Burns Night 2012

Tartan, Pipes and Haggis can only mean on thing, its the time of year to celebrate the life and works on one Scot - Robert Burns.

Each year the Mayor of Tamworth is invited to the Tamworth District Scottish society Burns night held at Drayton Manor and for a few weeks prior it had been suggested that I should wear a Kilt. So with a quick phone call to my father the lending of a kilt was arranged and accompanied my Dinner Jacket and black tie for this event.
On entry were were piped in with the president of the Scottish society and her honoured guests to sit at the top of the table ready to enjoy a fantastic traditional meal. however this could not begin without the traditional Selkirk Grace.

Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thankit.

And of course during the festivities the piping in of the "Great chieftain o' the pudding-race!" or haggis as we know it.

The food whilst a high point was not the only highlight of the evening, this year we had a Scottish lady who had lived in Tamworth for 6 years give a speech to "Tamworth the town of our adoption" which was a real treat and acknowledgement of how Tamworth had welcomed her and her family. the speech pointed out Tamworth's many attributes  and it was refreshing to hear this from someone who has relatively recently arrived here and not hearing this from another politician etc. As mayor of Tamworth I was called upon to respond to this speech (and on this occasion had minutes to prepare) Whilst speaking I did reflect on the evening a great way to celebrate peoples history and heritage, not many cultures or communities do this as often as they should nowadays and it was fantastic to  celebrate this with the.

I was not aware at the time the next treat in store, this was the fantastically funny and slightly sexist Toast to the lassies and Toast to the laddies. we where treated to some great humour as a husband and wife team introduced the speeches, loads of laughter and mild offence made for two brilliant speeches.

for those who have not been to a burns night and don't know much about the Scottish poet don't worry and get yourself to a burns night supper as there is the speech to the immortal memory, during this speech I learnt more about the poet than I have in the rest of my life.

I had a great night and really enjoyed it.

Aladdin, Tamworth Pantomime Company 2012

Well where do I start, Tamworth Pantomime Company produced a fantastic show and had the Assembly Rooms packed.And so the music volume went up and the lights went down ready for the performance to begin.
I'll be the first to admit that I have not been to any of the local pantomime company's previous pantos but have seen some of the cast perform elsewhere in other roles so knew I was in for a treat and with such names as Alex Ferrall, Ian Gibbon, Lee Bates I wondered whether I was going to be the butt of any jokes.

With a relatively small cast and team these enthusiastic locals turned the assembly rooms into a theatre with all the atmosphere of a professional outfit.

The next few hours flew by with some fantastic performance and amazing singing which had everyone joining in with the traditional panto banta as well as plenty of laughter. It's always great to see kids enjoying pantomime (which is why I returned the following day with mine) but its easy to forget how real a play can be for a small child. One of the lines delivered from the panto baddy was that he was going to melt the snow dome which caused a chuckle in the audience but for one young boy this was serious, during the interval the young lad was hiding I the toilets tears steaming down his face because the snow done was going to be melted. A really sweet innocent moment that summed up the great performance we were watching.
It's difficult to mention all the great per danced because they were all fantastic, but I must mention you younger cast members including the evil side kick gaga who put in a great performance.

It was a truly great show and when I returned the following day with my chasten the audience was really into the panto spirit almost drowning out the cast, it was a fantastic experience. There was a great family feel and community fell to the show and it's a credit to all those involved that the audience felt a part of the show, this production kept hold of all the traditional elements of Pantomime including the essential Dame.
Great show well done all.

New Community Gym at Rawlett

Wednesday morning and off to Rawletts school (wearing a suit) to officially open the latest investment the school has made. They have taken an old music room knocked it into another room for a nice big space and with some math funding equipped the new room as a high tech gym.
From what I understand the school is about to clear the financing borrowed to build the AstroTurf and instead of standing still that have made a further investment, knowing they have a great gym they were not satisfied and applied for match funding which I believe is successful and so mirrors and an interactive white board will be installed for enhance PE lessons.

There are a few things that impress me with the school and one of them ic the "can do" attitude, they had an idea and got on and delivered it, fantastic.

So why did I mention the suit, well my briefing sheet said I could have a go on the equipment if I wanted, unfortunately I was not dressed to train.
I'm always made to feel welcome at Rawletts by both the staff and pupils. This week I had the chance to catch up with Claudia Walker who I met at te school last year. Claudia plays for England ladies under 17 football team and so she is a real local inspiration. Before Rawletts opened the gym she was having to travel to stoke for much of her fitness work I think she said daily. So for her it's a reall opportunity, not only for the staff and pupils but the local community are able to use the facility outside school hours on a pay as you go system.

Not only is this a great opportunity but also a great business development got the school, the community and the students.

Great work well done

Reflections Area Opening (Castle Grounds)

Each year the Mayor of Tamworth presents a gift to the Borough and back in May 2011 Cllr Lee Bates announced that he was going to do something a little different from the norm. The norm has been to buy the Town a gift of a piece of silver ware, crystal or pottery which goes on display in the Mayor's parlour in the Town Hall. this is something that Lee and I have discussed a number of times, so what was it that Lee wanted to do?
Lee announced that he was going to make a contribution to a project with the local Rotary Club to create a seated reflection area in the Castle Grounds. This area was to allow people to sit and rest whilst they could reflect on anything they wanted and the area also housed the commemorative stone celebrating the formation of the Mercian regiment in 2007.
What has been created is a very public area and an asset to the town, I have to say I'm very impressed with what the rotary and Cllr Lee Bates have achieved. We have some great assets in the castle grounds and this adds to the whole offer we have.

Well Done Rotary and Well Done Lee

Final Day in Vaujours

Already the last full day had arrived.
The morning was pleasant and refreshing as we had a walk through the local park which until the 1970's was home to a gun powder plant and had now been reclaimed by nature, so I can walk through parks here in England why travel to France? Well its simple they have red squirrels and parrots. Ok so the parrots are a new alien invasion over the last 6 years or so (so I am told) and have bread and now have a large colony. It was quiet fascinating the history and now the way the park is developed.

Lunch with the Mayor of Vaujours was next on the agenda, we were joined by another Mayor from Belgium who is also twinned with Vaujours. This got me thinking and i have since started a map showing twinning links spreading from Tamworth. During this meal we exchanged stories and information such as a chat about the governance of local authorities and the roles of the Mayor, leaders and chief executives etc along with the history of wearing a chain or a sash. But this meal was not just about informal chat we also had some open and frank discussions about the role of twinning and how it can be moved away from just civic dinners to more meaningful twinning. It was apparent that our continental colleagues still have a firm grasp of where they want twinning to be going.

So with lunch over and a quick tour of Vaujours looking at their latest projects and then an hour off to prepare for the "Best Wishes" event that evening.

The Best Wishes event concluded my official stay in Vaujours (all I had to do is catch a plane in the morning). This event included a speech from the Mayor about the years successes and projects then followed by a buffet of various foods from different food outlets throughout the town.
The projects included a nursery built and opened, overhead cables in some streets buried beneath the road and a new football stadium. This was presented to about 400 local residents, I wondered if we could get away with such an event in the Uk where there is a basic dislike for the majority of politicians and local authorities. In France however this was a celebration of the councils achievements.

Another great day in vaujours and some real learning. I have three jobs to do in relation to true value of twinning and those links are already being made.

Private tour guide

Last night we were picked up at 6:30 by a few members of the twinning association in Vaujours who had taken it upon themselves to treat us to a meal in Paris. We visited a cathederal before settling into a nice restaurant a few yards away.

This is my first experience of France (apart from a day trip to when I was at school) so I had a choice to make do I order a safe salad and a cheese burger or do I go for it and try the snails. It had to be the snails, so I'm sitting in a french restaurant over looking Paris listening to the French voices and a piano playing in the corner thinking this feels very French. Then I thought of the film pretty women where she uses the clamps and sends her food flying across the table, "really hope I don't do that". No it was fine I ate the snails easily and really enjoyed them. I sent an mms of them to my children in Tamworth, the three year old was apparently quite disturbed by what I was about to eat.

The meal was a really nice treat from few people hosting us.

Following the meal we all jumped into 2 cars and drive into the centre of Paris. One of the comments I made was that if I had come here without the twinning I would not have had the experience I've had with the twinning. Michele being local knew his way around the capital and knew the history so as we drive round the land marks he explained them and if we wished he would stop a let us take photos, we took in some fantastic sights such as driving past moulin rouge, the Eiffel tower, notre dam etc, and all the time he asked us what we wanted to do next.

The twinning association in Tamworth can certainly offer this type of friendship with our neighbours in France and Germany. But I feel there is alot more that can be done with exchange of ideas practices and learning across the board.

Anyway I'm having a fantastic time and alot of networking, looking forward to spending the day with the Mayor of Vaujours.

First 24 hours in Vajours

I probably left the airport about 24 hours ago now and my feet have barely touched the floor. On arrival at our twin town in France I was taken to a local residents house for a meal which I have to say was fantastic the openness and friendliness of the French involved in twinning is amazing. With having a very limited knowledge of French I was made to feel very welcome as everyone tried to translate for me and the food just kept coming I left their house around 1am and prepared for an 8am departure to Versailles.

It's quite warm for the time of year in France (around 10 C) and whilst overcast we had a pleasant journey to the palace of the sun king Louis XIV, well what can I say the place looks wonderful with the gold railings as you approach the building. To describe it is one of those times when it would be great to use the line "a pucture says a thousand world so here's some pictures) but as I am typing this in a hotel reception and I have yet to finding how to post pictures on blogger from my iPhone I simply can't show you. Needless to say it was a great experience walking around learning about the building and some french history. On thing That stood out for me was the shear size of the place and the immaculate grounds we walked around.
Whilst in the grounds we stopped for lunch in a nice restaurant where once again I had the chance to try some combinations of foods we just don't try in the Uk (as I am not talking stereotypes)this was followed by a long pleasent walk back to the minibus, the grounds are such that you feel a million miles from anywhere not so close to the sneaky populated Paris.

I write this entry as I wait for my hosts to pick me up for and evening in the capital. There is so much opportunity within twinning in Tamworth that we need to harness but there needs to be more involvement and drive, I would recommend people especially younger people to join up and explore France and Germany with the help of some friends within either sides of twinning

The Lambs travel to Everton

As I write this there are around 20 minutes left before Tamworth Fc take on Everton in the 3rd round of the FA cup 2012. Tamworth are currently the we one lowest ranked team I. The competition but so what today they carry with them the hopes and dreams of about 5000 traveling supporters and a whole town behind them.

This is a fantastic event and for me it's what sport is about. The best way to get young people involved in sport is through competition and aspiration. Today Tamworth Fc will be playing against a premiership team, the dream of every school boy who plays the game and proving that this is in reach if young players want it and work hard enough.

I don't know what the result will be but I do know that when I travelled down to Wembly for the FA vase final in 1989 I felt a sense of belonging to and pride in the town we live. Tamworth Fc are putting Tamworth on the map raising the profile of the town, of football and of sport for everyone, their doing a fantastic job. I hope supporters continue to follow he club after the FA cup competition concludes regardless of how far we get.

So two final points 5000ish following the lambs today, the first FA cup game this seasion attracted only 1000 to the lamb,

Good luck lads I hope you pull of a nice shock for the north west