John was part of my childhood growing up in the 1970s and a link to sunny, fun-filled days spent on the beach at Bangor in Northern Ireland where we went for our summer holidays. To many, he was a mystery. Every afternoon John would wander to the end of the pier (码头) where he fed the seagulls and delighted in the sound of their excited cries as they flew around his head.

    Often I asked my family questions regarding John. Eventually I gave up as no one could tell me anything about him. As I grew up, my visits to the beach became less frequent, and my memories of John buried in a child's imagination.

    Last year memories came flooding back as I walked along the coastline, where I noticed a lady feeding the seagulls on the pier, and I decided to introduce myself. Then I came to know that the lady was John's daughter, and after John left this world she carried out the ritual (惯例), which had held such importance for her father.

    In some strange way I felt we shared a bond, each needing to remember. In return, Lucy told me of John's life, his days in the British Navy (海军) during World War I and how he almost lost hope when his ship was attacked by a German U-boat in the North Sea and he found himself in a lifeboat with five others.

    Close to death, he thought he heard the sound of wings. He put up his hands, only to catch a seagull that had landed on the side of the boat. The seagull saved the lives of the six men as it was used to catch fish, which kept them alive until they reached land. This period of John's life was one he never talked about. But the ritual he first performed as a young man remained a part of him until he died.

    Now I visit Lucy as often as I can, just to chat or very often walk along the beach to the pier end. We enjoy the comfortable silence, each lost in special memories.

    When people ask me to name typical British dishes, I have, however, struggled to think of an answer. Yes, we do have our own national dishes. We do have fish and chips, and we have other dishes like roast dinner and shepherd's pie. But how much do we actually eat them?

    Fish and chips, is made up of battered（绞碎的）fish and chips,which is often accompanied by a thick paste（酱）. The majority of British people really do love this dish but it is not something that we would eat,say,on a weekly basis.It's also not usually something that we would cook at home.The British people associate this dish with the seaside and it's something that will usually be eaten on a day trip there,bought from a takeaway fish and chip shop.

    Another favourite British dish is roast dinner.This is made up of roast meat,usually chicken or beef, accompanied by roast vegetables and a meat sauce called gravy（肉汁）.It is usually eaten on a Sunday,perhaps for a special family dinner.It can either be cooked at home or eaten in a traditional pub.We also eat a more elaborate version of this for our Christmas dinner.

    Although we do have our traditional dishes,our diet has been greatly influenced by other countries.You can find a wide range of international foods in the supermarket or varieties of different restaurants on our high streets.A famous saying amongst British people is that our national dish is now chicken tikka masala,a dish which is heavily influenced by Indian cuisine.

    Don't expect to be served a traditional dish if you ever get invited for dinner at a British family's home!

    Planning to get away? Think passport first

    If you're planning to get away from it all this year, you should think passport first. Checking you have a valid passport before you book your trip takes minutes but could save you the trouble and cost of not being able to go.

    Renewing (更新) your passport before it runs out

    You can renew your passport up to 9 months before it can no longer be legally used. So take the time now and save the tears later.

    Applying for a passport for the first time

    Our eligibility (资格) checks mean that it takes a minimum of one week to issue (颁发) a passport. So make sure you don't leave it to the last minute, and apply in plenty of time.

    Help with your application is just around the corner

    Selected Post Office branches and Worldchoice travel agents offer a Check and Send service that helps you with your application. It's convenient and you should receive your passport within 2 weeks.

    If you need to apply for or renew a passport, you can either:

    Pick up a Passport Application Form at Selected Post Office branches and Worldchoice travel agents.

    Or call the Application Form Request line on 0901 4700 100 or visit www.passport.gov.uk

    If your need is urgent, call 0870 521 0410 for an appointment at one of our offices. We can't guarantee to see customers without an appointment.

    From 14th January a guaranteed same day (passport renewals only) or one week service will be available from passport public counters.

    Calls will be charged 60p per minute and the cost per call should not normally be more than 90p.

    Calls are charged at national rates.

    Jon Pedley is making a big change. He is giving up his life as a successful businessman for life of helping others. He is trading his beautiful farmhouse in England for life in a mud hut it Uganda, East Africa.

    Pedley admits that he has not always led a very positive life. At times he drank too much and got in trouble with the law. "I've always put the pursuit(追求) of money in front of everything else. As long as I was all right, I didn't care who I was hurting," says Pedley.

    But a visit to Uganda in 2007 gave Pedley a new outlook(观点) on life. He was amazed at what he saw and how much the people there appreciated the work he was doing. "I worked there for a few days and these people who have nothing thanked me by giving me bags of potatoes, which are a fortune for them," he said.

    Now Pedley is selling his business, his $1.5 million farmhouse, and his expensive car — and moving into a hut made of mud and boards in a small Ugandan village. There he will help run an organization that hopes to improve the quality of life for people in the village of Kigazi. He will help to build schoolrooms for children and tanks to hold clean water for villagers. Today, people in Kigazi must walk two miles to a hospital, so Pedley will help to build doctors' offices, too.

    Pedley's organization will also work with English teenagers who are in trouble. The teens will be sent to a "camp" in Uganda that Pedley will run. The teens will live in mud huts and help to build water, health and education facilities(设备) for kids in Kigazi, many of whom have lost their parents due to poverty or disease. Pedley hopes the teens will see a side of life that might help them turn around their own lives and set them on a new and more positive path.

    Babies born in summer are more likely to become short-sighted in late life, a study has shown.

    As many as a quarter of all cases of short-sightedness are caused by too great an exposure to sunlight in the first weeks of life, say eye experts.

    They are advising all parents to put sunglasses on their babies during the first weeks.

    Scientists had already established that over-exposure to sunlight caused shortsightedness in animals.

    Researchers who compared the months in which babies were born with whether they needed glasses later on say the principle also applies to humans.

    A study of almost 300, 000 young adults-the largest of its kind-showed that those born in June and July had a 25 per cent greater chance of becoming severely short-sighted than those born in December or January.

    Research leader Professor Michael Belkin, of Tel Aviv University, said it was because prolonged illumination(光照) causes the eyeball to lengthen-causing short-sightedness.

    Hence the more light a newborn is exposed to, the more the eyeball lengthens and the worse the short-sightedness will be.

    The mechanism which lengthens the eyeball is associated with levels of melatonin(褪黑激素), a pigment (色素) which protects the skin against harmful rays of the sun.

    In young babies not enough melatonin is released as protection, meaning they are more vulnerable to sunburn and changes to eyeball shape.

    Sight expert Professor Daniel O'Leary, of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, said "At the moment we don't know the precise cause of why light exposure affects sight, but the evidence seems to prove that it is one of the reasons for people becoming shortsighted."

If you walk slowly through downtown Helsinki(赫尔辛基) during the day,taking in the splendid 19th century buildings,white boats and noise of passing trams(有轨电车),you will start to understand why it is called a city of two colours:white and blue.

The sea is always present in Helsinki.When you take a walk over the great open space of the central square,you will hear seabirds screaming.When you take the tram,suddenly and unexpectedly,you are faced with a calm,shining blue sea.You may notice that people in Helsinki do not rush about as in other cities.Instead,walk along the roads,politely letting other people by.

A usual way to see Helsinki for the first time is to start out by the boats.You will walk by the elderly women selling fish and vegetables in the market square and find yourself in front of a beautiful park.You may enjoy a pleasant walk in the park for a few hours and then take the tram.Trams are the perfect way to get around in Helsinki.Watching the old houses,parks,theatres,churches,shops,restaurants and people in the streets,you may have a slightly sad film feeling to it.

The pale summer nights are another wonder in the city.Following waterfront(滨水区) of the city after sunset,you couldn't help stopping and listening to the sweet silence,interrupted only by the screaming seabirds and leaving fishing boats.

However,in some way,Helsinki is also the most modern city in northern Europe.You will surely want to visit the white Glass Palace,the art museum,all those extremely popular cafes and design stores.