Wonderful trip around the Mediterranean

You’ve got a full day to get to know this British territory (领土), home to many cultures. Choose to ride the cable car (缆车) for great views of the Rock of Gibraltar or discover the beautiful lighthouse.

Enjoy a full day discovering all that Provence has to offer — flower fields, fishing boats or Roman ruins (遗迹). City or countryside, you decide.

Get to know this busy town by walking through the wonderful streets and piazzas (public squares, especially in an Italian town).

Choose to visit wonderful wineries (酒庄) in Tuscany or the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa on your last day in Italy.

Go to the airport for your flight home.

Eve was having a party! She had been given a karaoke set for her birthday, so she invited all her friends round for a special competition evening. The best singer would win a prize of a huge box of her delicious cookies.

Everyone came along: Helen, Jane, and Peter, who looked a bit nervous. “Don’t worry, Peter. We’re only here to have some fun,” said Eve kindly. Jane was first up on stage (舞台). The minute she began to sing, everyone could tell she’d been practicing! Next, it was Helen’s turn. Her voice was not as strong as Jane’s, but she had a great sense of rhythm (节奏) and seemed to enjoy being on stage. All the girls took their turn singing. There were a few wrong notes, but all in all, everyone had a wonderful time.

“Come on, Peter. It’s your go now!” said the girls. But Peter shook his head. “No thanks. I’d be totally hopeless!” he said. “If you like, we can sing together. It won’t be as scary (可怕的) that way!” offered Eve. Peter gave in. He and Eve shared the microphone (话筒) and they began to sing a rock song. At first, you could hardly hear the voice of the shy boy but slowly, encouraged by his friends, he forgot his stage nervousness. Soon, Peter was holding the microphone on his own and singing his heart out! His singing was a bit off-key (走调的), but he made up for that by his performance. He danced around the stage like a real rock star!

At the end of the song, the girls all cheered. Eve stepped forward and handed him the big box of home-made cookies. “Peter, we all agree that you’ve won the prize!” she said. “OK, you may not exactly sing like an angel, but you really know how to put on a show!”

Boxwars is a fast-growing entertainment phenomenon that takes the childhood pastime of playing with cardboard boxes to a whole new level. Participants use cardboard to create weapons, trucks, tanks, huge animals and so on. Then they put on monumental battle shows during which every creation is completely destroyed!

Boxwars is the brainchild of Australian friends Hoss Siegel and Ross Koger, who came up with it nearly a decade ago over drinks. They did it at a party and had a great time, and then they decided to do it again.

With each new boxwar party, the suits and structures became more and more carefully prepared until they couldn't fit in their back gardens any more. So they moved the party to a local park on Boxing Day 2002, and people who were having barbecues at the park rushed over to watch them. And that's when they realized that their silly games actually had huge entertainment value.

That was the beginning of Boxwars. They go to the same spot every year on Boxing day.

Today, Boxwars builds complex structures for each themed battle. The sport has expanded beyond Boxing Day — it is now a part of nearly every major festival or event in Australia and around the world.

Boxwars is now run by the Boxwars Council, and has lots of fans across the globe. “One of our main aims is to bring cardboard back to the consumers who deserted it in the first place without realising its true potential,” the official website states. “Cardboard, or the street name ‘box’, we quickly discovered had brilliant properties for engineering. The limits of scale and awesomeness were continuously pushed to greater commanding heights with the development of our skills with this great thing.”