HHHHHHHHHUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMM les bonbons, c'est bon!!!
VOici les Minties, petits bonbons australiens à la menthe. Je dois dire que c'est pas mauvais mais gare aux plombages! J'ai failli m'en casser un!

Certaines personnes m'ont dit que les Minties étaient souvent offert aux voyageurs avant de prendre l'avion depuis l'Australie. Etant donné le trajet et l'altitude, les avantages sont nombreux. 1 = Chiquer et donc éviter les problèmes aux oreilles. 2 = ça fait passer le temps parce que c'est souvent loin... C'est pas pour rien qu'on appelle l'Australie Down Under après tout. Loin de tout...et en-bas, en-dessous...Down Under.

Laissez-moi tout de même vous initier à la culture australienne. Cette fameuse culture aussie! Depuis maintenant une génération, les australiens ont appris à manger leur biscuit comme ceci :

en faisant UN TIM TAM SLAM!

Voici la personne qui me l'a appris!-->

Il s'agit de croquer le haut et le bas de votre TIM TAM - biscuit typiquement australien et de le plonger dans votre FLAT WHITE = à savoir le café au lait des australiens! Une espèce de Cappuccino - lait russe. Délicieux mais super "latte".

Lorsque votre biscuit est à moitié plongé dans le café. Vous vous en servez comme d'une paille. Le chocolat qui se trouve à l'intérieur fond et le reste du biscuit AVEC!!!
Les mains pleine de chocolat et parfois la bouche, vous buvez tranquillement le reste de votre café en dégustant le reste de chocolat sur vos doigts! AH AH j'adooooore!

Ca mes amis, c'est vraiment australien!!!

Vespa venturers
By Brad Crouch
May 21, 2006

TAKE two Italian brothers, a couple of Vespa motor scooters and a thirst for travel and adventure, and you have an epic round-Australia trip – with a definite twist.
Scooting off ... Stefano and Andrea Mantova celebrate the end of the scooter-powered adventure on the outskirts of Adelaide.
Twin brothers Stefano and Andrea Mantova, who hail from Aosta in northern Italy, love Australia and had visited here previously.
With their 30th birthday fast approaching, they wanted to do something special to celebrate, so decided to tour the continent Down Under on their beloved Vespas. But rather than do it together, the brothers decided one would go east and one would go west.
"We had a limit on our time, so decided we would tour separately but keep up with each other's adventures through photography and on our website," Stefano explained. "That way we could see all the places we did not get to go through each other's eyes.
"We decided to start in Adelaide because that is roughly the centre of Australia for such a trip."
The lads shipped their Vespas out for the adventure last December, and the sturdy little scooters – Stefano's red 1984 ets 125 and Andrea's black 1983 px 125 – became an integral part of the experience.
VESPA VERSE
From Stefano and Andrea's website travel diaries: Coober Pedy: Coober left me a little bit anxious. A city where everybody sleeps under the ground. A tour to listen to the history of the opal was interesting. (Later) while I was washing dishes after dinner, a sign printed with big font in front of me says "Water is more precious than all the opals, so try not to waste it". Nullarbor: Incredible but true. I would never thought to find an internet connection in one of the most remote places of the world. The world is strange. I'm in Nullarbor, from the Latin nullus arbor, that is "no tree". And it's exactly like this.
STEFANODevils Marbles: I've been in a place really powerful. The silence and the landscape leave me time to think and every word I can say is wasted. Great Ocean Road: The road is beautiful and touching Uluru: I can still see the colour of the wonderful landscapes during sunset and sunrise. In front of the enormous Uluru it's impossible not to take tens and tens of photos. The light, thanks to the clouds, changes continuously and modifies its colours.
ANDREA
While you can't pack much on the back, the scooters don't chew through too much petrol – the brothers averaged almost 40km a litre so petrol was not such a major cost.
"They are also quite strong and simple, so if anything does go wrong it is easy to fix," Stefano said. Over the next four months Stefano took off up the western side of the nation while Andrea tackled the east.
Their solo adventures were many and varied along the way, but nothing went wrong and they met some wonderful people.
Their Vespas, in particular, attracted plenty of attention. "People would stop and wave all the time," Stefano said.
"Any time I stopped by the side of the road for a rest or to take a photograph, people would pull over and ask if I was alright and then chat about the Vespa.
"People are very friendly here, it is a great place to tour, and there are plenty of good places for cheap accommdoation."
The lads met up in Darwin to celebrate their 30th birthday on April 3, and have spent the past month cruising down the centre of the nation via Alice Springs to get back to Adelaide.
Apart from a few flat tyres, about the worst thing that happened during the trip was a couple of bouts of bad weather.
STEFANO was stranded in Broome for several days by torrential rain, as was Andrea in both Byron Bay and Cairns.
"When we were staying in a hostel in Katherine on the way back from Darwin, the owner came and woke us in the middle of the night to tell us to get out because it was flooding," Andrea recalled. "We stayed in the school that night."
While both enjoyed their trip, Stefano noted taking the western route meant long distances between stops at roadhouses or towns. Stefano clocked up about 15,000km while Andrea logged more than 14,000km, and each stayed at about 70 places during their trip.
"We wanted to do something special for our birthday and this has been the trip of a lifetime," Stefano said. "We've met good people, seen wonderful sights, seen lots of wildlife and had a trip to remember. "Some people might think we are a little crazy but it has all been very good fun."
The brothers have shipped their Vespas back to Italy and will return soon to their jobs, Stefano as a surveyor and Andrea as an air conditioning technician.
The Mantova brothers have kept a website diary of their trip with photographs.
Check out their adventures at www.gemellivespa.com
Sunday Mail (SA)
escape

Language teaching boost
Tess Livingstone
May 29, 2006

FOREIGN language teaching is to be stepped up in Queensland's state schools.
Education Minister Rod Welford said yesterday that the percentage of Year 12 graduates with a language other than English had fallen since 2000 to 7.6 per cent, a slide he wanted to see reversed.
As a first step to reversing the trend, Mr Welford announced a trial scheme in the West Moreton region (Brisbane's outer southwest).
In the scheme, primary and secondary state schools will pool their language teaching resources to give as many students as possible access to a language.
"I personally feel that languages are a fantastic way to strengthen and broaden a person's education and cross-cultural awareness and many students will have the opportunity to use the skill in their post-school life," Mr Welford said.
He said he had wanted to extend the Goss government's initiative of 15 years ago in having all Year 6, 7 and 8 students studying a foreign language, but a chronic shortage of language teachers made it impossible.
Mr Welford studied French to Year 10 and German to Year 12 and said he had used them "a little" while visiting Europe.
He said Education Queensland was considering measures such as students travelling several times a week for language teaching at schools that had the teachers, and possibly hiring foreign language speakers on a part-time consultancy basis.
The minister said these approaches were preferable to other teachers, with little or no language background, attempting to take on the job.
Mr Welford became aware of the chronic shortage of language specialists when he asked for foreign language study to be made a core part of the primary curriculum, but was advised this was impossible because of lack of teachers.
While Queensland's closeness to Asia made languages such as Chinese, Indonesian and Japanese particularly important, Mr Welford said European languages were also important in an age of increased travel.
He said patterns across the state varied between schools.
At Bulimba State School in Brisbane, all children in Years 1-7 study Italian, while Mansfield and Benowa state schools both offered "French immersion" programs in which students learn general subjects in French.
Ferny Grove State High School offers a similar program in German.