It has been a while since the last time I took a break from work, trekking in Cameron Highland.

Last week, after attending a friend’s wedding in KL, I took another break, I thought it is about time, living in old estate in Ang Mo Kio, every now and then I was reminded that life is short.

So my wife and I headed to Redang island, north-east of peninsula Malaysia, a small island with its white sandy beach, and swimming-pool-clarity sea water.

We were there for three days and two nights, went snorkling each day, seeing lots and lots of fishes and corals, and eat and relaxing for the rest of the day.

It was really weird on the first day; weird and strange that life could be so slow and quiet, no checking of emails, no coding, no phone calls. It was just me, the sun, the sea, the sand and my wife. One extreme of life I thought.

One lazy afternoon, I layed on a hammock, hanged under a big tree facing the beach, it was slightly windy, the breeze was caressing my face and my hair, this must be heaven, I thought, so I took out my wife’s point-and-shoot camera, took a snap, before dozing off.

Three days had just passed, I was back to Singapore, after a good night sleep, the next morning I packed another bag, loaded with a borrowed notebook from an angel (mine collapsed), an iPod, and two cans of Red-Bull.

I headed to Singapore Management University (SMU) for code::XtremeApps, a 24-hour programming contest, organized by Information Technology Standards Committee, first of its kind in Singapore and first time ever I joined such a competition, not realizing what trouble I have brought myself into, another extreme of life, I thought. (to be continued…)