up a good stationary shop and this was supposed to be one of the best in Hong Kong.  Wow!  Did that have some stuff.  Everything you can imagine stationary wise, for art, Legos, teaching, for learning, games, pens, you name it, it had it!  It was huge.  Like seven (7) floors.  Incredible!  I ended up buying Tracy her birthday gift there.  
    Next up, we decided to find what was a really highly rated shop in Hong Kong, but on the way I saw this, which has lots of rope and lots of bamboo, oh the things I could do with this!   Once we found the shop, it was in a little mall, but it wasn't really that great, but we did see another one, and that was a bit better.
    Once we were finished there, we hopped on the underground and headed back across the harbor to head up to the Peak and have dinner.  We had made a booking through the hotel so we needed to get back.  We hopped into a taxi and he took us up the Peak.  We were a little later than we wanted to be, so we didn't get to explore the Peak very much, but we the view of the night skyline of Hong Kong with the mountains overhead was just incredible!  Then we went to the Peak Restaurant.  I decided to have a steak sandwich that was delicious.  
    Another great day in Hong Kong, so after dinner, we headed back to the hotel for the night.
    Sadly, that was our last night in the hotel, and in the morning, we packed things up and headed for the subway to head to the airport.  For my first trip to Hong Kong, it was amazing and I have to thank both Tracy and Stef for an amazing birthday.
     
    Always Remember: If there is some place that you really want to see, make sure to make the time to it.  You won't regret it.
  8. Timberwolf
    Tracy ( @hirondelle) and I have been doing a lot of talking about when we move to the States, and things are just messed up to say the least. First, we are having an issue with getting a mortgage, which I touched on before in a previous blog post. We can't get a mortgage until I've moved to Minnesota and I've got a job. I can't get a job until I move to Minnesota. Our contracts aren't up until September. We can't move until our contracts are up, as we don't want to break the contract because the British Council will pay for the move, or at least a good chunk of it, including flights. So that's just kind of funky right now and more on that later.

    Just last week, we had some really messed up issues at work, and policies need changed, but they won't be changed, and this guy was really kind of a little kid about the whole thing, and just made it worse for himself, and decided to take off for the weekend, so I had to pick up an extra class, which is good for the money, but hard on a Saturday as I already teach 6 hours of kids that day, so it ended up being 8 hours.

    While this is going on, Tracy ( @hirondelle)comes to a conclusion about the whole move thing. I should move out early, get a job, get THE house, and she will ship everything out to me. That really kind of threw me for a bit of a loop, and I was kind of upset about it. I don't want to leave her for a month. Hell, the two weeks she would take to go to England were hard enough. This will be at least a month. Well, the more I thought about it, the more I've come to realize, it's actually better that way. But, it's still stressful.

    25 June 2009

    Today we find out that it looks like I will have to leave around August - September time and Tracy ( @hirondelle)won't be able to come out until after Christmas, because of the processing for her visa and everything. One of the nice things though, is that it looks like she will be able to work when she does come out.

    And on top of all that, I didn't think about doing my taxes, as I haven't been living in the U.S., so I didn't really think about. I knew that I had to do it, but I figured I could just get it taken care of once we move back. Well, I have to have it done before I leave. So, that's about 4 years of back taxes. The nice thing is that I don't make a lot, and the earned income tax credit for living over seas, if I read it correctly is over $87,000.00, and I am no where even close to that. Oh well. I will be going to a tax lawyer on Monday to check it out.
  9. Timberwolf

    Sukhothai Motorcycle Trip 2022

    By Timberwolf,


    Travel
    @hirondelle and I had been talking about doing a trip to Sukhothai for quite a few years, but we never actually sat down to plan it.  Mostly, because my schedule is pretty busy.  This year, I ended up having a five (5) day weekend, so we decided to go for it.  
     
    Now, before we get started, to give you an idea of how far this trip actually is, it was just shy of 851km (just shy of 529miles) round trip.  That’s about 425.5km (264 miles) to Sukhothai from our home.  We decided it would be best to break this up over two days, which is something we would normally do.
     
    One more thing before I get started with this journey.  Once we got started on this journey, for our first stop, we stopped at a PTT gas station and almost all PTT gas stations have an Amazon Café.  Amazon Café has OK coffee and good iced lemon tea.  But it’s one of those things that is just special for when you travel.  It’s a nice little rest area.  They have a covered area outside that you sit and relax while you have a break, and some locations have an inside air-conditioned area to relax in as well.  This has become our favorite rest stop in all our journeys since this trip.  
     
    Just to put things into perspective, when we used to do our road trips around northern Thailand, we would go from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai to Chiang Saen to Thaton to Chiang Dao to Chiang Mai, about 565km (351 miles).  The trip we did right after we bought the Honda Rebel was Bangkok to Kanchanaburi to Sangklaburi to Saiyok to Nakhon Pathom to Bangkok which is 699km (434 miles).  So, this was our biggest journey on a bike to date.  
     
    When we were planning, we decided that would we stop in Nakhon Sawan, which is about four (4) hours out of Bangkok, 239km (149.5miles).  One thing that happened early on, when we made one of our stops, we realized that @hirondelle had forgotten her phone.  There was a bit of a panic at first, but we decided that we would just continue on without it.  Also, during this portion of the trip, we were on a nice stretch of road where the traffic was flowing quite nicely.  There was a section that I was doing about 130kph (81mph).  While doing this, there were a group of bikes that passed us and not thinking, I just picked up the pace a bit.  Before you know it, I was cruising along at 147 kph (91mph).  It was at this point, I decided to let go of some of that throttle and we continued coasting at between 120kph (75mph) and 125kph (78mph).  We stayed at a nice hotel there called The Paradiso JK Design Hotel.  Once we stopped, we headed to the local mall to get some drinks and snacks and then back to the hotel.  We had dinner at the hotel, which was some delicious Thai food.  They also had a very good breakfast, which was nice.  The staff were really friendly and helpful.  
     
    After breakfast, I packed up the bike and we headed out for our next stop.  Sriwilai Sukhothai Resort and Spa.  This portion of the trip was a little over 3 hours, 190km (118miles).  There were some scenic bits of this road, which was nice. Nothing too fast again, just cruising between 100kph (62mph) and 120kph (75mph).  We pulled in to Sriwilai Sukhothai Resort and Spa in the early afternoon.  Sriwilai Sukhothai had this amazing lily pond, which was huge!  They had four building that surrounded it, one of which was the building we were in.  Once we got to our room, @hirondelle relaxed for a bit, and I went and had a massage.  One of my favorite things while on holiday.  Once that was done, we had dinner then headed out to Sukhothai Historical Park to see the ruins at night.  It was supposed to be amazing, and it sure didn’t disappoint!  It was beautiful and we got some amazing pictures.  After we wondered around the lit-up parts of the park, we headed back to our resort.  In the morning, we got up and went to have breakfast, and that turned in a big pain in the ass.  We went to the restaurant, gave them our room number, found a table, and went to get our food from the buffet.  They approached us and said we couldn’t eat there.  There was some confusion about us having breakfast there.  Long story short, there was some mess up in the booking and we didn’t book breakfast and ended up having to pay for it.  Whatever.  We then went back out to the historical park and had a look at it during the day and took a lot of pictures.  It’s really cool.  Some of the best ruins in Thailand, in my opinion.  We then went to this lovely little restaurant the was kind of dead, and once we sat down, people started coming in and giving them business.  After lunch, we headed back to the resort and got massages and finished off the day with a nice dinner.  
     
    We got up in the morning and headed back to Bangkok, with us deciding to stop in Sing Buri, which was almost five (5) hours, 281 km (175miles) from Sukhothai.  We booked a room at Zen Garden Resort.  Oh was, was this place bad!  The room they gave us smelt like feet, didn’t look very clean, had no food or restaurant or anything.  We were almost tempted to stay there, but in the end, we just couldn’t do it.  We left and found this amazing little resort called Je t’aime café & villa.  They had four (4) rooms.  Of course.  Room L, Room O, Room V, Room E.  We had Room E.  They had a nice little restaurant there, and we had dinner and ordered our breakfast.  The only bad thing was that the beds were so small, but we did sleep together in the same bed.  
     
    We had a lovely little breakfast in the morning and then packed the bike to head to Bangkok, which was just shy of three (3) hours, 141km (88miles).  The last stretch is always the worst.  You want to stop, and have breaks, but you don’t want to stop, because you’re almost home.  It’s so hard.  We took breaks, but I think we just didn’t rest enough, and the very last bit was agony.
     
    Outside of the last little bit, the trip was actually really good.  I really enjoyed making that trip on the bike.  Makes me want to do more long trips on the bike.
     
    Always Remember:  If you really want to go someplace, set time aside to go.
  10. Timberwolf

    The Email

    By Timberwolf,

    Dear Telenaz,
     
    Do you remember that café we met in?  I remember it like it was yesterday.  Akram, Fadhil, Baravan, Zamanlabib and I went in there for a drink after our football match.  We were so excited and happy.  We had beat the club from Taji.  This was the third time we’ve played them this year and we finally beat them.  We couldn’t believe it.  Fadhil and Baravan each scored a goal for us.  We were causing such a racket because we had won.  Then you walked in with your friends, Dleen and Kayoosh.  As soon as my eyes found out, I knew you would be the woman I was going to marry.  I just needed to find out who your family was, so I could convince your father that I was the right man for you.  When you looked at me, and our eyes met, my heart just stopped.  You owned me with your eyes.  You game me such a sweet smile. 
     
    I went back to the café the next week in the hope that you would come again.  I had almost given up when you walked in.  This time you were only with Kayoosh.  You looked at me and smiled again.  I stayed and drank so much chai while I watched you and Kayoosh.  You would sneak glances at me when she wasn’t looking.  It was so exciting.  When you got up to leave, you signaled discreetly that you would be back the next week.  I hoped you would come alone so I could talk to you. 
     
    The next week, I sat with my chai and waited for you to arrive.  As soon as you walked through the door, I was so excited.  You looked so shy this time, but then I noticed that you didn’t bring any of your friends.  I asked you if you would like drink, and you asked for a sharbat.  I stood up to walk over to the counter, and I tripped on the table.  I was so embarrassed, but you didn’t laugh, you were concerned that I was OK.  Thank you for that. 
     
    Telenaz, I remember how we sat and drank our sharbat and talked about our families.  We talked about our hobbies.  I remembered how interested you were in football.  I remember how you asked so many questions, wanting to understand it.  I remember asking you about the books you read and the stories you wrote.  I remember asking you about all the characters.  They were so interesting.  You knew the entire life of all of the characters in your stories.
     
    As we sat in that café, week after week, we started writing stories together.  You challenged me to create characters that weren’t simple.  You challenged me to create characters that were like real people.  You taught me how to be creative.  I remember teaching you how to play chess.  You never really liked it very much, but you played it with me while we talked and talked. 
     
    We talked about our future plans.  We talked about what we wanted to study at university.  What talked about what we wanted to do with our lives.  What we wanted to do with for our families.  As the weeks went by, our dreams started to include each other.  Going to university together.  We talked about what it would be like to spend our lives together.  We talked about what I would need to do to convince your father to allow me to take your hand in marriage. 
     
    I remember the day I had to tell you that I was drafted into the army.  Our chai was filled with the tears we shed.  Do you remember the promises we made?  We promised that we would wait until I finished my tour of duty.  It would only be two years.  We could wait that long.  That wouldn’t be a problem, two years is such a short time.  Then I would have saved some money and I could approach your father and ask for your hand in marriage.  We hugged each other close, wanting to kiss, but we knew we couldn’t, not just yet.
     
    I left the next day for basic training.  In my pocket I had that picture we took together.  Through my sixteen weeks of basic training, we wrote emails to each other every week.  Our emails filled with love and promises. 
     
    As my basic training was finishing, we promised to meet at the café again.  Oh, how I looked forward to seeing you again.  Those sixteen weeks seemed an eternity, but worth it for the money I saved while in basic training. I remember as I walked down the lane to the café.  My heart filled with so much love and excitement.  Did you feel the same?  I believe you did.  My heart tells me you did.
     
    Oh, my Telenaz.  Did you hear the rocket coming?  I heard it.  The sounds made me stop in my tracks.  I couldn’t move.  Then I saw our café explode in and outward spray of rubble and dust as the world was shattered by the explosion and I was thrown to the ground by the concussion.  I stumbled through the rubble to the whole that was our café.  Nothing but broken bits of stone, wood, and massive amounts of blood.  I was covered in blood as I worked my way through the blood looking for any sign that you might have been there, hoping you had not.  Then I found the remnants of your scarf.  That’s all I could find.  My world died that day my Telenaz.
     
    I went back to my command when I could find nothing of you.  I needed to know what happened.  Who had attacked us.  A civil war had broken out between the Christians and Yazidism.  I was so angry with what happened to you, that I had to beg them to let me go to go to the front lines.  I needed to revenge you.
     
    Things were very chaotic at the beginning of the war, and we lost quite a few people at the start, but we did start turning things around.  After 6 months of being in a regular solider, I volunteered for Black Division, which is our special forces division.  I had to go through 3 months of special training.
     
    Once I finished my training, I was immediately sent out to make my first kill.  I thought this would be very hard, but I remembered what happened to you, and I found it quite easy.  Because of what they did to you, I found it very easy to kill.  I very quickly moved up the ranks.
     
    It has now been two years since I lost you.  I found myself back in our town.  It has changed so much.  So many buildings have been destroyed.  I found myself walking down the road of where our café was.  I found the space that was once our café.  All that’s there was a couch, a brazier.  Most of the rubble had been cleared away.
     
    I decided to have a sit and relax.  My phone vibrated so I had a look.  You can imagine my surprise when I saw that I had received an email from you.
     
    Are you alive?

  11. Timberwolf

    The Northlands 4.0

    By Timberwolf,

    OK, so I have been asked a few times why we decided to bring NL back.  Before I do that, I'd like to take a moment and talk about the different stages of The Northlands.
    1.0 Northlands Fantasy and Northlands

    Northlands Fantasy was first started after one of the many nukes at Fantasy Essentials (FE).  A few members from FE and myself were a little tired of that and how the members were treated if they questioned what happened, of course that caused people to phuk with him more.   This is why Northlands Fantasy was created.  During it's life,  @hirondelle and I were kind of chased away from the boards when I moved out here to Thailand.  While we were away, the lovely @Moonhawk was one of the people that did what he could to keep Northlands Fantasy alive.  Thank you brother.  When hirondelle and I came back to Northlands Fantasy, we decided to do a few nice things for our members, and we reskinned Northlands Fantasy and renamed it Northlnads.  Shortly after that we created the next version The Northlands 2.0. 2.0 The Northlands To continue to show our members how much we loved them and appreciated them keeping Northlands Fantasy alive, we decided to purchase a domain name.  We looked at Northlands, but it was taken, and The Northlands was suggested, and we liked it, so we went for it.  We (when I say we, I mean hiro was looking, and I was waiting for her to make a decision) looked at the different types of board software that was available at the time.  The two main candidates were vBulletin and Invision Power Boards (IPB).  Hiro did a lot of research about these boards, and I remember her  explaining to me the difference in the two different types of software.  One of the things that she loved was the way the profile page looked in the 2.8 version of IPB, it was a look the vBulletin didn't have.  So we decided to go with IPB.  The next step was to try find a decent look for the new board.  We ended up finding this person that made skins (they are now called themes) by the name of Fleshy, and we loved the way a number of her skins looked.  We ended up getting four (4) skins, if I remember correctly, our names for them were The Woods, Serenity, Winter and Twilight (which I used to create the 18+ skin when we had one of those).  Then we lost everything when we moved to a new host, and started back over at 1.0.  We ended up bringing everything back to 2.0 and we found another great skinner by the name of Dragonfly, and she built some beautiful skins, which we got quite a few beautiful skins.  Over the years, I got tired of how some things kept happening that I just didn't agree with and it all finally came to ahead, and I decided to make a change. 3.0 The Northlands (blog)   When everything came to ahead, I made some big changes.  The Northlands (forum with a blog) stopped being and I changed it to The Northlands (blog with a small forum).  With this, I had a number of other bloggers as well as hiro and myself.  The little forum that I had was a little clunky and plain, but it worked.  Once I did this, I was never really happy.  I missed the community that we had on The Northlands (forum).  Yes, I wrote some blogs while there (all of this is at NL Archive), and other wrote quite a few blog posts, it just didn't feel like home any more and I ended up going back there less and less.  I was pretty upset with what had become of The Northlands. 4.0 The Northlands (forum) One day, on Facebook, I got a notification that Invision Power Systems (Invision Power Boards) had changed their facebook page name to Invision Communities.  This prompted me to go to their website and have a look.  While doing that, I had this longing for The Northlands that was our home, not what I had made it become.  I saw a theme (what used to be a skin) that I thought would be perfect for The Northlands, which I sent to hiro, and she loved it as well.  This made us start talking about maybe bringing The Northlands back, and we actually started getting excited about it.  The more we talked about it, the more we got excited about bringing it back.  After about two (2) days (if that), we decided we were going to do it.  This is what you see today.  
  12. Timberwolf
    Before you start reading this story, I do have to make somethings very clear.
     
    This post is very very NSFW Like my other stories, this work is pure fiction The characters in this story are both willing participants This story, in no way, shows that I think men are superior to women.  I fully believe that men and women are equal in all aspects of life and should be treated as such. As this story is NSFW and adult in nature, you read at your own risk, and as such, you cannot hold the writer responsible for your reactions. Feel free to comment and discuss after you have read.  

    “Remove all your clothes my pet”, he said as he looked into her in the eyes.  With trembling hands, she lifted her top up over her head, she unbuttoned her jeans and pushes them down her legs, reached behind her back and unhooked her bra, and paused.  She then looked down and removed her bra, and slowly pushed her panties down her legs.  “Kneel pet”, he said sternly, as he continued to look intently at her.
     She slowly got down on her knees.  He took the long five strides to her slowly.  To her it seemed an eternity before he reached her.  He placed his hand on the top of her head.  Slowly he slid his hand down the side of her face and she leaned into his hand.  With the tips of his fingers, he lifted her chin to look into her eyes.
    “You have been too long out of your collar”, he said as his brought his other hand out from behind his back her collar in his hand..  “Present for me pet”, he said.  She moved forward onto all fours, pulled her shoulders down to expose her neck more as she kept her eyes on the ground.  As the collar went around her neck, she felt her heart race and a warmth start to rise in her lower belly.  As he slid the strap past each hole, the collar tightened around her neck, the heat between her legs rose and a mew escaped her lips.
    She hoped he didn't hear it for she knew he would punish her for it.  She hoped he did hear it for she knew he would punish her for it.
    Once he had the collar cinched into place he stood before her.  “Have you been bad my pet”, he asked her.  The tone of his voice told her that he already knew the answer.
    She kept her eyes lowered. “Yes Sir.  I was a bad pet”, she said with a tremor in her voice.
    “What did you do my pet,” he asked.
    She knew he knew.  She couldn't get out of this one. In a whisper she said “I took..”
    “What!” he said sternly, the anger rising in his voice.
    “I took a.....”
    “WHAT!  Speak up pet.” He growled at her.
    “I'm sorry Sir.  I took another man’s cock into my mouth and I enjoyed it”, she cried.  She heard more than saw his feet walk off to the side of the room, heard him grab something off the table.  She waited as he feet moved closer to her again, stopping right in front of her.
    “You will be punished for this, pet”, he walked behind her out of her site.
    She tried to brace for what was to come.  She waited and waited.  When nothing happened, she relaxed a bit, then before she knew it, she heard the whu and the loud crack of leather hitting flesh, then she felt the sting on her left ass cheek.  Whu again and she felt the leather bite into her right ass cheek.
    He paused to let her catch her breath.  He could see the quick expansion and compression of her ribs as she recovered from the smacks.  The redness already glowed on each cheek.  He slid the paddle over her cheeks as he stroked her back as he watched her breath start to slow.  With a quick flick of his wrist, the paddle again bit into her ass, he stroked her cheeks again and then snapped the paddle into her other cheek.  He could now hear her whimpers.
    “You more than enjoyed his cock in your mouth, didn’t you pet”, he said.
    She nodded, “Yes si….”  whu, crack, whu, crack.  Whimpers escaped her as she fought to catch her breath again.
    He stroked her back again, slid the paddle over her cheeks.  His pants were tightening around the hardness of his cock.  He slid the paddle between her legs, turning it to force her to open her legs more.  He brought the paddle back up and stroked it across the wetness of her lips.  She moaned and swayed her hips at the touch.  Whu, crack. “Why do I do this my pet?” he asked.
    “Because I am such a slut Sir,” she whimpered, her head down.  Whu, crack.  She jumped a little at the sting, a moan escaped her lips.
    “You enjoy sucking cock, don’t you pet,” he stated, more than he asked.
    “Yes Sir.” Whu, crack, whu, crack. Her body bucks as an orgasm rips through her body responding to the pleasure pain she has received from the spanks.
    He moved back around front of her, undoing his pants, pulling out his hard cock, slowly stroking it.  “Show me pet,” he commands her.
    She quickly moved forward and reached out to take his cock in her hand.  She stroked it, rubbed it against her face…. kissed it…. licked it….., eventually she pulled it into her mouth, working it in and out while she stroked it with her hand, keeping one hand on the ground to maintain her balance.
    “Mmmmmm, that’s such a good pet,” he growled at her, as his hips start to move back and forth with the actions of her mouth and hand, causing her to moan in pleasure at being told she is a good pet. 
    Before he lost too much control, he pulled himself from her mouth and moved around behind her.  He positioned his cock at the wet opening of her pussy, easing just the head in.  He then grabbed her hips and pulled as he thrusted deep into her. "Now beg pet."
    “Oh God yes Sir.  Fuck me hard!” she screamed as he drove into her again and again.  The passion of them both rising higher and higher.  “Aaahh!” she cried hoarsely as her excitement crested and her body started to orgasm, spasming around him, which caused him to thrust deep into her as his own orgasm ripped through his body.  They collapsed to the floor as their bodies shook and trembled, coming down from their orgasms, both making unintelligible sounds.
    As they started to come down, he stroked her side as he kept his body pressed against her.  “I hope I didn’t hurt you my pet.”
    “No Sir”, she said as she pressed her body against him more.  “Thank you for taking care of me as you do Sir” she said, and he kissed her neck.
     
  13. Timberwolf

    Timberwolf - Losing Weight - Week 3

    By Timberwolf,


    Weight Loss Update
    OK, so here I am, three (3) weeks from my blog post Losing Weight - Week 1. 
     
    The reason I didn't do a blog post last week, is because I was on holiday in Koh Chang with @hirondelle, and some friends.  
     
    The good thing is that I haven't gained any weight.  I'm holding steady at about 237 lbs.  I've also started doing Sun Salutation A. 
     

     
    Now, I'm not doing them every day, but I am working towards that.  At the moment, I'm doing 5 in a row when I do them.  I did them for the first few days when I started, and then I didn't do them while we were on holiday, and then I did them a couple of times since we've been back.  Not enough, but it's a start.
     
    Always Remember:  There is no failure, there is just a new starting point.
  14. Timberwolf
    Some of you may know this, but @hirondelle recently "retired" from her position as Academic Manager at the British Council, and she really needed to relax, so we had decided to take a trip to Pai, Thailand for a few days. Everybody here has talked about how great Pai is, and neither of us has been there, so we decided why not.


    Now we've both heard all kinds of things about Pai. One was how relaxing and beautiful it is, and another was how openly people smoke weed there, so we kind of figured we would see people walking down the street or sitting in the coffee shop/restaurants smoking. Much to our surprise, we never saw it. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let me start from the beginning.


    We decided that since Friday (today) was a public holiday and @hirondelle didn't have to work at all this week, we would leave Chiang Mai on Sunday and drive to Pai and stay there until Thursday. On Sunday morning, we go and have breakfast, come back home and finish up the packing and load up the bike. We got started at about 12 noon. We turn onto Highway 107 and it's a fairly straight road once you get out of the city and just start cruising along. It's a nice stretch of road once you get outside the city. No sharp turns, just straight road with nice sweeping bends so I can open the bike up a bit, which I love doing when I can. After about an hour, I turn onto our next road, which is the road that leads to Pai. We stop to have a bit of a break, because the road looks a little twisty and it goes through the mountains, so we stop at this little shop and relax a bit before we continue on.


    To say that the road looks a bit twisty is like a huge understatement! From Chiang Mai to Pai, they say there are 762 bends and curves in the road. All this with going up and down mountains. After about an hour we had to take a break again, because it was kind of getting to us. So we stopped and had some coffee. When we continued on, we had to stop again after about an hour because not only was the road twisting and turning, Thai drivers like to try to pass you on the bends and if another car/truck is coming, they tend to move over, so you either get pushed off the road or have to fall back quickly! The place we stopped had a great view, so that was nice and we relaxed some more and calmed down a bit. Also, on the way to this stop, there was this couple that pulled out in front of us and after little while, they started weaving all over the road and looking over their shoulder at us. As I got closer, I could see huge smiles on their faces, but the way they were driving, I thought it best we pass them at the next passing point. As we are passing, they start waving at us and asking where we are from. I yell back that I'm from America and they yell back ... "I love America!!" which was really cool. When we stopped at the next place with the great view, they rode by on their bike and waved. When we were back on the road again, we saw that they had stopped and were taking a break and we beeped and waved at them. When we stopped just out side of Pai one last time, they passed up and beeped and waved again. It was a lot of fun.


    We found Spa Exotic Home, a place that a friend of ours recommended to us. They have a round bathtub with hot water from a local hot spring, so the first thing we did was have a bath together. It was really nice. But, the place looked like it had seen better days. The porch outside our front door, the wood looked rotted to the point where I might fall through by just walking on it. The screens didn't quite seem to fit the windows, and there was no AC. There was just a fan the blew straight down on the bed. The driveway looked like it used to be really nice, with nice brick work, but it hadn't been maintained, and it was all muddy. Our friend told us that it had a nice restaurant and the Lonely Planet also said it had a nice restaurant. When we checked in, I asked what time they started serving dinner, and they said the they didn't have a restaurant any more. So we had to head into town to get something to eat, which was OK.


    When we rode into town, it had just got dark, which is normally no big deal, but there were no street lights, the road wasn't very wide and in poor condition with a lot of curves and hills, and we were a good distance from town. When we did finally get into town, we found this great little Italian restaurant that made great little personal sized pizzas. After dinner, we decided to walk around and look for a place that served fresh coffee. While walking up the road, we ran into two of my old students (a mother and daughter) and they introduced us to the husband and brother. That was really nice. We found a really nice coffee shop on a corner, and there were a few parade like things going on, so we got to see them. We decided to buy some shorts, because we figured we might decide to wade in one of the many hot springs in the area. The ride back to Spa Exotic Home was a long dark ride. We decided that we would try to find a place closer to town in the morning.


    The next morning, we had an OK breakfast, and bad instant coffee. We headed out to find a place that looked like it might serve at least decent coffee. We found a place named Pai Best Friend's Coffee [sic]. The coffee there was really good. And right across the road was a really nice place to stay, called Pai Baan Thai Resort, so we decided that after coffee we would walk over and see if they had any rooms available. As luck would have it, they did, and we booked a room for the remainder of the time we would be in Pai. And the nice thing, the town was right down the road, not far at all. We headed back to Spa Exotic Home and checked out, and I explained that we decided to stay closer to town, and the lady at the desk was OK with that.


    After putting our things in the new room, we decided to relax some, and play some cards. After awhile, we headed into town to try and find a place that gave foot massages, and scout a place for dinner. We found a decent place and got a foot massage and then walked around town for a bit. We found a place for dinner for later that night, and decided to walk on and find a place to have coffee. We found this great place called Cake Go "O" that served great coffee and had the most amazing cakes!! While sitting there enjoying our coffee and cake, I saw one of our Teaching Assistants coming down the road on the back of a bike with this really shocked look on her face. She didn't see us though, and the look on her face was so funny. Her and her friend continued on down the road, and we finished our cakes and coffee. After we finished, we walked back to the bike and headed back to the room and play more cards until it was time for dinner. We had dinner at this nice little middle eastern restaurant, and as we were finishing our dinner, the Teaching Assistant the we saw earlier (New New) saw us from across the road and ran over to say hi and see how we were doing. We talked a bit and then walked around town again. Pai is a great town to just walk around, mainly, because the town is small and there are so many strange and interesting different characters. We found this place that looked like it would have decent coffee, so we stopped and had coffee, which ended up being really bad, because they put sugar in my coffee and didn't tell me. It was nasty!!


    The next day, we had breakfast and went across the road to have coffee at Pai Best Friend's Coffee, but they didn't have any power because there was work being done on the power lines down the road. So we decided to head into town for coffee and had some OK coffee at a nice little place. After our coffee, we decided that we were going to ride around and look for this massage place called Pai Traditional Thai Massage (PTTM), that the Lonely Planet raved about, which is also a traditional Thai massage school. We found it and decided to have a traditional Thai full body massage which was for two hours. OMG, it was amazing! And they worked out a knot that @hirondelle had that she didn't realize she had from when her back was hurting. It was incredible. We felt so relaxed afterwords! We decided that we should have Thai food one night, so we ate at the resort and they made the Thai food Thai style, which I love! I hate when they Westernize Thai food, because they take out all the chillies. God it was so good. After dinner, we went back into town and decided to walk around and find @hirondelle a necklace. We found a little place that had some hand made necklaces and we got one for @hirondelle and one for a friend of ours. They are beautiful necklaces.


    The next day, we decided to find the gas station, so we knew where it was for when we were ready to leave and I can fill up the bike. @hirondelle wanted another Thai massage, and I decided I wanted an herbal massage. I'd been hearing rave reviews about how good the herbal massages were, so I figured I would get one at PTTM. Another great massage! After our massages, we wanted coffee again, so we went back to Cake Go "O" (one of our favorite coffee places in Pai) and we saw more people from work, so we walked over and said hi. That night we had dinner at Amido's (the great little Italian restaurant) again. They ave really great pizza! We walked around town again, and we found some T-shirts for me and one for our cleaning lady, and finished the night off with coffee at that nice little corner coffee shop again.


    Thursday was time to head back home, so we had breakfast, packed up the bike and went to Cake Go "O" for our final coffee in Pai. Fueled up the bike and headed back to Chiang Mai. Lots and lots of curves, with Thai drivers passing going through the mountains again. We stopped at the nice look out place again, and stopped at the nice little coffee shop and then at the little road side shop for a final stop before we got back onto 107 and back to Chiang Mai.


    Once we got back onto 107, I got the bike upto 110 km/h and was cruising down the highway when this guy on a little bike decided he was going to meander across the road and wobble from one lane to the other, giving us a fright. From that point on, I kept the bike at about 100 km/h and played passing tag with a sungtao with the back full of westerners smiling and waving at us.


    All in all, it was a great and relaxing trip, but it was nice to come home and have Fon, our cleaning lady, drop off Spike, so the family could be home together again for the first night back.
  15. Timberwolf

    Update

    By Timberwolf,

    So, just to keep you all in the loop, when we started NL 4.0, we were on IP version 4.2.4.  There has been an update that consisted of security patches.  I have installed the update, so if you encounter any issues (outside of appearing to be logged out) please either post them or send me a message. 
    Happy posting!
  16. Timberwolf
    Hey all, I'd just like to keep you posted on what's going on with The Northlands. I will continue to post an update in the Forum News area, but I will also post in here.


    To start with, I've updated the blogs. The software for the blogs is supposed to be more streamlined and runs smoother and fit better with IP.Boards 3.1.4. If I see anything that is totally amazing going on with the blogs, I will let you know.


    Also, I tested out a thing that put the Active User list (who's online) over on the side tab. It didn't really look right there. Everything looked all crammed in, and it really looked strange looking at the bottom of the page and not seeing the Active User list down there. So, I just removed it.


    Now, About a month ago or so, I added a facebook like button to the bottom of threads. I told you about that before in the Forum News area, and we had some issues with the image that was being sent to facebook. Well, I've gotten that sorted out, and I've added another button to the bottom of the page (see image below):


    On the left hand side, you see the facebook like button, and now on the right, you will see the tweet button so know you can tweet a thread if you like it.


    There is still the one thing I talked about before, that I'm still working on, that will make things smother for signing in from the main page. We're adding what's called IP.Content, which is like what we have now, but it's fully integrated with the board, so we won't have the issue of people trying to sign in like they did before. And everything will be linked, and it will pull information right from the board and things like that. That's going to take a lot of work, but I'm really looking for to working with it.


    There is also a lot of things I'm looking at from the Invision Power Community, but you will just have to wait and see what's coming with that.
  17. Timberwolf

    Welcome To My Fat Ass

    By Timberwolf,


    Welcome
    Welcome to the NL Community blog that is focused on helping our member with losing weight and their struggles with with weight.  All are welcome to make blog posts and comments, all that we ask is that people are respectful to each other. 

    In this blog, we can talk about what exercises we are doing, our eating habits, our triggers, or anything that surrounds our weight loss.
     
    The most important thing is that we support and encourage each other in this journey.
     
    Thank you,
     
    @Timberwolf
  18. Timberwolf
    Well, it has been awhile.  Yes, I wrote a story a few days ago and posted it
     
     
    and I've posted here and there trough out NL.  I figured I should write a blog post and let people know what's going on with me.
     
    Back in April of 2017, I went to the States to visit my kids and my family.  Before I went back to the States, I really got the urge to play ice hockey again.  Now, just to give you an idea of how long it's been, the last time I played competitive hockey was back in 1989,.  Since that time, I had skated 1 time since then, and that was on February 16, 2016 when Tracy and I went to the little sheet of ice at one of the local malls here in Bangkok, Thailand, (see video below), and it was a lot of fun. 
    Then on August 20, 2016, Tracy and I went to Central Grand Rama 9 and we saw 2 games put on by the Bangkok Ice Hockey League (BIHL).  I did a vlog and a podcast about it back then.  It was a lot of fun.  Granted these players weren't superstars, but some of them were pretty good.  It was a lot of fun.
    From this, I was contact by a couple of members from the BIHL, they were getting ready to start their own league, which was the Siam Hockey League (SHL).  I met with the president of the SHL, John, and the treasurer, Christian.  We sat down and discussed what they would like me to do for the SHL. 
    What they wanted me to do at that time was to talk about what was going on with the SHL in my podcast, and come out to a few games and interview players.  I ended up doing a 10-20 minute news show about the games that happened over that week.  I also went to every game and interviewed the player of the game after the games.  I had so much fun doing this, and I got to know quite a few of the players.  By getting to know these guys, and watching them play, it really spurred my desire to play again.
    Then April of 2017, I went back to the States to visit my kids and family, and I decided to pick up hockey gear while I was there.  When I got back, I started playing in the Thursday night shinny hockey, which is pick up hockey for those that don't know what shinny is.  This was a lot of fun.  A lot of the guys were happy to see me put the pads back on.  My first game back was pretty rough, but I get a little bit better all the time.
    During the off season of the SHL, their Admin guy moved from Bangkok to Singapore, so they asked me if I would like to take off these tasks, which I jumped at.  I would continue doing my interview and news show.  I also have updated their website and kept track of their stats.  I would also be doing the score keeping for the SHL.  
    While things were getting ready for the SHL to kick off, I was contacted by the organizers of the Land of Smiles Tournament, a long running tournament here in Bangkok.  They have teams that come from all over the world.  They wanted me to interview the player of the games for the games that I could make it to.  And then, on the Saturday of the tournament, they asked me if I would make a some announcements, which I was happy to do.
    Once the SHL kicked off, I found it I was a lot busier than I expected I would be.  The second season of the SHL is winding down, and although I've been pretty busy, I have enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to doing it again next season.  Also, during the SHL season, one of my friends in the SHL, Lance, asked me if I was interested in playing ball hockey.  I did this a few time, but I found it difficult with how much I was doing with the SHL, though I do plan on starting to play ball hockey again.  
    During my time playing shinny hockey, one of the guys I played with, Ob, he asked me to be on his team in the BIHL next season, so I'm really looking forward to that.  Also, the Flying Farangs have asked me to take care of their website as well, so I've been doing that.  LOL.  I just keep adding more and more things.  But, the SHL's season is winding down, so I'm finding myself with more free time again, so I can come back here, which, for me, is always a good thing.  
    Well, I think that's about all, though I'm sure @hirondelle will come by and remind me of a few things, which I will add edits for.  LOL.
    Always Remember: If there is something you think you might be interested in, you should give it try.  You never know, you just might love it.

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