Wonderful holiday cottages across England, Wales and Northern Ireland are available. When you choose your next holiday cottage, the following may strike your eyes.

    Large holiday cottages for special occasions

    We have over 30 cottages for eight or more people. These are great for celebrations with friends and family. You could head to Devon and stay in one of the county's most important houses, Shute Barton, where we can even provide details of the local cook that can come to the cottage and cook a delicious meal to make your stay even more special. One of our newest cottages is Thorington Hall in Suffolk, and it's the largest in our collection. If you fancy something a little bit different, you can visit the Lighthouse Keeper's Cottage.

    Dog friendly cottages In Cornwall

    Cornwall is a great place for dog walking with miles of coastline and beaches waiting to be explored and our dog friendly holiday cottages are on the doorstep on some of these places. We share just a selection of our dog friendly cottages across Cornwall. Click here to see the full range of dog friendly cottages in Cornwall.

    Easter bank holiday cottage

    We have cottages perfect for a gathering with family or friends if you're looking for some peaceful time away. You could spend the Easter bank holiday weekend in a holiday cottage on the beautiful coast around Cornwall or Pembrokeshire.

    Songbird Hideaway

    This cosy heart-warming cottage is the perfect romantic retreat, situated near the hamlet of Penrhos and close to the town of Pwllheli, featuring appealing views towards Cardigan Bay. Couples can escape the busyness of their everyday lifestyle and enjoy the delights of this compact yet beautifully presented accommodation.

    You get anxious if there's no wi-fi in the hotel or mobile phone signal up the mountain. You feel upset if your phone is getting low on power, and you secretly worry things will go wrong at work if you're not there. All these can be called “always on” stress caused by smart phone addiction.

    For some people, smart phones have liberated them from the nine-to-five work. Flexible working has given them more autonomy（自主权）in their working lives and enabled them to spend more time with their friends and families. For many others though, smart phones have become tyrants（暴君）in their pockets, never allowing them to turn them off, relax and recharge their batteries.

    Pittsburgh-based developer Kevin Holesh was worried about how much he was ignoring his family and friends in favour of his iPhone. So he developed an app — Moment — to monitor his usage. The app enables users to see how much time they're spending on the device and set up warnings if the usage limits are breached（突破）. “Moment's goal is to promote balance in your life,” his website explains. “Some time on your phone, some time off it enjoying your loving family and friends around you.”

    Dr. Christine Grant, an occupational（职业的）psychologist at Coventry University, said, “The effects of this 'always on' culture are that your mind is never resting, and you're not giving your body time to recover, so you're always stressed. And the more tired and stressed we get, the more mistakes we make. Physical and mental health can suffer.”

    And as the number of connected smart phones is increasing, so is the amount of data. This is leading to a sort of decision paralysis（瘫痪）and is creating more stress in the workplace because people have to receive a broader range of data and communications which are often difficult to manage. “It actually makes it more difficult to make decisions and many do less because they're controlled by it all and fell they can never escape the office,” said Dr. Christine Grant.

    “Oh，my god.Are you serious?”

    That's a reaction I often get when people hear the tale of my childhood.

    It's a story I don't often share.Growing up in a bad home, I learned to protect myself by not speaking up.I've seldom said anything about how badly I was treated and hurt as a child. I don't talk about how my name was changed at least three times, what it was like to live in my van(箱式货车), or how I've struggled with anxiety, depression, and wanting to kill myself. But I learned to start speaking up for myself. I went on to earn two graduate degrees and I will complete my Doctor's degree this year. I've also become a widely published author. So，how did I get to where I am today?

    What's helped me is surrounding myself with caring, loving people. I've learned day-to-day skills through research, trial and error, and with the help of skilled professionals. They've taught me how to slow down，to breathe，to be thankful for what I've got.They're the ones who make my goals possible.They have also taught me to turn my past experiences into strength-to make the negatives into positives.

    My hope is that sharing my story might help others to see what is possible even in the darkest of times and help others to speak out.I don't think I'm in any way special or unique. I'm a common man，no more deserving than anyone else.But for far too long，I've been afraid that others think I'm damaged goods.I've worried about how I might be treated differently.

    Pain and fear teach us to be silent.It's time for that to change.

    I don't know what tomorrow might bring.But one thing I've learned is that if we can hold on and find help，if we find ways to get through the day and speak up，we'11 not only survive，but become stronger than before.

    Our very survival can be an inspiration all on its own.And with love of my friends，I look forward to so much more than completing my education—I look forward to the future.

    You are given many opportunities in life to choose to be a victim or a creator. When you choose to be a victim, the world is a cold and difficult place. “They” did things to you which caused all of your pain and suffering. “They” are wrong and bad, and life is terrible as long as “they” are around. Or you may blame yourself for all your problems, thus internalizing(内化) your victimization. The truth is, your life is likely to stay that way as long as you feel a need to blame yourself or others.

    Those who choose to be creators look at life quite differently. They know there are individuals who might like to control their lives, but they don't let this get in the way. They know they have their weaknesses, yet they don't blame themselves when they fail. Whatever happens, they have choice in the matter. They believe their dance with each sacred(神圣的) moment of life is a gift and that storms are a natural part of life which can bring the rain needed for emotional and spiritual growth.

    Victims and creators live in the same physical world and deal with many of the same physical realities, yet their experience of life is worlds apart. Victims relish (沉溺) in anger, guilt, and other emotions that cause others—and even themselves—to feel like victims, too. Creators consciously choose love, inspiration, and other qualities which inspire not only themselves, but all around them. Both victims and creators always have choice to determine the direction of their lives.

    In reality, all of us play the victim or the creator at various points in our lives. One person, on losing a job or a special relationship, may feel as if it is the end of the world and sink into terrible suffering for months, years, or even a lifetime. Another with the same experience may choose to first experience the grief, then accept the loss and soon move on to be a powerful creative force in his life. In every moment and every circumstance, you can choose to have a fuller, richer life by setting a clear intention to transform the victim within, and by inviting into your life the powerful creator that you are.

    French writer Frantz Fanon once said, “To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture. ” Since the world changes every day, so does our language.

    More than 300 new words and phrases have recently made it into the online OxfordDictionary, and in one way or another they are all reflections of today's changing world.

    After a year that was politically unstable, it's not hard to understand the fact that people's political views are one of the main drives of our expanding vocabulary. One example is “clicktivism”, a compound of “click” and “activism”. It refers to “armchair activists”—people who support a political or social cause, but only show their support from behind a computer or smartphone. And “otherize” is a verb for “other” that means to alienate (使疏远)people who are different from ourselves—whether that be different skin color, religious belief or sexuality.

    Lifestyle is also changing our language. For example, “fitspiration” —a compound of fit and inspiration—refers to a person or thing that encourages one to exercise and stay fit and healthy.

    The phrase “climate refugee”—someone who is forced to leave their home due to climate change—reflects people's concern for the environment.

    According to Stevenson, social media was the main source for the new expressions. “People feel much freer to coin their own words these days, ” he said.

    But still, not all newly-invented words get the chance to make their way into a mainstream (主流的) dictionary. If you want to create your own hit words, Angus Stevenson, Oxford Dictionaries head of content development,  suggests that you should not only make sure that they are expressive (有表现力的) and meaningful, but also have an attractive sound so that people will enjoy saying them out loud.

    I can proudly say that last year I broke the record for the oldest person in the world to ride a roller-coaster. I'm 105, but I feel younger. Even the doctor agrees I'm in good condition. I'm a bit deaf and my legs feel weak, but they are the only issue.

    I rode the Twistosaurus at Flamingo Land, which spins you round quite fast. I didn't choose to go on that. I'd have preferred a really fast one that went upside down. But I was told I couldn't ride something like that, because my blood pressure could drop and I might have some danger.

    I wasn't nervous — I don't get frightened of anything. I was securely fastened, so I knew I wouldn't fall out. The roller-coaster ride went on for three or four minutes, and it couldn't be a better experience. And I raised a lot of money for the Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland Air Ambulance fund, which was fantastic.

    People were saying I'd got a place in the Guinness World Records. Later, someone came to present me with the certificate. I had it on the wall in my living room, with another one that got a year earlier.

    My record-breaking ways really began a couple of years ago, with the ice-bucket challenge. It turned out that I was probably the oldest person in the world to do it, and the video was very popular. After that, I started to think about what else I could do to raise money for different charities.

    I'm not sure if anyone admires all the fun I'm having. They just say I'm daft and that's about it. But I've had many good days and many exciting times. I've had a really good life. I don't think I've wasted any of it.