When our son Bradley was ten, the new bicycle he had received earlier that year was stolen. Owning a bicycle was a big deal to our children when they were little. They spent hours and hours, day after day, on their bicycles, riding up and down the footpath, and at the front of the house. We also rode together as a family a lot. Bicycling was a great way to get the kids out of the house and into the fresh air without spending any money.

    Bradley had discovered that his bicycle had been stolen from our backyard in Campbelltown, South Australia, when he and his sister went outside for a morning ride. He couldn't believe that someone would do this.

    He got a large piece of cardboard, painted a sign begging for the bicycle to be returned, and tied the sign to the letterbox. The following morning, when I went out to collect the mail, I found a white envelope with the magical words, "Buy yourself a new bicycle". There was a $100 banknote inside.

    We were very touched that someone had the heart to do this, We've never been able to thank the person but we suspect(猜想) that it may have been one of our wonderful neighbors. Bradley painted a big"______!"on the sign and we left it outside for a couple of weeks afterwards, hoping the kind stranger would drive down our street.

    A delighted Bradley was able to buy a new bicycle. As the years went on, the bicycles became bigger and more expensive but remained just as important for those family bicycle rides. Now Bradley is 25. Sometimes I miss the days when receiving a bicycle was the best thing in the world to them.

    All these years later we are still thankful for the stranger's kindness. We were a young family with three little children and it meant a lot to us. We still talk about it and, even now, wonder who the kind stranger was.

    Tommy hated school and was always looking for excuses(借口)not to go. If he sneezed(打喷嚏), he asked his mother to write to his teacher saying he had a cold. If he had a headache(头痛), he asked his mother to take him to the doctor during school hours. He spent more time at home than he did at school. On the days that he did go to school, he looked for excuses to come home early.

    One day he came home from school in the middle of the morning. His father was surprised.

    "You're home early," he said. "Is the school finished today?"

    "No, dad," Tommy said. "I came home early."

    "How did you do that?" his father asked him. "What did you say to the teacher?"

    "I told her that I had a new baby brother and that I had to come home and help you."

    "But your mother has had twins(双胞胎)," his father said, "a boy and a girl. You've got a baby brother and a baby sister."

    "Yes, I know, Dad," Tommy said, "I'm saving up my baby sister for next week."

I went to the UK last weekend to lean English. So far I have already had a few friends and had some traditional English food here. But after having three days of hamburgers, sandwiches and potatoes, I thought none could be more delicious than Chinese food, especially my favourite — huoguo. You can't imagine how excited I was when I got to know that there was going to be a free meal of hotpot to welcome the new students. On the way to the canteen, I seemed to smell huoguo in the air.

To my surprise, when I went into the room, I didn't see any sign of huoguo. Where was it? With many questions in my mind, I sat down to have the free meal. After talking with an English girl, I got to know that Chinese huoguo is completely different from hotpot. Chinese huoguo is written in two words — hot pot. However, hotpot, one word, is a traditional English dish.

Hotpot is made from mutton and onion. On the top are pieces of potatoes. People put it in the oven all day in a heavy pot at a low heat. It takes very little effort to prepare. You can often see it at parties in the UK because it's easy to prepare for a large number of people and is not expensive.

Hotpot doesn't taste bad. However, I still miss huoguo, hot pot, two words!