♡

Celebrated Mothers' Day with the family last weekend! Really love such family occasions. It's difficult to gather all the members together so such occasions are usually the most precious times to meet all of them at one go! Had a really good time over awesome home-cooked food and even greater company!


One with the siblings on that day. :-)


Finally met up with dearest cousin yesterday too! It's been more than 2 months since we had a session like this. Attended a 4h training early in the morning together and hung out after! A good time talking about the most random things and also some future plans! Really looking forward to being in the same school as you again too. The last time we schooled together was in nursery, but despite that, our kinship has only grown stronger over the years! So thankful for you in my life!!! :-)


So today, it's Grandpa's death anniversary in the Chinese calendar. Went down to pay respects together as a family. I guess Grandpa must be happy that we went down to 'visit' him today! Really hope that he's happy and well wherever he is right now. :-)


One with the Popz who's always trying to act cool.


Went to a hawker centre nearby to have lunch together after. There were like about 15 of us and I was thinking how we're even going to find seats, but thank God that we did so very quickly! The men of the family ordered so much food (as usual) and we were all so filled after that hearty meal together. Really glad to be able to spend some time like this with the family! :-)

That's about it for the week! Had a really blessed week despite being so exhausted from work and my driving lessons. I really felt so drained on Wednesday and was in such great despair. Wanted someone to talk to, but I didn't know who to turn to. Just felt like such a great burden and felt like I'm just wasting the space on Earth. But after I went for ycg, I felt so renewed and refreshed. Only then I realized that I haven't been allowing His word to breathe through my life enough all this while. My faith in Him needs to be much more rooted and stronger, & the only way is to learn more about His word! Really thank God for injecting timely reminders in my life every now and then!

Other than the timely reminders, He has been working so much wonders in my life. For instance, I was really dreading work every single day, but He answered my prayers and helped me to feel more positive and energized at work! There're also so many other things that I've prayed about which he has answered. Even down to the smallest requests, like for myself to wake up on time for work, or just to have a good run! I've been really experiencing so much more of His wonders as I grow closer to Him. So thankful that I decided to follow Him since young & right now, I'm just so blessed with Phileo to walk through this spiritual journey together!

Truly thank God for everything! :-)

追不到的高楼大厦　在暮色中泛黄

谁会抬头　看一眼那小心期盼的目光

我的哀愁　想跟谁说说啊

看板反射孤单的身影　摇摇又晃晃

我的日子　在等谁听见啊

总是渴望　有狂舞的力量

我的愤怒　只埋在心底吗

我的快乐　有人能分享吗

骑楼下的路边摊　默默熬著一锅汤

总是渴望　能一觉到天亮

总是等待日出那道　寂寞之光

(总是等待日出以后　这世界还会有全新的模样)

我们都在　喧哗里沉默过

就像熬著　生活里说不出的酸甜苦辣

碎碎念的电台DJ　对什么人说话

有时候只是想在天空　开出一朵花

最后我们　一点点蜕变了

我们都在　狂欢里失落过

我们都为　某个人努力过

我们都曾　软弱想放弃过

可是我们　还是走过来了

(在生命中守护我们　热烈拥抱时的寂寞的光亮)

在生命中守护一道　寂寞之光

Really love this song by 梁文音 so much! Been playing it so many times while travelling around and I haven't gotten sick of it. #achievement

I guess one reason why I love this song so much is because I feel like it's so relatable! 

Hello there, back here to update on my most recent trip to Batam!

I guess most people know that it's a popular spot for Singaporeans to have a short getaway given how near it is to our country! To be precise, it's only a 1 hour ferry ride there. The things there are really cheap too, which I guess is another reason why Singaporeans love going there.

It's both our first time there but we didn't want to go for the tour packages because we didn't want to go some places in the itinerary so we decided to go free-and-easy. The planning for this short trip was pretty fast, with us picking the tourist-y places to go!

Initially we were also worried about getting around in the country, but thankfully Clarissa managed to find this driver who could bring us around for the whole day!



Booked our 2-way ferry tickets online from Batam Fast for about SGD42! Had to arrive slightly earlier to collect the boarding pass.


All ready to go!


The ferry for our trip there.


Inside the ferry. Honestly the trip there wasn't all that good. The seats were very old and the ferry was quite dirty! Furthermore, the air-con wasn't functioning properly. We were sweating inside. Thankfully one of the staff came to fix the problem and it got better after!

Was still excited to get there despite the unpleasant ride!


The ride was made so much awesome because of this beautiful sight. I was really so stunned at how beautiful it was. Was so focused until I almost forgot to take a picture of it. The clouds looked really near to the sea there!! Simply breathtaking.


Really so amazed by this amazing work of His hands.


So, after that 1h ride, we finally arrived!


Hello Batam!!!

We were initially quite scared upon reaching because we've read that several Singaporeans have been sent back at the immigration counters here because they were caught talking or using their phones. Thankfully we cleared it all safely and made it out lol. We also reached earlier than we expected, and we thought we had to wait for awhile before the driver comes! But thankfully (again) he reached earlier and was wandering around with a sign that says "Clarissa Tee". It was quite funny because we wanted to get a SIM card at the ferry terminal and we were looking for the shop. Then this guy with the sign suddenly approached us and I was like "Eh?! Your name leh." That's how we recognised our driver and got our ride for the rest of the day there!

One thing good about hiring him (other than the convenience) is that he brought us to places that the tours wouldn't! & about the SIM card, he was telling us that it's quite expensive to get at the ferry terminal, so he brought us to this market area to get one. We did our research beforehand and was prepared to pay about SGD9 for that, but guess what...? The place he brought us to buy the SIM card only cost me about SGD1.50. The difference was just shocking.

He's also quite a nice person too! He was helping me with the activation and the purchase of the 'data packet' on my phone because it's all in Bahasa Indonesia. Also, he asked us before that if we wanted to head to somewhere for breakfast even though we didn't include that in our itinerary. :-)


Also, after we got out to the roads (just barely 5 minutes or so?), we started seeing a few young (like probably only 5 or 6 years old or younger) children wandering on the roads with thick stacks of newspaper. Initially I thought they were just jaywalkers, but I finally understood what they were doing when they started knocking on the windows of the cars. It was such a heartbreaking sight to see. Although I've heard of such happenings, but seeing it with my own eyes is a whole different thing. Also, the drivers at Batam are pretty reckless.. like really. I can feel and understand the difference between the drivers here and there especially after driving on the roads by myself. They just cut lanes, overtake, swerve their vehicles in and out just to get to their destination quickly. It's such a dangerous working environment for the kids. They should be receiving education and not doing such a tough job at such an age. This is why, people always say that the children in Singapore are really so privileged, which I really agree with!


Selfie in the car!! It was a 7-seater car so we fitted in super comfortably hahaha (like duh).


On the road feat. our driver!

Didn't really take much scenery shots while we were on the car because our driver was just zooming past everything so quickly lol. Took some videos in the end! We were supposed to reach our first destination in 35 minutes but we reached in 20 minutes.


Our first stop - Barelang Bridge!

It's so so so so so beautiful. This picture does not do justice to the beauty of this place at all!


The view!! *heart eyes*


A proper picture of the bridge! It's usually supposed to be quite crowded, but I guess it wasn't for our experience because it was a weekday morning & so we could really walk around quite a bit and snap lots of photos!


Okay I'll let the pictures do the talking *shuts up*


Looking so tourist-y. Hats and shades checked lol. Feat. Clarissa's thumbs up.


The wind was just so crazily strong and we couldn't really take a proper photo without our hair looking crazy. This is the best photo to illustrate how the situation was like lol.



Just more of us hehe.



Took several solo shots too!


Went for this place for lunch next! Not a very popular choice for tourists but our driver suggested this place so we agreed!


It was about a 5 minutes drive from Barelang Bridge & it's only accessible via your own mode of transport! It's situated at a super ulu area, like he had to drive up and down slopes to get here!



Was actually quite surprised to see when we arrived there. There were actually houses that people live in there (as shown in the picture). It's really like those I've seen on documentaries and shows! The residents there were just staring at us while we walked past to get to the restaurant.

This is how the restaurant looks like! We were the only customers there then.



The cafe set-up looked like any other cafes here. The only difference was that the cakes there are so cheap. The most expensive one was like about SGD 3... like whaaaaaaaaaaaat? I was thinking of getting more than one but my stomach didn't have that much space so I just settled with one.

Our ride back.



Sat at the outdoor seats this time round! It was a good ride with the sea breeze at night! :-)