Latest news with #attraction
The Sun
a day ago
- Business
- The Sun
Huge £25m UK attraction with 590ft surfing lake suddenly closes & website down after owners collapse into administration
A HUGELY popular UK attraction with 400,000 visitors has suddenly closed. The Wave near Bristol was popular among water-sport lovers before bookings were unexpectedly cancelled after it collapsed into administration on June 26. 3 3 3 When it opened in 2019, it was Britain's first inland surfing lake. The £25 million project was filled with 26 million litres of water to produce nearly 1,000 waves an hour ranging from nearly 20 inches to more than six foot. Surfers have been left disappointed after the business suddenly closed, and its website shuttered, showing a holding message saying the page couldn't be found. They have since been told that their bookings have been cancelled. The majority owners cited the bankruptcy of a director of JAR Wave, another funding partner, as the reason behind the financial trouble. However, Bristol Live reported that there had been issues in the facility's management dating back to April when its founder Nick Hounsfield resigned. In April, Nick Hounsfield's firm The Wave Group Ltd moved from Bristol to London as it entered administration, appointing Begbies Traynor Group to manage the insolvency. Nick then resigned from the company, and at the end of May the company was renamed to SBL Midco. A report issued on May 22 claimed that the company had struggled to repay loans used to build the site. It claimed the facility was effectively put up for sale in May of this year as they sought new investors to pay off the debt - which totalled around £15 million across various companies. Teen Scot becomes youngest Brit woman to tackle the world's biggest waves A month later they decided to close the company down after a rescue package wasn't finalised. Majority owners Sullivan Street Partners have said that a refinancing plan is underway which could see the site reopened. The company said it invested £27 million into The Wave in 2023. When he first announced the project with Craig Stodder in 2010 to tackle mental health with the joy of surfing, Nick said: "It's amazing to finally be able to show people what we have created and I'm unbelievably proud of our team who have got us to this point. He added: "I feel incredibly privileged and grateful to be part of this, as well as excited about the potential we have to bring greater health and happiness to people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities." What does going into administration mean? WHEN a company enters into administration, all control is passed to an appointed administrator. The administrator has to leverage the company's assets and business to repay creditors any outstanding debts. Once a company enters administration, a "moratorium" is put in place which means no legal action can be taken against it. Administrators write to your creditors and Companies House to say they've been appointed. They try to stop the company from being liquidated (closing down), and if it can't it pays as much of a company's debts from its remaining assets. The administrator has eight weeks to write a statement explaining what they plan to do to move the business forward. This must be sent to creditors, employees and Companies House and invite them to approve or amend the plans at a meeting. A Notice of Intention is used to inform concerning parties that a company intends to enter administration. It is a physical document which is submitted to court, usually by directors aiming to prevent a company from being liquidated. Like with a standard administration process, a Notice of Intention stops creditors from taking out any legal action over a company while they try and rectify the business. The company had planned to expand into London in 2023 at Lee Valley Regional Park - although this never happened. Since 2019, the facility has welcomed 400,000 visitors, from beginners seeking surf lessons, to seasoned experts. The 180m lake was operated using solar array and battery storage to create more energy than was used each year according to The Wave team. In a statement, Sullivan Street Partners said: 'The Wave Group team apologises unreservedly for any upset caused and is doing its best to ensure the situation can be remedied. 'The Wave Group, owners of the surf park in Bristol, has lined up a refinancing alongside its exciting London developments, which would see all creditors repaid in full within a week and is offering to continue to operate the park."
Times
5 days ago
- General
- Times
Now I know why women fall in love with me
If asking someone for help makes you more attractive, as academics in China argue, then half my office must be in love with me. I arrive, my entry pass doesn't operate the electronic turnstile as it should, I seek assistance, and grizzled previously heterosexual ex-army security guards swoon with desire. I can't get the printer to function, I appeal for advice, and a flock of youngsters comes over all giddy. I press buttons on the coffee machine to no avail, ask, 'Does anyone know how this effing thing works?', and that humming sound is a dozen pairs of eyelashes batting coquettishly. Professor Xijing Wang of the City University of Hong Kong explains that 'the reason why asking for help can be very useful to initiate romantic interest is because interdependence is essential in close relationships'. I can get behind that. The professor goes on to differentiate between 'autonomy-oriented' and 'dependency-oriented' help-seeking. The first type ('Please show me how to do this') does not stimulate the affection, devotion or downright lust my own incompetence provokes on a daily basis. That's because it's a request for information, not a cry for help. • Looking for love? Ask your crush for help The second type, however ('I've got a problem, please make it go away') — that's the one that sends people wild. Because in asking, 'Can you fix this for me?' what you're really saying is, 'I need you! Now!' And we all want to be needed. It turns out that the old aid-versus-trade line 'Teach a man to fish' is precisely wrong. The man doesn't want to learn how to fish, he just wants a fish to eat, thanks very much. And, real bonus, the person giving him the fish rather than the fishing tutorial will then fall in love with him. Result! Going back to Wang's point about interdependence in close relationships, it applies perfectly to my own marriage. My wife is, for instance, financially very astute. At school, when I was scraping a pass at maths O-level and choosing biology as my soft science option, Nicola aced maths plus physics, Latin and other complex subjects I dropped at the earliest opportunity. She then worked for a decade in the City as an equities analyst. It made sense when we got together, therefore, that she should handle our pecuniary affairs. I don't recall saying, 'I need you to set up a joint bank account,' she just did it because she knew that if left to me we'd still have our money in cash under the mattress. And a hall filled floor-to-ceiling with unopened post, like those poor people who die undiscovered for ages. Besides being numerate, Nicola is also conscientious, while I am … less so. Thus she deals with all income and expenditure, taxation, documents, bills, property and vehicular matters, insurance, pensions, holiday arrangements, legal issues, tradesmen, appliance purchases and maintenance, and any and all dealings with the government, council and utility companies. Does my needing her to perform all these tasks turn her on? I can only assume it does. Although, granted, in recent years I've noticed that the sheer raw sexiness of me needing her to ring the Thames Water hotline about the blocked drain may be starting to wear off. Yeah, even when the drain guys keep her on hold for half an hour. • How to divorce-proof your summer So that's one half of our interdependence. How about my side of the deal? Well, my wife is a very capable woman, as described, yet the inescapable fact is that she stands 5ft 1in tall. Usually if she has to retrieve something high up (or even, ha ha, frankly not that high up, but high up for her), she'll use a ladder. But sometimes, maybe once every couple of months, she'll summon my greater height, strength and wingspan. Moreover, she doesn't say, 'Can you show me how to lift this heavy box down off that shelf?' because that would be pointless. She'll say, 'Can you get that box down, please?' thus fulfilling the 'dependency' requirement guaranteed to ignite a fire in my loins. Slightly less guaranteed these days, perhaps — especially if she interrupts while I'm busy watching the cricket — but even so, I oblige. You've gotta keep the magic alive. The average secondary school pupil spends more than five hours a day on their phone. At university students are on screens for more than six hours a day. If that crazy level of usage continues and they fulfil their life expectancy, these youngsters will go to the grave having spent more than one third of each waking day since the age of 11 gazing at, and occasionally stroking, a small glass screen. It's a grotesque prospect. We all waste time. My generation watched an awful lot of TV on fixed schedules, on three, then four channels. But there was such little choice that we ended up seeing valuable, educational, high-quality stuff as well as dross. For all the soaps and cop shows there was Attenborough, the news, riveting documentaries and costume dramas. Now you can watch, or half-watch, bland utter nonsense 24/7. Many of my student contemporaries lounged about laughing at Neighbours and Bullseye. But not all of us, and not for six hours, day in, day out. The one cause for optimism is that most of these social media junkies know their addiction is bad for them. Seven out of ten of the subjects tell researchers that their phone usage impairs their academic performance. They know that all the froth and gossip and preening and posting ruins focus, feeds anxiety, impairs relationships. When I wrote a feature on Gen Z a while ago, I thought my interviewees, in their mid-twenties, would mock my abstention from social media. But they didn't. They were jealous, wistful, their eyes lighting up at the prospect of such liberty. They felt trapped professionally, socially, romantically, commercially, no one individual feeling able to make the first move and quit, such would be the consequences. I felt desperately sorry for them.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ask Amy & T.J.: Am I wrong for finding my wife unattractive after surgery?
We asked Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes to weigh in on a relationship question that has the internet divided: What can you do if you stop being attracted to your partner after they change their appearance? Hi Rose on Reddit's OK in inevitable. Ask this question, am I wrong for admitting that I find my wife unattractive after her surgery? Yes. OK, OK, let me give you the rest of it. My wife had plastic surgery recently, you judgy one. we had discussed it and I was against it, but I had no say. She looks weird now. Oh, sweet spirit. I think he needs to tell her how he's feeling. He said, to your point, I finally told the truth. OK. I wasn't harsh. I just told her that her new face wasn't something I found attractive and that I was turned off. She went to stay with her sister. Should I have kept quiet? Well, I think he has to ask himself, does he want to, and does he think he can continue to be with her now that she looks so different? She's the same person, she not? I mean she is. There are things about, I mean, you could change a haircut, you could change something that's about. You could gain weight, you can, you could get into an accident, all the things can happen, but if you choose something overnight, you can't ignore the fact that that could impact your relationship. Hopefully there have a solid foundation of friendship we always talk about. But I'm also just wondering, she rather have had him never tell her and then just feel rejected for unknown reasons. This is a heavy conversation that should have taken place before. Agreed.
Times
6 days ago
- Science
- Times
Looking for love? Ask your crush for help
If you're looking for love, try asking for help from the object of your affections. Researchers have found that people who seek assistance from potential love interests are seen as more attractive. The researchers said that asking for help was a 'small act of reliance' that could 'foster intimacy'. However, it was important to do it in a certain way, they said, describing two types of help-seeking — 'autonomy-oriented' and 'dependency-oriented'. Examples of autonomy-oriented help-seeking are when a person asks somebody to show them how to fix something — they are given knowledge or skills so that they can tackle the problem for themselves in the future. With dependency-orientated help-seeking, however, the person will ask, 'Can you fix this for me?' instead. It is this dependency-orientated help-seeking that makes people more appealing when they are looking for love, researchers from City University of Hong Kong and South China Normal University discovered. It also acts as a better signal that someone is interested. • I'm 30 and single. How can I make women like me on dating apps? 'The reason why asking for help can be very useful to initiate romantic interests is because interdependence is essential in close relationships,' the study's co-author, Professor Xijing Wang, from City University of Hong Kong, said. 'When we ask someone for help by having them solve a problem for us — dependency-oriented help-seeking, instead of just guiding us — we signal that we trust and want to rely on them. 'Such trust and reliance can be a strategic way to signal romantic interests. This happens because, similar to how we are attracted to people who appreciate us, those we ask for help often feel closer to us when we show that we rely on them.' For the study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the team carried out nine experiments involving 2,500 people from the UK, the US and China. They found that the more someone was interested in finding a partner — what psychologists call 'mating motivation' — the more likely they were to use dependency-oriented help-seeking, rather than the autonomy-seeking kind. They also felt a stronger attraction to those who asked for this kind of help from them. People in couples also felt that strangers who approached their partners for dependency-oriented help were more likely to try and steal them and felt more jealous, compared to when strangers asked for autonomy-oriented help instead. The results were the same for men and women. 'Our analysis revealed no gender differences, indicating that dependency-oriented help-seeking is effective for both men and women during the romantic initiation stage,' Wang said. However, using a similar strategy to build trust with colleagues at work is not a good idea, she warned. 'Competence is one of the most critical traits valued in a professional environment, and using dependency-oriented help-seeking to convey reliance and trust [at work] could potentially backfire.'
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
It's the number one attraction in the world but dissatisfied customers share hilarious and scathing reviews
The Empire State Building stands tall as one of the most iconic buildings in the world and just over 2.5million guests visit each year to climb to the top of New York City 's iconic emblem. It serves as the backdrop for many a movie, TV show, and big city dream board and most visitors thoroughly enjoy their time at the attraction. TripAdvisor rated it the #1 attraction in the world last year but that hasn't stopped people from leaving scathing, if not slightly nonsensical reviews on their website. Whether its the weather on the day of the visit, lack of unlimited coffee or the price point, lots of people found something to complain about at the sought after attraction - one person even claimed how much they disliked it but had visited three times! For reference, the building, which was originally constructed in 1931, sells $44 tickets to its 86th floor observatory. If tourists want to see the city from even higher, they can pay $80 to add on the 102nd to their journey upwards. For just over $150 visitors are able to take two trips to the top in one day and get admission to American Museum of Natural History, 9/11 Memorial & Museum, and the Statue of Liberty. Each of the admissions passes can be accompanies by an Express Pass which allows patrons to skip the line. Of the 96,707 reviews as of Friday, 63,356 give the building 5 stars, rating it as 'excellent', and just 1,788 people say their experience was 'terrible' by rating it with just one star. We've rounded up the most extraordinary reviews of the bunch. Some of the one star reviews are all too ready to critique the building for the views available at the top, whether that be because of the weather or vantage point of the building Some of the one star reviews are all too ready to critique the building for the views available at the top, whether that be because of the weather or vantage point of the building. 'Nothing could be seen. No refunds available which is ridiculous. Nothing interesting on the floors prior to the top. Not worth the money,' one poster wrote. Another shared: 'Honestly not a very good experience. We waited all day to enjoy a night at the Empire State Building. We spent $50 each for the ticket to see nothing but clouds because it was very clouded and when we asked the workers what could be done, if we could get a refund or exchange the the day for another day the employee wasn't very nice and not understanding. 'With quote saying it wasn't their doing and that can't control that however if they say there wasn't a view why let us go all the way up or closed it down or any other type of solution very unsatisfied we came all the way from Florida with family to see the Empire State Building to see absolutely nothing.' One commenter admitted that despite their dissatisfaction, they'd visited the building three times. 'Pathetic theatrical security check, unprofessional. Not worth it. An hour for nothing. Anyway... I don't recommend it. I've been three times before..,' they wrote. Others thought the price point was too steep for the experience they were given. A reviewer wrote: 'There is a very small space and so much crowd. Its very expensive for that experience and not worthy.' 'You need to be careful when booking this attraction as when things go wrong this money grabbing greedy attitude attraction with shockingly poor customer service is not giving refunds. They make you click terms and conditions with a clause this is a non refundable ticket. And it is not a cheap attraction, so think twice before you book it. 'Here is what happened in my case: unfortunately, it was very foggy on the day when I wanted yo visit. I paid for both floors 86 and 102. It was really foggy and visibility was zero! I paid a lot of money and saw literally just the fog :). I was offered a rebooking to other day option. The problem was I was flying back to Europe next day, so I could not use it. When I asked for a refund they send an email with an automated, copy and paste message, saying more or less that tickets are non refundable and I can rebook. They didn't care I have no day to rebook it as I am leaving. Nobody even responded to my second email. Shocking customer service. 'You are an observation deck and when the visibility is zero you should be giving refunds, especially to people who are unable to rebooking it to later date as in my case. You customer service is shocking!!! Terrible. I have wasted so much money (there was three people in my party, $289 to see the fog). I hope your money grabbing company will enjoy my dollars. Profit is what matters here not customers. 'Here is my suggestion to Make Empire State Building Great Again: Issue refund to people who see only fog and can not rebook it to other date and please, please improve your shockingly bad customer service. Thank you.' According to their website, patrons often have the opportunity to reschedule and see a live view of the top of the building, to ensure what they see will be to their liking. And some just called for a staffing overhaul. One person wrote on TripAdvisor: 'The experience on it's own was amazing, what made it bitter was the staff member clocking pictures on a green screen right after the tickets are scanned. 'I didn't want my photo taken and he clearly wanted to force me into it, he clearly makes commission off those pictures handing out postcards with barcodes. He was quite weird and unpleasant.' Another wrote: 'Mediocre. Paid extra to skip the line and felt like I was given prejudiced service compared to others.' Where as another said: 'We paid a good amount of money thinking that we would get coffee unlimited and pastries and no. One coffee and one pastries and they are super rude. No like.' The Empire State commented that with the package the person has bought there was refreshments included but it was not unlimited. Graciously, the Empire State Building team commented back to their dissenters, apologizing for their negative experience and offering explanations and solutions for another visit.
