【推荐1】Sometimes you have to visit your friends or relatives without much time for making preparations. Your only problem seems to be what to do with your pet. You can either leave it at your home or bring it with you. Traveling with your pet is easier than you think.

You can bring your pet with you by using air travel services. These services fall into two groups, in a cabin（客舱）and cargo. In-cabin pets must be small enough to fit into a carrier that will be placed under the seat in front of you. Pets too large to fit comfortably into a carrier must travel in a cargo. Cargo holds are heated or cooled, just like the passenger area.

Pet passengers require a reservation（预约）, whether traveling in a cabin or cargo. Airlines have rules about the number of pets they will carry in order to ensure travel safety for all. So making your pet's reservation as you buy your ticket is a good idea. Of course, you should pay extra charges for both in-cabin and in-cargo pets.

Buy a health certificate from your vet（兽医）. A health certificate is only good for ten days, so if your visit is longer than that, you will have to buy another health certificate for the return trip.

As mentioned, your in-cabin pet will need a carrier. These soft-sided carriers come in several sizes, so buy or borrow one that allows your pet plenty of room. Some of these can be bought with wheels to make transport through the airport easier; these also reduce "pet space" under the airplane seat. But pets traveling in a cargo need hard-sided carriers.

【推荐2】James ran his first 30 kilometres. It was not easy for him, but he made it. Months earlier, he wasn't in any condition to run five miles, let alone 18.6 miles, the distance of a 30 kilometres.

One day, early in the morning, my wife Lisa discovered that our older son, James, had been playing video games since he got home from school the previous day. What she found angered both of us.

We were sick of the amount of time James spent playing video games. He would often sleep until 2:00 p.m. on Saturdays because he stayed up playing games until 3:00 in the morning.

Driven to break our son's life style, we tried several different approaches, like limiting the amount of time he was allowed to play games each day, but we couldn't find anything that worked consistently. He always seemed to go back to the game, especially when we were not there to monitor him.

It's not that I'm against video games; I am just against playing them every waking moment at the expense of exercise. In an attempt to ensure that our kids did not become addicted to games, I came up with an idea: Game time in our house would have to be earned, just like money. Each mile run equals 30 minutes of video-game play. We put no limit on the number of miles James could run in a day, so the only limit to the amount of time he played was based on how far he decided to run. The first couple of days didn't go very well. James got sick of the idea and refused to run at all. Eventually, James decided he would give running a shot.

It never occurred to him that running was giving him a sense of purpose. James even planned to join a marathon and hoped to become the youngest family member to complete one. It was my hope that running teaches him to invest his time in worthwhile causes, not just video games. I never want him to stop challenging himself.

【推荐3】Gym class was not considered important at the private school I attended from kindergarten to Grade 6 and the words “movement skill development” would have caused brows to wrinkle.

For Grades 7 and 8, I moved into the public school system. It was the early 1980s and we had to wear green gym shorts and white T-shirts with the school crest (校徽) on them. We had to climb ropes. We had to go for long runs in the valley beside the school and excuses were not allowed.

My mum, also somewhat of a “non-sporty mum”, wrote me notes to get me out of this nightmare once a month. And when she didn’t, I sometimes forged my own. One day I arrived for gym class with my note explaining why I could not participate. It was signed by my “mother”. There were at least two classes of Grade 8 girls sitting on the side of the hill when I boldly (冒失地) presented my note. The PE teacher asked me why my mother’s signature looked so messy. What I said next might be the finest example of just how stupid I was when I was 13: “It’s messy because she signed it while she was driving.”

My classmates giggled (咯咯笑) nervously. I thought maybe I had pushed things too far but wasn’t prepared for what happened next at all. The teacher grabbed my ear and dragged me all the way up the millions of stairs, through the miles of hallways, and into the principal’s office. That was where my memories from junior high gym class ended.

The next year I went to the first day of Grade 9 gym with a positive outlook, high hopes, and good intentions. But all I ended up developing was the habit of hiding in the girls ‘bathroom for the duration of the class.

When my counsellor (辅导员) called a meeting between me and the gym teacher later that year, I remember the teacher looking at me and saying, “I wouldn’t know this girl was in my class if I hit her with my car.”