Madame Tussauds—London

    Welcome to Madame Tussauds—a 125-year-old museum loved by visitors for its life-like waxworks of famous folk from the past and present, plus interactive exhibits. The following are three ticket options we'd like to recommend to you.

Option 1: All Inclusive Open Dated Ticket

    Why not treat your friends and family to our All Inclusive Tickets? Ticket is valid (有效的) for one visit with all of the following fantastic features:

● Valid for one year from date of purchase—perfect for a gift!

● Priority Access admission in true celebrity style

● Your very own hand made of wax(蜡).

    With your ticket you can enjoy the heroic new experience in three floors of multisensory fun featuring a mix of interactive themed areas, realistic wax figures and an ALL NEW Marvel Super Heroes 4D film adventure.

Option 2: Late Saver 50% off

    If you book online in advance and arrive at Madame Tussauds later in the day, your tickets can cost as little as £14.00. That's 50% off the standard on-the-day price!

    The last admission into Madame Tussauds is 5:30 p.m in off-peak periods and 6 p.m in peak periods. This gives you loads of time to fully enjoy the attraction.

    This ticket is available for online purchase only. Tickets are subject to availability at all times and only a limited amount are available each day, so be quick!

Option 3: Top 3 London Attractions

    Combine your visit to Madame Tussauds with a flight on the World famous London Eye and SEA LIFE London Aquarium, and save 25% on your adult and child tickets, or 33% on your family ticket when you book your tickets at least the day in advance!

    Please note: Child ages are 4—15. Under 4s are free. A family ticket consists of 2 adults and 2 children, or 1 adult and 3 children.

    Please note: Your combined ticket only gives priority admission to Madame Tussauds and Sea Life London Aquarium—all others are general queue flights.

For more ticket options, please visit our website at : www.madame-tussauds.com

    Spring is a wonderful season to celebrate rebirth and new life. The long, cold winter is over. The weather is warmer and sunnier. The trees again have leaves and the flowers are blooming. The season represents hope, joy and beauty. At this time, many people think of this classical music piece—Spring, which shows happiness. Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi wrote it in the seventeen hundreds.

    However, not all songs about spring are happy. This song written and sung by K.D. Lang is about dreaming of spring in cold dark places. She recorded I Dream of Spring in 2008.

    Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein wrote It Might as Well Be Spring for the movie State Fair in 1945.Frank Sinatra sings it. It is a feeling of restlessness or excitement brought on by the coming of spring. Richard Rodgers also wrote Spring Is Here, this time with Lorenz Hart. Ella Fitzgerald sings this song about feeling lonely during this season.

    Frank Loesser wrote the sad song, Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year. Why has the season been delayed? Because the singer's lover has left her. Sarah Vaughn released(发行) her version of the song in 1953.

    By now you may be thinking, "Enough with the sad songs, already！"OK ,then how about a cowboy song? Gene Autry was one of the America's most famous singing cowboys. He recorded When It's Spring time in the Rockies in 1937.

    And finally, we'll leave you with a sunny song called Up Jumped Spring. Freddie Hubbard wrote this jazz song in 1977 and Billy Taylor Trio performs it.

    Best Western Ilford Hotel

    Best Western Ilford is just 20 minutes away from Central London via subway or train, putting you within touching distance of all that the capital has to offer!

    It is a 3-star hotel, offering luxury as well as comfort. From the stylish, convenient setting to the latest multi-media facilities, we're well connected in more ways than one!

    Our multi-lingual (多语言的) staff will do everything they can to make your stay as memorable as possible and you might pick up some handy new phrases along the way! If you want to see the sights and get the most out of London while you're here, they'll be happy to recommend the city's best bits, and tell you the best way to get there too.

    Even though near central London, there's more countryside scenery near the hotel. Just minutes away, you can enjoy the beautiful Epping Forest and ride a horse along the famous Centenary Walk path. The English lakes and gardens in the nearby Valentines Park are simply stunning（极好的）, and the popular Fairlop Waters is perfect for birdwatchers!

    Location: 3-5 Argyle Road, Ilford, England, IG1 3BH, United Kingdom

    Getting there:

    Nearest motorway: M11, Ja406, 2.4kilometres

    Nearest train station: Ilford, 0.8 kilometres

    Nearest tube station: Gants Hill, 70 kilometres

    Nearest airport: London City, 4.5 kilometres

    Meeting, Conferences and Events

    The meeting and conferences facilities at the Best Western Ilford are second to none. We can cater for business meetings, training sessions, seminars and product launches, so be our guest!

    For your reference:

    Twenty-Four Hour Service. No Lift. Hotel does not sell alcohol; however, soft drinks are available.

    An open office is supposed to force employees to cooperate. To have them talk more face to face. To get them off instant messenger (IM) and brainstorming new ideas. But a recent study by two researchers offers evidence to support what many people who work in open offices already know: It doesn't really work that way. The noise causes people to put on headphones and tune out. The lack of privacy causes others to work from home when they can. And the sense of being in a fishbowl means many choose email over a desk-side chat.

    Ethan Bernstein and Stephen Turban, two Harvard Business School professors, studied two Fortune 500 companies that made the shift to an open office environment from one where workers had more privacy. Using “sociometric” electronic badges (徽章) and microphones, as well as data on email and instant messenger use by employees, the researchers found in the first study that after the organization made the move to open-plan offices, workers spent 73% less time in face-to-face interaction. Meanwhile, email use rose 67% and IM use went up 75%.

    The participants wore the badges and microphones for several weeks before the office was redesigned and for several after, and the company gave the researchers access to their electronic communications. The results were astonishing. “We were surprised by the degree to which we found the effect,” Bernstein said. The badges could tell that two people had a face-to-face interaction without recording actual spoken words. The researchers were careful to make sure other factors weren't in question—the business cycle was similar, for instance, and the group of employees were the same.

    In a second study, the researchers looked at the changes in interaction between specific pairs of colleagues, finding a similar drop in face-to-face communication and a smaller but still significant increase in electronic correspondence.

    Another wrinkle in their research, Bernstein said, is that not only did workers shift the way of communication they used, but they also tended to interact with different groups of people online than they did in person. Moving from one kind of communication to another may not be all bad—“maybe email is just more efficient,” he said—but if managers want certain teams of people to be interacting, that may be lost more than they think. The shift in office space could “have strong effects on productivity and the quality of work”.

    Bernstein hopes the research will offer evidence that will help managers consider the possible trade-offs of moving to an open office plan. In seeking a lower cost per square foot, they buy into the idea that it will also lead to more cooperation, even if it's not clear that's true. “I don't blame the architects,” he said. “But I do think we spend more of our time thinking about how to design workplaces based on the observer's angle”—the manager—“rather than the observed.”

    Stars blazed(猛烈地燃烧)in the sky above Spook like a million tiny suns. They shone through the mists, which had during the last year become thinner and weaker. At first, he had thought the world itself was changing. Then he had realized that it was just his feeling. Somehow, by burning tin in his body for so long, he had permanently strengthened his senses to a point far beyond what other Allomancers could attain.

    The burned tin had begun as a reaction to Clubs's death. Spook still felt terrible about the way he'd escaped, leaving his uncle to die. During those first few weeks, Spook had burned his metals as almost a self-punishment he'd wanted to feel everything around him, take it all in, even though it was painful, or perhaps because it was painful.

    But then he'd started to change, and that had worried him. But, the crew always talked about how hard Vin pushed herself. She rarely slept, using pewter(白镴)to keep herself awake and alert. Spook didn't know how that worked he was no Mistborn, and could only bum one metal but he figured that if burning his one metal could give him an advantage, he'd better take it, because they were going to need every advantage they could get.

    The starlight was like daylight to him. During the actual day, he had to wear a cloth tied across his eyes to protect them, and even then going outside was sometimes blinding. His skin had become so sensitive that each little stone in the ground felt like a knife jabbing(猛刺)him through the bottom of his feet. The cold spring air seemed freezing, and he wore a thick cloak(斗篷).

    However, he had concluded that these discomforts were small prices to pay for the opportunity to become whatever it was he had become. As he moved down the street, he could hear people turning over and over in their beds, even through their walls. He could sense a footstep from yards away. He could see on a dark night as no other human ever had.

       ①   Always before, he'd been the least important member of the crew the dismissible boy who served as a handy man or kept watch while the others made plans. He didn't feel annoyed with them for that he'd been right to give him such simple duties.   ②    Because of his street dialect, he'd been difficult to understand, and while all the other members of the crew had been carefully picked, Spook had joined through the back door since he was Clubs's nephew.

    Spook sighed, sticking his hands in his trouser pockets as he walked down the too-bright street. He could feel each and every thread of the cloth.

    Dangerous things were happening he knew that: the way the mists lasted longer during the day, the way the ground shook as if it were a sleeping man, periodically(周期性地)suffering a terrible dream. Spook worried he wouldn't be of much help in the critical days to come. A little over a year before, his uncle had died after Spook fled the city. Spook had run out of fear, but also out of a knowledge of his lack of power.   ③    He wouldn't have been able to help during the campaign.

    He didn't want to be in that position again. He wanted to be able to help, somehow. He wouldn't run into the woods, hiding while the world ended around him. He was sent to gather as much information as he could about the Citizen and his government there, and so Spook intended to do his best. If that meant pushing his body beyond what was safe, so be it.

    He approached a large crossing. He looked both ways down the intersecting(交叉的)streets the view clear as day to his eyes. I may not be Mistborn, and I may not be emperor, he thought. But I'm something. Something new. Something people would be proud of Maybe this time I can help.   ④    

Food festivals are a common occurrence in the UK and take place in all sorts of places and at all sorts of times. Whatever your taste, there's a food festival to match — no matter how specialized. 

⒈Meatopia 

This three-day, London-based festival takes place at the end of August and is a meat lover's paradise. In addition to a range of legally sourced meat products, from juicy burgers to tender steaks, attendees can listen to live music, watch butchery demonstrations, and attend informal meat-based workshops. 

⒉The National Honey Show 

If you have a sweet tooth, then it could be that the National Honey Show, which started in 1921 and is the largest event of its kind, is the place for you to be. This three-day event attracts many local entries who showcase their sweet golden honey, some of which is sold globally. 

⒊The Orange Sauce Festival 

Have you heard about a festival that is devoted only to orange sauce? Held in Cumbria, this sweet, fragrant festival has been running for 3 years. What attracts people most is a competition to find the best homemade orange sauce. There are thousands of participants from over 30 different countries across the globe, bringing their local snacks to share here. 

⒋The Ginger and Spice Festival 

If you'd prefer something with a little more kick to it, then you could attend The Ginger (姜) and Spice Festival held in Market Drayton. Unlike other food festivals, it celebrates its town's historic connection to Robert Clive, who returned from India with ginger. Because of this, they specialize in baking gingerbread, but also sell a range of traditional spices from mild to hot.