Firstly, it was Erin's 5th birthday recently on 3/3/13 but since everyone is not in a pinkest of health and not so much in festive mood, the celebration was put on hold. Infact she was supposed to resume schooling on the day but was put on sick leave, by mummy he he he. If you guys still remember, we just came back from Umrah trip on her 4th birthday, and this time, from Turkey trip, on her fifth. She's either lucky or unlucky in this case. Lucky because she got an oversea trip for both consecutive birthdays, unlucky because well, having a birthday so near to date coming back from holiday can be bad since everyone is tad too tired for any celebration.. Only after few days, after every one is in good shape, I went to look for some things for her goodie bags and ordered cake so that she can bring to school and celebrate with her friends. No theme lah since everything is last minute done. Semua caca marba based on what the shops had ha ha ha. Only for the cake, I requested for Rapunzel theme. Anyhow, too little time given, a friend of mine whom I ordered the cake couldn't really come up with proper decoration that suits my requested theme. It is lovely still, to my opinion, despite short notice.

Therefore, happy 5th birthday kiddo.. Love you to the moon and back.. Besar dah kamu Nak :)

A bit on pregnancy, I'm putting a lot of weight, visually, although my gynae said both baby and me is underweight. Craving wise, nothing too obvious or unbearable. My sickness almost gone and my health is improving. For now, people saw me as 'berisi' instead of pregnant if you know what  meant. Nothing much different from my previous 2 experiences only some minor drastic change worth mentioning. I am not so into of milky drinks. I rather am an 'O' person. Teh O, nescafe O.. But lately, my preference have twisted almost 360 degree. My day is not complete without nescafe susu or milo! Mind you, the last time I took nescafe was well, maybe during my teenage years but now, I drooled the moment my mind thinks of Nescafe.. Can't leave without it duuhhhhh.. Caffeine baby nih..

Ok, moving to Istanbul bit.. 

Our flight is morning flight, at 7 am so we had to be at the airport at 4 am. Everything went smooth, no delay whatsoever. We reached Bahrain an hour after and took connecting flight to Istanbul after an hour transit. An hour transit is like no transit at all since you need to board at least 45 minutes before flight time. Reached Istanbul Ataturk Airport around 3 pm. Malaysian is among countries that doesn't need visa to enter Turkey therefore, the custom clearance was pretty much straight forward. Collect our bags and immediately headed out as the hotel representative has already waiting outside with our transport.

:: Camwhore while waiting for hotel pickup. The airport transfers was arrange by hotel with cost of around 50 euro ::

:: Inside pickup. They sent 2 pickups for 16 of us and we shared with Anis's family since Kak Anis's family is bigger in volume and they need one pickup all by themselves ::

Our hotel was handpicked by my husband after few heated arguments. You know, when I was told to pick a hotel, I was more on the interior, how nice the toilet is, how pretty the balcony, how big the room will be and yada yada yada. Where it's geographically located was least of my concerns, usually ha ha ha. So when my husband pick this hotel, Faros Hotel Sirkeci for it's practicality and location wise, I was forced to agree. First, because he was the one paying! Secondly because the majority agreed. Enough said, I was made to convert into liking this hotel almost immediately so should any of you planning on visiting Istanbul, please stay at this hotel. You'll understand why.. Well since I have extra time on hand, I'll give you few reasons why..

4 cukup lah ehhhh...

:: View of Sirkeci stretch from our window ::

:: The hotel ::

:: The restaurant downstairs where we had our breakfast daily, and also suppers most night ::

:: When I said BY/ON the tram line, I'm not joking. You can see the restaurant window and how it is so very near with the passing by tram? You can actually see the tram passenger's face pretty clearly while having your breakfast ::

Journey from airport took around 20-30 minutes, depends on traffic. Settled check in matters, collect maps and some info from hotel front desk and went straight to our room. Pray and bundled up in warm clothing since it was very cold outside. We headed for dinner and also to purchase our Istanbul Card near Spice Bazaar if time permit. One good thing about tram system here is you don't have to purchase Istanbul Card for each and every family members. Just buy one card, top up enough amount and you can swipe it multiple times. Kids below 6 is free but due to Asian kids size was smaller compared with European, some kids did getaway even being older than 6 years old.There will be inspector standing by and he'll decide if your kids should pay or not. As for me, both my girls travel for free so only both of us have to pay. The fees was like 1.95 turkish lira per station so it's very economic.

Another info, most restaurant here provide free pickup to and fro restaurant so basically should you have any restaurant recommended by internet or friends, you can actually get the hotel staff to call and get them to arrange free pickup for you.

:: Going for dinner. I didn't put on boots because I am too lazy to dig for it, plus I was thinking pregnant people usually had higher body temperature and this is also the time where my extra fat could be beneficial. I was soo wrong.. Biggest regret ever! I can't feel my toes 10 minutes after this. Luckily I always had socks in my handbag for solat purpose so I quickly put on those while seating down for dinner. Didn't help much but better than nothing ::

:: Speechless. Anak no 2 biasa nye ehemm ehemmm ayu dan sopan kah kah kah! This one here is an exceptional case ::

:: Tuan tanah yang 'berkembang' dengan memberansangkan sekali ahakkk.. Shop behind me located just across our hotel and you know what, they're about to close/relocate in few days to give way for hotel construction. Therefore, when a shop is about to close, it's only natural they letting go most of their stuffs with pretty good bargain although they didn't really go loud and vocal about the clearance sale. We did a lot of 'investment' here he he he. Even though, at some place you can get certain stuffs cheaper, but considering the fact that you had to carry all the heavy purchases all around Istanbul, cramped inside tram, plus the tram fees, it's all come back to the same or almost similar price. Anyway, by buying here, you can escape all the abovementioned the hassle! ::

:: Mister was sharpening his photography skills. Bagi can laaaa hehe. Honestly, I think this picture came out quite nice and artistic. The PICTURE yer! Not me! Kang ade yang kata perasan plak :) ::

It was such a pleasant brisk walk. While checking in, the hotel staff recommended us to try out local cuisine at one famous restaurant called Hamdi, located at the end of the road, maybe 15 minutes walk. She said, they had among the best authentic grill and kebab and that's where we heading actually.

:: Tram and cars and motorcycle shared same road here in harmony so you need to really watch out where you going. Since the road was pretty small, allocation for pedestrians is minimal so you'll need to be extra careful and watch your back when walking. Pay extra attention to kids cause they tend to loose control focus and running around ::

One thing I loved about Istanbul is, they had many varieties of street food available. Being Malaysian, we loves our hawker and street food don't we? This one below is one example. It sells grilled chestnut or locally called Kestane. If in Malaysia, we have fried chestnut, here they grilled it. Although, I prefer our version more, Turkish version is no less charming in it's own way. Ours are more lembut and lemak while grill version is slightly keras in comparison and tasted somewhat raw sikit sebab you can't grill the chestnut for too long, unlike fried. Hangus jadik nyer :). Erin loves it no matter what. We ate this like a tonnes during our stay. They're everywhere. They also have like jagung bakar and jagung rebus and also pretzel-like local bread which you can find abundance.

:: Istanbul is a very famous holiday spot among Malaysian besides London so we meet actually quite a lot of fellow Malaysians everywhere we go. The movie Istanbul Aku Datang also I heard contributed a lot to Turkish tourism hehe. This lovely family of 3 we blessed to meet and greet was on their transit to Mecca actually ::

:: Haiyaa alas solahhhhh ::

:: If you didn't know already, we had twins travelling with us. Being twins is a huge thing in Turkey because I think twins are a rare sight here. Travelling with twins in Turkey is similar like travelling with celebrities. They caught everyone's attention and we were stops almost everywhere by onlookers. Some want to snap photo, pinch their cheek or tap their heads and some just adoring them. Sure enough, the twins hates the unwanted attentions so much ha ha ha ::

:: Place where we had our dinner. The food is nice but the price tags is quite high. Infact, just keep in mind, the moments you stepped in any restaurants or eating places worth called restaurant in Istanbul, do expect he price to be slightly on the higher side, at times almost triple compared to get-go food ::

:: Shop that caught my attention due to it's odd position. It is located in between pashmina and spices shops. The temperature is so low so arrangement like this is acceptable. The goods doesn't produce any smells at all and there's no fly whatsoever ::

:: After dinner, we still had ample time before shops closing time so we decided to do a quick look at Spice Bazaar. The name tickled all of us he he he ::

:: A friend recommended this shop called Aladdin. The shopkeeper is overly friendly and welcoming. The served us a feast. Warm apple tea and generous tray of turkish delights. Some of us buy soething here and some of us don't. Me for instance, didn't buy anything because I couldn't decide on what to buy. Due to it's super near location to our hotel, we agreed to come back again on our last day to pick our souvenirs then ::

:: Dried food ::

:: Ermmmmmmmmm huk huk huk *cough* cough* ::

:: Wide spread of tea. If you noticed, Turkish loves aromatic tea and fruit or flavors tea ::

:: Another product of Turkey, sabunu or homemade soaps ::

:: This makes a nice souvenirs I reckon. Pretty to look at, nice to smell ::

:: Turkish delights ::

On our way back, we stopped by a kebab shop since most of us still feeling hungry. 

:: You can see that the worker used some special tool to slice the meat so the thickness is even and equal. Then another worker will weigh each portion using the red scale in the picture. Such precise for a 3 lira kebab I think he he he ::

:: Camwhore while waiting for kebab ::

I'm into my 16 weeks already and am gladly announcing that I had officially over the vomiting and nauseating episodes which give me a lot of reasons to be in festive mood. When I was hit with severe " whole day sickness" I can't help but lie down and sleep almost all day. Mummy had to be bed rested, and as well as kitchen. We survived on take out or dine out an awful lot. What to do? Fortunately for me, my husband and girls been nothing but understanding although I can sense that they don't really like the new pregnant mummy much, especially the girls because I vented my anger and frustration to them and snapped every alternate minutes ha ha ha. Anyhow, every now and then when my condition get much much better, I tried to whip something simple because no matter how impressive a restaurant meal can be, eating homemade food still giving me the sense of satisfaction.

Today, I'll share some of the foods we had, bought or cooked recently. Most of the pictures are from my instagram so this is rather basi stories for my Ig follower he he he. Well you know what people been saying lately :

Video killed the radio star

Facebooking killed blogging

and latest one.. Instagram-ing killed facebooking

People are into micro blogging nowadays. The truth is, I think people are just getting lazier, me included he he he

:: Scramble egg with plain croissant during breakkie date with husband while kids at school. The set actually comes with bacon but I requested one without bacon. This is my staple food every time I went to Mugg & Beans ::

:: There's new restaurant opened at The Avenue phase 3 called The Red Lobster. We went there last month to experience ourselves what was the hype is all about. I am not going to give any review on the food since it will be unfair based  on my current condition ::

:: Mee Goreng. We had BBQ and company family day last month and each family were tasked to bring something for potluck. I am not particularly good with anything and I don't have that many food I am confident with so I volunteered to cook the simplest one among many on the list which is mee goreng. This is my first time cooking 3 kg mee and I secretly prayed no one had stomachache after that huhuhu ::

:: I had more makan makan events here in a month compared to the amount of invitations I had for 3 years in Malaysia. Back in Malaysia, although you're encouraged to bring any buah tangan as a sign of respect when invited for any makan makan, it wasn't popularly practiced. In here, is was like a developed culture, the potluck practice I mean. Since my poor culinary skill  is no secret, my potluck usually rotated among meehun goreng, mee goreng, kueyteow goreng and back to meehun goreng again kah kah kah. Anyway, in order to add another thing to my potluck list, I tried to make Red Bean Pau and I must say, it is a success.. Of course, after a few failed attempts  The batch above was an order from a dear friend because she said she likes my pau very much ehemmm ehemm ehemmm .. hahaha .. astagfirullah hal aziim, mengucap azura mengucap! Jgn riak.. ::

:: Talapia percik subuh sepe'ie..for my husband's lunch at office. Since my husband usually leaving at 6 am in the morning, I had to grill the talapia as early as 5 am, hence the name ::

:: Almond cookies. I didn't made this. I just help to finish it up :).. The girls itching to make a cookies and been bothering me for quite sometimes. When my mom is here, they bothers their nenek instead. So my mom made the simple dough for them and let them decorate the cookies ::

:: Kuih Bakar Pandan with love. This, I made myself ::

:: Kopok lekor.. My sister in law kirim-ed this for us via my mom when they were coming to Kuwait. I had one complaint though, it's not enough ha ha ha. Nothing beats hot steaming kopok lekor in chill winter night *drooling* ::

:: Goreng pisang panas!! Amat berkesan dalam membantu penghadaman :) ::

:: I thought it will be another year or two when I can have a taste on another ketupat palas. You know, we can't guarantee of coming back to Malaysia every year, or every Eid due to husband's work commitment and usually the only time I can have a taste of ketupat palas was during Eid at my husband's hometown. Which is why, when one of akak here announced that she made a batch of ketupat palas for sale and texted me if I want some, I said yes immediately ::

:: My life support when my taste bud was haywire and everything tasted bitter. The only things that managed to bring back my appetite each time without failed ::

:: I made this set of Nasi Ayam when I'm tired of take out. It may looked like one simple dish but it took me all my will and energy from start to finish. I squatted on my kitchen floor most of the time out of dizziness and I was this close to left the meal as it is, incomplete. Alhamdullilah, I managed to cook a decent, and complete nasi ayam although I can't really be sure of the taste ha ha ha. My tagline to my family nowadays is, " kalau tawar tambah lah garam sendiri, kalau termasin, minum air banyak banyak " kah kah kah. They gobbled everything down with no complaint and I can't be sure if it is because they wanted to make me feel better or the nasi ayam really did taste okay. Nonetheless, whatever the reason may be, I am grateful and extremely happy ::

:: My typical compulsory side dish for nasi ayam. Some people find it weird but this is how we ate our nasi ayam usually, with sayur campur ::

:: Sup tulang for the girls's kelas Iqra last Sunday ::

:: The complete set of our dinner after kelas Iqra. Sup Tulang-Ikan Gelama Kering Goreng ( ehh gelama ke ek? )-Kobis Goreng-Sambal Udang Petai ::

:: Potluck for Erin's party at school. She was asked to bring salad but knwoing that her kinda vegetable was more like kangkung and pucuk paku, iceberg and cucumber or tomato is definitely out of picture. To be safe, I prepared fruit salad. Never I had so many types of vitamins in my house at one time. I prepared 8 types of fruits and cut it into bite size for easy serving. There's strawbery, banana, orange, kiwi, grapes, green apple, red apple, and raspberry. Probably all fruits I can find in the fruits rack at the supermarket nearby ::

:: Another dinner I managed to whip recently. Gulai kawah kambing for mister, asam pedas sardin for me and kids.. Oh yeah, my kids love spicy food and they never say no to sardin. Also, kailan ikan masin in the top left ::

:: Paratha and Chicken Kadai from Pakistan shop infront my apartment. During one of our breakfast date ::

:: My latest staple snacks. I usually munch on something unhealthy like snickers or funzell chocolate dip sticks . But eversince I got pregnant, I tried to change to healthier choice and obviously, more filling one ::

:: Chinese take out. Believe it or not, when the food came in this kind of container, it felt more chinese-ish rather than normal boring plastic type ha ha ha. Sometimes I ordered this not because I felt like eating it, but just because I like the packaging. Eaten with chopsticks, straight away from the box, geez it's like you're in some Hollywood drama or something ha ha ha ::