It’s 25k!

THIS IS NOT AN ADVERTISEMENT. THIS IS A LITTLE PIECE OF ADVICE BASED ON MY OWN EXPERIENCE. 

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After waking up from an afternoon nap on last Saturday, the pain at my back-left had worsened. It started to feel more pain on the day before but I just ignore, hoping it will go away soon. But as it became unbearable, I rushed to the nearest private hospital (because I can’t find any government hospital nearby). 

The M.O started to examine, did blood test, urine test and X-ray then found out I had a UTI (which is normal for women). Dr. Oncall had been notified, he came and did further check-up and then, I got myself warded. And of course, it was after getting a GL from my company insurance. I know I wouldn’t have enough money to pay the bills by my own pocket. Pfft!

The next day, I did a CT scan and later the Doc detected I had an inflamed appendix. OMG I never expected that! And surgery needed to be done ASAP. *crying inside* 

At 10pm, I was wheeled to the OT. I remember that I was shivering because I felt very nervous and the AC was too cold. The anesthetist gave injections (sakit gila namati) before I totally unconscious. The moment I awake, it was after 12am. Alhamdulillah the surgery went well. But I can’t sleep the whole night because it was damn painful 😣 

To cut the story short, I was hospitalised for 4 nights. On the discharge day, after a nurse told my bill was ready, I happily went down to collect it and excited to go home soon. Yeay! 

At the counter, the guy showed the documents and I was shocked to see the total bill is 25k!!! OMG medical expenses are getting more and more expensive. And the more shocking was, the company insurance only cover 6k!!! OMG can you imagine??!! How to find another 19k?? 

Ya Allah, rasa gelabah masa tu! I called the insurance company and asked why this why that and all he said was, there are some sub claim t&c and this is written in the policy. OMG help me!! 😩

When I realised that nothing can be done, I took out my Prudential card and asked them to re-apply. It was already 3pm at that time, I headed back to my bed and waited patiently. Not really patience because I can’t remain calm. There’s still a possibility that Prudential can reject and refuse to pay. My heart was beating fast. I tried to sleep but I can’t clear my mind. I tried to be optimistic but there’s doubt inside. I can’t eat because I was too anxious. Until 8pm, there’s still no news. 

OMG. I could die waiting. 

Finally at 9pm, a nurse asked me to go to the counter to get my bill. I walked down nervously and counted a prayer on every steps I took. When I reached the counter, they were quite busy so I had to wait a while. Once a guy took a seat, I quickly asked “is everything covered”? He glanced over the documents and said, “YES.” Prudential covered ALL! Ya Allah!!  I was so relieved, syukur Alhamdulillah. 

At last, I can go back home and have a nice sleep again. 

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I'm sharing this story to let you know that company insurance is always shitty and unreliable. There are many chances that we were given no choice but end-up in a private hospital. So, we must be ready at anytime. 

My advice is - go get yourself a personal medical card! 

Redha...?

Definisi: /réda/ dgn ikhlas; rela. meredai menerima sesuatu dgn reda; merelai

Redha bukan bermakna tiada tangisan, tetapi adalah penerimaan TANPA sebarang persoalan atas ketentuan Tuhan.

Kalau itulah maksudnya redha, semestinya aku belum sampai ke tahap itu.

Dugaan kali ni tak sama macam apa yang aku pernah rasa. Diduga dalam perhubungan, masalah duit, pasal kerja, semua tu aku cepat redha dan paling lama pon mungkin seminggu untuk aku rasa serabut. Tapi kehilangan orang yang paling aku sayang dalam dunia ni, sangat sangat berat.

Dah sebulan Mak pergi. Dan masih lagi setiap kali bangun tidur, aku terdetik “betul ke Mak dah takde?” “kenapa Mak pergi?” Masih lagi aku tanya kenapa. Kenapa? Banyak lagi benda yang aku belum buat untuk Mak. Aku nak balik tinggal dengan Mak, nak bawak Mak pegi holiday, at least sekali dalam hidup ni nak pegi Mekah dengan Mak. Tapi semua tu dah takde peluang untuk aku lagi. Mak is really gone, forever.

Kalau dulu bila tengok ada orang post kat FB pasal rindu kat arwah mak dorang, aku pernah terfikir – “How does it feel?” “Macamana kalau mak da takde dalam hidup aku?” Takutnya nak imagine perasaan tu. Dan sekarang, aku masih tak percaya it’s happening. This is what I feel now. The feeling is indescribable. It’s terrible.

Bukan nak mempersoal Qada’ dan Qadar. Bukan nak marah kat Allah. Bukan nak meratap sepanjang hari. Cuma aku akui, ye aku belum terima sepenuh hati. Sebab tu aku masih ada persoalan ‘kenapa’. Sebab aku harap aku masih ada banyak masa dengan Mak. Aku tak bersedia untuk kehilangan ini. Aku tau, memang sampai bila-bila pon aku takkan pernah bersedia. Tapi mak pergi terlalu mengejut. Dalam keadaan aku benar-benar tak sedia, betul-betul tak sangka.

Lagi 3 hari birthday Mak yang ke 73 tahun. Ni gambar taun lepas masa aku belanja Mak makan kek kat Secret Recipe. Mak tak suka makan manis-manis, so beli 1 slice je kongsi 2 orang. Slalunya kalo birthday, memang takde celebrate besar-besar, kitorang just pegi makan-makan camni. Simple. This simple thing that I realize is a big thing now.

Happy Birthday Mak!

Camana ye nak sampai tahap redha tu? Aku tak kata aku tak redha langsung, cuma aku tak bole tipu yang aku tak 100% merelai pemergian Mak. Tapi aku ikhlas untuk Allah ambik Mak kembali.

Ikhlas tapi belum redha? Entahlah.
I think I just need more time to accept. I’m trying. Slowly, one day.

InsyaAllah.

Al-Fatehah

In my last post, I told a story about my Mak. A little bit of her life. I said, she’s gonna be 73 years old and Alhamdulillah she’s still in a good health. But apparently, Allah has a better plan. HE took her back 2 days after that post. 

It was so sudden. She just had a short of breath and immediately stopped breathing after about an hour. Earlier that evening, I called her and we talked as usual, she said she has eaten and was chit chatting with my aunt who had just arrived from Sabah. But after Isya’ she started to feel pain and it’s getting worse, I quickly drove back home. When I arrived at 1230am, there were already many people, reciting Yaasin for Mak. I saw her laying in the middle of the house, body fully covered. I didn’t get to see her before she closed her eyes. Till this moment, I still couldn’t believe that she’s really gone. 

How to live without Mak? 😞

How to accept that someone who always be there to love me, to scold me, is no longer in this world?

I know it takes time to fully redha, while I’m in the process to accept, adapt and adjust my life. 

Accept that nobody will wait for me at home. 

Accept that I can’t call her anymore. 

Accept that I no longer can eat her cooking. 

Accept that she had left me. 

This would be the  last time I called this number

And in my prayer after solat, I usually said;

“Ya Allah, ampunkanlah dosa ibuku, Rokiah binti Othman, panjangkanlah umurnya dan berikanlah dia kesihatan yang baik”

That’s what I’ve been saying for more than 20 years. But now, I need to adapt to;

“Ya Allah, cucurilah rahmatMu ke-atas roh Mak...”

Dan kadang-kadang, aku masih tersasul. 😞

Next week, I’ll be back to work. Although I don’t want to but I have to. I still unsure how to do it. 

And my mind still thinking, what’s next? Where should I be? I don’t know. 

Ya Allah, please guide me and I ask You to show me what’s best through Your knowledge. Hanya padaMu aku bermohon dan hanya padaMu aku meminta pertolongan. Amin~

Al-Fatehah to my beloved Mak, Rokiah binti Othman. You will always be remembered in my heart ❤️

Everyday is Mother's Day

I had one week off and went back hometown 3 days before Hari Raya celebration. I was cleaning out the house and this is what I found: 

My late father had a few diaries. I read some before but I don’t remember this one. This notes were written by mak. It’s the day I was born and the day ayah passed away.

Mak lost her husband at the age of 36, with 5 children and the last one was just 3 days old. She was a full-time housewife, living in KL, far from her parents. She’s not well educated but she had to find a job, worked and struggled to raise her kids, alone in KL. Mak said, there were people offered her to adopt me, but she refused to give in. Also, some guys came to propose her for a marriage but she rejected too. All she thought about was her children, to ensure they had enough money, enough food to live together.

After a couple of years, mak returned for good to her kampung as requested by her parents. Mak worked at many places, from canteen helper to dish washer. With low pay and underestimate job, I think it had drained her energy and changed her to be a bad-tempered person. Because I remember that I always get scolded. Eheh. But I kinda understand now, it’s difficult for her to juggle financially and emotionally for her children needs. I know she did her best to provide a living for us. Thankfully, although we were not in wealth, we’re not in poverty either.

Mak had worked for more than 20 years, until I finished my college. The last job was a dish washer at factory’s canteen. I hate to admit, there were times I felt embarrass about mak’s job. Please forgive me, I was still young and stupid. But now, I’m no other than proud of her.

In Mak’s life, she has lost many people she loved. A husband at her young age, her mother and father left when I was 12 years old, both less than a year and then her 25 years old daughter. She had 8 siblings, but only 4 left now. All I pray to Allah is to give her a good health and I don’t die before her. Aminn~

This year, Mak is turning 73 years old. Thank God, she’s still able to walk, eat, cook and do many things by herself. She doesn’t have any critical illnesses, only high-blood pressure and gout sometimes. But what worrying me is I noticed that she starts to forget things. It breaks my heart and made me realized that she’s getting old, very old, even though she looks healthy. I live far from her at the moment but I’m planning to go back by this year to live with her. I want to spend more time with her and take a good care of her.

Yes, hopefully.

My beautiful Mak.

Scammer alert!

Recently, I tried to sell my Action Cam – Sony AS300. I’ve used it for more than 2 years, so I thought of getting a new one.

So as you know, there are many platforms that we can use to sell things. Using those social media and now we have Shopee, Carousell and Mudah.my which are very easy and fast.

I think we all used to like Mudah, because it’s really mudah and before the existence of Lazada and any other platform, we only use Mudah to find something, from a car to buy and a room to rent, and now it offers many other services.

But all of these, Mudah.my had given me quite a ‘bad’ experience. It’s basically not their fault, but some of the people who misuse it for scamming. I’m not sure what is their modus operandi, but here what I got after posting my ads;

I knew they’re scammers, I had no time to play along and do the ‘scam the scammer’ thing, so I just blocked them immediately. But sometimes, it takes time to realize they're a scammer. Like this -

I knew it right away after he said he's from oversea.

From what I googled, from the people who experienced the same thing, this is what the scammer did:

• They ask for your email address and bank account details. 
• They usually live oversea and said they will bank in the money straight away
• They banked in the money and then the bank sent an email to you saying there was some problem during transaction, they had overpaid to you and the payment will be pending until you return the extra payment

Well, here’s the thing;

• Why do you want to believe the buyer will buy your 2^nd hand product without checking the condition first?
• The buyer doesn’t negotiate and willing to pay your requested price, sometimes they even want to pay more, isn’t that too good to be true?
• What bank use gmail to inform you about their system problem?
• Why the bank emailed to you to fix the issue, not to the sender?
• And why do you need to refund the money when you don’t receive any from the buyer?

I’m not sure why there are some people fall into this trap, apparently there are because these scammers still exist and still out there to try their luck.

Be smarter, people!

Oh one more thing, if you don’t want to receive any spam messages and text from those scammers, please hide your Whatsapp number when posting Ads in mudah.my. Let them contact you via email or the app.

Itinerary JOGJA 4d3n

There are many beautiful places in Jogja. Actually, 3 nights stay is not enough.

We did our best to go to as many as we can, but still there are a few places we missed such as – Taman Sari, The Palace, Prambanan Temple, Indrayanti Beach, Wediombo beach and many more.

So here’s my itinerary for your reference, hopefully it will help you in some ways.

Day 1

- Lunch @Pondok Bakaran

- Rumah Hobbit

- Pinus Forest

- Puncak Becici

- Pinus Pengger

- Dinner @Sate Klatak

Day 2

- Jurang Tembelan

- Pindul Cave Tubing

- Timang Beach

- Lunch Lobster @Pak Sis

- Bukit Bintang Sunset view

Day 3

- Merapi Jeep Tour 

- Borobudur Temple

- Wisata Kalibiru

- Kopi Joss @Malioboro Street

Day 4

- Bakpia shopping

- Drop to Airport ✈️

Also to share ‘partly’ of the money I spent over there. The other part is untraceable. Hehe (malas nak cari sebenanya :P)

Anyway, most of the entrance fee can be found online, but it might vary from time to time.

BUDGET
- Jasa Foto @Jurang Tembelan 25,000

- Lobster @Pak Sis 220,000

- Cave Tubing 160,000

- Gondola @Timang Beach 200,000 *option Gondola 200k or Hanging Bridge 100k

- Body Massage 80,000

- Wisata Kalibiru *photoshoot 10k-35k per spot

We flew with AirAsia, when we purchased our tix, the price was about RM450. Tapi kalau nasib baik beli time promo, bole dapat 300++. Basically, exclude shopping and extra makan-makan, you can set your budget below 1500, includes return flight ticket.

Well Jojga, thank you for the wonderful experience. You’ve been amazing!

I will be going back there to go to other places. J

#wonderfulindonesia Jogja: Day 3

Woke up early again and 430am already on the road. You know, I will only be super energetic and become a morning person when I’m on holiday 😄 (kalau bangun pegi keje macam nak kena pukul rasanya).

It was still dark and cold when an uncovered jeep took us to ride up to the mountain base and ‘picnic’ at the rocky lava field to watch the sunrise. I will never forget the fun of the bumpy ride, OMG it was awesome and crazy!

Merapi is the most active volcano in Indonesia. The tragedy happened in October 2010 had claimed 353 lives. The last eruption was in 11 May 2018. 

My thought and prayer to all the victims. 

Taken at 7:12am. We were lucky to have a good weather, clear skies which made us able to view the summit of Mount Merapi. Absolutely wondrous view. 

Tips: I would suggest you to wear a proper shoe, best with boots if you wanna come here because as you can see, the field is full with volcanic stones. And also, bring a wind breaker. You’ll need it the most when riding on the jeep. 

After the fun-ride and a visit to Merapi Museum, we went to Borobudur Temple.

It was damn scorching hot day!

This is the largest Buddhist temple in the world (while Angkor Wat is the largest Hindu temple in the world cum the largest religious monument in the world). 

The temple designs inspired by Javanese Buddhist architecture and Gupta art. It has undertaken (and still preserve) several restorations by Indonesian government and UNESCO, as one of the World Heritage Site. 

To be honest, I wasn’t interested to go to these kind of places. I don’t like cities and buildings. But then I found myself fascinated when listening to the stories, the history, the meaning of those sculptures and drawings, also the basic of Buddha teachings (although it was scorching hot at that time). I guess our tour guide knows how to make it exciting, with addition of some jokes. 😄

So in my opinion, if you want to visit especially historical places, it’s better to hire a tour guide or at least read about the history before going there. Or else, you gonna miss a lot of significant points. 

Next, with our sweaty shirt, we continued to our next location à Kalibiru.

First, the driving up there requires some impressive skills. And our young driver totally nailed it. It was a bit scary to ride on the winding road and up to 45 degrees’ hill, but it was really fun. Scary but fun! 😄

Not only our car must be ‘fit’, but we need to pump up our stamina too when we required to walk up about 100m. Pheww it’s tiring to be frank. 

Overlooking the artificial lake Sermo Reservoir, The Kalibiru National Park offers many photo spots, with a price. Starts from 10k, you can choose a different platform, with the same view basically. We chose the big stage to fit 5 of us. Then I chose this High Rope Adventure which has 6 activities, the 2 meter Rock climbing + Spider web + Single line rope + Hanging bridge + 30 meters Flying Fox. For the sake of good pics. Hehe.

We went there almost at the closing time and the sky was dark, so we missed the blue-ish view of the lake. I would recommend to go during sunrise or before the late noon because it has a perfect brightness for your photo. Tak la jadi macam gambar di atas yang di edit terlampau oleh jurugambar berbayar, sampai nampak macam tampal guna Photoshop je 😄

We were so exhausted after a looong day and went back to hotel. Oh before that, we stopped at the food street stall to buy ‘Murtabak Manis’. It’s actually an ‘apam balik’ with many toppings such as cheese, chocolate rice, nuts, almonds and yeah, its SOOOO MANISSS! Seriusly bole kena kencing manis. But sooo sedap!

Reached hotel, bathed and rest for awhile, then out to Malioboro street again to enjoy coffee. The famous coffee here is Kopi Joss, the charcoal coffee. Pahit namati. Eark!

But I enjoyed the Indonesia cappuccino, sambil ditemani alunan lagu dendangan seniman jalanan yang asik bermain gitar.

A good way to end a day J

Esok da balik KL. Sobb~

#wonderfulindonesia Jogja: Day 2

We left as early as 5am to catch the clouds at Jurang Tembelan. The carpet clouds will be gone if we’re late. This place is amazing to watch sunrise, feels the fogs and the morning dew from the country-side hill’s edge. Interestingly, you can choose as many props and take as many photos as you want, because they’re free, unless you hire a pro-photographer that always available there.

You can walk on the clouds.

Next, we went for cave tubing at Goa Pindul, it was so fun! We learnt facts of the cave, got to see alot of bats and many beautiful crystals. The significant was, we had a good laugh with the tour guide, forgot his name tho. He’s damn hilarious and his jokes were unpredictable. Some of them hit straight to my liver. Haha! 😂

Let me tell you one of his jokes – but I have to say it in Bahasa. Please read it in Java slang. Hehe.

*while cruising on the tube, he pointed to the crystals on the cave ceiling, with torchlight.

Me: Bole tak ambil kita ambil sedikit kristal tu?

He: Iyaa semestinya boleh. Kristal ini sangat unik dan ajaib ya. Setiap hari ramai orang yang datang dan mengambilnya selama berpuluh tahun tapi ianya tidak pernah habis.

Us: Woahhh

Me: Gimana mau ambilnya? Tinggi tu harus dipanjat.

He: Caranya mudah aja yaa. Sambil-sambil duduk didalam tiub, bole diambil saja menggunakan hepe (handphone)

Us: HAHAHAHAHAHampeh!!!

The tubing activity took about almost 2 hours, from the cave we continued to the nearby river for a tube-rafting. It was so fun, you should try it.

The color of the water is not the same as you googled.

Then, we went to Timang Beach. The most awaited gondola ride. Yeheayy!!

Luckily I accompanied by my bestfriend, we took gondola ride while the guys chose to take hanging bridge instead. 

Here’s the fun fact:

• If you’re scared, take the gondola. Trust me, it looks scarier but it’s just less than a minute. 
• The bridge, may look steadier, more secured and more convincing, but it’s actually scarier. Haha. Seriously, you may get startled, stunned, petrified and hardly move in the middle. That what happened to the guys. Wahaha!

You can only choose either one of these two, unless you wanna pay for both. Glad I took the gondola, it’s really enjoyable but too bad, I missed the fun on the bridge. Well, I should try both. 

In the middle of 2 options

After spending almost 2 hours at Timang Beach (damn it was so hot but didn’t realize because we were too busy taking photos), we headed for lunch at Pak Sis Lobster. Yeah lobster guys! You got to choose your own lobster and type of dishes you want. The lobsters were big, the food soo yummeh and it’s cheap!!

You will not get this for RM320 in Malaysia

Before heading back to hotel, we stopped at Bukit Bintang to enjoy a sunset view. The journey took about 1h 30m drive to reach here, so I was about feeling hungry again. Hehe. From this hill top, we can see the airport and city landscape. While having Pisang bakar cheese and chocolate for tea-time, we adore the scenic panorama, from bright sky turned to dark night with beautiful lights. 

The desserts were too sweet to handle but too yummy to resist

Then, we headed straight to hotel for a little rest and then went out for dinner at Malioboro street. I had Nasi Ayam penyet, no photos taken because it’s too ordinary. Hehe.

A beautiful view from the top of Bukit Bintang

#wonderfulindonesia Jogja: Day 1

Oh yes finally! 

After googling the beautiful places and feeling jealous looking at photos posted by some friends, finally Jogja here I come! Add to more happiness, this time I went with one of my bestfriend. Yeaheyy!

“As with any journey, who you travel with can be more important than your destination” INDEED.

We touched down Jogja at about 11am then went lunch at Pondok Bakaran. Their specialty is grilled fish and fried seafood. When we reached, they’re on a break for Friday prayer. Although we had to wait for almost an hour, we were truly satisfied because all the food we ordered were sooo yummeh.

Here's what we had:

with Mixed Vege soup and ulam.

After lunch, we went to Wisata Seribu Batu. It says this place has many form of rocks, but honestly I didn’t notice much when I was there. (Oh yeah, now I remember that one big rock). The significance things were the bridge with small stream underneath, the huts, the woody bear and the 2 hobbit house (well, its actually dwarfs I think).

If you wanna have some kind of activity, you may try the flying fox. Also, you can actually hike a bit more to the top - Puncak Songgo Langit where you can see an awesome scenery. I climbed up half way and tired and stopped. Anyway, didn’t see any sign of the place, might have to hike up higher.

For me, nothing much at this place but it’s definitely great for your photoshoot. And at least, we did enjoy the smell of the forest and had a very good fresh air.

Yeah that's a big rock.

For day 1, we spent for sightseeing. From Wisata Seribu Batu, we rode 600m away to Pinus Forest. This place is about 28km from Adisucipto Airport, another cool fresh air around the standing tall pine trees. And of course, its an Instagram worthy, or Flickr, Pinterest or whatever app you like, like I care 😝

From Pinus Forest Mangunan, we headed to Puncak Becici which the distance is about 3.5km only. When we reached there, time was almost 6pm and started to rain. We walked up to the hill and taraa! here’s the awesome view!!

It’s already 630pm in Jogja. 

The grey sky started pouring lightly so we had to leave although we enjoyed the cold and calmness. As it’s still raining, we had to cancel the plan to go to the last place, Hutan Pinus Pengger. So we went straight to have dinner at Sate Klatak, where the others enjoyed so much. 

Klatak is a lamb aka kambeng and I don't eat kambing. Pftt! I had a plate of nasi goreng for myself -__-

The juiciness of the klataks meat.

How does it feel to be a vegetarian

Surely many of you have heard about vegetarian and vegan. I wasn’t so clear about the difference until I read this explanation:

“Neither vegans nor vegetarians eat meat. However, while vegetarians tend to consume dairy products and eggs, a vegan avoids all animal products, including eggs and dairy, and often inedible animal-based products, such as leather, wool, and silk. Vegetarianism is usually a diet, while veganism is a lifestyle.”

  

Last month, I went to my friend’s wedding and was served a vegetarian course. That was not my first time trying veggie food, I had a few times before since ~10 years ago.

So it’s not to my surprise that the food was delicious. Not only that, the presentation was superb too. Hence, I take this initiative to show these to you.

Romantic Four Combinations

Braised Shark's Fin Soup with Vegetables 

Barbecue King Oyster Mushroom with Pineapple & Bell Peppers
served with Two Varieties of Rice in Japanese Style

Pan-fried Seaweed Fish with Special Sauce

Stir Fried Kailan and Eggplant
with Hot & Spicy Sauce

Treasure Golden Inari

Double-boiled Apricot Seed
with Snow Fungus & Honey Melon

Romantic Chinese Pastries

Don't they look yummeh??

Yeah it was and I felt so full.

These days, the number of people turning to be vegan is rising, due to the need to practice a healthy life-style or doing it for the sake of animal rights. Whatever the reason is, I respect all individual’s choice. It is important to observe and check the food we consume, because ‘we are what we eat’

Probably I will try the Veganuary.

But the only thing I don’t agree is when people criticize other people for their choice.

If you think being a vegan is good, don’t condemn people for eating meat.

If you still enjoy eating meat, don’t question people for being vegan.

In my honest opinion, I believe God create animals for us to eat. It’s never a sin to eat animals, but of course, only certain animals. Anyway, it’s gonna be a long long lecture to explain the types of animal that are allowed to eat, etc; so I’m just gonna drop the topic.

For now, be thankful for your ability to enjoy food on your table. 

Bon Appetit!