It was a night to remember and what a fantastic way to celebrate this major milestone, 1950′s Italian gangsta-style! The theme was Godfather Italian mafia and to my surprise, EVERYONE dressed the part! I will keep this short as the photos will speak for themselves but before that, I HAVE to say my “Thank You’s” to those who helped in the planning of this event!

First and foremost, to Ming who’s a private person so I’ll keep my gratefulness “private”.

To Cat & Juliet who helped me remotely (in S’pore) in so many ways, from seeding the ideas for a theme to being ma gangsta door bitches at the party. But more importantly, I’m grateful for the moral support they provided me when I almost went crazy from the stress and frustration of planning the party.

To Kenneth & Xu who sorted all the sound/music stuff for the night – I can’t say it enough, but THANK YOU again!

A big shout out goes to Xu (who you may all know him as DJ Xu from LapSap) for the special Birthday -Barbara-Streisand Remix version he made for me! I absolutely LOVE it!

Big hugz to my multi-talented cousin, Eu Shen who DJ-ed for me as well! (Aka Eush from BeatMonkey). Thanks for the disco house beats coz I know that’s not your genre of choice!

To Faizal, who so instantly agreed to be Official MC when I suggested it… big PROPS for doing such a great job! You’re a NATURAL!!

To my 2 Official Photographers for the night – Andy & Steve & the boys, Hsien Ming, Nicholas and Wei Jun who worked so hard at the Photo wall that night, much love to y’all as always!

A SPECIAL THANKS to Steve, who always there for me without fail and always has my back when nobody else does! You are my lifesaver, ALWAYS! BIG HUGZ!!!

To my dearest florist, M’ng who surprised me by presenting me with the 100 red long stalk roses I had ordered for the party, it couldn’t have been a better Birthday present from you! THANK YOU, M’NG!

And here’s a cover “Thank you” to all of you for all your pressies! Love ‘em all! (That’s how well you guys know me!)

THEY SAY 30′s IS THE NEW 20′s. TO HELL WITH THAT! WHY WOULD I WANT TO RELIVE MY 20′s WHEN I CAN DO IT EVEN BETTER THIS TIME?

TO ALL MY FRIENDS, THANK YOU FOR BEING A PART OF MY LIFE FOR WITHOUT YOU, THERE WOULD BE NO CRAZY STORIES TO TELL OR INCRIMINATING PHOTOS TO SHOW…

Ma’ Gangsta Door Bitches Cat & Juliet who threatened to kill those who wrote uncreative “Happy Birthday” messages in my guestbook…

I think we girls look wayyyyy more dangerous then the … erm… men..

One of my FAV photo wall photos! Jeremy looking GANGSTA, Faizal is pimpin’ and Mark is… trying to hard.. hehe

The MBA crew…

The FIFOTO Crew, old & new…

It really isn’t what it looks like.. we DON’T really wanna shoot each others’ brains out, or shoot ourselves… We are just “POSING”. Really.

Instant Prints for everyone!

The Mafias get together to talk BUSINESS.

Thanks to Cuz Adrian, Lawrence, Mark, Juliet & Cat for the super awesome, super yummy Birthday cake! (Even though it says “Nikon!”)

East side…

west side…

Nominees for Best Dressed!

Congrats to Reezal & Hsuan who won themselves a bottle of Champagne for Best Dressed. ironically enough, both of them don’t drink!

The Late night crew…

The Penang Crew

DJ Xu & DJ Eush rocked the night!

The last time I was in Guangzhou was in October when I went shopping for bathroom accessories and household fittings. That was a nightmare, not because of the language barrier (I speak “poor” Mandarin but could get by perfectly fine, especially with Anny who was there to help me translate) or anything else but poorly because of the abundant choices that were available and trying to balance design, practicality and costs was a big headache. If you’re into design and have ever done any renovations before, you’d know that beautiful things aren’t necessarily the most practical. Let’s not even bring price into the picture! So, it’s been quite a fun and challenging journey for me trying to balance all 3 aspects of interior design! I get to use both my left and right brains in the process and am really enjoying seeing things down to the nitty gritty details to ensure its aesthetically pleasing, practical and cost effective.

My trip to Guangzhou this time was nowhere close to a headache. In fact, I had a blast being spoilt rotten for choices!

Upon arrival, we visited Zhu Jiang Xin Cheng Furniture Mall in Guangzhou, just for a look see and price checks. I was initially quite apprehensive because all the things I like are modern furniture and I was afraid I’d only find the cheesy China-made stuff. Oh boy I was sooooooo wrong! So the first day was a good one – I had found a few sofas, chairs, shelving and other items I liked, a lot. All things were KIV until after Shunde, Foshan which was the main purpose of the trip.

The next day, we drove to Shunde, an hour’s drive from Guangzhou city.

I was very impressed and amazed as I stood in the middle of the Louvre Furniture mall in Shunde. I stood in awe as I stood amidst the 183,000 square meter (that’s 2 MILLION square feet, mind you!). 8 storeys of shops, all furniture! Holy Crap! Just name what style you like and they WILL have it! Neoclassical furniture, modern, post modern, antique, wood, classic Italian… The list goes on! Forget about backward China. Forget about cheesy china-made items. That was like 20 years ago. The modern stuff you find in this mall alone is more than all the modern furniture places you find in KL! And the best part is, they are sold at a fraction of the cost! (well, ok to be honest the prices aren’t as cheap as I had expected, well at least not for the items I chose anyway. The better quality stuff, you get at probably 1/2 the price as compared to KL. If you choose to have leather, it gets quite expensive! There was an imported chair I liked that cost RM4000! We managed to bargain it down to RM3000 after half an hour of negotiations and purchasing other items at the store) What’s also cool about shopping in China – you can pretty much custom make everything! From material to color to measurement which is probably why I enjoyed it so much! I even made FIFOTO carpets!

The entire main street of Shunde is lined with gigantic furniture malls. The street is at least 1 km long! GO FIGURE!

The mall next to Louvre, which we only had 30mins for, was lower end and I found the same exact items for even less! So.. If you have the patience and energy to hunt down the best prices, Shunde is the place for you!

This trip to China was certainly an eye-opener. Sure, I know all things nowadays are made in China and of course, I know Shanghai is a cosmo city and I constantly hear my dad sing praises of how the Chinese can do the impossible, etc but you don’t really know or more so, your mindset doesn’t really change from hearsay. This time, I witnessed it for myself and I must admit, am impressed!

All I have to say is… I’m PROUD to be Chinese!

Here are some cool finds!

I bought these… One side of the bed – A bunny!

The other side of the bed – The Pistol…. and on the floor, a rabbit carpet! MUAHAHAHAHAHA

I absolutely love these red “Jimmy Choo” chandeliers but thought it would outlive its novelty within a few months…

… and this is comfy chair!