Saturday, July 14, 2007

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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Friday, June 08, 2007

Pogi: the Birthday boy

Been a short while since my last post but gosh, this last week has been crazy busy. Apologies.

Thank you to my work peoples for hosting my birthday lunch at my favourite Japanese restaurant in Sydney.

Yakiniku box

I had my yakiniku as per usual, gosh I love wagyu beef. So succulent and flavoursome. I think I should marry one of the girls working at this restaurant.

Can anyone guess where this is? I think all my hints should make it easy for you.

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Take two

After work, the family and I had a quiet dinner at a favourite Korean BBQ restaurant, dead centre in the City. Can anyone guess?

I love this restaurant, but gosh, they really need some hosts that can speak some decent English. It took 5 mins to explain to a cute but confused girl that we wanted the table cleared for dessert. Instead she thought we wanted the food to be put in takeaway containers, then she thought we weren't happy with the food, and finally she thought we wanted to order more food for takeaway.

Aarrrggghhhh!

But she was cute, sweet, and tried her best to understand me, so she isn't in the receiving end of my frustration.

Finally, the manager was able to understand what we meant after some further explanation.

One of my favourite things about this restaurant is that there are TV's everywhere and also a projector that loops Korean music videos.

Not Hyori Lee :(

One of the hosts told us, "Wow, this is a lot of food!". My family must've felt fat for a second, but hey, Filipinos can eat a lot, and Chinoys can eat a lot more. ^_^

BYO: 85 degrees desserts
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Lovely gift from a lovely person

Thank you Bernadette for ordering this beautiful and delicious Mars Bar cheesecake, and willing to deliver it to my home in the very, very late evening.

I appreciate it.

I know I don't say it much, but it's cause I'm rather shy but I love you!

This weights like 5 kilos!

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Take three!

Then another birthday lunch (because they know how much I love food) at yumcha. Surprisingly, some of our Melbourne peeps made the trek up for my birthday work and joined in the festivities.

Could you believe some of them have not tasted a mango pancake? For those who don't know what it is (for shame!), it is a dessert, which consists of a slice of mango, vanilla icecream, whipped cream and covered in a mango flavoured pancake. When my work peeps took their first bite, I could see a sense of yummy relief on their face.

The next words that spoke from their mouth was: "OMG! Thank you for intro'ing me to this!", "I'm not eating anything till I get more of these mango pancakes!", "Dude, you're a legend for showing this to us!", "Albert, I'm gonna go eat with you all the time!".

Mission accomplished.

But honestly, who could resist mango pancakes?


Dimsum
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Take four!

Another night of Pogi's birthday celebrations. This time its with University buddies. Since I'm the birthday boy, I get to eat where I want (spoiled much? never!). Again I chose Korean, because a. I love Asian food, and b. some of my friends have not eaten Korean before.

I took Neil, Maria, Krist, Karla, Claudia, Peter and Archie to another favourite (gee, I have a lot of favourites huh?) Korean restaurant on Goulburn st. Another guessing game for you folks! ;)


Funny part of the night was when the manager saw Krist struggling to slice his meat, so he took it upon himself to grab the tongs and scissors, then began to cut up the meat for him. At that moment Krist looked like he was five years old as he gave childish looks whilst the man cut the meat up right in front of him. We too were silent. But we're laughing hysterically inside.


Krist, Omar & Peter

Uni peeps!

Afterwards, I chose to go for an evening of karaoke since I came straight from work and have not been feeling well. Clubbing can be postponed for another day.

Sexy loves?

Now who would like to see a bunch of manly men sing Kelis, Milkshake?



Ok ok, no hate, here we are again singing to Neyo, Sexy love.



But the highlight of the evening would have to be us men singing Pussycat Dolls - Don't Cha. Too bad I didn't get a video of that one.


A couple of hours later, I called it a night and proceeded to sleep on the way home, courtesy of Neil and Maria.

A big thanks to everyone who came! And for those who sent their greetings to me in the form of messages and phone calls.

Plus of course receiving a Slurpee machine for my birthday. Love you all!

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Take five!

Yumcha once again, but this time with Bao, Tuan and Vu. However, shout outs go to Bao (she's in the picture below looking silly as usual) because shes special. And by special I mean, stupid, retarded but strangely lovable.

Bao & Tuan

We unfortunately had run-ins with an evil tea lady, possibly instigated by me, and annoying waiter dude, due to Bao picking fights with anyone and everyone.

I had two of these mango puddings. Yum freakin' YUM!

Tofu dessert

Pickups from Breadtop

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Fashion

This outfit is inspired by Lee Junki, a Korean actor. I don't know what's wrong with me but its quite common with most things. If I like something, I will continue to eat it, wear it, go to it, as much as I can, till I get sick of it. So expect consistency with me.

Top: 2 x Dickies singlet, Fox knit, Rayban sunglasses
Bottom: Revoltage denim, Vans prison issues



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Tuesday, May 29, 2007

One more sleep.....

...till my birthday!!

^_^


Ok I shush now.....

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Fashion outfit

Top: Topman blazer, Dickies singlets, Fox knit, Revoltage crucifix
Bottom: Topman jeans, Umbro shoes



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Food porn

Details: Vanilla slice from Michell's Patisserie
Notes: Too rich in vanilla!


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Details: BBQ chicken noodle soup from random food court x slurpee x cupcake
Notes: Yum freakin' yum. Plus love the cupcake and slurpee as per usual


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Had this for breakfast....not healthy! But then again, is anything I eat healthy?

Details: Cadbury roast almond chocolate block
Notes: I ate it all before lunch. [-_-]



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Details: Hotcakes from McDonalds x custard tart from random milk bar
Notes: Hotcakes were good when doused with maple syrup but the custard tart was eewww. Custard was nice but the pastry was salty. :/



Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Birthdays + Love/hate Winter

The latest Happy Birthday shout out goes to 20 young year old Catherine who had her party bash at Camperdown the other week.

The evening was choc full of fun, that included a delicious array of Filipino food prepared by yours truly Catherine's relatives, Krispy Kreme donuts (could not resist to bring these), Nintendo Wii (which my cousin Phillip could not stop playing the whole night) and of course the lovely Catherine.

Only issue of the evening was that Cat discovered a half eaten Polo bun and a green tea sticky rice ball inside the bag which had her present from me.

Tsk tsk tsk

Silly me....

Those were two day old food stuffs. Eeeewwwwww.

Sexy mommas

And that reminds me, my birthday is fast approaching at the end of this month and I'll be turning the rip old age of 23!!

Crap that's old!

But hey, that's Michael Jordan's jersey number. Boom!! ^_^

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On a serious note, be careful when on the road folks, driving home from Cat's party I was suffering microsleeps and almost crashed in to another car.

I know that I shouldn't drive with lack of sleep but I didn't realise how exhausted I was till I drove.

Please take care.

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Saturday dinner

Eating out at a Japanese restaurant with the sexy bunch, this evening involved a minor argument with the manager regarding their chicken teriyaki, which could have been easily resolved if they could understand English.

Then later, dessert at Max Brenners, with me over dosing on chocolate goodness (big chocolate truffle, chocolate nut fudge brownie and a Reeses Pieces milkshake).

Hotness

Death by chocolate

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Dessert was marred by me spotting one of bestie's ex's whom she now hates with a vengeance!

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Love/hate Winter

No, no, not Anna Wintour, but Winter! Yes, Winter is definitely here, today it was 17 degrees celcius in Sydney. 17!! It was like 26 last week! :/

One thing I love about Australia are the seasons. We actually have hot and cold weather, not like in the Singapore where its hot or hotter.

And I have a love/hate interest for Winter. I welcome cold weather. I actually enjoy snuggling up under the covers with that special someone to keep warm and escape from the cold, or not feeling the effects of 30 degree weather with it being a dry heat, and of course I like wearing Winter clothes (3/4 length cashmere coats, gloves and scarves). If I was bothered, possibly shemaghs and ear muffs.

Now there's nothing like the wind flapping your 3/4 length coat whilst you walk down the street strutting like nothing can stand in your way.

All good and fun yeah?
.
.
.
.
Not for your life!!!

Don't even blink for a second, because yes it's all rainbows and candy with the above, but there is the bad side of this cold dark place:

1. Waking up on a chilly morning and the tiles in the bathroom are freezing cold. (no heater can fix this).
2. Your ass sitting on a cold part of the sofa.
3. Waiting an extra 10 seconds for the hot water to kick-in in the shower.
4. Your hot coffee not staying so hot because of the cold weather.
5. Having to wear big chunky coats, scarves, gloves, etc. which is heavy and makes me feel fat, plus having to take these off and then put em back on when you enter in and out of buildings.

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Outfits

Top: Wallstreet shirt, Fox knit, Raybans
Bottom: Zara trousters, G2000 blu belt, Stacey Adams shoes


F*ck I love that elevator for an outfit location

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Top: G2000 shirt, Topman tie, black knit, wannabe pose
Bottom: Topman trousers, G2000 blu belt



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Top: G2000 shirt, Topman slim blazer
Bottom: G2000 blu belt, Topman slim trousers



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Top: RL polo, Domanchi blazer, Raybans
Bottom: Dickies belt, Revoltage jeans, Vans prison issues



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Top: RL Polo
Bottom: Topman jeans, Samuel & Kevin belt,Vans prison issues



Boy next door look. har har har

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TV

SPOILERS!!!

24: Holy shiet, mofo, womaniser Vice President is screwing things up!! Bastard Chang has Jack's newphew, Jake. And Jack's father?! Why is he a villain?!

Lost: Oh crap!! Who the hell is that apparition Jacob? Will John live? He has too! He's an integral character in the series. Honestly, Captain America (Jack) is giving me the shits, he's too closed off since returning back to camp and he loves Juliet too much. As per usual I want Charlie to die, he is soooooo annoying.

One Tree Hill: At last!! Lucas finds out his father Dan killed his beloved uncle, Keith. And Peyton's stalker is finally goneskies after being beat up by girl power, with the help of Brooke.

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Additional Food porn

I love food. Even if it kills me.

Details: Beef bibimap (Korean)
Notes: Delicious.


Details: Bacon double cheeseburger deluxe meal
Notes: Instant heart attack (in a good way)


Breakfast, not a good way to start though

Details: Double pattie bacon cheesebuger, jumbo chips x mayonnaise, cupcake
Notes: Fulfilling, completely satisfying if it wasn't for the heart burn from the food




Sunday, May 13, 2007

It's official, I am Kira

Thank you to that special someone, dare I say a Shinigami (Death God), I have been handed a gift.
.
.
.
.
.
.
And now I am Kira (killer).


Please send a Polaroid and name to my email address on who you'd like to eliminate from this world. Just kidding!!

For those who don't know, please take some time and read Death Note manga, anime or even the live action movie.

A short synopsis:


Death Note is about a school boy who finds a notebook with the power to kill people just by writing the person's name into it whilst keeping in mind the image of the person's face. What makes this manga/anime so special is the interesting plot and the characters. Although the concept of Shinigami (Death God) isn’t anything new, the idea of death by book is something worth thinking over.



Misa-Misa!!

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Outfits from the week

Top: Topman blazer, Dickies singlets x 2, Fox white knit, Rayban shades
Bottom: Hickok belt, Revoltage jeans, Converse


Le TigraGame face!

Top: Zara suit, G2000 shirt, crucifix from Singapore
Bottom: Burlington sox



Top: G2000 shirt, Topman tie, Death note book
Bottom: Zara trousers, Stacey Adams shoes



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Death lunch for Kira

The following dish shortened my life....
  • Beef burger with extra pattie, cheese and bacon from local milkbar
  • Jumbo fries from Oportos
  • Egg mayonnaise jar from IGA


  • Roast duck, roast pork with rice from random Asian restaurant in Chinatown

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Psst. Pogi's birthday is coming up.....har har har

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Assistant position available!

Pogi has a personal assistant position available. Typically you are needed to assist in my day-to-day tasks.

These tasks may include the purchasing of lunch for him at his request (may or may not include trips to Easyway), carrying his bags (3.5 kg laptop bag & compendium), deciding what outfits he is to wear for the next day, organising outings and events for him via telephone or email with his friends and associates.

Salary: 1 x Easyway drink large with topping, 1 x bacon & egg roll (for morning tea), 1 x lunch anywhere in North Sydney, 1 x Polo bun with coconut (afternoon tea).

Candidates, please send your resumes to my email address. ^_^