Samsung Corby

I received my first Christmas gift of 2009 – A Samsung Corby from Chewy. It was an early gift as we wouldn’t be celebrating Christmas together this year. He’s going back home to Kuala Lumpur so I’ll be alone during Christmas. Chewy seems to like the touchscreen of Corby. I can’t remember how many times I’ve said this but I am not a fan of touchscreen phones. I think I’ll need some time to get use to using such phones again because I spend 10 minutes trying to send an SMS this morning. I know I fail.

My friends from school highly preferred the Corby over my INQ mini. They are like “oh my gosh Dayna, your new phone looks great. Glad you decided to get a new one.” when they see me with my new phone in class. By the way, my INQ mini is still alive and I gave up my LG Viewty for adoption today. I’m going to miss it. So, back to the Corby… there are 3 colours – white, yellow and pink. There are also green and orange in Korea but somehow they didn’t bring those into Singapore. I like the orange and yellow one but Chewy is a fan of white and black phones so I got the white one. Even though I’m a huge fan of pink, I decided a universal colour will be better. It’s easier to sell it off in the future since not everyone is a fan of pink like me. On a totally random note, according to the korean drama, You’re Beautiful (which I’m so in love with), white stands for purity. It’s not a bad choice eh?

Close up of Samsung Corby

Each set comes with 3 covers – plain white, white with prints and a plain black. I like the plain white one because I was going to get some pop-up stickers to decorate the phone but Chewy prefers the one with prints. I’m still going to get the stickers though. It needs something to be branded as “Dayna’s mobile”.

Back cover - White with green and grey prints

Side buttons - I always press the wrong one when I'm unlocking it

Default wallpaper of the cartoon theme

Animated main menu

I was quite wowed by the google maps. The location shown wasn’t exact but it was within a 1 kilometre radius of where I was so I guess it can be considered pretty accurate. For someone who has a poor sense of direction, this will certainly comes in handy when I get lost.

Google Maps

Wallpaper from my own illustrations

After playing around with it for a day, I think it’s not too bad. The set doesn’t comes with a data cable which may be quite troublesome for some. However, I use bluetooth more often so it doesn’t bothers me much. Similar to the INQ, the camera of the Corby is 2MP and takes quite decent shots. The quality is slightly better than the INQ mini. It isn’t a 3G phone and does not have Wi-Fi. Internet speed is a bit slower but it’s not a big deal to me. I don’t surf the net often with my phone. Most of the time, I use it only for twittering and twitpic-ing.

The Corby also has the smart unlock feature which is really cool in my opinion. You can set the phone to unlock by writing any one of the alphabets on the screen. I tested quite a few letters and I think V is the easiest to unlock. This feature is more convenient since the “press side button and hold” option is slower. There are also 3 types of fonts for users to choose from. I’m using the cartoonish font (type 1) and it’s really cute.

How do I like this phone? Quite a lot, considering the fact that it was a gift from Chewy. Hopefully, it will be my trusty phone for the next 1 to 2 years.

Related posts:

1. Secret Santa Gift
2. 10 reasons why I love the INQ mini
3. Christmas Gifts from lovely mum

You're Beautiful

The last time I was so addicted to a drama series was in February this year when I was watching Boys Before Flowers (Kgotboda Namja). The previous time it was Kim Bum in Kgotboda Namja and this time it’s Jang Geun Suk in You’re Beautiful (Minami Shineyo). Both are fantastic actors though I would say Jang Geun Suk is the better of the two. I rarely get so addicted to a drama series but this one is too good! One of my favourite songs in this drama is Lovely Day by Park Shin Hye. I really like the soundtracks for this drama especially Lovely Day because the music is very soothing. To top it off, Park Shin Hye has a great voice.

Lovely Day

By Park Shin Hye

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

The series is about the behind-the-scenes life of a fictitious idol group, A.N.JELL. Jang Geun Suk and Lee Hong Ki are in search of a new member for their idol group. However at the last minute, the member suffers an injury and his twin sister has to step in disguised as him. The plot maybe be a bit cheesy but it’s hilarious. I absolutely love Jang Geun Suk’s acting and it’s a must watch show if you are a fan of him. This series has quite a number of parodies and my favourites are SNSD’s Genie and Jang Geun Suk’s parody of So Ji Sub’s phone commercial. It’s good to have some some laughter everyday.

Jang Geun Suk’s parody of So Ji Sub’s phone commercial is so hilarious. I think no one will ever feel the same listening to the song Breathless by Shayne Ward after watching this part of the show.

I can’t believe I’m watching the live streaming for this show every week (and watching it again on Viikii with English subtitles) even though I don’t understand Korean. I’m definitely rooting for the main leads – Jang Geun Suk and Park Shin Hye to be together. It’s going to be devastating if they don’t! Like I said, I’m a sucker for good endings and Jang Geun Suk has never gotten the girl before in all the shows he has starred in. Give him a chance dude, it’s time he gets the girl.

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Mini layout redesign

Speaking of the redesign, I redid both the main and footer navigation and added new panda prints to the footer. I noticed I’ve been using rounded corners for my layouts since last December and thus I removed all the round corners as well. Check out the new post meta at the end of every post if you have not. I’ve also switched to a new plugin for sharing posts and redesign (again!) the list of tags, related and popular posts. In addition, I make a small change to the background of the header, no more fluffy white clouds now and it’s a lot less cluttered. Phew! Yes, that’s all the updates I’ve in regards to the layout.

Voting for the Site Glamour Contest has closed and all the articles written by the wonderful participants have been published here. Please feel free to leave any comments or join in the discussion.

Related posts:

1. Invasion of the unknown!
2. I’m still alive
3. I need 48 hours a day.

On a very random note, I’ve officially broke my first mug in the bathroom today. I am usually very careful when handling glass but I’m such a blockhead this morning. If you haven’t notice, I’ve also increased the font size on Amour Chaleur because my vision is getting from bad to worse. Bigger text makes reading easier for me and hopefully for you as well.

Anyway, I was a happy user of Snaptu till the application decided to disappear from my INQ mini yesterday. No matter how many times I’ve tried, it refuses to reinstall so I switched to Twim now. I’m going to pray hard it continues to work until I get my iphone (hopefully) next year. Speaking of which my LG Viewty is still alive but I’ve neglected it. It’s sitting quietly in one of my drawers now. I might switch back to my Viewty next month because as much as I dislike touch screen phones, I still missed it.

Related posts:

1. Twitpic of the week
2. Twitpic of my busy week
3. 10 reasons why I love the INQ mini

Happy Birthday, Sharon

My favourite macro shot of the day

I really like this photo showing everyone's presence

Somehow they always laugh when I'm taking photographs of them

Getting really engrossed into the song

Peach Sundae - This ice cream is love!

Scallops and chicken baked rice

Delicious pasta

Group photo

We took a short walk from Orchard all the way to City Hall and I noticed they are putting up the Christmas decorations already. I have to say that the Santa isn’t adorable at all. A bigger head and a smaller body would definitely looks cuter than a smaller head and fatter body. On a random note, I couldn’t wait for Christmas to come. It’s the gift exchange season again and it’s time to love and share! Is there anyone in Singapore who would like to do a gift/card exchange?

Christmas decorations at Orchard Road

Yee Loong also gave me some tips on taking night shots and gave me a short lesson about shutter speed and aperture. I think Orchard is a good place to take night shots in Singapore. All the newly renovated buildings have fantastic lightings.

Orchard Central at night

Related posts:

1. Christmas Gathering 2008
2. Farewell gathering for our dear friend
3. Make a wish

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1. Invasion of the unknown!
2. Hitting the books again
3. Goodbye Bim Bim, Hello to me!

Twitpic of the week

I also went Haw Par Villa & Vivo City with mum. We went on board the MV Doulos. I found a Chinese craft book with lots of pandas artwork at PageOne and I took a few photos of them. I was so afraid the loud shutter sound of my mobile will alert the staff on duty. Anyway, the pandas were so adorable!

Some day later, Chewy and I went shopping at Orchard. I brought my panda and pooh bears to guard the car again. Notice the claypot rice with abalone? We had dinner at Ah Yat Tian Xia Restaurant at Orchard Central. The abalone cost an additional SGD 7 and taste okay, for the price I can’t complain of course. Chewy had pork chop rice and he finds it delicious. I tried it and it’s also so-so in my opinion.

The rest of the week was spend on spring cleaning my room, playing bridge at home and having dim sum at Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant. I still think the dim sum from Imperial is better. So, that’s how I spend my entire week. How about yours?

Ultimate Blog Awards

By the way, Tiff’s holding her first contest, Ultimate Blog Awards at JynxedPanda. There are lots of attractive prizes, such as WordPress themes, illustrations, t-shirts and even cash to be won. There are also many mini contests for all her readers. She is also trying to raise donations for the victims of Typhoon Ondoy amd Pepeng via the contest. It’s an all rounded contest for everyone so please join in the fun and head over to her website for more details.

The voting for the Site Glamour Contest will close on 30 October instead of November because I hope the contest will be focused on the discussion of the articles instead of the voting next month. Please vote for the website which you think deserves the award and don’t forget to participate in the contest article discussion next month.

Related posts:

1. Twitpic of the week
2. I’ll love you eternally if you …
3. Twitpic of an even busier week

New arrangement of the furnitures

My study desk

My magnetic board

I put some toys there so that the wirings can't be seen

Books and files

More photos of my room can be found on my flickr.

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Haw Par Villa

Haw Par Villa^[1] is a place in Singapore which was filled with tourists and visitors a decade ago. But now, it’s just a deserted place; lifeless and forgotten. My parents brought me there when I was 5. My memories of the place was fuzzy and I couldn’t recall much but we did took some photographs there. The place was huge and there was lots of activities going on. Everyone was walking around taking photographs and the kids were given balloons. That was how the place was like 16 years ago. I brought mum there yesterday as it has been a really long time since she last went there. The entire place was empty and we were the only ones there. This was not how I remembered it to be.

Empty and forgotten

The paint on the statue is peeling off

Buddha, the founder of the Buddhist religion

This park contains lots of statues of Chinese folklore and legends. It’s actually a very interesting place to visit. It used to have more in the past but the park has reduced dramatically in size over the past few years. Most of the paint on the statues are peeling off and the lamps are broken as well. I feel that some serious maintenance for the park is required. This park is suppose to be a tourist destination but what was happened? There was no advertisements or marketing done to promote the park has a tourism destination. I seriously hope something will be done about it. This place contains some valuable Chinese teachings and it would be a pity if the park was left to “die off”.

A peaceful and quiet place

The Chinese Legend of White Snake

I'm glad to say that there are still some form of life left

Beautiful and colourful statue

Lots of algae in the pond, I wonder if it's meant to be like this

A Chinese quote

Wishing well

Ten Courts of Hell

MV Doulos at Vivo City

We left after an hour or so. The weather was so terribly hot. We hopped on to a bus and alighted at Vivo City. I spotted the “GBA” logo on a ship near the harbour. My first thought was “The book fair has arrived in Singapore?”. I was so excited that I dragged mum onto the MV Doulos^[2] right after we had tea at the White Dog Cafe. Security was extremely tight and the ladder leading to the ship was so steep, I almost fell off.

There are tours available for the public at SGD 5 per adult to tour around the ship. There are many varieties of books such as children, cooking, baking, educational and bible for sale. The books are extremely affordable and I saw many mummies buying lots of story books for their kids. We walked around and I took some photographs of the ship. There was even a clown around entertaining and having fun with the children on board the MV Doulos. I regretted not taking a photograph with her. She was so cute and funny!

MV Doulos

Safety boats of MV Doulos

MV Doulos

I snapped this photo of Star Cruise on board the MV Doulos

Vivo City

The clown

How could I resist not going to shop when I’m at a mall? Shopping is my way of relaxing since school is literally killing me now. I guess most should have know that by now. Believe me, if I went home empty handed on a shopping trip, I am out of my mind. I bought 3 items, not 13!

Bod Organics White Tea Cleansing Gel

Chomel Crystal earrings in yellow and black

We were about to left when I decided to bring mum to the National Geographic Store^[3] since the National Geographic channel was one of mum’s favourite. I spotted this pair of not-so-stylish-but-extremely-comfortable pair of shoes on one of the shelves. It was love at first sight! I don’t usually wear such sandals/shoes because it’s not really my style. However, this pair was so comfortable that I couldn’t resist. It was made from leather, recycled ones if I’m not wrong. The brand name “National Geographic” is imprinted on the strap of the shoe which this one of the reason why I love it. It isn’t my best looking shoes but definitely one of the most comfortable. Their clothings and accessories are really nice even though the price tags aren’t. I was SGD 99 poorer when I stepped out of the store.

Shoes from National Geographic

National Geographic official product tag

For more photos of the entire trip, please drop by my flickr.

1. Haw Par Villa is a Chinese mythological theme park in Singapore which contains over 1,000 statues and 150 giant dioramas depicting scenes from Chinese folklore, legends, history and illustrating various aspects of Confucianism.
2. The MV Doulos is the world’s oldest active ocean-faring passenger ship. She is now owned by the German charity: Good Books for All, and is used as a floating bookshop.
3. I wasn’t aware that National Geographic sells clothings and footwear etc aside from magazines.

Related posts:

1. Cycling, shopping & some random-ness
2. Shopping loots from Hong Kong & Macau
3. Some Christmas Shopping

Twitpic of the week

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2. Twitpic of an even busier week
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