Hoons on Utes

Two very Australian words in one title. The hoons are mostly white, suburban, teenagers. Not much of a brain. They are those kids whose main activities include speeding, street racing, burnouts or screeching tyres in their utes. So what's a ute I hear you ask? Just see the picture above. A ute is short for 'utility vehicle'. They have been very much in fashion for some years now but lately they have been mainly coming in funny colours and it is not uncommon to see gangs of them aligned at some reststop parkings. Each country has its own plague really.

Rent-a-Car

I do not own a car so I rent one every time I need one. In the end I believe it is probably much cheaper than owning one. First of all, I get a new car for each trip. Usually they are quite new and only have a few kilometres on the odometer. Secondly, I am not worried about where to park it when I am not using it. To drive from Washington to New York we rented a Prius since they seem to be quite popular over there. Why is that people continue to use normal cars? Hybrids are so fuel efficient. It might not be the definitive solution but at least you can guess that it is a real progress.
On our way back from the countryside, we had a little Opel. In contrast, cars in France continue to use extremely polluting Diesel fuel (which you rarely see anywhere else in the world except for trucks). For the recorded story, it was filled with the wrong fuel and we got stuck at the fuel station after realising the mistake (we had hopefully not started the engine). Not an experience I recommend to anyone on a Sunday morning in the middle of nowhere in France.

Gidday maaate!

People in the Northern Territory and in Australia can actually choose their plate number as long as it is not offensive, does not already exist and they are ready to pay for it. It is also valid for life and not attached to the vehicle but to the driver. The Northern Territory being pretty ‘unpopulated’ the chance in obtaining your plate number of choice is greater. I came across many many different plates here, some of them funny, some of them witty, others even clever and some really dumb ones (I would sincerely be ashamed to drive some of the vehicles I see just because of their plate numbers). This morning I had a good laugh following this very Australian car (another bad quality picture but I was driving and shouldn’t have been taking pictures in the first place!)