Tim Tams and Vehicle Common Sense

As one may imagine New Zealand has a number of products, specialties, interesting items, and just plain oddities to which no other country, well, at least America, has any hint of. One of the more amazing delightful products that this land holds is a product actually imported from Australia (go figure) - it's called a Tim Tam. These are a variety of chocolate biscuits (or cookies for you North American types) that are perhaps the greatest thing ever to come out of Australia, apart from their cheap, quality wine (at least from my limited viewpoint having not been Down Under quite yet).

So, what may you ask is a Tim Tam exactly? A chocolate sandwich of two chocolate wafers with a chocolate mousse spread between, then dipped in chocolate for a tasty and chocolaty snack, or meal depending upon on many one cares to eat. Did I mention they contained a bit of chocolate? Now, the packages of ten Tim Tams do go very quickly, however, the speed of consumption increases exponentially when one performs what is affectionately referred to as a Tim Tam Slam (check out this definition). Such an event is this that it requires a full and steaming cup of coffee or hot chocolate (preferably coffee and none of that instant coffee crap). Two diagonally opposite corners of the rectangular Tim Tam are gingerly bitten to expose the sandwiched biscuit from beneath the chocolate coating. Then, carefully biting the midst of the biscuit between one's teeth, much like a straw would be used, dip the exposed end of the biscuit into the mug of hot drink and drink as much of the beverage as possible until such a time as biscuit just begins to fall apart. Now at this point in time, if there are no hands involved, the key is to tip your head back and enjoy the now quickly disintegrating biscuit. It is a must to advance to the stage where no fingers are toes are used in the Tim Tam Slam - certain authorities suggest the use of such extremities, however, the real experts go solo - no hands or feet. In any case this is a biscuit that is hard to ignore no matter the method of ingestion - ah the simple pleasures in life. Go out and get a package if you haven't yet (unless of course you are not located in Australia or New Zealand or the few Asian countries to which they are imported...).

The other wonder of this southern island world is the choice of SUV's. The Kiwi's are amazingly smart in that they also choose to drive Isuzu Trooper's - well okay, that Trooper model is actually called a "Bighorn" down here - however, the point still remains, Kiwi's have some good sense about them. Back home in the states my vehicle is, as one may have guessed with the heavy previous endorsement, an Isuzu Trooper. Of the many SUV's here on the road in NZ a large percentage are Isuzu Bighorns - this is one of the larger SUV's (or vehicles for that matter) that are driven on the roads here (not including the camper-type vans which are also very popular). In fact, I have only seen one full-size truck (in the American sense of the word) - it was a beast for these parts. Also deserving note is that the Bighorns are also offered with a diesel engine - why in the heck can't we have diesel Isuzu Troopers in the states?! I am glad there are some countries out here with a bit more car sense then the states...

Okay, so I have said my peace on two of the many things that I really think highly of here in Kiwi land, there's more, but that would require some more rambling of which I don't have time for as I would then be late for this mornings continuing lecture...