The Mummy's Club. Rach has started with the help of people from church a playgroup for Mum's on Saturday mornings. Rachel modelled it on "Rainbow Club" - a similar and successful group from St.Mikes in York. It's interesting that this kind of thing isn't done more in Brazil but it seems as if young mothers generally turn to family for advice and support - and then there is the Brazilian suspicion and mistrust of strangers which creates a barrier for Mum's who are understndably reluctant to let unknown people near their kids. But, its slowly picking up and Rach hopes that it will find a niche in the market for young Mums who don't have so many family or friends nearby. There's been a lot of positive support and even an invitation for Rach to go on a TV chat show about it.
GMAIL NOTE: Rach set up a Gmail account for The Mummy's Club but they've recently stopped her sending out group emails because they think it's spam! Rach is a bit grumpy about this and our attempts to contact Google haven't been too successful. Anyone had this problem?
Pictures. Slowly rotating in the sidepanel are some pictures from a recent Mummy's Club.
Showing posts with label natal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label natal. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Monday, November 24, 2008
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!
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!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Dave is a ninny. It's Saturday night and I'm home alone writing another blog entry... I should be in Recife with Rach and all the family but this morning I missed my flight to see them.
The flight was due to leave at 4.15am so I dutifully set my alarm for 2.30am to ensure maximum time to get up and drive out to be at the airport at 3.15 or so, an hour before I needed to be. I woke up at 1am when I heard noise outside. Seeing that I still had plenty of time for sleep I put my head back down and next thing I knew it was 3.35am. In a blind panic, I threw some things in a bag and raced out the door. I bombed down the main road to the airport arriving at about 3.55am. But the lady there said they had already closed the doors on the plane... As we were only going to stay until Sunday, Rach and I decided it wouldn't be worth getting another flight and so I've been enjoying a quietish weekend here. I've been able to Skype several people today, do some paperwork, watch some football, go to the cinema as well as read and pray too - the sorts of things that usually get pushed to the side in the busyness of life.
Rach and the kids were in Recife because this weekend is a national holiday. The reason I was coming down later was that I stayed in Natal to help with a spelling bee competition at the language school. Annoyingly, I lost my voice this week after a cold so I wasn't much good at the spelling bee reading out words or even judging on the panel. It went OK though, the winner being a young girl (who had negotiated the tricky word "symphony" at one point) scooping an ITouch for the top prize.
Why is it called spelling bee? Wikipedia informs us: Although its only modern usage is in spelling bee, the word bee has historically been used to describe a get-together where a specific action is being carried out, like a husking bee, a quilting bee, or an apple bee.
The flight was due to leave at 4.15am so I dutifully set my alarm for 2.30am to ensure maximum time to get up and drive out to be at the airport at 3.15 or so, an hour before I needed to be. I woke up at 1am when I heard noise outside. Seeing that I still had plenty of time for sleep I put my head back down and next thing I knew it was 3.35am. In a blind panic, I threw some things in a bag and raced out the door. I bombed down the main road to the airport arriving at about 3.55am. But the lady there said they had already closed the doors on the plane... As we were only going to stay until Sunday, Rach and I decided it wouldn't be worth getting another flight and so I've been enjoying a quietish weekend here. I've been able to Skype several people today, do some paperwork, watch some football, go to the cinema as well as read and pray too - the sorts of things that usually get pushed to the side in the busyness of life.
Rach and the kids were in Recife because this weekend is a national holiday. The reason I was coming down later was that I stayed in Natal to help with a spelling bee competition at the language school. Annoyingly, I lost my voice this week after a cold so I wasn't much good at the spelling bee reading out words or even judging on the panel. It went OK though, the winner being a young girl (who had negotiated the tricky word "symphony" at one point) scooping an ITouch for the top prize.
Why is it called spelling bee? Wikipedia informs us: Although its only modern usage is in spelling bee, the word bee has historically been used to describe a get-together where a specific action is being carried out, like a husking bee, a quilting bee, or an apple bee.
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