Work hard, work smart

Oops, sorry for the lack of blog posts but I've been ridiculously busy.

Being an adult grown up is difficult. Especially if you've been promoted, that's right babyyyyy! Pogi got promoted again....well it was officially set in April but I have work travel this week and next. I is now a Technical Analyst. In the I.T. system cycle I'm one of those people who has to communicate with a client, understand what they require and turn it into business processes. Bored yet?

And with that comes meeting the department heads and training, so I am here in Colorado Springs, CO, the United States of America.

This is not my first time in the U.S. but it is my first time in Colorado Springs.

You see the buildings there in the middle of the picture, that's the office. Just kidding! We're actually situated on the front range, of the Rockies. Very nice location but as per usual, like LA, the city is stretched out, so everything is everywhere, and rarely in one easy place. The funny thing though, is that everyone, and I mean everyone drives everywhere. There is no walking whatsoever. Besides walking to your car...hehehe

An odd thing about this city is that the elevation is at about 6,000 ft above sea level. Meaning the air is thinner here, which leads you to being more dehydrated and you've got less endurance for any exercise.

I speak the truth. On my first night here I woke up in the middle of the night and was dying for a drink. Luckily I had Pibb in the hotel fridge.

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I hate flying.

Why? Because my 1.25pm flight last Friday was delayed 3 times and finally took off at about 6pm. We did receive compensation, however, I already ate lunch when Qantas (hate) awarded us with a lunch voucher. I wasn't hungry or thirsty at all so I spent the money on 2 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts. ^_^

If only I flew Singapore Airlines. :/

Pogi being the definition of silly, did not have the stomach to eat any of them, and carried them on the plane from Sydney (SYD) to Los Angeles (LAX). [-_-]

Stupid aren't I?

Wearing a leg brace, carrying a laptop bag and a luggage bag, plus 2 boxes of Krispy Kremes. Stupid indeed.

Flight on Qantas wasn't too bad, but a class of highschool of American students were also on my flight. Now after watching Final Destination many times, I'm a bit freaked out and couldn't stop thinking about that movie. For the people who have seen the movie, I even checked if my tray table knob broke off. :/ Scaredy cat.

Thanks to my sister, she booked me a seat where my right (injured) leg is next to the aisle. It made my flight experience more comfortable, but not too get too comfortable incase a flight attendant with a trolley knocks my knee....which almost happened! Irresponsible old lady. hmmmmf!!

16 hrs later, I arrived at LAX in the afternoon, and since I originally missed my connection flight around midday that day, I had to wait an extra 5 hrs for the evening flight to COS.

I flew United Airlines from LAX to COS. Funny thing is, I beeped like crazy when I walked through the metal detector on my way to my domestic flight. Could it be the bolts in my knee, my belt, my shoes or my jeans (has metal studs on them)?

I was pulled into a special search section of the security group, forced to take off my belt and my shoes, luckily, not my pants. :) Then the searcher guy used a sweeper across my body several times, front and back, ,and get this, he took a swab of my hands and of my leg brace, then ran them on his illegal substance finding machine. He questioned all my gear, and was kinda scary cos he spoke softly and calmly, just like on the TV show Airline USA. At this moment, I was wondering if I was being filmed, and will appear on that show:

"In LAX, this young, Australian of Asian descent is acting suspiciously and is causing alarm on our metal detectors...."

After a 1.5 hr flight, I finally made it to COS on (their) Tuesday morning at 12.15am. *yawn* I feel so sorry for my driver, Dan, who had to wait there at the atrocious early hours of the day. But the cool thing though, is that he was holding up a sign with my name on it!

Albert Igonia

I was like, this is sooooo cool! It's just like in the movies, and it's happening to me! hehehe. So I casually walked up to him, like this situation was normal and said, "Hi, I'm Albert, how you goin'?". I wonder if I fooled him? hmmmmmz

Only sucky thing was he folded the sign and threw it away in the trash can. *cries* Missed out on snapping a picture.

And now life in a hotel begins, yay for staying at the Hilton in downtown COS. This means Pogi won't make his bed, clean up after himself and does not do laundry at all! Woohoo!!

Airplanes waiting for me to take off

LA looks so tiny

What is my plan here in COS?

To work? Maybe.
To kiss all the boss' ass? Of course.
To eat? Hells yeah!!
To shop? Definitely!

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Oww.

Here is a snap of my knee, post surgery. It has been about a month since that painful day in the hospital.

Will I get scars? EEWWWW

You see? I stayed at a hospital in Chinatown. har har har

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Food porn

Details: Maple flavoured waffles, with banana and maple syrup
Notes: Delectable! Because it was made by me!! Hei hei hei ^_*

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Annoying Office moments #32

Conversations in the restrooms - Ok, here I am, need to go to the restrooms to pee. A work colleague catches up with me and starts speaking to me as I approach the restroom, then continues to chat to me whilst I walk in, then continues to blab away whilst I'm relieving myself and finally, and even when I'm washing my hands!

The heck?!?!

Where's the privacy?

How awkward. I was silent the whole time.

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Fanx to my boo, Helena, for featuring me as her favourite on her blog.

More details of my experience here in COS, the food I ate and the clothes I bought in my next post. ^_^

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Meanwhile, I'm watching A Model Life with Petra Nemcova, which is a copy of America's Next Top Model, but instead is hosted by beauty Petra Nemcova, only difference is, Australia's Next Top Model is more entertaining. Why? Because of the bitchiness. So hilarious when they fight. hehehe

A model on the show was told to lose weight.....OUCH!! Poor girl!

Petra = Gorgeous

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Fashion

Top: Zara suit, G2000 shirt, Tag Heuer timepiece
Bottom: Dickies belt, leg brace, crutches

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Milk & me + Silly us + Gentlemanly + TV

Sorry I've neglected this but work has been keeping me busy. :/

Anyways a gift from my dear friend Grache (real name Grace, but with a silly accent, it's pronounced Gra-che!) and her bf Joni: my Moo Mixer.

What is a Moo mixer you say?

Picture this, you are thirsty, you prepped yourself a glass of milk, hmmm this needs chocolate, you stir in a couple of tablespoons of Milo (chocolate flavoured powder), you drink, yum, the TV distracts you, 5 mins pass, you look down to your glass, oh noes! the Milo is floating on the top, it hasn't dissolved, what am I to do? Get up from my comfortable position and use a spoon to stir my drink again? But that means double the dishwashing!.....
.
.
.
......I will have none of that, for my drink is in a Moo mixer. One push of the button and it mixes my flavoured drink to maintain chocolate consistency. Pogi is happy and lounges away.

My Moo mixer hard at work, at work. XD

People at work love it! But at the same time think I'm silly (in a good way) for reaching a new level of laziness.

Also, the looks on my work colleague's faces when I walk in a meeting, hanging on to this in my hand = Priceless. :)

Suddenly the calcium level in my body has increased. :p

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Silliness = <>

What do you get when you have 4 friends at a bookstore (Borders) with nothing to do but wait for a movie session (Greater Union)? You have poo heads posing with books. :)

Waiting for friends (Elgin and Thao) to watch Rocky Balboa last week, we had time, we saw books, we pretended to read, we conquered books. ^_^

Joni and I reading important literature (his title: Tantric Orgasm Women, me: The Passionate Shopper)

Silly us fake-reading books.

Grache holding a book with her name on it. :) Becos she wrote it, YEAH RIGHT!!

Luckily we left that place, before we get kicked out for loitering. [-_-]

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Mr Suave?

Neanderthals, take this test, to see if you fit "the profile".

My (honest) result......

Your Social Rank is...

True Gentleman. Congratulations.

From terrific taste to immaculate manners, you have the refinement worthy of a man of substance. And hence you know enough not to brag about this.

Never fear, Pogi is here. >_<>

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Food

Last week before we watched Rocky Balboa, we hurried and took refuge at Max Brenners. Choctastic did you say? Yes, yes indeed. :)

I wasn't hankering for some chocolate, even though it was from Max Brenners, I just had a chocolate and peanut shake that tasted like liquid Reeses Pieces.

We all wet our pants, twice! And then a third time when we had fondue.

And the aftermath..........

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TV (Spoilers)

24: OMG OMG OMG, did 'they' kill the U.S. President? Even though he ain't no David Palmer, he is still a Palmer!! And Charles Logan, ggggrrrrrr, what's his part in this? Even though it was so trippy that he was brought into the storyline. This week's ep, just WOW.

The O.C.: It's over. :( Last week's ep was the finale. The ending....was good, subtle, not over the top, not hyped up, it was just enough. The Cohen's moved to Berkeley, Summer and Seth get married, happily ever after.....*weep*...time to watch season one again with evil Oliver. :) mwhahahahaa

Family Guy: Stewie got a tan. Mutha f*rking hilarious ep.

Heroes: Holy crap, shit hit the fan!! This ep kept me on the edge of my seat, Peter Petrelli is maniac now, and we learn more about the "company". I wept when Mr Bennett said goodbye to Claire. :*(

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Japanese Surgery!!

Continuing from last week's shocker topic, here is Mari Yaguchi, from ordinary Japanese girl, to hit Jpop singer, and superstar on popular show Morning Musume.

Believe that!?

Conversation later that night....

Grache: if i had surgery id change my....
Me: ovaries?
Grache: no!
Me: aawwwww :(

New & improved Pogi + Food + TV + Fashion + Bball + CNY

Pogi is pledging a plan, a goal if you must, to improve his physique. At the moment as you can see from my previous photos, that I am rather lean, to a point of a druggo looking Calvin Klein model, and I wanna change that image.

And I wanna change that image. Wanna be more muscly so I am more of a threat in sport, i.e. I don't get pushed around by Zangief (Street Fighter) sized opponents in the key at basketball, and to generate more power from my tennis racquet.

So far I'm dodging the gym, only because the gym costs could go towards food. XD Silly I know but I just would rather spend monies on food rather than the gym. For a start, I do 3 sets of 30 pushups in the morning and in the evening 30mins of a dumbbells circuit.

Ofcourse I'll make changes and make my work out more intense. But for the mean time, a start's a start.

And who knows, maybe I might end up like Rocky!...............I wish.. :/

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Food


One thing about being Pogi is that his work colleagues travel plenty, and what does this mean?

It means that they bring back candy and chocolates for Pogi. :) Winnah!

Thanks to Poh who arrived back today from the U.S., I now have a bag of Reese's Pieces. ^_^ One of my favourite chocolates.

And here is a small amount that I made in a pyramid.

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TV

Sorry for not making a TV post in a long time but I was kinda distracted with the other thread topics.

Anyways, a quick update, on 24, Jack Bauer is trying to save the U.S. again, but this time, the terrorists have detonated a nuclear bomb (first time ever)! And his father and brother (recently deceased) were partly behind it, meanwhile ex-President Palmer's little bro Wayne, is now the President. The plot thickens. I love it!

The O.C., I must say is getting boring, it is not as witty and the teen characters are lifeless, except of course Summer (Rachel Bilson) as she brings sunshine in every scene. *sigh* I'm awaiting the "finale" due to it being axed in the U.S.

One Tree Hill, Nathan cheated on Hailey!! GGRRRrrrr, what a bastard, considering he's been a goodie goodie for the last few seasons. So unexpected! And he cheated with Brooke! Maria and Karla, my OTH buddies, will be totally blown away. Plus they were rooting for Brooke, I'm a Peyton fan. ^_* Lucas has yet to find out that Dan killed Keith and Mouth is getting more girly action.

Family Guy is still funny, but American Dad is kinda topping it, just slightly. Everybody Hates Chris is still sub par, but it has it's funny moments, especially the prejudice against Chris and his race.

No Prison Break last week, but there's one this week! :)

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Fashion

Pogi got this as a hand me down from his uncle. Another shade of colour to add to my chocolate coat.

Nice!!

Can't wait to wear it out. I have plenty of gear to wear with it. Now to plan some outfits for it.

*prays for cold weather*

:/

Blardy 27 degree Summer days.

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Basketball

Pogi is back with the Titans after a week's break due to last week's cotillion. But no harm no foul (bad pun), last week the opposing team forfeited.

Strangely, due to some admin error, we are playing the same team this week as we did last week. We won 55-34 over Burnt Toast, however our team struggled a bit at the beginning due to hangovers and weekend tiredness, but we compensated in the 2nd half and won comfortably.

I scored 5 points, FG 2/3, 4 fouls (phew!), 5 steals, 11 rebounds, and 6 assists.

Highlight of the night was my BS And1 play, where I was in a fast break (Rukawa style), up against Zangief (Street Fighter) and some other tall dude on their team. I went for Zangief because he was supremely bigger than me so maybe I could draw a foul.

I made an attempt at the shot, but got barred by Zangief and drew the foul, but as I bounced off him, I threw the ball up, gracefully, and it bounced off the backboard and into the ring! Woohoo! The crowd went wild. Plus I hit the free throw too. :) Very Michael Jordan like. Har har har.

Also great team work due to our new players Baz and Danny. Excellent additions to the team.

I can feel us winning this division, only one team stands in our way: Ballers.

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CNY

Now I couldn't let my Chinese blood forget....

Happy Chinese New Year!

Gong Xi Fat Chai or Fa Cai. I dunno which one rings true.

The main event: Piglet.