Choose Your One-Day-Tours!

    Tour A - Bath &Stonehenge: including entrance fees to the ancient Roman bathrooms and Stonehenge -￡37 until 26 March and ￡39 thereafter.

     Visit the city with over 2,000 years of history and Bath Abbey, the Royal Crescent and the Costume Museum, Stonehenge is one of the world's most famous prehistoric monuments dating back over 5,000 years.

     Tour B - Oxford & Startford  including entrance fees to the University St Mary's Church Tower and Anne Hathaway's -￡32 until 12 March and ￡36 thereafter

Oxford: Includes a guided tour of England's oldest university city and colleges. Look over the "city of dreaming spires(尖顶）"from St Mary's Church Tower. Stratford: Includes a guided tour exploring much of the Shakespeare wonder.

     Tour C - Windsor Castle &Hampton Court including entrance fees to Hampton Court Palace -￡34 until 11 March and ￡37 thereafter.

Includes a guided tour of Windsor and Hampton Court, Henry VILL's favorite palace. Free time to visit Windsor Castle(entrance fees not included).With 500 years of history, Hampton Court was once the home of four Kings and one Queen. Now this former royal palace is open to the public as a major tourist attraction. Visit the palace and its various historic gardens, which include the famous maze(迷宫)where it is easy to get lost!

     Tour D -Cambridge including entrance fees to the Tower of Saint Mary the Great -￡33 until 18 March and ￡37 thereafter.

Includes a guided tour of Cambridge, the famous university town, and the gardens of the 18th century.

         When I was a boy my father told me that he could do anything he wanted to. Dad said that he wanted to be the first to develop color prints in our city and so he did．

        When I was 16，Dad looked closely at the violin I played and said that he wanted to make one．He read about violin-making, and then became a violin-maker at the age of 43. He bought the tools and materials, opened a small store and set Mom up as the shopkeeper, while he worked at a local company. He retired from the company 17 years later and continued to make violins and other instruments.

        Dad often guessed why the Stradivarius violins sounded so beautiful. Some experts told him that it was the special varnish(油漆)that gave the instruments their beautiful sound．Dad argued that chemists could analyze the varnish—if that was the answer．

One of Dad's friends asked him which kind of wood was used to make violins．When Dad explained that the top was made of spruce(云杉), his friend said that he had all old piece of spruce which Dad might be interested in.

He worked for the next 12 months making a violin from the wood that his friend had given him. It proved to be an excellent violin and it would become Dad's masterpiece. He believed that the secret of the Stradivarius sound was in the wood itself.

        Later, the instrument was stolen, Dad's spirit was broken and he stopped making instruments. But he kept the music shop until he was 80 years old, selling guitars and violins.

        The violin has been missing for more than 25 years．Somewhere a musician is playing a late-20th-century violin with an excellent tone．The owner today may never understand why this Ordinary-looking violin sounds so much like Stradivarius．

    Being sociable looks like a good way to add years to your life. Relationships with family, friends, neighbors, even pets, will all help, but the biggest longevity (长寿) seems to come from marriage. The effect was first noticed in 1858 by William Farr, who wrote that widows and widowers (鳏夫) were at a much higher risk of dying than the married people. Studies since then suggest that marriage could add as much as seven years to a man's life and two to a woman's. The effect can be seen in all causes of death, whether illness, accident or self-harm.

    Even if the chances are all against you, marriage can more than compensate you. Linda Waite of the University of Chicago has found that a married older man with heart disease can expect to live nearly four years longer than an unmarried man with a healthy heart. Similarly, a married man who smokes more than a pack a day is likely to live as long as a divorced man who doesn't smoke. There's a flip side, however, as partners are more likely to become ill or die in the couple of years following their husband or wife's death, and caring for your husband or wife with mental disorder can leave you with some of the same severe problems. Even so, the chances favor marriage. In a 30-year study of more than 10,000 people, Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School describes how all kinds of social networks have similar effects.

    So how does it work? The effects are complicated, affected by socio-economic factors, health-service provision, emotional support and other more physiological mechanisms(生理机制). For example, social contact can promote development of the brain and immune system, leading to better health and less chance of depression later in life. People in supportive relationships may handle stress better. Then there are the psychological benefits of a supportive partner.

    A life partner, children and good friends are all recommended if you aim to live to 100. The overall social network is still being mapped out, but Christakis says: "People are inter-connected, so their health is inter-connected."

    Last year my children gifted me a stainless steel (不锈钢的) coffee plunger (法式按压咖啡壶). I love to start the day with a strong black coffee and couldn't wait to use it. I looked forward to the following morning's coffee making, knowing that I probably wouldn't smash (打碎) this plunger as easily as I had done so often in the past.

    But as I poured my first cup of coffee, the plunger spilled (洒出) all over the table. Thankfully no one was around to see my disappointed face! I kept trying, but each morning would see me wiping up the coffee. Then I realized that if I poured very slowly there would be no spilling.

    This was at first a very painful experience. My normal practice was to rush through breakfast so that I could get on with my day.

    But in time I learned not only to pour slowly but to enjoy the experience: the smell, the taste, and the stillness of a new day.

    It prompted (促使) me to reflect upon whether there were other areas of my life I was rushing through. Most of life, it seemed.

    I started to leave extra time to do even the most ordinary tasks. When shop owners would apologize for keeping me waiting, I'd say, "Not a problem, I'm not in a hurry." Even hanging out washing became pleasurable when a couple of extra minutes of standing still and listening to the birds singing in the trees around me became part of my routine.

    Besides, one of my favorite experiences living in the inner city for many years was sitting on the front doorstep of our home spending time with strangers. We sat on the steps, each of us with a cup of coffee in our hands, listening to each other's stories. It was one of the warmest things about living in a busy city. It was as if the world around us slowed to a pace (步伐) we could both handle.

    Stillness and quietness not only slow the pace of life, but also feed the soul, helping us to enjoy the world's small pleasures.

    Three magical destinations just one day!

    TOUR DETAILS

    Windsor Castle

    Time-honored in history, Windsor Castle is proudly located on a wooded hill overlooking the Thames River. Dating back to Norman times, it is famous for sweeping landscaped gardens, which is easy to see why it's the Queen's favorite week place. Famous for its architecture and Royal palace, the Castle was built in the 11th century after the Norman invasion. It's home to priceless artworks and you can visit Queen Mary's Dolls' House. Remember don't miss the ceremony—Changing of the Guards.

    Stonehenge

    Stonehenge is located in the county of Wiltshire. This is your chance to see a side of the world-famous stones that most people don't get a chance to see! You will never forget your first glimpse of grand Stonehenge with its rocks rising up against the skyline on Salisbury Plain. There are many unsolved mysteries about the rocks. Was Stonehenge intended as a religious temple? A clock for astronomy? A burial ground? Make up your own mind as you explore this unique site that has confused the world for 5, 000 years.

    Bath

    Beautiful Bath was the first city in England to be added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. No tour of Bath would be complete with a visit to the famous Roman Baths that gave the city its name. This beautifully preserved bathing site still has flowing water from Brain's only hot spring. You will be amazed by the impressive torch-lighting ceremony as dusk falls. You can also have a taste of Bath's water in Pump Room, where hot waters are drawn for drinking.

Ken was my best friend for 30 years. I told him I would leave Chicago for Philadelphia to receive a new job there. "What do you mean you're leaving?" Ken asked angrily. "When did you interview for a job in another city? You had never told me before." I explained that was the new company's rule. "Like you couldn't tell me?" he asked. "I thought our friendship meant more to you than that." "I'm sorry," I said. But I would never give up the job because of friends.

Ken and I had met in a church. Then Ken was a college student studying mental health and I was working in a company. I found we both grew up in small towns and struggled for school life. He often volunteered in Thailand during school holidays. And I once worked there for five years. Talking with Keri gave me great pleasure. Gradually, our conversations even involved in deeper subjects, like our dreams.

I was older than Ken. When he married Lee, I gave him advice about marriage. By that time, I was running a television production business, and was under a lot of stress. It was Ken who encouraged me and helped me get through the hard time. He was a great guy. Even so, I didn't change my mind.

Anyway, when leaving Chicago, Ken and Lee had a warm farewell (告别) party. But we didn't talk much later. After September 2012, everything changed. It started with a letter from Ken: Lee had cancer. Unfortunately, I got divorced (离婚) later and everything was a mess.

In February 2013,I flew to Chicago to see Ken and Lee. We talked. I found there was no one I had ever been able to talk to quite like Ken. I needed to be there for Ken in any way I could. This friendship mattered more than work. When going back to Philadelphia, I left my job and bought a plane ticket that would mean a lot to the rest of my life.