Lately, my 90-year-old mother has been sleepier and sleepier. This is very strange and worrying. At the same time, my 92-year-old father has been suffering his own health problems. It is a terrible thing to see my father struggle to get my mother to talk, say something, when she doesn’t have the energy.

The other day, I recalled how my mother used to visit a woman named Mrs. Demopolis, a Greek immigrant, who made the best baklava(果仁蜜饼) in the world! She gave lessons on baking it to my mother. Also, my mother often baked baklava at home. As I spoke of this over the phone, my silent mother perked up and said how much she’d like to have one again.

Now, they live in Florida and I live in Wales, UK, so I can’t go and bring her some baklava or even make some in her kitchen. But what I did suggest was that my father could buy some baklava at a Greek restaurant and I could do the same, and wouldn’t it be fun to eat our baklava at exactly the same time and so, be together sharing the moment and the pleasure? My parents loved the idea and we decided to do it.

Two days later we both had our baklava and shared the experience. It meant a lot to my parents, and to me, to do this. My mother said she wanted to do this again, maybe with another food or even baklava again! Why not? And as she only keeps losing weight instead of gaining, it is good for her to find foods that appeal to her appetite . It is becoming harder to find ways to communicate over the phone, but this is at least a very good way to do so.

In 2015, Chennai was destroyed by one of the worst floods in over a century, leaving thousands without food, water and supplies. During the flood, many heroes arose, one of whom was Santosh, a young man who owned a take-out restaurant in Chennai.

When the first flood hit in November, he got a call from a company called Naga Rava. The company asked him to prepare 5,000 packets of food and give them to the flood victims. He, with his partners, took the order, cooked for 14 hours and delivered(递送) them. But that night, as they sat together discussing the event of the day, they actually felt ashamed(羞愧). “Here was a man not even from Chennai and he was going out of his way to help the affected people. We, while living here, had not really done anything ourselves for our own people,” said Santosh later.

He then began the groundwork for a collection to help cook more dishes. Little did he know that the November flood was just the beginning, and the real show was about to begin. The December flood affected them all. His own house got flooded and his family was trapped on the second floor. They lost phone connection and electricity. In spite of this, Santosh went back out into the flood, creating a kitchen and preparing food all by himself for the victims.

He did not sleep for four days, taking a one-hour break every day as he kept on cooking. As word got out about this man’s effort, others stepped out to join him. From children to the elderly, strangers came to help him in cooking, packing and transporting food. Up to 300 volunteers worked together to make it all happen. By the time the fourth day finally came to an end, Santosh and his team had prepared 170,000 food boxes and delivered them to people in need.

Ever since my childhood, I have been hearing people talking about Rome. Last month, I finally had the chance to visit it. I spent three busy days there, seeing tourist attractions and walking down streets lit by Christmas decorations. There are so many things I love about the city.

Rome is one of the most ancient cities in the world and is full of wonderful relics (遗迹) from its long past. These relics include the vast Coliseum (竞技场) where gladiators used to fight each other until death and hunt animals coming from another country. The ruins of buildings and temples are fascinating: you can’t quite believe how old they are.

I studied the masterpieces of the Renaissance (文艺复兴) at university and was very excited to see them in real life. I walked around the museum in the Vatican and saw plenty of famous sculptures. The best part of the visit was, without doubt, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted in the early 16th century by Michelangelo. It was so breathtaking that I couldn’t tear my eyes away from it.

In Rome, there is a lot of food on offer for tourists but some of it isn’t of very good quality. I made an effort to find reliable restaurants to taste the popular meals of the region, like pasta with tomato, onion and bacon. I also love eating ice cream and hot chocolate under the Christmas lights.

Rome has not only lots of luxury boutiques(精品店) but also plenty of shops that were more in my price range! It was a perfect opportunity to go and buy presents for my family and friends. There was also a Christmas market, where I bought a sparkly decoration for the tree.