babies, food and cars

Well it was a week ago Alena was born. Everything seems to be pretty good with Alena sleeping lots, drinking lots and just generally observing her surroundings. She doesn't cry much and doesn't mind if her uncle carries her around which is good (which I just had to go off and do as I was writing this post). The two boys love her and always want to hold her or snuggle up to her, although sometimes their timing isn't always the best for this sort of thing. The two boys are pretty good most of the time and can be good fun, although they can be a bit illogical sometimes (case in point at the moment being that Esra is crying that he wants to go down the stairs with Marit, meanwhile she's feeding the baby, not really for any reason other than Marit went downstairs to bring the baby upstairs without him) and sometimes stubbornly want to do the opposite of what the adults want. But hey, I guess that's part of growing up, I've probably done the same sort of things.
Man, there's some awesome restaurants round here. The first week I was here we went to this pizza place. We ordered pizza-rodizio which meant that they would bake as many different pizzas as were available and then the waiters would walk round the tables of the people who ordered this with pizzas and you could take as much as you wanted. I, of course had to try every pizza and went in for seconds when they came round. The pizzas were delicious (even though they don't put a tomato paste base on any of their pizzas, tomato sauce is put on the tables for people to put it on their pizzas if they feel so inclined) and they even had chocolate dessert pizzas!!!! Last Wednesday we went to a place which is a meat lovers paradise called a churrsco (although even vegetarians still have plenty of choice) They have a huge buffet, which I only got part way round, and then like at the pizza place the waiters come round to your table bringing all sorts of wonderful meat on big skewers and slice bits off for you. Again I think I pretty much tried every meat until my tummy was at bursting point. The chicken drumsticks were excellent and I even tried some chicken hearts which tasted alright. The meal cost less then 10 NZ dollars! Although the drinks then cost a bit more on top of that. And the thing is that this is not just a one-off restaurant, these types of restaurants are all over the place.
Other than that people drive on the wrong side of the road I have also noticed a few other things: Most people tend to drive either a VW, a Fiat, or a Chevrolet. They are usually small models and have tinted windows which makes it look like everyone is driving around boy racer cars with the only thing that tells you otherwise is the normal exhausts, not much noise, and the nun at the wheel. Although there are also quite a lot of boyracers who like to drive past our house with music blaring. And then of course there are lots of people driving motorbikes and scooters. The motorbikes tend to have a big chilly bin on the back and a big water container or gas canister up the front and you tend to watch them going straight to the front of the traffic lights will you sit there waiting further back. That of course depends if people stop for traffic lights and stop signs, which a few people don't and sometimes they aren't so good at realising which way the one way streets go either! The main roads tend to be alright (they even have separate bus lanes) but as soon as you get onto the suburb roads there are potholes everywhere. The streets look like a patchwork quilt with the many spots where potholes have been filled in over the years.
The church here is quite different from many churches that I have been to. Church starts with breakfast followed by the sermon with people sitting around their cafe tables. They don't have any singing usually although at various times a band plays a bit of background music. Then they either have a long chat or a bible study. This is then followed by lunch. It gives the place quite a community feel which I like. I pretty much can't understand a word of the sermon but before and after the sermon I can talk to quite a few people as quite a few people either speak English or German.
By the way feel free to drop a comment or an email. The photos are of me and Alena, and the other one is of a signpost just outside our house which I found pretty cool.