ƸӜƷ•¨¯`•My Recuerdos•¨¯`•ƸӜƷ

This is one of my draft dwelling posts which finally get posted up. I'm currently back in Ipoh preparing for the December 2010 ACCA examinations and my activities are just study, eat, sleep...you know the drill. So I've nothing exciting to blog about live. For the sake of keeping my blog alive, I will just upload nice food pictures which I took weeks ago but didn't publish.

I have a lot of pictures of desserts so prepare to look at a lot of sweet stuff. These pictures were taken during the period where I was reviewing the HTC Aria (you can click here to read my reviews) and my updates were full of HTC Aria pictures. It seems rather a waste not to post them up. So yes, outdated I know but I need fillers to revive flagging interest in my blog. So here you go.

I've been told that I can practically be Paddington's ambassador since I'm always posting pictures of their 'Pot of Gold' here. Well, Paddington's is Ben and my chill out place and we like their tea-time set, where the 'Pot of Gold' is the most worth it. Check out the giant one we got the last time we were there:-

Then next are very colourful drinks pictures which I took in One Stop in Jalan Ipoh. Was there with Ben and his family for dinner. It was my second time there.

The next dessert pictures are from House & Co in BSC. Ben's spectacles broke and he had to wear contacts while waiting for his replacement. Everyone kept telling him how much better he looked without his specs. Haha!!! Well, when it was time for him to collect the spectacles, I had to be the driver because he had to have his contacts off for at least half an hour before trying on the new pair. So there I was, navigating the roads in the Avanza to pick up Aunty from Bangsar Village before heading to BSC. Fuuhhhh...it felt a bit like taking my driving test again!! Only with a bigger car and 4 other people in the back. xP But I can happily report that I 'passed'. Even the parking part (I did reverse parking, don't play play!!). Anyway, pictures of CAKES!!!!





Okay, I made myself hungry typing this post. O:
But strictly NO SNACK for me at this hour because I actually gained weight when I came back. All that sitting around for hours at the table with my books. Sighh...I guess I'll just have to resign to this fate until exam is over...sadness. If only those pictures were edible.

So after all the pre-celebrations for him, we spent the whole day together on Ben's birthday. He took leave on his birthday (honestly, I would have killed him if he hadn't.) and we woke up early on his birthday. No, we aren't exactly early birds, but since the both of us had RM5 vouchers for Sunway Pyramid ice skating, Ben thought it'd be nice to utilise it and go skating together. I'm recently quite into ice-skating since I have him as my kaki. So no objections from my side.

I don't know how to skate properly....yet. I'm so envious of those people who glide around the rink like it's the easiest thing in the world. ONE DAY. . .I will be one of them!! Meanwhile, I shall just do my best to upgrade my skills. I'm currently balancing on one foot while using the other foot to swipe on the ice to propel myself and scoot,scoot, scoot on the ice. Occasionally I will give myself heart attacks by being overambitious and end up either falling down or wobbling around with my hands waving to get my balance. Go ahead, laugh all you want. I think I'd laugh at myself too if I could see myself on ice. I think it's something to do with my small feet!!!I'm 5'5" and I wear a size 5 or 6 okay. I've fallen down so many times and Ben has never fallen even once. He's getting the hang of it way faster than me.

Anyway, that day we didn't skate as long as I'd like to since Ben got a blister on his ankle and he didn't want to make it worst by skating on it. So we headed to Fullhouse for lunch. They have two new dishes to their lunch sets; so Ben and I ordered them. The sets include soup of the day, ice lemon tea and dessert along with the main course, so lunch in Fullhouse is really value-for-money.






After lunch walked around Pyramid for a while before going back to my room for me to get his present and give it to him. Hehe. I didn't give it to him until after we reached his place. We fell asleep after lazing about since we were tired and woke up around dinner time. At first I had thought to bring him to Buffalo Steakhouse but ended up changing plans to Chilli's in BSC after reading some reviews (I've never been there before, you see.); and also because it didn't make sense for us to fight through the evening jam to get there since we just came from that area.

Chilli's was packed when we arrived there but we didn't have to wait long for a seat. We did have to wait a while for our food though. Since it was Ben's birthday, I thought it appropriate to add some kick to our meal; so we shared a Presidente Margarita.

I know, I know...I'm a long shot away from winning the 'Most Consistent Blogger in the World" (if it exists) but I've been busy spending whatever time I can with my dearest before I left for Ipoh to prepare for the nasty ACCA December 2010 sitting.

It was Ben's birthday on the 15th of November. My darling turned 20 that day; (no more saying you're 19!!!) and I got to be part of the celebrations for him which spanned over a few days. He's so loved. He got two pre-celebrations before his actual birthday which I'm going to tell about.

The first one was spawned by Jessica. We were busy chatting on MSN on Wednesday night about his birthday, and asking each other what plans we had for his birthday when she went, "Hey, lets make him a cake!!!Haha!!". And from there I went, "Ooh, lets make him CHEESECAKE!!" and it lead to a series of elaborate plans to surprise him. We had to do it the very next day itself since he works only till Thursdays and there would be no more chances to surprise him after that. So I had to secretly make my way from Sunway to Bangsar while he was at work (convinced him that I had a meeting to go to) and make cheesecake with the girls, and waited to surprise him when he came back from work.

I was made to hide behind the washing machine with a camera to jump out and take a picture of the birthday boy's surprised face. I'm delighted to report that the surprise was a success, despite some very funny gun jeung moments.



His family also had a family dinner for him the day before his birthday in Jake's. The food there was quite nice albeit being rather expensive. We enjoyed ourselves very much that night though.








All of us went back to Bangsar for a short while; where there was a momentary rush for the toilets, before going for a short drink and chat in Starbucks. We had a funny picture moment before we went where Charlson and Ben posed for me with tucked in shirts and buttoned up collars.


After we came back from the drink, we were lounging around when another impromptu idea popped up and they (Aunty and the girls) decided to have a countdown to his actual birthday for him. And no joke, a real countdown, with a BANG and confetti and stuff. They gave me this confetti cannon and had me standing in one far corner ready to blast the cannon off when the countdown was done. It sprinkled confetti and paper ribbons all over him when I set it off. Haha!!

Small in size but big in functions, the HTC Aria is certainly a phone which one can be proud to own. Granted, it may be smaller than its predecessors (HTC HD, HTC HD 2 to mention a few), but it proves to us that good things come in small packages. Lets take a run through of the specifications shall we:-

• Runs on Android OS, v2.1
• TFT capacitive touchscreen, 256K colours
• 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus, Geo-tagging, face detection
• 3G data connectivity
• WiFi (b/g)
• GPS (aGPS)
• Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa integration
• HTC Sense UI
• MicroSD card slot,supports up to 32 GBs (2GB card included)

I have written four reviews before this, covering what I have found out about the HTC Aria, from the basics right to the more detailed descriptions of its functions. You may read them by clicking on the links below.

1. HTC Aria Review : Unboxing
2. HTC Aria Review : Getting to Know You
3. HTC Aria Review : Delving Deeper
4. HTC Aria Review : Tell Me More

So now, this post will wrap up everything let you see the full picture about the HTC Aria.

DESIGN
The HTC Aria is certainly easy on the eyes. The sleek shape and the shiny black surface gives it a cool yet professional look at first glance. It feels good in the hands and not too heavy for a phone it's size. The yellow interior gives a pleasant surprise when you open up the external cover.


DISPLAY
The HTC Aria's clear and colourful screen display certainly justifies it's 265k colours display specification. The layout is user-friendly and the touchscreen responds quite well.



FUNCTIONS AND FEATURES
Calling and Texting
Call quality is clear on the HTC Aria. Typing text on the phone is quite manageable compared to other touchscreen phones thanks to the intelligent predictive text input. Texts displayed in conversation mode are convenient and a nice change.

Apps

Internet Connectivity and Web Browsing
I like that the HTC Aria has a choice to either connect to the internet solely through WiFi or enable mobile browsing using the data plan. The browser in the phone loads quite fast and is similar to a computer browser.


CAMERA
The 5 megapixel camera takes quite nice pictures. The shutter speed is quite fast and captures pictures on the press of the button. The user may adjust camera settings such as ISO and white balance while using the camera too. Howver, the HTC Aria does not have a LED flashlight nor a secondary camera in front. So pictures must be taken in good lighting. Video recording is just passable.


BATTERY
The battery lasts quite long (9 hours according to my experience) under heavy usage. However, I would have expected an even longer lasting time under heavy usage as it is claimed that the HTC Aria's battery can last more than 15 days on standby. So it pulls up my expectation for it lasting under heavy usage.

CONCLUSION

Pros

• Beautiful phone. Nice size and easy to hold.
  
• Texting and calling can be done at ease.
• Able to support GPS (PAPAGO) and does not lag.
• Plenty of useful and interesting apps available in Android Market.
• Able to share mobile network with PC when plugged in.
  

Cons

• Battery life falls short of expectations.
• Video recording not impressive.
• Screen size feels a little small sometimes when using certain apps
• Phone functions sometimes get laggy when WiFi is on.
  

Overall though, the pros make up for the cons. The HTC Aria is a phone which you can use with confidence, whether for communication, work or entertainment!! It rightly deserves it's place among the most coveted smartphones in the market today and is just waiting to show it's potential to more people who are looking for something new and fresh to impress them!!!

**This will be the last review that I write before I submit all my reviews to Nuffnang for the judging. Wish me luck!! Fingers crossed for the result and hopefully the HTC Aria will return to me. Thank you dear friends and family who have been very supportive. Thank you readers for your encouragement and interest!! Do continue dropping by!! And most of all, THANK YOU NUFFNANG AND DIGI for giving me this wonderful opportunity. I have enjoyed my time very much and this was a lovely experience. Thank you!!!

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