Hi.

A friend teased me about getting COVID-19 for the second time:

"Nowadays people are positive about other things, yet you're still positive for COVID again, hahaha"

I went outstation on Monday, 22nd July for a two-day conference in Alor Setar, Kedah. It was an international conference with international participants, hence it made sense how I got COVID from there. I started getting symptoms on the first night of the conference which was on Tuesday 23rd July. I suffered from a sore throat, a shivering body and a bad headache which made it hard to sleep that night. 

I could barely move the next day, so I didn't attend the second day of the conference. I stayed in the hotel instead. That morning was when I did the self COVID test and it came as positive. Since there was no more self-quarantine using the MySejahtera apps, with a very weak body at that time, I went to get MC from the clinic. 

I was denied by a total of two clinics; they don't have COVID test kits in stock so the clinic couldn't produce a COVID report anymore and the doctor didn't want to give MC without the report. I asked so they treated me as a normal fever but the doctor refused to even see me. I remember being so frustrated. Luckily the third clinic I went to got a very nice doctor who provided me the treatment, medicine and MC for office. The journey back home from Kedah was a nightmare. I tried to sleep and ignore all the heavy feelings, especially the urge to vomit. Alhamdulillah reached home safely and was flat for two days with a high fever. 

Today is the 6th day, I still have a cough and flu but it's not serious anymore and the COVID test came back negative, finally. I don't know where it went wrong but even though I did get the third dose of vaccine, this second time COVID positive was worse than the first time. Also, I hate that it was hard to get MC for COVID-19 when most clinics denied the patient.

Till then,

Lya.

Hi.

I had a few places I wanted to visit when I planned my honeymoon trip and Bali, Indonesia won my heart. I usually would plan the itinerary, accommodation and transportation myself, but for a honeymoon, I wanted peace of mind during the trip so I booked a tour guide with Supirbalinesia. The one I talked with was Hamzah (WhatsApp: +62 878-6072-6627), and our driver was Hari. They have a variety of packages for the Bali trip, but I chose the honeymoon one. We had a pleasant trip, I fully recommend them if you want a tour guide to visit Bali. 

Here is the full itinerary of what we visited during the trip and the total expenses of the trip are at the bottom of this post.

Hi.

Throughout the years of studying and now working in architecture, I can say that I have the most knowledge, or at least basic, of the building construction process. I'm currently working as an architect and one of my job is to process the enforcement of illegal extensions. Most cases of illegal extensions are the result of the owner of the building not having knowledge of the law or getting scammed by the contractor who didn't think the need to advise the owner. Hence, in today's post, I'll be sharing that knowledge.

As a building owner, in this context, I would use - a house owner, at some point would want to do some renovation on their house. Be it to just change the colour of the house, change the main gate that the developer provided or do major renovation such as extending the wall to build a new kitchen. Renovation is one way to change the design of your house to your liking.

Most house owners don't know that every single change that you want to make to your house needs approval from the authorities first - in Malaysia, it's the Pihak Berkuasa Tempatan (PBT) or more familiar, your Majlis. By every single change, I meant that even to change the interior painting of your house needs approval.

How? - this varies from which state you're in. But mostly the same procedure is to get a building permit from the authority or hire a consultant to do the building plan submission if you're doing major renovations.

However, you should know that your dream renovated house has its limits. According to Uniform Building by-Law 1988 (UBBL1988), every building has its own building setback - usually 10' from the boundary line. You can't extend your building outside the building setback. For example, you can't build an extra bedroom.

Here is where most contractors don't advise the owner, instead they just do the construction without approval. The risk is you would be fined, or worse, you'll get a demolition notice. Some people would say to ignore any notice issued by the authority but little did they know, the authority can apply for a court order to demolish your renovation themselves - which they wouldn't do it carefully.

I would be sympathetic to house owners if they got sued for illegal extension cases as most of them don't know the law - which reminds me to always research and get information first before doing anything.

Did you know that you need a permit for your house renovation?

Till then,

Lya

Hi.

I actually started the new year with a trip to Hatyai and Songkhla from the 6th to the 8th of January. This marked my second time to Hatyai, but the places I visited were still much had the same excitement. It was exceptionally exciting because I went with three of my friends who had yet to visit Hatyai. Here is the itinerary of the trip.

We took the ETS from Ipoh at 1.09am and reached Padang Besar around 4.21am. The border to Hatyai only opened around 6.00am hence, we were quite exhausted waiting. There were kiosks to book for transport or trips to Hatyai at Padang Besar KTM. We purchased a van for our accommodation at Siam Mansion with Pens Leisure Company. It costs us RM30 per person. 

We arrived at Siam Mansion around 7.30am. It wasn't hard to search for good accommodation in Hatyai as there were plenty of 5-star vibe hotels with cheaper prices. Siam Mansion costs RM328 for four people per night. One thing that we disliked about the hotel was they didn't provide us with iron. We rested at the hotel for around 2 hours before starting our day's trip.

We went to our first stop at Cheevit Cheeve Cafe by walking for 20 minutes. It was an ordinary cafe with the same range of prices, but the menus weren't the same as cafes in Malaysia. We tried their famous Bingsu and drinks. Then we took Grab to Kim Yong Market for souvenirs, mostly peanut snacks. The market was quite busy and narrow which made it hard to move around. After some shopping, we bought the viral Nasi Khaomok at Kaitod Meena for our lunch. Then we took Grab to visit the famous sleeping Buddha at Wat Hat Yai Nai. The entrance to the temple was free. After having lunch, we checked in and took a nap. Then we went to the Central Festival shopping mall and Asean Night Market during the night time to have dinner and did some shopping. 

Hi.

Do you ever get writer's block where you stare blankly at the screen, keep typing on that keyboard, and then delete it for a few minutes or even hours? That's currently me. It's been so long since I last consistently wrote on this blog that I forgot how to write. Heck, I don't even deserve to call it writer's block as I no longer deserve to call myself a writer anymore.. yet.

Today is just that day again when I suddenly felt the urge to write, and I just wanted to write randomly about things that popped up in my head. I did this sometimes in the past and to me, it's a useful way to try getting back on track on this blog.

Let's start with the 'not-wanting-to-get-married' me finally got married in March.. yeayy! 2nd March, to be exact. As a typical girl, it's a date I would remember.. hopefully. Though it's merely just three months into married life, I could say that marriage is not all rainbows. There's rain and thunderstorms first to get through. However, having someone I could depend on, someone who actually cares about me, someone who guides me, is a positive addition to my life.

Having finally graduated from my part-time Master's study. I felt that I had all the time in the world to do whatever I wanted to do.. on the weekend. I spent time with family and friends. I spent the day as lazily as I could. I went for vacations and holidays. It was fun, and I hope it will continue that way - having free weekends.

Despite moving on to another phase in my life, I found that travelling is still my number one favourite activity. I went to Hatyai-Songkla in January and then to Bali in March for my honeymoon. I visited local attractions too which I plan to share with you guys.. in another entry.. when I feel like to, tehee.

There was this one time a colleague went on a work trip with her boss and she shared that the boss would always have a book with her and she read whenever she was free. On another occasion, my boss is also an avid reader. He would always quote a phrase or tell a story from the books he read to us. These bosses are older people, which made me question how come I, as a younger generation couldn't do so. 

I felt that I left reading as a hobby a long time ago, which is not cool. In fact, in getting inspiration, I read a few entries from other bloggers before I started writing this post. I also read my old posts and I found joy in reading. Specifically, I relieved joy in reading. Let's read. It benefits us in so many ways.

Till then,

Lya.

Hi. 

It's that time, again, when I left the blogging world for quite some time and suddenly appeared out of nowhere, tehee. My last post was in 2021. I doubt anyone's here anymore, but here I am, still coming back. I plan on getting active writing again, as writing has always given me peace of mind. Hence, for this first post of the new year, I want to share with you some life updates. Pardon my miserable writing; it has been long since my last post. It will get better, I hope.

First of all, finally, I graduated Master of Architecture in July last year after 3 years of struggling to study while working. At first, I didn't think I could graduate as it was not an easy journey, I even deferred one semester due to exhaustion. But here I am with the certificate, proudly can call myself a Graduate Architect.

I remember mentioning that I didn't plan on getting married at all on my posts before as I claimed to be not to believe in love. But who am I to deny what's written for me. So here's a bit about my future husband; as typical as a modern love story to date, we knew each other online. It happened so fast, we were friends for about one year. Then we visited our families just one week after confessing our feelings to each other and decided to get married 3 months later. It's a big life-turning event, hence I'm full of fear. But I guess we'll hope for the best and be willing to face whatever will happen if it means with him, the love of my life. 

Erm. Not there. Yet. Again, tehee.

Stepping into 2024 with full of life achievements and life-changing events. Fear of failure is a common thing for me, hence I usually don't dare to get out of my comfort zone. But this time, I plan to just go ahead and face it. Wish me luck, and I wish you guys all the best in your life too!

Till then,

Lya.

Hi.

I didn't watch our Prime Minister's press conference about the country's Covid-19 recovering plan earlier today. But messages were shared and the conclusion was, interstate travel only would be allowed starting November. Having been under Movement Control Order (MCO) for quite some time now made me thinking of the freedom we had before Covid-19. I initially had plans that I had to cancel or postponed because of Covid-19 and it also affected some of my routines;

I was so excited the moment I heard about World Expo 2020 and delighted that it would be held in Dubai, a place I've been meaning to visit so it was like hitting two birds with one stone. I had planned to visit Dubai in 2020 so I was ready financially and just added up visiting the expo in my list. I was about to buy the tickets when Covid-19 hit us. The expo originally would be held on 20th October 2020 – 10th April 2021 but due to Covid-19, it's planned to be held on 1st October 2021 - 31st March 2022. However, I don't think I'll be ready to go abroad in two or three years.

After all the overseas travelling, I realised I didn't travel locally that much. Hence, I've been meaning to tour Malaysia for quite some time and I planned to do it after visiting Dubai. I had drafted the journey from Perlis to Johor and fly to Sarawak and Sabah just for it to be only a draft when Covid-19 happened.

In the earlier part of 2020, I got to experience my new routine as a part-time postgraduate student in UTM KL. It was brief, just about two months that I experienced it. I remembered complaining so much as it was so exhausting and drained my money, having the need to travel from Ipoh to KL every weekend. The heartbreaking part was I no longer can spend time with my family. Though having online classes is much better for part-time study, I do miss those exhausting days nonetheless.

I love driving and I found solace in a long drive aimlessly, especially at midnight. It's been my routine to have a long drive, at least once a week, just to release whatever in my mind for the week. Usually, I would go out driving on the highway for one or two hours and came back feeling refreshed. Now that even between districts is closed to travel and the city practically is dead after 8.00pm, I couldn't enjoy that routine anymore and I miss it.

 

A part of me wanted my life to be like how it was originally before Covid-19, but another part does appreciate what happened as somehow it made me take a break from the exhausting struggle I had to push through everyday. Either way, what happened made me learned to appreciate and cherish the things I currently have, rather than focusing on chasing things I want to have.

So, what would your life be like, if there was no Covid-19?

Till then,

Lya.

Hi, another hiatus from me and came back with this post of Eid. Hope you guys don't miss me that much, tehee. Another year of CovEid this year and it's getting worse, unfortunately. But nonetheless I wish you guys good health and celebrated Eid ul-Fitr as cheerful as ever. 

As the photo shown, my family and I celebrated Eid as we usually would though it's only us five this year. We dressed into new clothes, set up the table and took family photos. I really missed my big family gathering we always had every year before Covid-19 and it made me realize that we shouldn't take verything we have for granted. Instead we should cherish and pour our heart into doing everything we could at the moment as we don't know when it would be the last time we have the chance to.

Also in conjunction with Eid, the month we forgive and ask for forgiveness, I humbly apologize to you guys, my reader, if any of my writings ever offended you in any way possible. Believe me, I never intended to hurt anybody with my writings.

Selamat Hari Raya!

With love,

Lya.

After so long abandoning this space of mine, I can't find words to start writing again though actually, I have so much to write about. Pardon me if this post is nothing more than just a writing practice to get back on track again as I'm gonna just randomly write whatever I think at the moment.

As an annual activity, looking back to last year events would help me to plan to improve whatever life has to offer for the next year. With that, a lot has happened in the span of 12 months in the year 2020 especially with the new-normal life we're living with Covid-19 among us. I'm sure Covid-19 affected people differently and to me, it has affected my mental health.

I don't really know what triggered me but I had a mental breakdown with suicidal thoughts for about two weeks. It's really hard to describe the feeling I had at that time. Things happened, I was exhausted, lethargic and depressed, thus it hit me. I cried almost every night, searching for the purpose to keep living and I keep questioning of my existence. As days went by I slowly overcame it, I don't even know how I did it but I'm glad I did. It was an awful experience and it drained my energy. As I didn't actually do something about it, I know it can hit me again. But next time, I hope I could handle it better.

As we couldn't travel freely and I'm quite afraid to take the risk to travel anyway, I spent my time (of course, and money) to staycation instead. I found that staycation helped me to get things off my mind too. I think I've covered all the hotels in Ipoh and I would love to share a review on all the hotels. This would take some time as I'm still not in the mood.

I'm really really struggling to juggle between working, studying and hobby-ing. I found myself exhausted everyday till I fell into depression. It is so so hard to be disciplined and to manage my time efficiently. I plan to do a daily schedule I should follow so I would do my works consistently. This, however, is something I'm not confident with myself.

Stepping into 2021, here are the main resolutions I wish to achieve by the end of the year;

By the way, it's my birthday today (30th January). It's a coincidence that I decided to write again on this blog on my birthday but I would love to consider it as a special coincidence. As a grown-up, I never look forward to my birthday, I've been spent it like any normal day anyway. But just a simple birthday wish; being 28, I hope for better days ahead for me, achieving success at whatever I do. Please pray for me, I'll pray for you too.

Till then,

Lya.

Hi.

As going away from this blog for more than one month is a common thing for me, I guess you don't actually miss me, right? Tehee. As cliche as I could be, life has taken the most of my time till I don't have any left to update this blog and my YouTube channel. Or maybe it's just that I didn't have the mood. Whatever. But anyway, here I am again and always will be. I meant, no matter how long of a hiatus I'll be gone to, I will always come back as this medium of mine has a soft spot in my heart that I won't ever let go.

As you know already, furthering my study by part-time has made my life so busy even during the weekend. I have classes even during the Movement Control Order (MCO) so I got no chance to pamper myself by travelling as I used to anymore. So by the time I got one weekend off from any classes, I booked a trip to Genting Highland with a friend. We stayed at The First World hotel for RM150 per night. 

It was the first time I went to Genting after the Skytropolis Indoor Theme Park was opened. The one day pass costs only RM60 while pay and ride pass costs RM15 per ride. In my opinion, this indoor theme park was better and more enjoyable than Berjaya Times Square Indoor Theme Park as there were more extreme rides for adults.

I love K-drama. I'm the type that will wait for the drama to finish airing first instead of following it every week as waiting for the next episode would be a torture for me. Then I would go for two or three days straight watching the drama and neglecting my balanced lifestyle. But nowadays I tended to can't wait to watch the drama as I kept seeing the updates on Twitter so I started to follow the drama every week. I found that it's healthier and I was better at managing my time so I guess I'm gonna keep it this way, hopefully.

Anyway, the dramas I watched so far were Dinner Mate, Backstreet Rookie, It's Okay To Not Be Okay and currently Was It Love. Among these four, I love It's Okay To Not Be Okay and Was It Love the most. Both were off different genre so I could not choose which was better but I loved to see Kim Soo Hyun for the first time after his military discharge and finally Song Ji Hyo's drama which shows how beautiful she is.

Usually, I'm hooked with current songs but nowadays I kept listening to old songs too. I loved how listening to old songs brought me back to the memories of old times. Anyway, I'm the type that there would come the season I listened to English songs only or Kpop only or Malay songs only. Currently, I'm enjoying Kpop and here are the songs that I'm currently enjoying:

Jessi - Nunu Nana

Rain - Gang

FT Island - Wind

Jung Joon Young - Sympathy

IU - Love Poem

Lee Hi - Breathe

Hwasa - Maria

Even though my class currently only conducted online, I still can't seem to manage my time between working and studying hence no update on my blog or vlog. But I'm still glad that online classes were more flexible in term of time management and especially helped me to save money because no money needed to spend on travelling. I might be enjoying this working and part-time study at the early stage of the semester but now I started to feel the exhaustion. But hopefully, I could get back on track and enjoy this again as I still have a long way to go through. Pray for me!

Just a short update. Till then,

Lya.

I read a tweet where somebody said something along the line of:

Since I belong to this age group, this tweet relates to me so much. I kept wondering how did we manage back then, especially on how did we complete all of our group works? But belonging in this age group also made me a social media addict. 

I remember I used to post something on my social media almost every minute, it's like I thought I was a celebrity that everyone needed to know how I'm doing. The same goes for posting photos on my social media. Since I'm confident enough with my looks and my photography skills, I post my photos on my social media almost everyday, even sometimes, 2 to 3 photos per day.

Growing up, I know it's not necessary and it haunts me, wanting to look good all the time in people's eyes even if it means deceiving them, deceiving myself. I have multiple occasions where I wanted to deactivate all of my social media. But like an addict I am, and as I want exposure for my blog and now, my YouTube channel, I hesitate a lot on deactivating everything so in the end, I didn't.

Instead, I made my Twitter private, and now only I had the guts to start deleting all photos with my face, also photos with my friends and families. If you're following me on my Instagram then you can notice I've deleted those photos. I'm turning my Instagram into something like my hobbies' Instagram where I would post photos on my writing, drawing and photography.

Other than that I'm growing up realizing these, I also deleting my photos because I'm finally started to feel scared that people can use my face for bad things. There was one time where it was viral that random men have a Telegram group that they share girls' photos for their sexual satisfaction. It was also revealed that scammers use our photos to scam our friends and families so I want to avoid that in every way possible.

Of course, something that had been put on the internet will never be deleted permanently so I kinda regret that but I can't do anything about it and I just have to hope for the best. I've finished deleting my photos on all of my social media but I'm yet to delete my photos on this blog. It's too much, I would need time to do it. Slowly but surely.

I'm still struggling in fighting with my own desire to post my photos on my Instagram so pray for me so that I could stay strong on this new principle of mine.

Till then,

Lya

p/s: Please visit my YouTube channel (click), I've just posted a new video!