Bayram Eve

Watched the *saw 3* with halil earlier on. The creator of that film must be nuts. Very creative..but nuts. A very good movie..Glad we watched it at home. In the cinema, i would probably hide my face behind halil most of the time.

We Called Malaysia at 1.30am my time n ..subuh time over there. Talked to my mom..my dad was not around..My mom cooked Nasik hujan panas..everyone's fav in the house. Talked to her.. couldnt stop yawning. Gave the phone to halil. She cried then. She was thinking that hatice n baddin never get any duit raya in person from my dad. I did not cry. Biasa la..simah hati batu heheh...Time to sleep. Need to clean..vacuum n mop the house ..i mean flat in the morning.

One sms recieved from a dear one earlier on also keep me frowning tonight. On this very happy day..this aidiladha..that dearest is sad.....the joy of bayram snatched away from her. ..n i.. in my helplessness to help have only my hp to comfort that dearest... i should thank technology at least...*sigh*



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My mumbling on New Year and Kurban Bayram

2 guards in charge of looking at the escalator especially after the death of 2 people after getting their winter coats stuck to the escalator in one of the biggest shopping mall in istanbul..

(one of the victims happened to be halil's student..Al fatihah)

A view of the crowd in the shapping complex..it was suffocating!

Anne.. i am hungry!! Where is my lunch???

Baddin eating his Mc D.. and..if u notice on the tray.. lahmacun..one type of thin crusty turkish pizza.. yum yum!!

The 3 cute people in my life..Makan jangan tak makan!! :0)

2 Colors skin..One Love :0) Picture snapped by Hatice

Anne n Baba dia apa lagi... posing jangan tak posing

Yup.. a simple family outing we had last weekend.a simple lunch coz i decided that i was lazy to cook hehehehe...

We dont celebrate Christmas here in turkey..there is no public holiday for christmas here.. the reason would be..around 98 percent of the population are muslims. The rest r either christians, jews or others..

But one interesting culture i observe here is the New Year.. For the new year, it is as if.. they celebrate Christmas and thanksgiving on that day.. Why do i say that? on the new year's eve.. people will exchange gifts...have santa clause somewhere...decorate the pine tree (christmas tree)..and for dinner...they have turkey...I have no idea where this mixture of culture derive from.. but the general population does that...

We dont do that of course.. The Zaim family, every year, we do have the family dinner..everyone will be at baba's..The kids will get small gifts..something symbolic..we dont have christmas tree.. we dont have santa definitely.. and as for dinner....we rarely have turkey on the table (halil disagrees with the culture)....only rarely we eat turkey on new year's eve..

What i simplY LOVE about the TüRKs are.. The Kurban Bayram.. Yup..the kurban Eid Celebration...U can feel the spirit of Kurban here.. Everywhere... many organizations are out in the open so that the people will give the money for kurban to their organization.. The BESt part of it all is... Many many people do give their hare for the qurban..at times.. when they can afford it.. even both the husband n wife give the kurban..Many many centers are opened at the kurban centers.. for those who decide not to give their money to organizations for the kurban, they can go to the kurban centers on the bayram day..buy the cow or the sheep of their choice, and pay for the person in charge at the center to cut the animal accordingly..

The kurban meat particularly organized by organizations (mostly private)..will the be distributed both locally and world wide.. asia..africa.. anywhere where the meat is most needed...

Halil told me that..usually on the kurban day.. normally it will rain.. Maybe it is because of the rahmat of the day.. and it is also Allah's way of washing the blood of the kurban ..Whatever it is.. what i am so happy about is.. U can feel the spirit of kurban bayram here.. people r not stingy and they usually try to be a part of those who pay the money for a kurban...

And this is the latest mode this year... u can even pay bit by bit the kurban price...(taksit = bayaran ansuran)

For example..let say the price of one part of kurban is 300YTL.. some organizations allow the people to pay the amount for 3 months.. meaning 100YTL for 3 months.. ..

This year, the weather is cold here in turkey.. bayram this year may have the possibility of snow..i dunno..

I am taking a break for a while.. will be back with a new entry on the bayram day...

From the bottom of our hearts..

Happy New Year...Salam Aidil Adha.. Hayırlı Bayram Kutlu Olsun

to all of you

With all our love.. All the way from istanbul

Maaf Zahir dan Batin

:o)

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Lazy Bug

I caught the lazy bug
I Said..
Bug Bug please go away..
Come again some other day

It refused to go.. so a new entry on New year and Bayram in turkey will have to wait another day..

So here i have added the one surah which i make sure my kids listen to at least 3 times a week using halil's mp3 player before bed time...coz i believe..education of the soul should be taken as early as possible..

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Haaaiiiiiiiiiiiyaaaaaaaa!!

If that lady is my blog... and that pencil is the keyboard.. i am sure my blog is saying... HaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiYaaaaaaaaaaa!! Thatz enough serious stuffs for now!! :0)

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Have A Nice Weekend!

Turkish Pronouns and Tenses

Itz me again.. if u have not read the previous entry..please do so before u proceed to this entry..

Yup.. as i had mentioned earlier, turkish is a SOV language. The subject is followed by the object and lastly by the verb.

It is definitely a must to look at the pronouns of the turkish language before we move to the tense coz the subject is basically the pronouns so as to speak..

Ben-I
Sen - you (singular)
Siz - you (plural)
O - he/she/it
Biz - We
Onlar - They

There is no distinction in gender in the turkish grammar. If u look above carefully, u will notice that *O* refers to either he, she or it....depending on the context where the word is used.

Fundamentally, the turkish pronouns r used as below:

Ben (I)
I - ben
me - beni
of me - benim
to me - bana
in me - bende
from me - benden

Sen (you-singular)
you - sen
you - seni
of you - senin
to you - sana
in you - sende
from you - senden

Siz (you-plural)
you - siz
you - sizi (depending on the context)
of you - sizin
to you - size
in you - sizde
from you - sizden

O (he/she/it)
he,she,it - o
him,etc - onu
of him,etc - onun
to him, etc - ona
in him,etc - onda
from him,etc - ondan

Biz (we)
we - biz
us - bizi
of us - bizim
to us - bize
in us - bizde
from us - bizden

Onlar (they)
they-onlar
them - onları
of them - onların
to them - onlara
in them - onlarda
from them - onlardan

irregularities:

The usage of *siz* .. the plural *you* can also be used to refer to a singular *you*. This is normally in used to refer to a person in a formal and polite situation.The same goes with *biz* (we).. in a formal interaction, biz will be used to refer to *I* (ben)

Now let us move on to the tenses. In english, we have simple, progressive,perfect and perfect progressive as the tenses group. I am not gonna bother to clasify the turkish tenses in categories. This is not a formal paper.. nor am i a linguist who loves to use jargons n technical terms. We will ignore terms for now.

what i will do is to write illustrations of the tenses. You will try to decide urself how the tenses in this language work. Of course, i will be there to point out something here and there....my way..

The one sentence we will use in these examples is simple:

Subject ( ben,sen,o,biz,siz,onlar)
Object (okul = school)
Verb (git = go ..derived from the word *gitmek)

Illustration One

Ben okula gittim
Sen okula gittin
O okula gitti
Biz okula gittik
Siz okula gittiniz
Onlar okula gittiler

It means...i went ..(i remember)

Illustration Two

Ben okula gitmişim
Sen okula gitmişsin
O okula gitmiş
Biz okula gitmişiz
Siz okula gitmişsinin
Onlar okula gitmişler

It means..I went.. (but i am not sure)

Illustration Three

Ben okula giderim
Sen okula gidersin
O okula gider
Biz okula gideriz
Siz okula gidersiniz
Onlar okula giderler

It means...I go (in general)

Note that the *t* in *git* has become *d*. This is to ensure a smooth flow in the pronounciation. The language is flexible in that sense.

Illustration Four

Ben okula gidiyorum
Sen okula gidiyorsun
O okula gidiyor
Biz okula gidiyoruz
Siz okula gidiyorsunuz
Onlar okula gidiyorlar

It means.. I am going...

Illustration Five

Ben okula gideceğim
Sen okula gideceksin
O okula gidecek
Biz okula gideceğiz
Siz okula gideceksiniz
Onlar okula gidecekler

It means.... I will go..

Notice too that *k* becomes *ğ* in some sentences. Tha tis again to ensure a smooth flow in the pronounciation.

There are also not so common tenses...there r..

gidecektim - i would go
gitmiştim - i have gone
giderdim - i used to go
gidiyordum- i used to go/ i was about to go
gittiydim -i have gone

The tenses.. if u have noticed by now, the change of pronounce (sen, ben, biz, siz, onlara,o) will be followed by the change at the end part of the sentence... the change must be paralel.. u cannot say..

ben okula gittiniz

that is the wong ending match...
it should be..

ben okula gittim

The matching is simple actually.. we just need to get used to the language and everything will come to u quite easily...

THis entry had caused me great distress.. for one, stupid me..i had chosen to ignore my forever correct instinct n not saved this entry bit by bit while writing it.. u can imagine how it must have been for me when just before i finished typing the last word for this entry..the electricity went down... i had to retype this entry again..

For the pronouns part, i had referred to a book given to me by my dad in law..*teach urself turkish* a book i had never really read at all coz of the jargons n too much technical terms... maybe coz the writer is an oxford lecturer..he is too brilliant for me :0)
but for u all.. i did...read that book...without remembering most of the content mind u heheh.phewwww.. i should be proud of myself this time hehehehe

And for the tenses... my beloved hubby..halil... i really really thank him for his explanation on the tenses... he really helped me to understand the tenses much better..(though i doubt i will remember them..n i too will have to look at this entry once again hehehe)

I try to be as less technical as i possibly can...

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Malay Vs Turkish Language (an old Entry)-a New entry to follow suit

Some of you may have missed this entry.. an entry i had written in May 2006. My next entry will be on the tenses (as i had promised *Gab* in my comment section)..so i thought it is only fair if i re enter this one old entry so that u will have a better understanding of the turkish language.

An Overview of the Turkish Language with simple comparison to the Malay Language

Malay and Turkish.Yes. There are a few similarities and differences between the two languages.Malay or Bahasa Melayu first of all is an Austronesian language, once upon a time, was very widely used in the Malay Archepalago. Turkish on the other hand, is from a different language family called Ural-Altaic languages.

When Islam arrived in the Southeast Asia during the 14th century, the Arabic script was adapted to write the Malay Language. In the 17th Century,the Arabic script was replaced by the Latin Alphabet under the influence from the Dutch and British.The Turkish Language also went through almost the same fate.Under the Ottoman Empire,the Arabic script was used.However, when the Republic of Turkey (Turk Cumhuriyet) was formed under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,Latin Alphabet replaced the Arabic script.

The Latin Alphabet for Malay consists of 8 vowel and diphtongs and 28 consonants. They are:

vowels and diphtongs
a e i o u ai au ua

consonants
b c d dz f g h j k kh l m n ny ng ngg
p q r s sy t ts v w x y z

Turkish alphabet consists of 29 letters - 8 vowels and 21 consonants.
-Each letter has exactly one associated sound which never changes
-Three letters of the English alphabet are missing in the Turkish alphabet. They are:

(Q-q)
(W-w)
(X-x)
-There are six additional characters not found in the English alphabet.
(Ç-ç)
(Ğ-ğ)
(I-ı)
(İ-i)
(Ö-ö)
(Ş-ş)
(Ü-ü)

Letter Pronunciation

A, a
like the a in car
B, b
like the b in bet
C, c
like the g in gender
Ç, ç
like the ch in chance
D, d
like the d in debt
E, e
like the e in less
F, f
like the f in felony
G, g
like the g in game
Ğ, ğ
this is a very weak sound, not pronouncing at all will be ok
H, h
like the h in hello
I, ı
like the e in halted
İ, i
like the ee in keen
J, j
like the ge in garage
K, k
like the k in kelly
L, l
like the l in lamb
M, m
like the m in man
N, n
like the n in neighbor
O, o
like the a in ball
Ö, ö
like the u in urge
P, p
like the p in pen
R, r
like the r in rent
S, s
like the s in send
Ş, ş
like the sh in shed
T, t
like the t in tennis
U, u
like the oo in good
Ü, ü
like the u in nude
V, v
like the v in vent
Y, y
like the y in yes
Z, z
like the z in zen

Malay is a SVO language (subject-verb-object).

The basic sentence in Malay is formed with the subject followed by verb and lastly object. For instance;
Saya (subject) makan (verb) nasi (object)
I eat rice

Comparatively,
Turkish is a SOV language (subject-object-verb).

An example of a turkish sentence is:

Ben (subject) seni (object) seviyorum (verb)
I you love

One thing that make Malay and Turkish similar to each other is the vocabulary. Quite a few number of words in turkish are similar to malay. This is due to the fact that these words came from the same root; either persian or arabic words. The words to name a few are:

Malay- Turkish
Askar- asker
Mahkamah- mahkeme
Kitab - kitap
Sabun - sabun

The spelling may be a bit different but in Malay a is usually where the e is used in Turkish.Nonetheless,when the word is pronounced, one can guess the meaning.

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Respect thy....

This picture was published in at least 2 local newspapers here last sunday...

2 men. One younger. One older. The older one (on the left) giving the younger one (on the right) a plate (plaket) of honour in a formal ceremony. The younger one, accepting the plate and kissing the older man's hand...resulting the people in the audience to give them a standing ovation....clap clap clap....

The younger man is Abdullah Gül..Once the temporary prime minister of turkey while waiting for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to take his place as the prime minister.. and presently the minister of Foreign affairs of Turkey. The older man... my dad in law.. a *hoca*..an educator..

Baba gave the plate to a total of5 people...when Abdullah Gül's turn came...he did not shake baba's hand. He did more.. he kissed baba's hand..put his forehead onto baba's hand....thus making one of the headlines in the local newspaper... 3 other plate recievers followed suit his action.. they too kissed babab's hand.

He did not do that for fame.. he doesnt need that.. he is a minister as it is..but what made him kissed baba's hand was the respect he has for baba... baba being one of his educators in his learning year...

What a nice scenario, isnt it.. no matter how high u get in life..no matter how rich u have become....if u forget ur roots... the people who helped u to be who u r today... never looking down....then u cannot be humble.....

Gül..in the position he is now.. in that ceremony, he did not forget to be humble in front of his hoca because the respect he has for his hoca made him bent down to kiss his hoca's hand regardless where he was....in front of his hoca.. he is his student..and the respect he had showed deserved the standing ovation he had gotten from everybody..

And in the hoca's place..i think nothing can be more rewarding than to see his student showing his respect for him...it is one of those things that made the educationg job a worthwhile experience....

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Till we meet again...

With a heavy heart full of guilt within me..i stepped out of the flat.. guilty because i was not bringing him (he would get cold!!).. guilty because i would be leaving him for hours while i would be enjoying myself..guilty because i knew deep inside to go to the other side of the bridge and to return before 2pm was an impossible task.. ..guilty becoz by 2 till i reached home, mahture nene would be looking after him...the mother would be out...out to join the 4 single girls for a day outing....

but then..hey!!is it often i get to have their company?is it often i leave him alone like that? is it often that i get to relive my youth?? ( hey! i am not that old!!) ..and just look at the day!! Nice isnt it?

A view of Kadıköy from the ferry

Anyway, they reached our home from yolova on wednesday evening.. We went to the other side of the bridge on thursday since they needed to do their last minute money finishing shopping for the last time...but i returned earlier since i needed to buy a new monitor for our pc..(yeay!! we r a proud owner of an lcd monitor..phew we r broke!! lepas ni makan tanah je larrrrrrrrr).. and my own most guilt of the day... baddin was with mahture yenge..
..
and now....it is almost half an hour since their flight is scheduled to fly... Safe journey my dear friends..please do come again.. hatice and baddin have enjoyed ur company so much!! Can u imagine? hatice's bed time was supposed to be at 8.30pm last night but both kids.. with loads of scolding only went to bed at almost 11pm!! why?? because they wanted to spend time with the 4 ablas!(sisters!!).. sabar aje laaaaa...

It is nice..i got to meet my once upon a time roomate at ukm hostel....that would be dydy (budak yg asyik dok selamba aja.eeeeeeeeeee tension akuuuuu.. expression la sikit weiiiiiiii :0))... and i got the chance to meet Shida..KC (not keçi (GOAT) -hahahaahahaha - the two unseparable girl friends)....and of course the one most huggable person of all vim..sedap dipelukkkk!! hahahah..

i notice one thing too.. i am the type that..if i use one glass, i can use the same glass to drink coke and fruit juice (for example).. that usually end up with halil giving me a weird disgusting look..because if he drinks coke, he will need another glass to drink his fruit juice.. and the glass used during dinner will not be used for later (ie.. the glass of water he drinks next to his coffee)..many many usage of glasses.. while my friends were here.. even when i provided 2 glasses for each person.one for cola turka..one for fruit juice, dengan selambanya they drank both types of water using the same glass.. that makes me wonder.. is this a malaysian trait..or is this a matter of similarity of life habit? what do u think?

At one time during our conversation, being curious about indian curries, i asked vim(indian indian) and shida (indian muslim) of the recipe....from what they told me, i discovered that indians do not use any coconut milk inside their curries...and in the olden days, they prepared their own curry mixture..(though they suggested that for normal people like us we stick to the already packed curry powder...and when i asked them about why there r different curry mixture for fish..chicken..meat.. i was told that..for chicken curry for example, some spices (cant remember which) within the curry mixture r added more as to counter react to the smell of fish..

.this one question strucked me as i saw vim putting on make up on her face.. If u notice from the color of her skin.. her skin tone is very dark...call me ignorant but the fact that a dark colored skin wearing makeup is a very new field to me.. people doooooo wear make up right?? so just because u r very dark.. u r not an exception, right? thouusands of people r dark..

Trying not to sound like a racist..i approached her on the matter..she said that it is really difficult to choose a make up ..For instance.. for a lipstick..if there r 40 colors on display.. after trying all of them, only let say 2 will match her skin...normally, she wears the brownish one.. and she strongly suggest.. for dark colored people like Vim here..she said *BOBBY BroWN* brand is the best... it is very expensive as well but the brand caters specifically for the dark colored people -indian..african...that lot in the beauty range...interesting discovery huh?

I also notice that some letters in turkish r difficult for us, malaysians to pronounce (orang india like vim lagi la kan ..lagi la mulut dia terbelit hehehe..)..last night while Dydy and KC were playing with hatice and baddin...hatice was trying to teach them how to pronounce the things in the flash card in turkish...letters with ö,ü ... r sooooo difficult for them to follow.. practice ladies practice :0).. practice makes perfect...

And before taking a cab to the airport.. shida brought back to malaysia buah delima 6 biji!! (pomogranate)!! hehehe as if we dont have that in malaysia, right? But then, i dont blame her...we have wonderful pomogranate here in istanbul... merahhh delima menyala menawan hatii...

Halil thinks that they r sweet people as well....he doesnt mind being *thrown* out of his own home for a few nights..i think to him... to see that bigggggg smile on my face...to hear me laugh mcm nak rak in the living room (he told his bro selim that we had a fight n i had thrown him out of the house.. hence the reason he had to stay at baba! hahah)... made everything all worth it!

dont get me wrong.. i love my turkish family.. i laugh with them as well.. i talk to them as well.. Alhamdulillah..i have a wonderful family in turkey..but when u have someone from ur own country...speaking the languages u know (semua budak tesl...so u can imagine 5 tesl grads chatting with halil at dinner..asking about the phonetics bla bla bla)...especially when u r in the midst of missing ur own family (thanks joe for the satellite map)...u feel better..for a while..

They r gone.. i am back to my normal routine... i miss them already... no more hiruk pikuk in malay and english in this house..duit raya yg korang kasi utk hatice n baddin tu nanti kitaorang masukkan dalam bank account diaorang...*cheekyyyy cheeky friends u guys r!!*..u guys guessed right that aku tak leh tolak duit tu if u bagi atas nama diaorang...grrrrr cheeeky..siap letak atas meja kat bilik lagi...!!

People were staring at us..perhaps it was from the noise we made.. or perhaps from the language we spoke..or perhaps they were trying to decide from which country we came from (being the united colors of benetton and all)

DyDy and I
Two old friends..


Before leaving for the airport..the last pose in front of our Apartment

The taxi they took...

Thank You for stopping by...We really really hope to see u again one day

...be it in Malaysia or in Turkey..till next time..


P.s hatice manangis teresak esak bila dia balik sekolah dan dapat tahu the 4 sisters dah balik..

Ayah

On that day in october when the rest of them had forgotten the day...my dad told my mom...

*Aya..haghi ni shima punya birthday*
(Aya ...today is shima's birthday)

and yesterday when i called home...while ayin (my nephew) went to call my mom to come to the phone... my dad quickly took the phone and spoke to me...in a voice i sensed a longing forthis particular one child of his...though he tried to hide it very well..

he is no affectionate dad..open affection is not what he knows of... something of the old school quality....though he loves us children very much...and to have him on the phone like that....i bet we have been on his mind quite often lately...

One day Ayah..inşaAllah one day soon...we will meet one day... u will be free to hold and hug hatice and baddin..and they in return will do their best to *bully* u...u will have the opportunity to buy them ice cream like the last time we were in Malaysia...May Allah say *be*..and it will be...

Hati seorang ayah... hati ayahku...siapakah yg dapat memahami..?
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Diş Buğday

Just listen to the song... to live with someone but in love with someone else.. how sad is that? anyway..i just hope none of us will have to go thru that.. the song is sad indeed..i just love the tune of it..:0)....

Back to the topic... can u guess what the picture below is??

Yup.. that is *buğday*.. or wheat we call it in English.. *diş* means tooth.. so *diş buğday* means *wheat tooth*..It is a tradition in the türkish community to have this day for the baby after the sighting of the baby's first tooth.. The rule is.. whoever first sight the tooth will owe the baby a gift..and then diş buğday will be held among the family members to celebrate the event...why wheat? why not rice..from what Afife teyze told me.. in the olden days.. wheat was cheap.. it could be found everywhere which is understandable of course since bread is the staple food of türks...teeth and wheat..i think it represents the connection of the teeth n eating the solid food for the baby..Food will be served for diş buğday day and the one menu will be served as well... yup! the picture above suggest it already...already boiled wheat normally sprinkled with salt..It is also normal for a piece of gold to be put inside the wheat bowl so that the person who spoons the wheat onto his plate and find the gold in his or her wheat gets to keep the gold ...

True enough..we had one yesterday.. this time it was for the youngest baby in the family.. minik mustafa....We had cookies...cake... rice stuffed in vine leaves..and a few others (forgot to snap the photo).. and also we had a birthday cake for Kerim..the dad of the diş buğday child...(Doğum gunu kutlu olsun kerim!)..It was held at baba's with all the members of the family present.. Boiled wheat was there of course.. instead of eating it just plainly with salt.. halit n i had eaten it with rus salatası (a salad with mayonaise).. it was definitely better tasting!!...Let us feast out eyes on the photos.....and by the way..NO one GOT the Gold!! hehehehe

The boy of the Day

The difficulty of snapping this snap is undescribable..he just wont sit still!!

The difficulty of feeding a baby!!

Ye minik mustafa ye!

A father celebrating his birthday with his only son celebrating his diş buğday

A mother with her only son

A grandpa with his youngest grandson


Thank You for hopping by...Hope to see u again the next time.

Of Dydy..Shida..Vim.. and ...KC

I was laughing hard last night n this morning when i checked my prevous entry's comment section.. it has become the *tumpang lalu laksa johor and laksa penang recipe exchange section*.. no hal.. feel free ladies! :0)

Here r the recipes..

Resepi Laksa PEnang by Mama Sarah

1. Rebus (atau bakar) ikan mackerel hingga lembut kemudian Blender/tumbuk isi ikan. 2. Blend bawang besar dgn cili kering.3. Masukkan blended bawang + cili kering, bunga kantan (kalau ada), serai, daun kesum, cili padi (kalau nak tambah pedas), asam gelugur/asam keping, otak udang (optional) & air ke dalam periuk. Biarkan mendidih. 4. Kemudian masukkan isi ikan, garam & masak lagi selama 10 minit. Saladnya: timun, daun salad, bawang besar, telur rebus.

p/s: serai tu pun optional! (hehe pecah rekod lagi nampak nya aku ni!)

and here is the Laksa Johor Recipe by Kak Elle

u need udang kering,curry powder,big onions,garlic and serai for main ingredients blend them then add fish meat...use dessicated coconut(steam it first and blend with main ingredients) and it will make yr gravy thick and ofcourse packet santan.Try lah ok my recipe always campak2 and alhamdulillah turn out good.If u have oriental shop look for thick bee hoon and after soaking it s just like laksa and I did this when I visited my sis in states and she couldn't believe that it can be done....try lah ladies... ... ladies I'm sorry in a hurry forget to type add cili paste or powder and kalau nak sedap lagi add powder ketumbar and jintan sikit.I think u can get all these under mcCormick labels.

These r their own words.. :0) Thanks mama sarah n kak elle for the recipes.. i hope syikin..and ajzie..and myself especially plus all the readers of this blog can benefit from this.. :0) ..waaaaaaaaaaa kat turki tarak bahan bahan semua ni..memang tak boleh buat apa pon..mana nak carik serai...etc..etc... sabar jer la ..

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Anyway... back to my 4 friends .. Yup.. they have made it to my house..Yup.. i had brought them to pazar (half pazar i toured with them..the rest half they had to make it on their own..)..Yup..i had invited them for lunch...cooked many many things...Yup.. baddin is now very friendly towards them..

They have finally met my hatice which they think look like madonna's child..n a suprise entry from halil from work... terjerit dydy n shida bila nampak halil kat pintu.. (or was it we were too noisy in the house that we didnt hear him unlocking the door? hahahahah)..
My kids enjoyed their company... and i certainly had enjoyed their hiruk pikuk n jokes...

ahhhhhh... i thought i am a recluse..i thought i hate socialization.. but meeting them... i am reminded of a piece of myself that i had forgotten....a part of simah that enjoys having her friends over...

Thank You for coming u guys!! i was laughing thruout the day.. and i think they had endured the turkish food i cooked very well!! hehehehe

By the way...sesapa yg nak carik jodoh.. Dydy..Shida..Vim n KC are still single!!! simah nak bukak agency mencari jodoh.. sesapa yg nak berkenalan dengan minah minah ni..pls contact me at refcobass@rocketmail.com ...ni serious ni (dydy..shida..kc n vim..jangan marah baca entry ni heheh).. the thing is.. i just cant believe how these very nice..sweet girls r not snatched up yet..*beauty is in the eyes of the beholder* and i think they r simply beautiful inside :0)
Enjoy the pictures!!

The true United Colors of Benetton is in turkey! hehehe

baddin, hatice and Vim

Kami ada tanduk 2 batang heheh

Dydy,baddin and hatice

Hatice, baddin and KC

Hatice, Baddin and Shida

(ops shida..tersilap lighting!! lupa nak bukak lampu sebelah lagi satu..sorry..)

Thank You for hopping by...Hope to see u again the next time..

Have a Nice weekend Everybody!!

Long time no see

I woke up a bit earlier than the usual. Eyes all red from sleepiness coz i slept at two that night. Woke the kids up...bla bla bla.. we said bye bye to hatice n my little guy and i got ready to leave for our destination...I am not used to going out on a bus this early. Managed to catch the 8.45am vapür (ferry)..It was quite foggy. I decided to sit at the seats at the exterior part of the vapür so that we could enjoy the beauty of the morning..(with the risk of the sea water splashing on us heheheeh)..i decided to snap a few snaps using my new toy.. it doesnt look that foggy in these snaps but it was...with technology u can do many things, huh?..

A vapür heading somewhere..perhaps beşiktaş?

The birds were chasing the vapür all the way though i was not able to snap that one picture

Hoşcakal (Bye Bye) Asia...

Hoş geldin (welcome) Europe!

I promised her that we would be there by 10am.. We found the place quite easily. I was all excited inside...but i kept cool.Found the place! Found the room! Found the old friend!! And i also made friend with my friend's 3 other friends! :0)

Yup.. my friend DYdy is in istanbul indeed..!!!She is with her friends from the master programme..Shida, Vim and Casey.....Semua satu otak..semua gila gila..maybe our age gap is not that much ..that was..is the reason we could get along well in the first place..Of course, i was the only odd one there.. though dydy n i r the youngest.. i am the only one married with kids!! hehehe

Baddin, Dydy,Shida,Casey and Vim
With the tombstone as the background..

Eh korang tak nampak ka hantu kat belakang tuuu???

Showed them around the basic streets in the area.. baddin tagging along me.. at times crying wanting to go home coz he didnt know my friends..but in the end.. he was a *bit* friendly to them..he even said *i love u too* before we were all to part..

My beloved *by force* companion hehehehe

kesian mamat ni..habis hidung dia merah sebab sejuk

I have invited them for lunch this thursday..We will see what happens..I hope they wont get lost while walking around.....

Ahhhhh..it is wonderful to be able to see old friends again.. the last time i saw dydy was on my wedding day.. n at that time i could not really anyone coz i was not wearing my spectacles!! (ala..konon kononnya nak nampak cantik tak pakai spec hehehehe)..i couldnt really chat with her coz my *hero* was with me with his tantrums..hopefully we can chat more when they come over for lunch..I just cant wait!

Thank You for hopping by...Hope to see u again the next time..

One freezing afternoon

A family outing.. Something i used to take for granted but now a real luxury for us all..Halil busy working.. hatice going to school..sleeping early every school nights..the same with baddin (though he doesnt go to school)..If truth to be told.. i miss halil..i miss hatice for their every absent moment in my life..i have only baddin to keep me company every day...

This is our simple family outing on one freezing afternoon..

:0)

One happy girl

One happy boyJust look at them..

They were having fun..that made one cold afternoon worth it.

Snapping a photo of our own in the freezing atmosphere

Well.. hatice did say..

*Anne..baba...git romantik yap*

(Anne..baba..do something romantik)

hahahahaha She just wanted us to leave them kids alone in peace!

Thank You for hopping by...Hope to see u again the next time..

Knitting

i remember an sms exchanged with a dear friend..it was something like...

*tak sangka simah yg brutal boleh mengait!*

hahahahahahah Yup! believe it friend! hahaha it never cross my mind either!

But after the death of the family wool knitter (Anne..my late mom in law-Al fatihah)..it left me with this sense of emptiness. I was panicked. Who will knit sweaters in winter for my kids?? I was panicked. I had always taken it for granted that Anne would be alive forever..and that at least until my kids r all grown up, i would be depending on her.. Her sudden death left a lot of void in everyone's heart..and can u imagine? in that sadness.. next to the fact of losing someone so dear.. i was thinking who would knit sweaters for my kids?????? How crazy is that???

I was panicked.. i asked Mahture Yenge's help to teach me the art of knitting..Before that, i had never hold the wool or that long two thing (what do they call that in english) to knit.. never..It took me ages..countless trips to the second floor to ask yenge on how to do the simple knitting.. Muyessa Yenge was also a big help..whenever Mahture Yenge was not around.. i could always count on Muyessa Yenge for help.. And later..Özlem's mom also came into picture as one of my knitting teachers..

I somehow learnt.. but not really.. i learnt different patterns..n i kept ..keep forgetting them everytime that ..if i wanna knit something..a pattern..i have to ask yenge to show me how..yeah.. i have got badddddd memory.. my knitting quality is far far from perfect.. i cannot knit perfectly like all my 3 teachers.. trust me... if they look at my knitting in detail..they will find loads of flaw..they (esp mahture Yenge hehehe) had even ask me to undo my knitting many times hahahha.. what can i say? i cannot sit for a longggggg time in one go to do the knitting.. i just dont have the talent for this knitting thing.. n to produce a sweater for example..it can take me months!!! Yup! i am that bad!!

Why not safe the effort and time n just buy the ready made ones? Well..that is a good option..w do buy ready made ones..but while the kids r still small.. i want them to wear something i knit myself..no matter how not nice they look like.....Winter is here.. i have to start knitting again..Something i started ages ago.... hatice's own choice of color is almost finished.. i need to buy the button n then she can wear it... it has a design at the middle part but i think the camera cannot catch that pattern here.. the butterfly is the iron on thing..

Baddin's decoration of his cat n my wolf

Yup!! it is PİNK!! hahahaha

Baddin is waiting for his turn now.. after his long sleeves sweater..i have to knit the short sleeves one for both of them.. but before that..i may need to knit the socks (patik).. very useful indeed esp in cold winter to protect their feel from cold while sleeping..wish me luck!!

Have A nice Weekend EVerybody!

I will leave u with hatice's hand knitted wool sweater..Can u guess baddin's wool color choice??

Thank You for hopping by...Hope to see u again the next time..