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VISIT TO HAMM
Firstly as my new Passport had arrived I was able to join the Lord Mayor & Lady Mayoress on a visit to Hamm, you may remember that in my last Blog I told you all about Twin Towns and Friendship Links, well Hamm is one of Bradford’s Twin Towns in Germany and the two Civic Offices, the Lord Mayor’s Office in Bradford and the Oberburgermeister's Office in Hamm work very closely together and most Lord Mayor’s pay a visit to Hamm at some point during their Civic Year. This year was especially important as it was the 30th anniversary of the Twinning and in Bradford we held a special ceremony in the Council Chamber in April to re-affirm this link. There was a cake with Coat of Arms of the two towns on, flags in the national colours and lots of speeches and champagne, I am sorry that I had not arrived by then as you all now how partial I am to a bit of cake.
I was very excited about flying, but I am afraid that it did not agree with me and I was sick in the Officer’s suitcase on the way there, thankfully on the way back I travelled with Loraine, the Civic Affairs Manager and I was able to sit on a seat and get some air which was much better. I did hope that the Lord Mayor might get invited up to the cockpit as he is a very keen flyer and has his pilot’s licence and then I could have had a peek for myself but it was not to be.
On the Saturday we went to Schloss Oberwerries (a Castle in Hamm), where we met the cast of Wizard of Oz from Stage 84, we had lovely lunch, clear soup with dumplings in, chicken and very unusual pudding of black cherries in a sweet sauce with yoghurt on the top. After that we had a guided tour on the Stage 84 coach, I met Kelsey, Rhys and Charlotte and lots of other children who were very excited about performing the next day. There were lots of Elephants everywhere in Hamm, not real ones, sculptures and statues; this is because Elephants are the symbol of Hamm. Elephants were chosen because of their strength. We stopped at the Bradford City Fire Memorial which is identical to the one in Centenary Square; the Lord Mayor laid some flowers. At night we went to the Circus to see the Pepperoni Circus School, I sat on the knee of the daughter Oberburgermeister's daughter, on the front row, she thought I was lovely and gave me lots of cuddles. I was scared of the Fire Eaters as I thought my fur might get singed but there were two firemen on standby just in case.
On Sunday we went to the Gustav –Lucbcke Museum where the Lady Mayoress painted a plate which she was allowed to take home with her. We went on to a local Christmas Market and in the evening to an Indian Restaurant and then it was off to see the Wizard! Stage 84 were performing the Wizard of Oz at the Kurhaus, the show was so good that they got a standing ovation. I was scared of the Wicked Witch and had to hide my eyes.
On Monday we went to Lebenshilfe where physically and mentally disabled adults live and work, we saw lots of different jobs which they all do in a working in a laundry and restaurant and packaging for companies. We then went to visit Otmar Alt’s studio. Herr (that’s German for Mr) Alt gives the use of Studio free of charge to budding artists, I thought perhaps the Lady Mayoress could use it as her plate painting was very good!. Otmar is a very colourful artist and at the moment we have one of his sculptures ‘The Highlander’ on display in Bradford at top of Westgate. In the afternoon we did a bit of shopping, the Lord Mayor bought an overcoat and the Lady Mayoress and I shared a huge Pineapple, Strawberry & Chocolate Ice Cream, I don’t know about the Lady Mayoress but I felt very sick afterwards. In the evening we flew back to Leeds/Bradford Airport.
