busy busy week and TUSAL

Its been a busy week for me I feel so exhausted. But now when I am thinking about it, it wasnt that busy, I shouldn't get this worn out because of it but I don't know why, maybe I need to do more exercise. Unfortunately winter is coming I don't know if I am able to walk to the gym in the late afternoon (and back in the evening) for my zumba classes. Late afternoon after serkan is back from work is the only time for me to go to the gym since I still don't feel OK to put Ali in nursery.

Last thursday, there was a Bonfire Night in Dilara's School. I was so excited because the last time I saw fireworks for Guy Hawkes day was in 2007 (in Rolleston and New Brighton pier, Christchurch). Unfortunately to my disappointment there wasnt any fireworks, only a bonfire. Stupid me, it would be too expensive for the school to have fireworks, I thought later on. And maybe it was forbidden by the government for the security reason. There were some halloween related activities, our children didn't participate in any of them but Dilara went trick or treat (sort of) by walking through darkened class room and she got a bag of candy in the end.

On Friday, in the morning we went grocery shopping. We did it in a rush because Serkan had to go to the mosque but the mall and the supermarket was so quiet (Friday is a holiday and all the shops except supermarket open late afternoon after Friday prayer) it reduced my shopping stress. After that all afternoon I was busy cooking for dinner at The Loss family. I think the idea was stolen from 'The biggest dinner in the world', their children who went to ICS (the same school with Dilara) suggested having a fundraising dinner with a group of friends, the idea is that everyone brings their favourite dish and makes a donation as if going out to a restaurant and we donate all proceeds to MSF / Medicins de Frontiers (Doctors without borders), their chosen charity who is currently in Jordan working with Syrian refugees.
I made Turkish havuc pilav (Turkish carrot rice) and Jalangkotek from Indonesia as a starter. Jalangkotek is a particular dish from South Sulawesi, in Indonesia we called it pastel and it looked like empanadas. Many people like my turkish rice and jalangkotek was a huge success, it finished in no time! I dont have any picture but I promise to put a picture when I make it again, maybe with a recipe too :)
Loss family also played some music for us, what a talented family!

Saturday morning at 10 I went to their house today for our weekly private Arabic class, I dragged myself (and the whole family because Serkan had to drive me there and we couldn't leave the kids) out of the bed because I was still so sleepy from yesterday's cooking and dinner (we're back home at midnight) and I had to wake up very early to clean up the kitchen and the house because we will have a guest coming that day. I also ran to the mall nearby their house to buy a present for Dilara's classmate birthday party. After all the hassles, the tutor didn't turn up :( Serkan pick me up at 12 and I was aghast to see Dilara was still in the clothes that she wore from last night dinner and they were very wrinkly because she slept in them (she fell asleep on the way we just carried her to the bed). I have prepared her dress for the party and clearly instructed Serkan to put them on her before pick me up because we are going to the party straightaway. So we had to rush home again, I changed her clothes while Serkan and Ali were waiting in the car. Sigh.
She had a great time at the party though. Ali stayed at home so I kind of relaxed at the party, no need to watch him over as usual.

After party we immediately went to Mecca mall to meet Lizzy. Lizzy is a friend that I know when I was studying in New Zealand. We took the same class for one semester, she was doing the last semester of her bachelor degree and I was doing my first semester of Graduate Diploma.

Lizzy and her gigantic backpack attracted a lot of attention in Mecca Mall

Our kids love her a lot!

She is in her trip (almost) around the world for about 1.5 year and Jordan was one of her destinations. sSe took an Egypt-Jordan tour and after arriving in Aqaba (they took a cruise from Egypt) and touring in Wadi Rum-Petra-Madaba-Dead Sea, and had a 3 days break in Amman. She stayed with us for two nights, unfortunately we couldn't take her anywhere ın Amman because when she was here suddenly the winter finally remember that it needs to arrive in Jordan so weather was so cold, grey and for that 2 days Amman had its very rare rain. The good thing was we could just sit and talk talk talk, I couldn't get enough listening her amazing stories and looking over her pictures from Egypt, Borneo, Europe, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hongkong and many more. She was grateful too she said it was such a nice break, not having to get up very early and be on the way all the time. The night before she flew to Turkey we took her to Al Fuhais just outside Amman to have an Arabic dinner in Al Zuweydeh restaurant. The place was fantastic, the food was delicious. I can still taste them in my tounge when I wrote this. Definitely one of my favourite restaurants in Jordan.

NOW: STİTCHİNG! (I almst forgot what this blog is about :-p)
I finally get back to my Silvermoon Tea. I will go to Turkey next month and I want to give it to my sister in law so I have to make it done by then. I haven't stitched much but getting in to it:

finished the whole top moon

At last, my TUSAL Jar:

I still use the same jar and the one inside the small tiny zip loc bag was my ORTs from Turkey last summer holiday. The book is the one that Lizzy left for me, I really want to read it but I have many stitching projects waiting for me to be done. hmmm...


***** many thanks, terima kasih, sağol, شُكْرًا