Newsletter Summer 2011

Transcription

1 Wokingham Town Twinning Association Newsletter Summer 2011 We re off to Viry soon. Programme - Saturday visit to Auxerre, trip on a canal boat and a tour and wine tasting at the Caves Bailly-Lapierre. Sunday free with hosts Mairie Viry Châtillon

2 From the Chairman. I am very pleased to introduce this Newsletter for Summer I am indebted to John Cullinane and Jill Bowman for producing this edition; however we are still seeking somebody to take over the production. Assistance will be on hand and if you are able to help, please contact me. We now have our own printer to assist production. We have had our usual busy year of social events and our annual dinner which was enjoyed by all who attended. The visit by Erftstadt in May was very successful and included a trip to Hampton Court. The weather was kind to us which was a bonus as much of the visit was outdoors. The next visit will be to Viry-Chatillon in September. We have enough participants to travel by coach at quite a reasonable cost and a very interesting programme has been prepared by the French Committee. It will include a visit to Auxerre, a canal trip, a visit to a wine cellar and a restaurant meal. Pictures from last year s BBQ chez Brenda and Mike As a result of an initiative by our Committee, we have invited two sixth formers from the Holt School to join us and spend a weekend with a French family. These arrangements are being made in conjunction with a French school and it is our hope and expectation that this experiment will lead to further links between Viry-Chatillon and Wokingham. We look forward to a reciprocal visit in the near future. Those of you that were present at our AGM will have heard our immediate past President, Ulla-Karin Clark, indicate that the Committee should engage in some fund raising activities to assist the financial position of the WTTA. There can be little doubt that in the current circumstances life can only become harder. So far, careful money management by your Committee has enabled the Association to remain on an even keel. However if any member has any fund raising ideas we would be glad to hear them. In the meantime please support your Association, enjoy the BBQ and the visit to Viry-Châtillon and the events arranged for the rest of the year. Brian Davis

3 Twinning Comparisons I am lucky to qualify to participate in the twinning activities of both Wokingham and Bracknell. As a resident of the former, I joined the Wokingham Town Twinning Association a year ago. I used however to live in Bracknell Forest and still belong to Bracknell Choral Society, one of which (I am not sure which one!) qualifies me to belong to the Bracknell Town Twinning. In August last year I paid my second visit to Leverkusen, closely followed by September s trip to Erftstadt my first. I therefore qualify to compare the two trips not an easy task, given the differences between them. It would be far easier to make comparisons if the playing field were level! The trip to Leverkusen was from a Thursday to a Tuesday, two of which days were spent travelling, so we were left with four days there; whereas the Erftstadt trip was from a Friday to a Monday, with the travel taking up just two half-days. Bracknell travelled by coach, which was a long journey but all we had to do was to get to the meeting point, from where the journey was effortless on my part, and could bring home with us any bottles we might have accumulated during our stay (and one of the activities was a winetasting!) Wokingham made their own way there, which for me meant catching a train to Gatwick and then flying to Cologne; Bill made the travel as effortless as possible by making all bookings for us, but even he could not control the officious security officers who made me unpack my hand-luggage at each departure point! (I obviously look suspicious!) The costs were highly disparate: it cost me almost four times as much to travel on previous occasions with Bracknell. Ultimately however the trips depend on your hosts and on those who organise the whole event. If your hosts can accompany you on the organised outings, it makes for better relationships and enables you to get to know them. For those who are outgoing, speak some German and are willing to do their own thing, there are no problems in going with the bi-lingual group; but for those who need their hands held, it is sometimes more difficult to make friends when their hosts are not present at these events. Please don t think that I am criticising here some families have prior commitments in their diaries, or do not enjoy the benefits of retirement! And the trips do so reflect the style of the organiser, don t they? I m so glad to have met fellow Weltbürger from both twin towns and hope that I can enjoy further trips with both; not only do I get to know new places and people, but I do get to practise my rusty foreign languages. Elizabeth Bessant Group picture from an earlier visit to Erftstadt

4 Die Erftquelle, eine Freundschaft. Die Erftquelle Last September I was lucky enough to extend my visit to Erftstadt and during a visit to the Eifel with Helga Focken and her sisters we came across the Die Gemeinde Nettesheim und die Stadt Neuss sind durch die Erft miteinander verbunden. Die hier bei Holzmülheim auf dem Gemeindergebiet Nettershei m entspringender Erft wird durch Karstwässer gespeist. Sie fließt durch das Bergland der Eifel und das Flachland der Niederrheinishen Bucht bis nach Neuss, wo sie in den Rhein mündet. Dieses fließende blaue Band ist Quelle vieler freundschaftlicher Beziehungen und menschlicher Begegnungen. Der aufgestellte Löwe ist ein Geschenk der Stadt Neuss; er kommt in ihrem Stadtwappen vor. Er soll symbolish die Erftquelle bewachen, damit dieser Ort stets eine Stätte der Begegnung und der Freunschaft bleibt. Der Erft-Radweg begleitet den Fluss von der Quelle bis zur Mündung auf einer source of the Erft River from which the abwechslungsreichen Strecke von 110 name of the town was drawn. Kilometern. Regelmäßige Erft-Taufen an der Quelle besiegeln die Verbundenheit der Menschen mit der Erft. Die frendschaftlichen Verbindungen, die bereits seit Beginn der 1980er Jahre bestehen und seither in regelmäßigen gegenseitigan Besuchen gefeiert werden, haben ihren Ursprung in intensiven Kontakten mit dem Eifelverein Neuss. Mögen auch zukünftig viele Menschen die bestehenden Verbindungen beleben und vertiefen. Thanks to Marcus Stroud for this translation: The source of the Erft a friendship. It is not a very dramatic start but I was The Community of Nettesheim and the Town attracted by the following map and the of Neuss are bound together by the Erft. This message contained therein: river rises at Holzmülheim in the Nettesheim I m afraid my photograph is not very clear, especially with the reflection on the glass, so here is a reproduction of the German, together with a translation into English. Community area and is fed by waters from chalky ground. It flows through the Eifel mountain region and through the plain of the lower Rhine basin to reach Neuss, where it joins the Rhine. This flowing blue riband is the source of many friendships and much human contact.

5 The lion placed at the source was presented by the Town of Neuss and originates from its coat of arms. It is a symbolic guard of the Erft s source, for this place to remain continually one of meeting and of friendship. The Erft bicycle track runs on a very varied route for 110 kilometres alongside the river from its source to its mouth. Regular Erft Baptisms at the source cement peoples links to the Erft. These bonds of friendship started at the beginning of the 1980s and since then are celebrated regularly by visits from both sides. They grew out of intensive contacts with the Eifel Club of Neuss. May many people also in the future inspire and deepen the existing links. Although these comments obviously refer to the bonds of the communities along the banks of the River Erft, it struck me that it applies similarly to our twinning links. Wokingham shares bonds of friendship with Erftstadt dating back to 1977 and these also are celebrated with regular en français auf Deutsch Trois louveteaux (Cub Scouts) font leur rapport de bonnes actions à leur Chef. Le premier louveteau "Chef j'ai aidé une vielle dame à traverser la rue" Le Chef: "C'est bien" Le deuxième louveteau: "Bien,.. moi aussi j'ai aidé une vielle dame à traverser la rue" Le Chef: "C'est pas original, mais c'est bien" Le troisiéme louveteau: "Heu,... enfin,... bien moi aussi j'ai aidé une vielle dame à traverser la rue" Le Chef: "C'est pas mal, mais vous manquez d'imagination, il y a d'autres bonnes actions à faire" Les 3 louveteaux: "Mais Chef on a été obligés de le faire tous les trois, elle ne voulait pas traverser" Quote from a train advert The poorer the diet the larger the flat screen. German saying Das ist nicht die feiner Englischer Arte. That is not the behaviour of a gentlemen. Zwiebel look = Wearing layers of clothing Die Apfel fallt nicht weit vom Stamm [literally the apple does not fall far from the trunk] The child is not very different from the parent visits from both sides. We learn a little more about our towns, the people and local customs with every visit. Many personal friendships have developed over the years and I m sure this will continue so that we also may in the future inspire and deepen the existing links. Jill Bowman (with Helga Focken) Question: Pourquoi Napoléon n'attachait-il jamais son cheval à un arbre? Réponse: Pour qu'il ne mange pas l'écorce. ("les Corses") [l'écorce translates literally as the bark]

6 Pendon Museum One sunny Sunday last September 14 twinners gathered at the Plough Inn in Long Wittenham for a pie and a pint. However, a pub crawl round Oxfordshire was not the purpose of the day, but a visit to nearby Pendon Museum. After a good lunch and a pleasant stroll through the picturesque village, we formed an orderly queue at the entrance to the museum. This is not so much a museum rather an exhibition of the model makers art. It was founded by Australian Roye England in 1954 who was so impressed by the countryside when he first came to England in 1925 that he wanted to preserve a likeness of it for future generations. He had kept meticulous drawings and records in the early years, along with some early models. When he saw the modern world catching up with the area he decided, with some volunteers, to create the museum to preserve an image of the area in perpetuity. The main attraction comes in the form of three model panoramas. The first, the Madder Valley scene, is set in Wales in the 1930s. This was built by just one man, John Aherne, and is thought to have historical importance as the first instance of a model railway being set in a fully developed landscape. Upstairs the Dartmoor scene covers a wider area and is thought to depict the beginnings of a Great Western Railway branch line. Great fun for anyone who likes playing model trains, as it has a full control panel to control the electric trains. I could see Bill Forfar itching to get his hands on it, but like all signalmen, he was getting above his station. The appearance of a volunteer in the middle of it to sort out a crashed train put the scene in context. He looked like a giant from another planet. Very weird. The third floor, perhaps, the piece de resistance: for some years, volunteers at the museum have been building a panorama to recapture how the Vale of the White Horse might have looked in the 1920s and 30s. This covers the whole floor and is still not yet complete. It is built to the scale of 4mm to 1ft, an odd mixture of metric and imperial measure, probably to fit in with the railway gauge. Whilst the villages are imaginary, most of the buildings are miniatures of real buildings that existed in pre war years. They have been meticulously and skilfully reconstructed from drawings and photographs. Many of these buildings no longer exist. Every model, including the trains and trucks, must have taken hours to make and the number of manhours taken to construct the whole scene is impossible to calculate, all built by volunteers. Certainly not something that could be constructed on a commercial basis. John Robertson

7 Royal Hospital Chelsea A blustery day in July found a group visiting the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the home of the Chelsea Pensioners. After train and bus journeys from Wokingham, we were able to enjoy lunch in the restaurant at the nearby National Army Museum. We had time for a brief look at some of the Museum exhibits, before making our way to the Royal Hospital where we were met by our genial guide, in his familiar scarlet uniform. Tom explained that he had been a resident for three years and gave a brief history of the Hospital which was founded by Charles II in 1682 as a retreat for army veterans who had become unfit for duty either through long service or as a result of injury. There are now about 400 resident Pensioners with an average age of 83. The first impression of the Hospital was of beautiful buildings (designed by Sir Christopher Wren) extensive lawns and the feeling that this was a wonderful, peaceful place in which to spend the later years of life. To qualify, Pensioners aged over 65 must have served at least 22 years in the Army although this length of service is now being relaxed and, despite fierce opposition, three ex-service women are now residents. Once accepted old soldiers surrender their Army pension in return for board, lodging, clothing and round-the-clock medical care. About 120 Pensioners are employed on a voluntary basis as guides, chapel staff, ground staff, etc. A new 'Margaret Thatcher Infirmary', opened in 2009, replaced the previous one which was seriously dilapidated and unable to meet modern standards. Thus the Hospital combines the roles of sheltered housing, care home and hospice. Facilities for active Pensioners include an amenity centre, billiard rooms, a library, art classes, a bowling green, croquet lawn and allotment gardens. Next we were led into The Great Hall, now the dining hall, a grand space at the end of which was a large mural of Charles II on horseback. There were numerous wooden tables down each side of the Hall, each seating 8 people and with attractive candelabra style green shaded lights. From the look of the menu there is no doubt that the Pensioners enjoy hotel style food of a high standard with plenty of choice. Unfortunately we were unable to enter the Chapel as there was a recording taking place but the entrance doors were open and we could see the impressive altar above which was a large painting of the Resurrection in the half dome of the recess at the end of the Chapel. Outside once again we completed the tour of the 3 quadrangles known as Courts, the main one, the Figure Court being the home of the gilded Charles II statue, as well as being the site of the annual Founders Day Parade. This is attended by a member of the royal family and all Pensioners, fit enough to be on parade; according to Tom, our Guide, it could become rather an ordeal, having to stand for so long, and he had many funny stories to recount about this particular event. Our final visit was to the Museum. Many of us were very keen to see the kind of accommodation provided and finally we were able to see a mock-up of a 'berth', as it is known. It seemed rather small and spartan (only 9 square) but we were assured that once the occupants had personalised their rooms they could become quite homely, despite the lack of natural light or fresh air. Nevertheless bathroom facilities were inadequate and for this reason much needed renovation is taking place with the aim of providing study bedrooms twice the size of the current 'berths' together with en suite facilities. So concluded a most informative and interesting visit. Dorothy Underwood

8 Forthcoming events Month Activity Date August BBQ Sunday 14 th August September Wokingham Visit to Viry w/e 16 th 19 th September October Ramble Sunday 9 th October November Skittles Thursday 17 th November December Christmas Quiz Saturday 3 rd December WOKINGHAM TOWN TWINNING ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE PRESIDENT CHAIRMAN VICE CHAIRMAN TREASURER SECRETARY COMMITTEE The Town Mayor of Wokingham Cllr. Peter Lucey Brian Davis Jill Bowman Barry Neville Eileen Yates Nick Campbell-White Representing Wokingham Town Council Bill Forfar Jon Johnson Ursula Morris Marcus Stroud Sue Young To contact us: For general information: secretary@wokinghamtwinning.org.uk For membership information: membership@wokinghamtwinning.org.uk For social information: social;@wokinghamtwinning.org.uk Web site: WTTA: July 2011