Sometimes I wished I could still be a kid.
When life was much simpler.
Closed my eyes, and I found peace.

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…)

I was there to visit the stadium’s gym, I heard it was cheap and good, $2.50 per entry. I had given up signing for gym membership, as I always ended up donating my membership fees after the third month.

I had heard a lot about the stadium, read it on paper, seen it on TV, and I never missed Singapore National Parade each year, live on TV. Yet, it felt different when you are actually standing there, in the stadium.

I was at the main gate, instead going into the gym, I decided to walk towards the running tracks, attracted mainly by the lush green fields, whose grass never seem to ever grow an inch longer. I felt like running to the middle of the field and start rolling like a lazy cat after a good meal, but I thought it might not be a good idea.

I looked at the running tracks, warmed by a late afternoon sun, the stadium was pretty much empty, a few joggers were running slowly on the track, they probably were running fast, but the tracks were so long, they appeared to be slow.

I looked up at the empty seats, gazing slowly from one end towards the other end, I felt so insignificant, I was so small, the stadium was so spacious, I felt like an ant in a big bowl.

I looked at the walls, the beams, the seats – the stadium must have been quite old, I guessed – they appeared to be washed out and parched by years of rains and direct sunlight.

I found out today, it was built in 1973. At 34 years of age, its structures still appeared strong as if saying give me another one-hundred years, and I can still host another hundred national parades.

Sadly yesterday, he bid goodbye to all of us, giving way to the new stadium.

Photo: About two months ago, photographer.sg organised a photo trip to Singapore National Stadium, out of so many shots I took, I think I finally managed to capture the soul of the stadium through this shot, strangely, he looks like the image I have of him when I first met him four years ago.

In memory of Singapore National Stadium.

I bumped into this site this morning, faceyourpockets.com, basically it asks you to empty your pockets; arrange your stuff on a scanner, and lastly place your face and scan it.

I thought it’s silly, but when I look at the scans from the others, I was really impressed by the creativity shown, now I think it’s fun and artistic too.

So the child in be rebelled, and this is what I got before I even realized it. I know it’s silly, but it’s fun. Check out the others too.

List of objects scanned:

• IKEA paper ruler, used it when I moved house, but forgot to clear it.
• Some coins.
• iPod Shuffle
• My namecard
• A $2 note from my wallet, with the coins, probably for lunch later.
• Keys
• BookJetty namecard
• EZLink smartcard
• Restaurant receipt, last weekend bill, dinner treat for my aunt, auncle and cousin.
• Handphone
• Pen
• Part of my face

So what’s in your pockets? :D

Things that are living in the pockets of your bag, jeans or jacket: travel and pay checks, old cigarette pack that just looks interesting, sugar lumps and all the stuff that has found home in your pockets. They are all the treasures our project is looking for! Our goal is not only bring all this objects into light but show the owner of them.

— Faceyourpockets.com

Some photos taken about a month ago at lower seletar reservoir. I was there with Roy, it was our virgin visit to the reservoir. Roy said, “Don’t feel bad, you usually won’t come here unless your school teacher organise the trip”. So, I assumed it was not my fault then.

It was a quiet and serene place when we were there, the dragon boat competition had just ended, and a few people were seen throwing their anglers. Although not as big as east coast park, it is a pretty lovely place to relax and read a book.

If you going there, remember to bring a black bag to experiement with these hundreds of tiny white flies hovering our camera bags and suddenly disappeared when it was getting dark.

An african safari shot

SMRT moving fast

And who said we are not trying to make contacts with the outer space.

I was looking through some of the old photos I have, and I found this sunset photo I took about a year and a half ago in Bako National Park, Malaysia.

Nowadays, we hardly can find a quiet beach, and I was lucky that day; after setting up my camera on a tripod, I saw two people taking a stroll on the beach, so I swiftly pressed the remote shutter release and took this beautiful snap.

After taking that snap, I could not resist not to take a stroll at such a beautiful day.

It was the best stroll I ever had in my life, the beach was tranquil, the sky, the sands, my self, and everything else were painted amber; all were warmed by the the gentle sun, slowly hiding itself behind the hill; and the steps I left behind on the sands were quickly washed out by the small waves hitting the beach, the sea water was warm, the air was a bit salty, it was a bit windy, very releaxing, almost perfect, as if God made that day just for me.

I really miss a day like this, and I greed for more in the future, but sometimes we do need to make the time for it; if we do not seek, how then we will ever find.

Thus this year, I promised my wife and myself to climb Mount Kinabalu, and I hope I will be lucky again this time. Hope the sky will be clear and we will have enough stamina to make it to the top. Seeing sunrise on top of the highest mountain in south-east asia… priceless.

Experience like this really makes life worth a living, and… a thousand more livings if God does not forbid.

I joined a photo marathon organised by Canon last Saturday.

There were four themes given out throughout the day at 3-hour interval: 2 hours for shooting, an hour for uploading files and resting at the same time.

The image on left was my attempt for the first theme, “Faces“, I thought it will be shortlisted, but it was not. The second theme was “Power: Simply Red“; out of a whim of fun or maybe an act of desperation, I submitted a direct interpretation, a power-socket-with-a-red-button shot. The young chap that transferred my file, kept smiling all the way. Must be thinking who is this dumbass?

I left after the second theme for an appointment. Besides, my feet were aching and the haze was pretty bad too; the Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) index almost hit unhealthy level.

Coming back from Cameron Highland, after a hectic month completing two projects, and meeting interesting people at E27, I just love my job more and more. Not because I am doing a totally different stuff right now, but I think I am begining to know the difference between what I want and I what I need more clearly.

Last time, I did what I needed, I needed a job, I needed experience, and I needed money, so I worked hard and I learned as much as I could, and I did what I was told, I was employed, and I was lost. Then I started to explore what I really wanted.

I wanted to freeze beautiful moments in life, so I bought my first DSLR camera; and I signed up for beginning photography course. I had always wanted to travel alone, travel light, travel long, longer than 2 weeks, so I packed my bag, and travelled to Borneo, for the first time, alone, my longest holidays, 21 days in a row.

I found programming alone is too boring, I had always wanted to explore the creative side of me, so I started Pluit Solutions doing not only web development, but also web design.

I know that money is important and but a fulfiling life is more important than money; thus doing what I want on top of what I need makes the difference.

Just like the two kids that I snapped from my last trip to Cameron Highland, I chose to be like the first kid on the left, happy and passionate.

When you are happy and passionate, you get the best out of you.

Sometimes we just have to stop looking ahead, and look up once in a while. This was what I saw when I looked up at Changi airport, a snap of the check-in counter roof, snapped some months ago.

I wonder where the interior designer got the inspiration from. Hm… roaches? :)