Tom Stancombe A 4-year-old boy who released a balloon not long ago with a message hoping to find a pen pal in a foreign land ended up having a correspondence with the Queen. Tom Stancombe let go of his helium balloon in Hampshire, but rather than flying to France or half way around the world, it ended up just 20 miles (32 km) away, landing inside Windsor Castle, the Daily Mail reported. The Queen instructed her personal assistant to reply and so the monarch and the boy, helped by his parents, exchanged a series of letters, mostly about the fact that one of the boy's ancestors, an artist, had works in the royal art collection. "She (the Queen) was delighted to find that your balloon had travelled all the way to the gardens at Windsor Castle," the monarch's assistant wrote. Asked if he thought his son would be exchanging any more letters with the Queen, Tom's father said: "I don't expect we'll get another one, but I think it's incredible they bothered replying at all." (AP)

一個四歲的英國男孩不久前放飛了一只帶有字條的氣球，他希望能找一個外國筆友，沒想到最后他竟然收到了女王的回信。 據《每日郵報》報道，這個名叫湯姆·斯坦科姆比的男孩在漢普郡放飛了他的氦氣球，但這只氣球并沒有飛到法國、也沒有環游大半個世界，而是落在了20英里（32千米）以外的溫莎城堡里。 女王讓她的私人助理給湯姆回信，在父母的幫助下，湯姆與女王通了好幾次信，信的內容大多與他的一個藝術家祖先的作品曾被收入皇家美術館有關。 女王的助理在信中寫道：“你的這只氣球經過漫長的旅程后，落到了溫莎堡的花園中。她(女王)發現你的氣球后非常高興。” 當湯姆的父親被問到兒子是否會繼續與女王通信時，他說：“我不指望我們還能收到回信，但是令人難以置信的是，女王竟然回了信。” （英語點津姍姍編輯）