成长成长我以成长！

On my birthday cake from my dear sis today had 2 big candles and 1 tiny one. (The work of Derek and Brian.) Really, there’s no need to hide my age. And thanks Kris for the try-to-make-it-a-surprise-still-even-if-she-enters-the-office-at-the-wrong-timing-birthday-song.

I’m proud to say that I’m 29 and still growing! Growing stronger and better in mind, knowledge and experience. Body wise, I hope to grow smaller and steadier. The long hours of work is not good for my health. But I’ve been trying my best to keep a balance life. Just need to take more time to get used to the life pattern.

So today being my bird-day, I’m going to reward myself with DEAR C. That is, Drop Everything And Rest Claudia! It’ll just be me, my Abang and my 7D~~~ day! No emails, no work, no answering of business related calls! I need my DEAR C!

Happy Birthday Me!

On 29 April, Diana and I took a day off and soaked ourselves wet (Yes! Wet!!) at the most exciting attractions to date in Singapore. We captured fun memories at Universal Studio Singapore with Canon digital cameras. Thanks to Canon of course!

Castle Far Far Away

On adventures like such, you wouldn’t want to carry big bulky DSLR with you right? So we were given the challenge to try out Canon latest cameras and the oh-so-fun new shooting modes! Personally I had more fun playing with these shooting modes than the rides at USS! (I’m serious!)

Sakae Sushi! Sakae Sushi! Sakae Sushi!

Yes! I is a huge fan of Sushi! And so is molemole and many other fellow blogger and tweeters out there! Having to see the word sushi in my face almost everyday from blogs and twitter update, I just cannot help but crave for it every week!

Sushi moving too fast too furious!

And yesterday, the moment I sat down at my desk at 12pm (YES! I was damn late for work yesterday) I was told to head over for lunch at Sakae Sushi.

If you’ve noticed, photos posted by moi has been either from my mobile phone or my Nikon D40 which I rarely use these days. Cause its acting cranky! Sadly no one bought me the Canon 500D for my birthday. My Canon IXUS was sold as it was under used and I don’t want it to end up like my Fuji Z3 which I can’t recall where I kept it. But I know its still somewhere around my room. So anyway, to replace and fill my need to take photos wherever I go, I’m using the LG Viewty Smart GC900 which I was seeded before CommnicAsia. Untill today, I’ve never used it as a phone since I’ve got the N97 which matches my needs more than the LG Viewty Smart.

Since I can’t use two phones at the same time, the LG Viewty Smart ended up being my stand-by digital camera. Just because I love the Art Shot and Beauty Shot feature. And to be fair, it takes pretty decent photos too. As compared to my old Samsung Innov8, this phone takes clean and clear shots in the day too and the night shot on low ISO is pretty neat also. Will have samples as I share my experience with the LG Viewty Smart in this post. (Keep scrolling!)

To show you the features and how the LG Viewty Smart camera works, I’ve done a quick demo video of it. In HD somemore! This video should give you a good idea of why I am using it as my temp digital camera.

And while you’re still ogling over the camera features and UI, go check out what Tetanus did to his LG Viewty Smart! Damn hardcore I tell you!

That

If you’re looking for a replacement to your digital camera, the LG Viewty Smart might be the one for you. Can go explore and try it out more when its out in store. But personally, I cannot tolerate the slowness of the phone and the tendency to lag whenever I use it. I’ve seen Diana used it all these while, and seems like she’s enjoying it. Different users have different preference and tolerance level, so you got to go try it out yourself.

Now let me share some shots I took with the camera over the weekend…

Taken with LG Viewty Smart Art Shot (Cold)

Photo montage created using Picasa NOT a feature of the phone!

Very emo feel right? <3 it!

As you can see, I really love the cold effect from the camera! Makes me feel very “Lomo” whenever I see a shot. But sadly, special effect shots can only take at 1MP (1280 x 960) instead of the usual 8M.

Also tested taking with night shot mode and these are what I got…

Waiting for fireworks at Marina Square

And here’s a video taken over the weekend of the Fireworks at NDP09 NEshow 3 from outside Marina Square recorded with LG Viewty Smart…

Finally, a comparison of the ISO settings for a night shot. First shot taken at ISO 400, second at ISO 200 and the last one taken at ISO 100.

ISO test at 400, 200 and 100

What do you think of the 8MB camera on the LG Viewty Smart phone? Not bad huh? Yap, that’s the beauty of this phone. Nuff’ said.

It was my best birthday thus far. And the best part is, nothing was planned by me!

Due to work, I totally left out my usual birthday party gathering planning this year. No time nor energy to think about this as I do not want to grow up anymore! Time’s passing too quickly for me to catch up.

The story started a day before my Birthday. I don’t know many days in advance my dear Diana started the planning. If my memory is right, I was told about a team meeting (which I don’t recall arranging for) a week before. And than few days before the surprise, Diana told me to stay till 9pm on Thursday as she had to leave by 6pm and some bloggers will be coming late to collect stuff from our office that night. And that’s all planned and directed by her!

On the day of the surprise, she than SMS me in the morning – The maid just left. She say the fridge connector don know what spoil. so don use or open fridge until repair. repair coming later. So I was told not to go near the fridge as she’d planted my surprise in there!

The whole day passes with occasional giggling from her, she going in and out of the office and constant MSN chatting between Uzyn, Kahwee and her. I knew they are planning something, but I thought it’ll be for my actual day as we were planning to go for lunch at Science Centre at 11.30am! Yes, that’s what we planned. Of course, all part of Diana’s set-up!

At around 6.30pm, Diana entered the room and switched off all the lights. That’s when Abang entered with my birthday cake with lighted candles! And Diana gave me this beautiful bouquet of lilies and a present they got for me. All these surprises brought me tears lah! THANK YOU ALL VERY VERY THE MUCH!!! Really didn’t expect such big surprise and so many things arranged for me!! I cannot thank enough lah! This is my BEST birthday ever! Spending it with people (my hardworking team and Abang) that matters most in my life now. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!!

Ever since Diana bought her DSlite, she’d been telling me how much addicted she is to it and kept asking me to go buy one so that we can challenge one another in the games. Than she keep saying if I don’t buy, she will buy one for my birthday. Which I told her not to lah! Its so expensive can? But this woman very stubborn lah! She really went to buy a DSlite for me!! A white one somemore! Matching with my PSP and my N97! If I hadn’t changed my macbook, everything would have been white! Than I would have to get a white camera to match it. LOL!

I soooo want to squeeze this woman!!! I’m going to start planning for her birthday in October! I know I sure can control my giggles and make it an even more surprise surprise for her! Hurhur!

She even planned for dinner and a KTV session! Again she’d been asking me to join her at KTV for countless time! And that night, it happened! All thanks again to Diana and Uzyn’s suggestion. And you know what? Diana, Uzyn and Kahwee all can sing one wor! Diana’s the sweet sweet singer, Uzyn the rock and country type and Kahwee don’t know what songs to choose so we had agar-agar what he knows and choose for him. We had lots of fun singing, screaming, dancing and laughing together that night! Next time, when our team grow, we can book the bigger room and party all night long!

The night ended at 12am sharp, where they sang the birthday song. Will upload a video compilation of the happenings from that night soon.

The celebration didn’t end that night. On my actualy day, July 3, it was time alone with Abang. Its a simple but heartwarming day. It made me fun in love with him again. Its the little things and actions that made my heart all warm and fuzzy.

We visited Marina Barrage for the first time and I think we will be going back there pretty often as long as they keep the parking free! LOL! I didn’t know the place is so nice and windy! There were many families and group of friends having picnic, flying kites and also there were few others celebrating their birthday too. Marina Barrage is a good place to hang out after a day at work and just lay on the grass and stare into the sky. Lovely place to chill and take photos too! I want to go back there again soon!

After Marina Barrage, Abang brought me up to Mt Faber for dinner. He’d wanted to take me for a cable car ride before that, but I chickened out. Another reason also because I don’t see the need to spend the extra $40 for a ride to see the skyline of Singapore lah. I would rather spend it on a nice dinner. Which we did.

Dinner was at Moonstone @ The Jewel Box. Another nice find for that night! Quiet and windy place with nice view of the harbour and cable cars. The food was pretty good too. Love the seafood pizza (can’t recall the name) and the jewel box fruit salad. Price will not break any arms nor legs, and quality is there. Surely a choice place to go for chilling out with friends. But if there’s no one driving, this is a no-go for me.

Spending quiet night like this with Abang is a rare occasion. It just made it even more precious and treasured. I don’t need no fancy gifts nor flowers. I don’t need no diamond rings nor candle light dinner. Just simple pleasure and quiet times like this with you, I am contented. Thank you Abang! Love you very much!

On Saturday night (last night) was a gathering with my girlfriends at my place. Our usual games of mahjong with light snacks to munch. They had an adventure with a flasher that night when they were getting their car from the carpark opposite my block. And now I am paranoid! Hope the police catch this flasher soon! For now, I am going to stay alert whenever I’m coming home late at night, and make sure I have my camera phone with flash ready to capture his face if he ever flashes at me!

In a few hours time, I will be having steamboat and papa-cooked-crab at home with my family. We are celebrating my belated birthday and my mum’s too which is just a week after mine. Going to help them out in the kitchen now. Today’s quality time with my family. And tomorrow’s the start of our one week setting up of 24seven’s new office week! Am very excited about this! Finally a place all to ourselves! More updates on this when we are ready over at 24seven’s blog.

And that’s how I spent (am spending) my birthday weekend.

Way overdue! I’m back from two other trips already and yet I’m still only at my very first! This should wrap up my short adventure with Diana in Bangkok. You can find my other posts from our Bangkok trip here… Barcamp Bangkok 3 and Food whoring in Bangkok.

As the title tells, in this post, the shopaholic me is coming out of the closet! Yes! I love to shop! I categorize myself into two types of shopaholic. I can be a practical shopper (buying with a list in mind) or I can be an impulse shopper (buying because I feel like it). Good thing I am now more of a practical shopper than I used to. Most things I buy these days are either planned or there was some form of thinking process before I make a purchase. Let’s get to the point… Diana and I shopped till we drop in Bangkok! Where else better to do this than in the infamous Chatuchak Weekend Market!

Got very excited when I found out that I kenna tagged by molemole! Cause I seldom got tagged by others! Wahahaha! So I’m going to do this super long one and tag someone too! Muahahaha!