Life is life. So, over a week since my last update on here. Basically, we`re pretty busy! The kids were also ill last week which really reduces all systems to survival mood. Having said that, we had a quiet long weekend (thanks to a saint`s holiday on Friday) and I think Rachel and I are refreshed to a certain degree. This is the final busy week before the semester starts to wind down... some kids are already on their summer holidays and won`t be back at their schools until February! Not surprisingly, they complain a great deal about still having to come to English lessons.

Noisy driving, night driving and drink driving. Continuing the theme of Brazilian driving habits started in recent blogs... our apartment block is on the corner of two main roads and it is one drawback that the noise level can be quite high. Windows will invariably be open to let some cool air in, and you`ll be halfway through a conversation when a motorbike with severe exhaust problems will tear down Alves Fonseca or Albrto Maranhao and you`ll have to stop and ask everyone to repeat what they just said. If sleeping at night is a stuggle with two small children it isn`t helped by night time traffic.

Two nights ago, I was woken at 3am by a man driving very fast beeping his horn without ceasing until he was out of ear-shot. "Why on earth...?" I bleerily thought to myself. Last night, the same thing happened again and I twigged what it was. Brazilians have a different set of road rules after dark. Basically, in the interest of security folks will ignore red lights so they don`t have to stop their cars, thus potentially falling prey to carjackers. This used to be more popular in Recife but it seems to be catching on here. What this means is you can`t trust a green light after dark - you have to look both ways anyway, and it means if you`re prepared to play chicken with a blind junction you can drive across on red. In order to make one`s presence heard and to announce that you will follow on through on red, one repeatedly sounds the horn to warn the greenlighters you`re going to be in the way. At 3am, somebody obviously feels its not even worth waiting for traffic lights to be any colour - they`d just rather drive home, across red lights without slowing and have their horn on 100% of the time. Nevermind, all the sleeping residents.

Last year a famous footballer, called Acosta, who was playing in Recife for Nautico at the time crashed late at night in an incident probably caused by two people driving across green lights. The other guy, whose car was a wreck, was alright and he hung around for the police and ambulance. When it transpired he had crashed into a Acosta`s car, he was reported to have broken out into a cold sweat. As a Nautico fan he couldn`t face the fact that he might have just hospitalised his team`s star player. His pals and fellow fans would ostracise him! When the medics arrived, his first question was: "are his legs OK?"

Night time accidents are also common because of drink driving problems, especially with motorcylcists who somehow seem to feel they are immune to road laws and traffic rules. I noticed a motorcyclist zoom through a red light in broad daylight this weekend and I commented to Rach "It seems that the smaller the vehicle you are in, the more you feel you have the right to ignore road rules". Come to think of it, the opposite is also true - the bigger you are (like public buses) the more you can aggressively and illegally boss the roads at the expense of others.

The Brazilian government has recently clamped down on drink driving and stricter laws are in place across the country (including no alcohol at football matches!). Adverts for alcohol now all have to contain the statement: "Se for beba, nao diriga" - If you`re going to drink, don`t drive. So, things are on the way up, but driving under the influence is still a severe problem in this part of the world. And, whatever you do, don't trust the traffic lights!

Things I miss about England #20: Traffic lights.
Things I love about Brazil #21: Traffic lights.
Let me take the latter first. Continuing a theme started a few posts back about driving in Brazil, it seems an appropriate time to comment on something I noticed within about two days of being in Brazil.

Basically, local councils use their transport budgets to continually innovate in the realm of traffic lights - often, it seems, attempting to out-compete the last guys with ever more ground-breaking, animated and at times baffling signalisation. Above are pictures of four sets of traffic lights which all sit at junctions within one block of our apartment. As you can see, there's a paucity of consitency about the whole thing. At least they've stuck with red and green (although occasionally dispensing with yellow when necessary). If you were to go to Recife, you would see traffic lights with a countdown digitial display of when the light will change - a sure-fire ticket to people speeding up at an alarming rate as they notice the counter approach zero. But, it has to be said, it makes life interesting and it is quintessentially Brazilian - uniformity is not prized here, flexibility and acceptance of new technology are. Long live non-standardised Brazilian traffic lights.

On the other hand, taking the other side, there's something altogether reassuring about driving in the UK that almost everywhere one goes one can expect a consistent set of road markings, signs and traffic lights. Local road habits and norms vary considerably between cities (for example, turning on red or driving through red after 9pm at night). Sometimes traffic lights won't work (who's to know if we can go or not?) and efficient and long-suffering traffic police are often called out to speed up the rush hour jams. Sometimes one way streets are created and nobody erases the old road markings leading to immeasurable confusion. Out on the open road it's anyone's guess where you are and how far you are from your destination. Your best indication is to make sure you know if the sea is on your left you're driving south and if it's on your right you're headed north. In Natal, somebody has decided you can't turn across traffic at a junction (see pictures above with no left turn signs). This results in us (and everyone else) driving for miles in the wrong direction looking for a spot to do a U-turn. Seriously, Rachel was once half an hour late for an engagement as a result of trying to find a location to perform this maneuvre. We call it the "Natal shuffle" and, although it probably reduces accidents somewhat, it's not something I love about Brazil at all.

I'm not saying here that the British have the perfect road system. Far from it. Apparently, the French say we have too many road-signs and they're right. Come off the A64 into York and there is no way you can possibly digest all the information on display - there seems to be a sign for everything from low-flying planes to recycling rubbish. But, all in all, I think more signs and more consistant signage is still arguably better than no posting whatsoever or the potential for traffic mayhem a la Brazil.

And speaking of transport... We took Nelson to the Natal air show last Saturday. We had a great time and so did Nelson. Only, problem is he was far more entertained by the small display of vintage road vehicles on display than any of the jetplane acrobatics taking place in the sky.

Staff dinner. A few weeks ago it was teacher's day in Brazil - a wonderful idea for a national holiday. Pictures in the slideshow to the right are of the Cultura Inglesa staff at a special meal for the occasion.

Every cloud has a silver lining. There's a whole series of posts waiting to be written about driving in Brazil, and, on balance, there's a bit of work needed to be done by my Brazilian counterparts to ensure efficiency and safety in their road travel. But for now, let me concentrate on some of the positives.

I recently discovered the joys of driving with the window down. Usually the car is so hot that AC is necessary, but why not, I thought to myself recently, switch off the AC and enjoy the fresh(ish) air of Natal's rush hour combined with the cacophony of sounds that eminate from every street corner. It's oddly liberating, it relaxes me and it's giving me a truckers one-armed tan in the process. Things I love about Brazil #51: driving with the windows down (and not freezing in the process).

On weekends and on mornings off I'll get into my car with flip-flops on as will the majority of drivers in Natal, I suspect. Driving with flip-flops is actually illegal (you don't want your havainas wrapped around the accelerator by accident!) so people shuffle them off and drive barefooted (barefeeted?), which is something I had to get used to when we arrived here. Sometimes the police try to scare tourists by telling them driving barefoot is illegal, but that's a big porky pie.

I reckon driving barefoot is the automobile-piloting equivelent of swimming naked in a lake at night. It feels mischievous and wonderfully liberating and may result in your extremeties (I'm talking about toes in the car example) being unusually exposed to the elements. After some time, and most people I know who drive barefoot agree with me on this, that skin to metal contact results in better clutch control and a feather-light touch on the accelerator. Things I love about Brazil #52: driving barefoot.

And, as a direct result of the thing I love about Brazil #54 - things I love about Brazil #53: Somebody fills your car up with gas, checks your oil and your tires without you having to get out.