Sewing Machine or Lens?

In less than a month, I will celebrate my birthday. It will be a different celebration this time since I'm spending a couple of days with my entire family in Singapore, instead of just with Ariel which has been the case for the past 8 years.

Anyway, I've been thinking of my "wish list" for quite some time now. At some point, I was considering an iPhone.

I have an iPod touch and I love it. So I thought my next phone should be an iPhone. Later I thought it to be impractical considering that we have "free" phone with Ariel's corporate plan. And even if I ended up adding a few thousand bucks for the Nokia N97 model that I opted for, it's still tons cheaper than if I got the iPhone. After all, I've always had Nokia from the very first analog phone. And I still have my iPod Touch, which I now use as a portable movie payer. I'm not much of a music person anyway.

Then I went on a weekend crop with some friends in Tagaytay.

I grew up with two dressmakers for grandmothers. I've learned to sew at an early age and my Barbie doll matched my own outfits. It was only natural that I use stitching in my scrapbooks. In fact, I've already bought 2 sewing machines - an old heavy duty one which survived the Milenyo flooding but is no longer working at optimal levels, and a small portable one that can't handle cardstock. So I went on a hunt for the perfect sewing machine. And I found this.

I showed this to Ariel in one of our visits to Anson's. I told him I am considering this as a possible birthday gift from him to me. Anyway, when we went on a weekend crop in Tagaytay, Mia brought her Singer baby and let me use it. In fact, I made a couple of layouts and cards with machine stitching. I got to use ALL of the stitches available in this baby. Needless to say, when I got back home, I told Ariel that this is what I want for my birthday.

That is until August 15th when I attended the food photography workshop by Mr. Ricky Ladia. I went home thinking "I've got to have a macro lens!"

I am still researching but this is what I have in mind, so far.

Of course, an L lens is out of the question unless I plan to make money out of it so this is the next best thing. Since we are going to Singapore, I thought we'll check out the prices there first before actually making the purchase.

Any reco from my photography friends? I really have to make a good decision here. I can't afford to buy new lenses every now and then so this has to be THE macro lens I will be committing with for the rest of my life, probably. Is there a cheaper option? :D