Five Dance Songs Kids Really Dig!

There are five songs and videos the Turknoys really really (REALLY!) love; I think they are so addicted to these songs already that we viewed these videos more than 1 million times for each video.

Well, these songs keep them moving and dancing at home. Awesome! Some are PG-13 rating though which requires are guidance and editing.

Where these kids learn how to love dancing and music, we don't know. But it must be from their Filipino side.


1. Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5 -definitely No. 1 for them!




2. Rain Over Me (Pitbull and Marc Anthony) - Kerim's anthem EVERY single day!




3. The Lazy Song - Bruno Mars (Kylie's national anthem in the car.)




4. Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) (The Official 2010 FIFA World Cup by Shakira) - their favorite music video to watch. 




5. Super Bass by Nicki Minaj - My least favorite (and husband's most favorite - go figure!) but I try not to play this daily. Kylie loves the song, though.




Most kids in their age group love these songs. Hope they enjoy these music videos as much as the Turknoy kids!


Keep dancing!

Caffeine-Free, Sugar-Free Coca Cola!

Cravings have been pouring in. After the Magnum Ice Cream , I was craving for Coca Cola which is really weird because I have been Coke-sober since my first pregnancy.

So, off my husband search for the caffeine-free, sugar-free coca cola in Doha. He literally braved the sand storm, rain and traffic to get this for almost 3USD. And he bought 1 can only. He made sure I don't indulge munch.

The experience? - It's pretty much drinking aspartame only - that carcinogenic substance in diet drinks. I was better off drinking sparkling water.

caffeine-free, sugar-free cola - available in Megamart Doha! blahh

Well, at least the husband shares the hard work in every pregnancy. I think now I was only craving to torture him. Ha - I love him very much so!


Keep exploring!

Grand Hyatt Doha - The Grill

I had six consecutive lunches last week at The Grill - Grand Hyatt Doha. The last day was last Thursday where the Turks joined me for the lunch finale.

Their lunch buffet is like "salad bar and dessert table with no selection of grilled menu!" to use my husband's verbatim review.

I must admit The Grill's food selection is not good at all. There really is not much variety. Although, one lunch day was so good - i think it was grilled tuna. Their rotisserie is medium rare so if I wanted a well done, they would grill it for me and always ended up "burned" well.

The salad bar is good though. The dessert is blah.

However, I was told that they do offer brunch with great variety of food. Although, I really really doubt it.   I would rather go again to Marriot for brunch.

The customer service is also lousy. Attendants are either untrained or rude. 5/6 days was really bad customer service. I didn't bother complaining but some of my colleagues really gave an earful to the not-so-sympathetic manager.

Hope they improve, they are Grand Hyatt after all. (words from a visitor I had conversation with!)

Anyways, we had fun exploring the hotel! It was a great Thursday.

all hungry! 

he's happy eating toasted bread. haha

no choice but his toasted bread

a very shallow pool - haha!

by the beach!

summer is on!

THE GRILL

by the lobby!

Keep exploring!

Celebrating Earth Hour 2012 in Doha

Earth Hour 2012 in Doha once again! It's that time of the year again when the world put emphasis on the importance of worldwide effort to protect the planet earth.

All throughout the year, the Turknoys have been reading a lot of books and doing lots of activities about protection of the planet. It's a continuous effort from everyone in the planet, kids and adults alike. However, we really really like the idea of Earth Hour. It's one hour exclusively for the Earth celebrated by everyone.

We are here again in Doha as we were last year. We maybe celebrating  tomorrow night at Aspire Park as there are activities for kids during the Earth Hour. However, seeing that there will be school and work day after, it might be pretty challenging for the kids to be awake. Normally, kids are already fast asleep by 8PM. We might celebrate a little earlier.

A little news about Earth Hour Doha:

DOHA: The Qatar National Convention Centre, the Khalifa Torch Tower and Sheraton Doha are among buildings in the city to join Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Empire State Building in New York and world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa to switch off at 8.30pm tomorrow for Earth Hour 2012. 

This is the fourth consecutive year Qatar will be part of Earth Hour in which more than a billion people in over 135 countries participate in the largest global voluntary action on climate change. 

Several organisations such as Movenpick Hotel, The One, HSBC and Q-Tel which have been participating since 2009, will be joined by Qatar University, the Four Seasons, the Intercontinental hotel, Qatar Building Company and even the Pearl as they switch off lights to show their support. 

A highlight of this year’s local Earth Hour event is the Earth Hour Unplugged in which Qatar’s youngsters will have the opportunity to come together at Aspire Park for a fun-filled hour of music, entertainment and a chance to get involved in efforts to protect the planet.
Attending an event is not the only way that people can participate. Simply by switching off lights for the hour, everyone can be part of this unique annual event. THE PENINSULA

Hope everyone will participate. One hour, one person , one family can make a big difference. Furthermore, here's us hoping that we practice Earth-friendly activities beyond Earth Hour.

YES - go beyond the hour we can and we will! 

Save Mother Earth!
 

Magnum Ice Cream in Doha

Love Magnum Ice Cream don't you? Oh my! Oh la la!

There's this crazy fad in the Philippines about Magnum ice cream and its insane. It's really amazing how social media can make or break a product in the Philippines. The past month, our Facebook timeline has been flooded with photos of Magnum, a lot of our friends love Magnum and a lot really don't understand the what's the craze is all about.

For a pregnant woman, it is a torture. I really don't know what it tastes like but the pregnant hormone curiosity wanted it so bad. Okay, this might not be that pregnancy hormone but that deep rooted attitude common amongst a pure FIlipino like me. That attitude?  "It's-a-high-end-brand-and-is-expensive-and-if-I-buy-it-and-like-it-then-I-must-be-a-cool-person!" attitude. Well, maybe not all think like that, but I definitely think like that SOMETIMES. As I've said, it's deep rooted. I maybe saw it among my peers or from watching too much TV advertising high end products and thinking these people who can afford them are way too cool. But then again, maybe it's just me.

MAGNUM ALMOND AND MAGNUM EGG CARAMEL!

PERFECT TREAT AFTER RUNNING AROUND!

SHARE PLEASE! 

Back to the Magnum Ice Cream, luckily, my sister and brother knew where to buy Magnum ice cream in Doha. And it was so expensive. If Filipinos were complaining that it was extremely expensive at fifty pesos, they would have a change of mind if they see the price here at QR14.50 roughly, 3.50USD or roughly 170 pesos. Crazy!

Did we like it? It's ice cream, who wouldn't like it, especially on hot days? Is it worth the hype and the price? We do NOT think so. It's back to snickers ice cream for us. We're not really that cool people anyway and we knew it and love it.

Hoops, thank you to Tito Boy and Tita Ayish for sponsoring the ice cream.  We wouldn't have bought it at that crazy price. Ha!



Keep exploring!

Passion of Christ (The Movie)

To kick off the weekend, we watched Passion of Christ, The Movie.

It's that time of the year when we commemorate God's love for humanity through Jesus Christ. We are planning activities for kids during Easter. But it needs to be deeper than mere celebrating the Holy Week. It has to be more meaningful.

As Turknoy family is mixed religion with one faith (it's not that complicated - Turknoy's Theology 101), it's always good to be understand and re-learn the concept beyond our Catholic Christian belief.

Today, we watched The Passion of Christ  to get our mood for Holy Week. (Click for the movie link.)

I was asked by my husband what I did after watching the movie for the first time. Well, I went to Boracay for the summer vacation back in 2006. I know - shallow. But isn't that what Filipino community to during Holy Week - vacay time!  It's way different than how we reacted after watching this today. He's actually studying the life of Jesus right now.

I must admit, watching the movie again can make anyone appreciate Christianity. Tears never fail to fall when watching this movie. It's  a very vivid illustration of what Jesus suffered to save us. Everybody with an open heart would sympathize how God loved the world.

Another thing that made a huge impact on me while watching the movie now is how strong Virgin Mary's heart was. I can sympathize now that I am a mother. Seeing her beloved son suffer must be so heart-breaking. She is indeed holy and deserves all the devotion of the Christian community.

Celebrating Holy Week in Doha is different as it is not celebrated at all. There will be Easter activities for kids but we are hoping that this year, will be able to impart to the kids the real meaning of Easter.


How are you preparing for Holy Week?


Keep exploring!
 

Dining Out in Doha: Arirang Korean Restaurant

We were craving some sushi so off we went to Arirang. We didn't realize that they changed their management and along with this, their menu! BUMMER!

The Arirang Restaurant (Al Saad) used to be mixed Japanese and Korean dishes. They used to have these bento boxes that are so reasonably priced. But gone are those bento boxes. Arirang restaurant now offers exclusive Korean food.

The good side of this, they provide authentic Korean dishes (almost, based on our opinion!) But to be honest, the place is really pricey.

They still provide  the appetizers in small plates. But not dessert - shame. Service is good but as we have said, really expensive place to eat out.

It's a good thing that we were not really hungry that time, we managed to order snack dishes only.


We did however, enjoy the Korean things while eating.

decor at the restaurant

gotta love these cute faces!

Korean galore

appetizers for free! 

KIMCHI - yummy!

our little boy enjoying the Kimchi - he really likes spicy food! 

Kimchi and Beef Pancake! - satisfied my craving

Now we are searching for bento boxes Japanese food. Hope there are other restaurants in Doha offering these delectable dishes. 

If you like Korean food, you can try this restaurant. You'll enjoy it but be prepared to spend a little more. 

Keep exploring!

Halal Qatar Festival

Halal Qatar Festival is here!

It's that time of the year that we should be enjoying the Qatar Marine Festival. For some unknown official reason, the Qatar Marine Festival 2011 was the last festival. Sad, I know. However, Katara lined up series of "cultural-related" festivals.  We sure hope it will be as fantastic as the marine festival.

So, off we went today to Katara to experience the first ever Halal Qatar Festival. It is a very unique event related to breeding of sheeps and goats. And boy did we find lots of types of sheep and goats. The Turknoys enjoyed viewing them all from their temporary homes.

Baa Baa Baa Baa! Maa Maa Maa Maa!


There are also displays of crafts and product from wool. Unique, educational and fun.

The Halal Qatar Festival runs from 22 - 31 March 2012 at Katara Cultura Village. Enjoy!

Here are our photo blog. We didn't even know that there are lots of types of sheep and goats. Awesome, right?

Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool?

brown sheep or goat?

free sheep service for kids! 

white sheep! 

off white sheep

wool! 

billy goats gruff!

inspecting the sheep!

and the sheep inspecting back! 

more black sheep!

these are really way too cute!

baa or maa? we don't know

just look at those ears! LOOONNGG!

white billy goats (or so we think!)

more sheep!

cuddling time! 

brave kids, managed to touch the sheep 

breast feeding time!

ohh grass!

different type of sheep!

they will NOT  be happy being a shepherd!

our unwilling shepherdess!

touching processed wool!

touching dry goat skin! 

in Turkish, this is called TULUM, this is actually cheese or labneh processing at work.
Goat skin with milk! 

goat skin being dried!

yarn!

at the festival, they demonstrate how to make yarn out of wool ! 

they also have market - halal mutton anyone?

we think this one is being aunctioned!

the good old American transportation used in transporting these farm animals!

not really part of the festival and the Turks love these type of cars!

We did enjoy the Halal Qatar Festival. Although NONE of the labels for goat and sheep names are in English. All are written in Arabic. We really didn't get to teach the kids what type these animals are (heck, we don't even know it ourselves!) but it was still pure fun.

There are movies to watch also in big screens. We are just not sure whether there are activities for kids other than watching the animals. We went there one fine afternoon with a little threat of rain, hence we were anxious to leave.

It is really worth to visit!

Keep exploring!