Things I love about Brazil #76, 78, 79: Churrasco, Picanha and Meat. I will really miss Brazilian barbecues (churrascos). The quality of the meat is so good and they have a cut, picanha, which doesn't even exist in European and Northern European butchers! It's like the primest of the prime steak and it's fantastic.

As a continuation of the post TILAB #19, I should add Things I love about Brazil #91, 92, 96: Condominums, Salao de Festa and Sweets. Brazilians love parties and they love condomoniums full of apartments and they've combined their loves into the perfect set up: the salão de festa - a room on the lower floors all set up for parties with kitchen, (sometimes) stage, games rooms and swimming pool access. It`s a cheap and efficient away to hold a party. It serves the purpose of a pub function room.

As it happens though, we had our most recent party at a mall. One of our friends noticed a picture we took of all the sweets available for the kids and noted how different this is from the UK where carrot sticks and tomatoes are the order of the day for the health-conscious Mum. Like Rachel said in response: "Your comment is so funny for so many reasons". Parties are about tanking up on sweets and no dental hygiene or child health expert is going to tell Brazilians otherwise.

Rockley 'n' Roll. Well 3 weeks came and went very quickly and the Rockleys, we trust, are all safe and well back in the UK. What a talented bunch they are though, because if this blog hasn't benefitted tremendously from the insightful commenteering of Paul, we now have the creative inputs of Priya and Nathan to look forward to. First up is Nathan, who was asked to choose the best 10 photos from his camera that sum up his time here. He chose 14 - a measure, I hope, of how much fun he had. So, two a day for the next week... Nathan Rockley, "Maps and Legends" is in your hands.

Guest photoblogger: Nathan Rockley. Above, the first two in the series of 14 photos by Nathan. A view, I believe, looking out from the fort toward Redina beach and a nice one of a smiling Gloria pushing her "hippo".

Açai. One final anecdote here. Something the guidebooks and aficionados recommend is for visitors to Brazil to try an "açai". Açai is a purple fruit from the Amazon which, along with Guarana, has many great nutritional properties including providing energy. Basically, one açai = 7 bottles of Red Bull. But, to go for "açai" is not just to go out to eat the fruit somewhere - it's to go and have it served to you in a particularly special and unusual way. The açai is liquified and cooled (sort of like a slushy) and then extra pieces of fruit and, most importantly, granola (breakfast cereal grains) are added to it and served in large bowls. Anyway, this is what we all decided to do as we took the Rockleys to the airport - one last Brazilian festivity, and something to fill them up before being served airplane fare.

The number 1 place for Açai, so several of our friends said, was a shop which I was told was "next to the main BR petrol station". When we arrived, I was rather discouraged to find that the outlet consisted of one room with a box freezer which was literally IN the petrol station. Tables and stools were crammed together outside on the pavement and forecourt of a cycle shop. 8 lanes of traffic whizzed by within 100 yards (and this was at rush hour) and the smell of cars filling up with petrol and diseal would come wafting across to us as we sat huddled around our menus. What a nightmare, I thought, and no way to enjoy an açai or anything else! By this time Gloria and Nelson were bawling and I was grinding my teeth. Someone get me out of here! However, when my bowl of açai arrived... words cannot describe. A true Brazilian delicacy. I'm just sorry I discovered it so late.

Guest blogger: Paul Rockley. (Scroll down if you missed the links to pictures and videos of the Rockleys in Brazil).

Appearance and Reality

"Seems madam? Nay ´tis! I know not seems."

So Hamlet explores a familiar Shakespearian theme – appearance and reality. It´s particularly pertinent here where ´delusive appearances have appeared with metronomic regularity throughout the social history of Brazil´(Joseph Page). One example was in the 19thC when the British (with almost breathtaking hypocrisy) were seeking to ensure their demands to end the slave trade in Brazil were met. They sent delegations to see if Brazil was complying, but since the Brazilians had no intention of doing so at that stage they created an impression that they were. Thus the phrase was coined ` para ingles ver´ (literally ´for the English to see´), which has survived to the present day.

We´ve also encountered some things that have been somewhat deceptive. A harmless looking millipede which is quite common here can give you a nasty sting. (It´s even worse in Amazonia where a touching a certain caterpillar can be fatal). My previous blog entry rejoicing in the absence of mozzies was premature – over 20 maddeningly itchy bites on my legs alone prove otherwise, though I´ve still hardly seen any of the infernal, pesky beasts. We were keen to sample some of the exotic fruits here. On our first day I bought a selection from the shop around the corner. ´Custard apple` tastes like neither custard nor apple, but is rather a collection of water melon seeds covered with bits of lychee flesh. I bought a large pack of ´Star fruit` for Rs 2 (about 70 pence in the UK) and instantly regretted it when I ate one. The children were similarly unimpressed. ``But they look so nice,`` I protested. One we sampled in church yesterday looked for all the world to be a Sharon fruit but stuck to your teeth with a bitter aftertaste.

And then there was one that looked just like a large Kiwi fruit. ``It tastes like beer,`` remarked my 8 year old son. ``How do you know what beer tastes like? I enquired. ``Grandad.`` was his laconic reply.

Anderson and Kessia on their wedding day. The good news: they didn't get food poisoning.

Football round up. The Brazilian season is over and Rach's Dad's team Nautico survived on goal difference from being relegated. Sao Paulo won again. Corinthians were promoted and now look to have Ronaldo playing for them (or sitting on the bench for them). Vasco, Romario's old team, were relegated. But, more tellingly, my sister in law enjoyed a VIP salmon dinner at Stamford bridge with flowing champagne overlooking tonight's Champions League fixture. As the English teacher of several of the Chelsea staff, including Scolari's coaching assistants, she's entitled to her Christmas dinner, I suppose...

6 reasons why Dave is thankful this Sunday morning... (a belated Thanksgiving post)

1. Anderson and Kessia's wedding went really well. A couple from our little church group organised a small and intimate wedding gathering involving just a few of us to officially dedicate their relationship to God. Rachel and I had to speak at the service which involved me preparing a talk in Portuguese. It seemed to go OK thanks to my wife proof-reading the whole thing beforehand. It was a very special evening. Anderson and Kessia (with the help of their three beautiful daughters) run a fantastic little restaurant called "Sal da terra" (Salt of the earth - notice the biblical reference there?). I was telling Rach that their restaurant which serves fantastic homemade Brazilian fare with delicious meat for a good price is like our local pub, like "Central Perk", like a home-away-from-home rolled into one for us.

The painful irony is that Anderson and Kessia hired a friend to cater their wedding - preferring not to do it themselves on this occasion. This guy is a lovely Christian man and a mutual aquaintance and has catered for us before. Unfortunately, and this is not the first time this has happened, I and a few others got food poisoning the next day. (This rasises a thorny question in Brazil - you are obliged to provide business to people you know personally if you can. What now? Are we to keep using this guy just because he's our friend and a fellow-Christian?). Well, my prayer is that Anderson and Kessia didn't feel any after effects of the grub!

As the restaurant takes up their entire time (they never get holidays) they were to have a 1 day honeymoon on the Saturday with their daughters manning the ship while they were away. It would be awful for them, who have a reputation for cooking such great tucker, if their one holiday had been undermined by somebody else's bad cooking!

Anyway, I had it pretty bad last night. It wasn't helped by being at a kids party where I had to chase Nelson round for a couple of hours. But after an early night...

2. I feel much better this morning.

3. Carnatal finishes today. Carnatal is Natal's carnaval (you see what they did there?). Knowing a bit more about the sort of stuff that goes on there, knowing how it puts a strain on emergency services (sirens were the soundtrack to my night), knowing the mayhem it causes to the city in terms of clogging up traffic, knowing how much it disrupts my students who fail to show up for their final exams because they're too hungover or drunk... we'll be glad to see the back of it.

4. Natal's Christmas tree is nearly up. The town council have really not held back in lighting the town up for Christmas this year. Being a city that is obviously named after the festive occasion, Natal prides itself on attracting its tourists with the biggest and best lighting displays. Recently, as I have been driving home each night, I've noticed they've added more and more to the trees in the central reservation of the main road. I'm beginning to think they look a bit garish now - they certainly aren't very subtle. I also have no idea what its doing to Natal's power grid. We had a power cut at the school yesterday. Carnatal + Christmas lights = no power for anyone else.

In any case, Natal is once again making a bid for having Brazil's largest (fake) Christmas tree. This was what I said about last year's effort. Not to be undone by Rio who keep putting up bigger ones, Natal have put together an ENORMOUS crane and scaffolding-like construction close to our old home. This bohemoth of metal will be lit up in the shape of a Christmas this week, I guess.

5. We haven't been in any road accidents. Having talked about Natal's road safety in recent posts I thought I should mention an incident yesterday. It's not uncommon to see people shunting or rear-ending each other. Traffic volume does seemed to have increased in Natal recently and I am spending more and more of my time in jams. Consequently, I see the aftermath of small traffic incidents once a week, more or less.

But, yesterday, we arrived at the scene of some particularly nasty carnage probably within 30 seconds of it having taken place. Natal is situated on a triangle of main roads with a national park in the middle. For the last few days, we've been driving down the other side of the triangle, down Via Costeira, a tranquil but lengthier coastal road which has all the main hotels dotted along it, to get places because of the disruption caused by Carnatal.

At a seemingly innocuous point we saw a taxi and a car had just met in a nasty head on collision. The road was impassable because of debris, including a bumper strewn across it. Fortunately, it seemed most people had seatbelts on so they were shaken up but not seriously hurt. Nonetheless, an ambulance was called for the driver of the car. As we pulled away, and after saying a prayer for all those involved, I donned my (figurative) Hercule Poirot hat and tried to deduce how that could've occurred. In short, (and driving home the same way confirmed my suspicions), the driver of the car must have been from out of town, perhaps a guest at one of the hotels along the stretch. About 20 yards before the incident the road splits but, based on the non-conclusive road markings (scroll down to Nov 24 post for more on that), he may have assumed he was to carry on straight, the split being only for traffic entering the hotel. If you hadn't been along there before it's more than possible you would draw this conclusion. The taxi driver, an old hand at Natal's roads, probably quickly pulled out as the road was clear (in the direction it should've been!) and would never have expected somebody coming up the wrong side to his left. A nasty shock for both, then, as they pummeled into each other front to front. Both cars totalled. I pray no lasting injuries.

6. Mum and Dad arrive a week today!

Sorry the hiatus. I love the word "hiatus" and am always looking for ways to worm it into my writing. Anyway, sorry for the sporadic posting. General end of semester busyness is to blame. Also, our internet has been dodgy but then so has everyone else's across the city. I think (with the opinion of a complete layperson on these matters) the servers are melting in the summer heat. It has been hot around here.

Too much to write about. I love writing and rarely seem to encounter writer's block. On the contrary, I often have the opposite problem which I will call "writer's flow" meaning I have a bunch of stuff to write about but not enough time to do it... how frustrating.

So, just two stories from yesterday...

Nelson the jovial dentist. Rachel (with kids in tow) was in a medical centre near here for another reason and was stuck for a place to sit and wait. Nelson the jovial dentist let her use his waiting room. He was so jovial, jolly and kind-hearted we decided to make him our family dentist. (Scroll down to November 7th for my first impressions of the man).

So far, he has proven to be a great dentist, just inefficient with his time-keeping (a problem, it has to be said, for 95% of Brazilian medical professionals). He works for 10% of the time and banters for 90% of the time. When he's not bantering his cheerful assistant takes up the mantle. Unsurprinsgly, they both banter with me about my two small children, endlessly. Yesterday he even showed me he had a picture of Gloria on his cellphone... In turn, I learned about his older son (who is studying computer science at the university) and about my dentist's passion for cycling and also that the procedure he was using on my teeth was invented by a Brazilian dentist from Sao Paulo who has the extraordinary name "Iraildes Jesus de Deus". All this with the astonishing view from the 16th floor of the medical centre of Natal's via costeira and north side beaches. And all this with piped Celine Dion and Enya coming out of his CD player...

Brussel sprouts. Another tale from the supermarket. One of my first destinations upon entering the hallowed aisles of Nordestao with my shopping list in hand and empty squeekless trolley is the back of the veggie section, where a cooler resides with imported or special goods which are only occasionally stocked. I'm always dying to know what they've got in. Sometimes the price is extortianate for something that is relatively ordinary in the UK: fresh mushrooms, asparagus, fresh broccoli and rocket salad spring to mind. But, yesterday, for only the second time that I can remember, they had brussel sprouts. These dozen sprouts looked a bit dissheveled for the price I was paying for the quantity contained but I went for it anyway as I was to buy a roast chicken and potatoes in order to fix a faux English roast lunch for Rachel.

At the check out the two baggers suspiciously eyed my brussel sprouts. One of them muttered something to his colleague along the lines of "what the @*$# is this?"

I decided to chirp up at this stage with an explanation. I accounted for the fact that I was a gringo and that this was popular where I came from. Both baggers, who were what Americans would call "blue-collar workers" and who may never have spoken to a foreigner before, returned a look of utter incredulity. Neither of them had any idea how to continue the conversation at this point. Eventually, one of them asked me something so fast I had no idea what he said. After a couple of repititions (where I apologised - like a true Englishman - for not speaking very good Portuguese) I got the gist. He was asking me what it tasted like. I confidently began my reply. "They taste just like small cabbages!". However, inexplicably, the word for cabbage had, without telling me, taken a hike out of my brain and I was left open-mouthed saying: "Tem sabor de.... de.... de... a coisa que voces tem ai... esqueci o nome!". At this, both baggers wore expressions that suggested they were conversing with a recent fugitive from the nut house.

I smiled and chuckled inwardly. It should never have been this hard, surely...

"Couve" is the word for cabbage, which I remembered, of course, once I was in the car park and on my way out.

The Ruth is out there (and now she's back again). We're very pleased to welcome back Ruth Leckenby after her 4 week mission trip in Olinda. Ruth was a very welcome guest last year (see her excellent guest blog entries on here) and now with Portuguese phrase book under one arm, a plate of beans in the other she is confronting Brazil - and her fear of frogs - like a seasoned traveller. After an exhauting and at times hairy few weeks working with Brazil's most disadvantaged, Ruth is recouping (we hope) in sunny Natal. Ruth very generously brought us a bevvy of gifts from the UK, including specially selected food items based on the "Things I miss..." section of this blog. So, as the picture above testifies, I was able to have a more or less English breakfast with the essential ingredient of Baked Beans.

NB. Brazilians are very curious about the famous Heinz Baked Beans because Brazilians take their beans very seriously. Generally, on tasting them, Brazilians don't rate them too highly preferring to rapidly reach for a pot of their famous feijão instead. In other words - it's just like English football: We hear a lot about it, but the quality isn't a patch on the home grown variety.

July pictures. July was a packed month with a lot going on - some pictures here if you're interested. (Facebook people will already have seen these).

Nelson sleeps to 6.54am shock! By cutting our son's daytime naps down we have induced a spate of post-6 lie-ins. And, given that Gloria doesn't trouble anyone until 7.30am, my sleep silos are slowly being replenished, praise God!

Welcome Isla Kippin, sister to Esme and Scott. More baby girls in the Maclure side of the family. Congratulations to Anna and Richard!