Children's Activities (6—13 years) — Summer 2017

    There is no chance of children getting bored in the holidays with these action-packed weeks of fun and games. Days begin with team building activities to help“break the ice” and get the children in the mood. The wonderfully safe and secure environment of Port Regis enables the children to explore the woods and enjoy their own creative play.

    WEEK 1: Festival of Sport (Monday 12nd July to Friday 26th July)

    The summer activities kick-off with a wonderful week of sporting fun including cricket, athletics other great team games. Swims in the pool and games in the gym.

    WEEK 1: Let's Go Wild (Monday 29th July to Friday 2nd August)

    A Whole week in the great outdoors with treasure hunts, camp bed and cave building along with amazing team games in woods. This week guarantees to be like no other. Navigate yourself through the huge spiders' web and guide balls through the huge ball maze… this is a great week for making new friends.

WEEK 3: Sporting Madness (Monday 5th August to Friday 9th August)

    A wild and strange week of tournaments and twin (both traiditional and a few of the homemade variety) games, but be warned, you might get wet! Arts and crafts, fun in the gym and swims in the pool make this a hard week. Besides exhaustion you'd better learn to get used to challenges and accept any result. Activities will be dependent on the weather.

    WEEK 3: Make a Racquet(球拍)（Monday 12th August to Friday 16^th August）

    What a racquet this week brings with all the bat, racquet and club sport you could wish for…crazy golf, tennis, hadmintion, cricket and table tennis to name but a foe for the children to enjoy.

    WEEK 5: Having a Bull (Monday 19th August to Friday 23rd August)

    Quizzjes, arts and crafts, fun in the gym and swims in the pool are not to be witnin this week of Fun.

    WEEK 6: Mgdal Medley (混战）(Tuesday 27th August to Fridy 30th August)

This week re-runs the best bits of the last five weeks with great team games and tournaments, action-packed ball sports, floaty fun in the pool and adventures in the woods.

    Children will need to bring:

    Swimming kit, plenty to drink and break snacks. Dependant on the weather, children will need either sunscreen and sun hats or wet weather gear.

    Recently, my mother asked me to drop off some letters at the post office and pick up some stamps for her. Without giving it a thought, I took the letters and purchased her stamps.

    A few days later, she mentioned that one of the letters I had mailed was missing a stamp, and asked me if I had put a stamp on it. She had remembered asking me to put a stamp on it, though I certainly had not heard her. So, unfortunately, it looked like the letter, which was a bill of course, would come back marked "Return to Sender for Insufficient Postage". A few days went by and I returned to the post office to pick up our mail. While I was there, I saw the postmaster and happened to tell him about Mom's letter missing the stamp. I asked him to be on the lookout for it coming back. It was then that he told me his story. "You know," he said, "I immediately saw after you had dropped the mail off that your letter was missing a stamp. I also noticed that it was a bill for a credit card company. I thought to myself that you have always been kind to me and my partner, and I wanted to return the favor. So, to prevent your mother from getting charged a late fee from the credit card company, I took money from our change dish (extra pennies for folks who need one), and purchased a stamp for you."

    When I heard it, I couldn't believe it. What a blessing that was! I thanked him over and over again for putting the stamp on the letter for us. Then, I immediately dumped(倾倒) all the change out of my purse and into the penny dish in order to help others out in the future. When I got home, I was able to tell Mom the good news. This was kindness karma(因果报应) in action, I believe!

    BKLYN House Hotel

    There are works by Brooklyn artists in this hotel. The 116 rooms are of great value and Manhattan is only 20 minutes away by taxi or subway. The immediate surroundings feel urban—the hotel is by a high-rise public housing project while the nearest commercial street is under elevated（高的）subway tracks—but Bushwick's best bars and cafes/restaurants are near-by.

    Doubles from $99, room only. Tel: 718 3884433

    Archer Hotel

    Visitors eager to stay in the heart of Manhattan should try one of the bargain-priced rooms at this hotel. Some start from as low as $179 a night (if prepaying in full). Rooms are small but tasteful, with nice touches such as exposed brick. Some have close-up views of the Empire State Building.

    Doubles from $199, room only. Tel: 212 7194100

    Pod 39 Hotel

    In an elegant brick building in Manhattan's Murray Hill, this excellent budget（预算）option opened following the success of its sister hotel, The Pod. The rooms are called pods given for their small size and may not suit everyone. But with prices among the most competitive in Manhattan, budgeters will be happy.

    Doubles from $95, room only. Tel: 212 8655700

    CitizenM New York Times Square

    This is the first US location for a Netherlands-based concept hotel chain—CitizenM. The hotel features self check-in at its 230 little but comfortable rooms via touch screen “Mood-Pads”. There's a rooftop bar, a 24-hour grab-and-go cafeteria and an area with public iMac workspaces. Although New Yorkers avoid nearby Times Square, all the lights, cameras and action can make it a fun tourist experience.

    Doubles from $170, room only. Tel: 212 319 7000

    CHICAGO(Reuters)－Smoking not only can wrinkle (皱纹) the face and turn it yellow—it can do the same to the whole body, researchers reported on Monday.

    The study, published in the Archives of Dermatology, shows that smoking affects the skin all over the body－even skin protected from the sun.

    "We examined non-facial skin that was protected from the sun, and found that the total number of packs of cigarette smoked per day and the total years a person has smoked were linked with the amount of skin damage a person experienced," Dr. Yolanda, who led the study, said in a statement.

    "In participants older than 65 years, smokers had significantly more wrinkling than nonsmokers. Similar findings were seen in participants aged 45 to 65 years." Yolanda's team added in their report.

    The researchers tested 82 people, smokers and nonsmokers, taking pictures of the inner right arms. They ranged, in age from 22 to 91 and half were smokers. Independent judges decided how wrinkled each person's skin was.

    When skin is exposed to sunlight, especially the face, it becomes coarse(粗糙的), wrinkled and discolored with a pale yellow color, Yolanda's team wrote.

    Several previous studies have found that cigarette smoking led to premature(过早的)skin aging as measured by facial wrinkles, the study said, but little has been done to measure the aging of skin not exposed to light.

    The previous research has found that cigarette smoke, among other things, causes blood vessels(血管)beneath the skin to constrict(紧缩), reducing blood supply to the skin.

    Smoking can also damage the connective tissue(组织)that supports both die skin and the internal organs (器官).

    There are always stories in the life that can hardly be forgotten and will restore our hope for holidays every time we recollect.

    Johnny and I, along with our two young sons, Barry and Doyle, lived in a village in southern Alabama in 1979. We had bought the boys a bicycle for the New Year, and had hidden it in the garage ,where Johnny would assemble (组装)it on New Year⁵ s Eve after the kids fell asleep. But that day, Johnny had to go to Brookley Air Force Base in Mobile, an hour away, to repair a jet. I had my hands busy with baking, preparing for holiday dinner and caring for two energetic boys.

    Just as I was making the chocolate cake, a neighbor knocked on the door. It was Beatrice, who was the only person on our road with a telephone. The base had called to say that a heavy tool had come apart suddenly, hitting Johnny's arm and breaking the bone. My brother Otto took me to the base hospital while my mother stayed with the children.

    We got there to find Johnny with a cast (石膏)on his arm, anxious to get home regardless of the doctor's orders. It was New Year's Eve, Johnny argued, and he had the bike to assemble for his boys. The doctor said he'd consider dismissing him the next morning if Johnny could find someone to drive him home. On New Year's morning, Johnny called the base and was told everyone was off duty; there was no one to drive him home. Johnny kept making calls. At last, a big blue car with the Air Force sign rolled up.

    I was putting dinner on the table when hearing the car. We were thrilled to see Johnny assisted by a uniformed Air Force officer. With Otto's help, Johnny assembled the boy's gift, and they all had a good time that afternoon. Our hearts were full of gratitude to the people who had gone the extra mile to bring us together.

When I was about twelve, I headed to a restaurant for dinner with my family. It was winter, and on that night the wind was really blowing hard. 

As my mum and I headed to the restaurant from our car, a girl about my age and her mother came up to us. They asked if we had any spare change(零钱). My mum right away asked where they lived. They pointed to an old car in a parking lot across the street. The girl said there were six of them living in that car. 

My mum said she had something to do after handing the people a few dollars. She sent me inside the restaurant with my dad and my three siblings(兄弟姐妹). But she didn't come. Later, I found out she had gone home and put all the food in our cupboards into a few bags. Then, she brought that food over to the car and handed the bags to the family. I wasn't there when that happened, but I can only imagine the joy it brought to those people. A few days later, when I actually found out about what she had done, I asked her why she helped those people. She told me that they were not lucky. I remembered the face of that girl who had asked us for change. She was the same age as me, yet we looked so different. 

Here I stood, dressed in almost new clothes, headed to eat in a restaurant and then went back home to the bedroom I shared with my younger sister. I remembered thinking the other girl didn't have any food to eat and that she was heading back to a cold car shared with five other people. 

After painting this picture in my mind, I understood why my mum had done what she did. I will never forget what she did that night, and how she taught me one of the best lessons I have ever learned.