First Infant

Bismillah.

Dear beloved readers,

I am just so happy and overwhelmed to share this with all of you.

Last Tuesday, 5th February, we welcomed a new family member. My sister in law has given birth to a baby boy in the afternoon. Alhamdulillah, the baby is well, two eyes, a nose and a mouth, ten tiny fingers on both hands and feets. Perfect. Alhamdulillah.

Well, this is the very first time for everyone to welcome the third generation of Yusmadi. :) This has taken everyone to another rank. For my parents, they have got a new status, grandparents. For me and all my sisters, we are a bunch of crazy aunties now. My brother and sister in law, they can proudly call themselves 'abah' and 'ibu' now. Apparently, everyone is affected by his arrival. See what this little kid is capable of doing. :) And it is so obvious that everyone is delighted and that I could tell from the smiles and grins which are drawn constantly on everyone's face. Including me! :)

Name given is Mursyid Muhammad Abdul Rahman

I did not know getting a nephew made me feel this amazing. Which makes me think and wonder how great and amazing would it be to have an infant of my own. Whoaah! Subhanallah! (Glory be to Allah)

25

Bismillah.

This month marked my 25th birthday. Im a quarter-century old now. Haha. Sounds old enough? :)

On the first day of work this year, I received a card and a small-size coffee chocolate bar from my employer which were found on my table. That was a bit new for us all in the department to get such on birthday occasion. Anyway, thank you. For those who made the effort to spare some of their time getting a boring girl like me something to walk home with i.e. the yummy cake and pretty presents, I thank you in a great amount. For those who remember my birthday and took all the hassle to get to my FB page and posted a wish though I unrevealed it, I deeply thank you and thank you. :')

Anyway, this year I purposely didn't write any post on 2013 resolution since I wanted to bring it together on my birthday which happened right after new year. 

Knocking on twenty five has actually made me think what have I done for the past years. Twenty five sounds like a very long time if you have to wait that long to grow a durian tree or to get to your turn to perform hajj pilgrim. But to pursue everything starting from learn ABC and 123, to be able to know various behaviour of human and how to respond to them, to be able to tell if this people have potentials or whether they can be trusted or not, to be qualified to get a job interview or to get a well paid job, a twenty five years seemed not to be enough or rather short period of time.

As we grow up, and I look back, I came to realized those rules once applied when we were younger has no longer binding us. When I was younger, I was not easily allowed to go hang out with friends at the malls as many of my friends had. At that time, I felt so uncool not to be able to do other things than go to school with friends. My parents would usually probe me with, 'Who are coming?', 'Would there be any boys joining?', 'What would I be doing with my friends?', 'What time will I be back?' etc. Now, they don't really throw me lots of that anymore. :) I actually feel thankful for what my parents had put me on. Because now I actually ask myself those questions before I swing my legs out from house. So, that has trained me to do self-check, weighing and considering before decision is made.

And when we were much younger, parents would buy us clothes. We didn't bother what to wear because we were so busy playing hide and seek in our so called 'maize' play ground in the mall. So parents had to pull us out from the rail of clothes to make us try out new garment in the department store. Now, they still bring us to the malls when buying clothes. It is just that we are not there to game anymore. We are there to help them select as our opinions are counts and matters now. Those are a few from many indicators that spell 'You are big girl now, Tasneem.' ;)

Life is a mystery. Sometimes it is exciting sometimes it goes the other way around. But I definitely learn something in my early 20's which is do not afraid to dream big. Not just dream but go higher and farther. Dream impossible if you want. As Allah mentioned in Qur'an:

"And man can have nothing but what he strives for."Surah Al Najm (53:39)

Aim for the stars. Even if you failed, you may land on the clouds or even better on Mars! At least you are going somewhere. :)

I definitely have a plan to live life for the next years. Just sometimes you would as well come up with a back-up plan, you know, should this does not work for you then you know life is not going to end because you have another considered direction to turn to. The second best option to path down. Hoping  whatever my plan is, Allah will always be in every steps of it. Ameen.

Lastly,

Ok. Blabbering stops now.

Much love,

TY.

Turkey: Our shopping spree

Bismillah.

Alhamdulillah, my family and I managed to pull ourselves out from daily routine of work and escaped to the land of Baklava.

As for my parents, they both are so crazy for olives. They started to like olive (known as 'zaitun' in Arabic), when their Arabs friends introduced it to them when they still in the States. They could eat olives with almost everything, sandwich, spaghetti, pizza, pasta , fried noodles, pita bread etc. So going to Turkey has served them way right as the Turkey has Mediterranean climate zone. So, this kind of climate of relatively mild winter and very warm summer produces olives, figs, walnuts, grapes and fragrant herbs of rosemary, thyme and lavender etc. So they have bought kg's of green olives from the spice bazaar (also known as Egyptian bazaar) in Istanbul.

I had no idea olives could come in so many colour. Thought only green and black. hehe

Since mom is so much into this fruits and spices, so she bought dried figs, walnuts, pistachios, apricots, some Turkish spices for chicken marination, olive oil for skin care, and chili.

See the signage at the entrance. Misir Carsisi  mean Egyptian bazaar or market.

As for me, I know what I would be looking for. When I was in Bosnia, I always checked on Bosnian girls, especially how the Muslim Bosnian dress up. Since I saw them mostly in winter, so my observations is that most of them wear wide leg pants or jeans with a long winter coat and plain colour shawls to cover the head. Sometimes they go for skirts. For younger generations, they wear pleated jeans skirt which I find it stylish yet modest.  In Malaysia, it's hard to find jeans skirt which I like. Mostly they are too curvy or too tight at thigh area. So, I decided to get one for myself and was hoping that they have my size. The thing is that I realized when I shopped for skirts or pants, most of them are made in Turkey. And I was told by a Turkish friend that they could get those in Turkey with cheaper price. All this while I had been wondering where to get a pair of nice skirt and loose jeans pant. From that moment, I made an conclusion that is where the source is. Turkey! :)

You can witness below when I said Istanbul is one of the shopping heaven for Muslim women! ;)

You can get everything from top to bottom.

Skirts/ Pants

Pardesu ( A long garment worn by Muslim women. In Malaysia we called them 'jubbah'. In the middle east, it is 'abaya')

Love the colour!

Shawls, pashminas & scarfs

Pashmina

Scarfs and shawls retail store. They only take if you want to buy in bulk.

For dad, he looked for office shirts and suit jackets. We stumbled across a complex where you can find most of men's wear. So, it's dad turn after so many ours. hehe. The price is reasonable too. Okay, guys! Don't you worry because you have shopping spot too! :)

Sisters finding ways to fill up the gap while waiting for dad.

Their significant welcome treat. Free tea!

So, I guess what makes each trip different from others is what we managed to find and bring home. Things which is not available at home or if there is, would costs us more. Therefore, a reminder to all, always make a research on your travel destination on what they specialized at and what is plentiful there, so that you won't miss getting something worthy. And worth the flight ticket! :)

Turkey: Magical World of Turkey

Bismillah.

It took me nearly half an hour to figure out where to begin. Mom has done an excellent job writing on about 90% of our trip to Turkey. So, I am going to let you have the 'tour' with her. You may do so by clicking below links which is listed sequentially:

- Istanbul Aku Datang 1

- The Turkey Trip Summary Part 1

- Marmara Region: Canakkale- Troy- Asklepion

- Aegean Region: Kusadasi- Pamukkale

- Central Anatolia: Konya-Cappadocia

- Central Anatolia: Cappadocia, land of natural wonders

- Central Anatolia: Ankara

- The Turkey Trip Summary Part 11: On our own in Huge Istanbul

                                                                              ....

Once I set my foot outside the Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul, it was early, about 7am in the morning. As it was mid of November, the weather was cold and occasionally windy. Fairly low temperature at 15 degree. Looking at the grey sky, the cool air that I breathe, the mixed smell of au de parfum and tobacco, tall people in dark colours of winter wear, Caucasian women wearing hijabs and head scarfs, all of these brought back my memories in Bosnia. I know it is not fair to compare Bosnia from Turkey. But someone even told me that Sarajevo is like a piece of Istanbul. So, the blame cannot be put completely on me. ;)

Anyway, I would love to highlights on couple of things that I found them remarkable and worth of notice in Turkey. These are the things I personally fall in love with and keep saying to myself not to forget them. They are:

a) nature beauty and ancient historical place

b) shopping focal point,

c) food 

d) language. 

Today let me start off with what Turkey has to offer in regards to nature beauty. And the rest bullet points will come later, okay? :)

If you are looking for a place that could give you a wide-eyed gaze and cause jaw dropping, there are two places that will fit the bills. They are Pamukkale and Cappadocia.

Pamukkale in Turkish means cotton castle. Pamuk is cotton, and kale is castle. From the name itself I believe we can imagine how this place looks like. Well, it is not exactly a castle. It is actually a city which has travertines and terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing hot water spring. Pamukkale was also an ancient city which is called Hierapolis.

View from our moving bus to Pamukkale.

We went there just in time, an hour before sunset. So the view was magical with the sun shone on the white castle-like cascades and makes everything look glittering. Subhanallah!

Cappadocia is located in the central Anatolia. Apart from Istanbul, this was the only place we stayed for two days. Other place was just a night. The reason being that this place has got more to see that we need more time. We visited underground city which largely used by Christians as hiding place during Romans occupation and Gerome park, a fairy chimneys rock formation (historical site under protection of UNESCO). Breathtaking!

Shop in caves. Reminds me of the "Conehead" movies.hehe

The staircase leads to a small chapel built in the cave during Romans period

According to our tour guide, the sci fi movies of Star Wars were filmed here. Hmm.. what do you think of that? ;)

Mom and dad.. awww <3 font="font">

You can ride on the hot air balloon which is available everyday here (if the weather permits). The charges is USD200 per person with a certificate! hehe. 

The hot air balloon started to make its way to the sky..

Soooo excited! Look at countless balloons floating!

So, those are the places that I remember I had to take a deep breathe looking at them. Subhanallah! Wondering how amazing and magnificent these creations are. Lets ask ourselves back.. " How magnificent and great the Creator is, then?" God is the greatest. 

Up next: What to shop in Turkey?