Nokia sure knows how to host a party.

I had to hastily buy a dress and a handbag just to attend it.

Dress:

With handbag:

I swear, it’s ridiculous how they expect us to fit anything in those tiny handbags.

People who know me know that I go around with a sports or duffel bag all the time.

Party clutch bags are absurb.

Honestly! After putting my camera and handphone in, I have no space left for anything else!!

What about my wallet? What about my house keys? What about makeup for touching up? Tissue paper? Blotter? Filofax? Camcorder? DS Lite? MP3 player? Drumsticks??? (Yes, I now carry my drumsticks around so I can practise on the go.)

I suppose you might argue that I don’t need to bring all these things to a party. You might be right, but I’d still say …*cue sinister music*… you never know.

I could invest in one of those all-in-one gadgets to combine phone, camera, video, gaming, music and organiser functions in one tiny sleek package that will fit nicely in my clutch and still leave room for my drumsticks… not.

But I still haven’t found a gadget that does everything adequately. For instance, what phone-camera-PDA-mp3-player can give me DS-standard games?

(Civilization Revolution is coming out on the DS!!)

That brings me back to the Nokia party.

I shall sum Nokia Connection 2008 up in one sentence:

Gorgeous models, exquisite food, free-flow alcohol, performances, impressive light show, immersive party venue, prizes, competitions and tons of latest and not-yet-released phones to play with!

Yes, there was even a BMW in there.

Unfortunately, it was such a fun and successful party that I didn’t have time at all to play with the phones much.

Yeah, so, I still haven’t found my dream all-in-one gadget to solve my handbag woes.

The party took place in giant domes at the Padang.

(I took this photo from PeepShow’s blog. I hope they don’t mind!)

It was futuristic and funky at the same time. Appealed to the party girl in me! Although I’m not much a party girl since I hate wearing party dresses and carrying party handbags.

This photo was taken at the start of the party when it wasn’t so crowded yet.

For comparison, this is about half an hour later:

Back to the start of the party, after I snapped a few photos, a lady come up and said, “Excuse me, but you’re not allowed to take photos because this is a private event.”

HUH??

You invite a blogger to your party and you don’t allow her to take photos! Siao lah!

Well, okay, the situation was that all photos and info of the phones were embargoed until the party officially started at 8 pm.

But there were no phones to take photos of because all the phones were covered up in large white sheets of cloth!!

So that’s why I don’t have any photos of all the wonderful food and all the wonderful drinks and alcohol. By the time the party started and I was allowed to take photos, I was kept busy partying and taking photos of the models!

Okay, brace yourself for tons and tons and tons of model photos (human and phone models, lol)!

The best (or worst?) part is that this isn’t even all of them. They were literally all over the place and, after a while, I couldn’t remember who I had photographed and who I hadn’t!

I love how they all wore different costumes to match the phones that they were modelling.

The official highlights of the night were the Nokia E66 and Nokia E71.

I had the chance to use the E66 because they were running a photography competition that night. We were supposed to use the new phone to take specific photos of the exhibits, and then, also using the phone, upload the photos to Share on Ovi, which is sort of like Nokia’s answer to Flickr.

The phones have inbuilt functions to upload directly to Ovi so it’s very convenient for camwhores.

This is what the Nokia E66 looks like:

It comes in silver, too, but I prefer the black. It’s cute!

This is the Nokia E71:

Also comes in black and silver.

Looks more businessy, not really my style.

At the event, they gave us a press kit comprising press releases and a thumbdrive containing hi-res images of the phones and accessories.

It’s a 2GB thumb! I have another to add to my collection now, yay!

It’s designed in the Nokia Connection 2008 theme but I think it looks like a lighter. Haha.

A little blue light comes on when you plug it in. Sweet!

Matches my CPU casing!

We also got matching shot glasses as a door gift.

No, we didn’t get any phones.

At least, I didn’t.

Oh, I should also remark that the makeshift outdoor restrooms were done up very nicely!

There was a very nice auntie there to hand us towels, but she was very camera shy and kept running off to hide when I whipped out my camera.

I got quite tipsy that night because the martinis were so deceptively tasty. They had apple, lychee and chocolate martinis! You just taste sweet, you don’t taste the alcohol!

Well, what can I say? Nokia hosts one heck of a party!