Win your childhood dream with Werthers Original

In December 1999 I entered a competition that I discovered on Werthers Original sweets. It was a competition to win your childhood dream. It didn’t take me long to decide what my dream would be. Ever since I was 11 and ended up playing a Munchkin in the Wizard of Oz because I couldn’t sing well enough to play Dorothy, I have wished I could sing.

I received a phone call from a friend one day a few months later who told me she had seen my name on a list of winners for the aforementioned competition. I became very excited, until two days later when I received not one but two letters thanking me for my entry but informing me I hadn’t won. I was not a happy bunny, so I chased around and found out that I had indeed won and that I would be contacted with regards to my prize. My winning entry was thus:

Dear Werthers if you heard this plea
and made my dream come true for me
I will be forever in your debt
Not something one would likely forget.
Since I was a wee young thing
I have wished that I could sing
But the phrase that best seems to fit
is 'couldn't hold a tune if it had handles on it'
I think lessons are needed, but finances forbid
One of the drawbacks of not being salaried!

I would return to my 'Am Dram' group,
and not be relegated to the troupe,
warbling in the background, drowned out by another,
I want to STAR! I want to SMOTHER!
I drive my husband up the wall
Old, new, I sing them all,
Songs from the shows, top of the pops
my singing leaves him needing ear drops
Please make both our lives much better
By choosing me from this letter.
I trust this won't fall upon deaf ears -
unless you've been subjected to my singing for years!!

Well, ok, Wordsworth it ‘aint, but so true! My singing lessons have taught me one thing, I can sing in tune, and with a bit more work I shall be at La Scala again (and not just standing on the steps this time!!)

Along with the singing lessons I discovered Werthers were sending me to Milan, to La Scala opera house (unfortunately this was closed in the month of August read further for more information).But still my husband and I both had a wonderful break from the children (thanks mum!) and he gets a lifelong break from my awful caterwauling!

Our trip to Milan.

It was with some trepidation that my husband and I left Heathrow for Malpensa, me because I have yet to fly without feeling air sick (even on Concorde) and my husband because we don’t speak Italian, and he worries about these things!! (that isn’t strictly true, I made sure I could say ‘Duo cappucino per favore’ – we may starve but we wouldn’t die of thirst!) The flight was fine, even though it left ¾ hour late (computer problems – say no more) no air sickness – but that might have been down to the half packet of gingernut biscuits I’d consumed – try it, it really does work! We arrived in Malpensa and decided to try the rail link to Milan – a bit like the Gatwick Express in Britain, after being told it was really easy, and it was. It is a straight-through train from the airport to the Northern Station, it was a double decker train, very cheap, very clean and almost empty. Why can’t Britain have the same? A taxi took us the last mile or so from the station to the hotel, and the overall cost was quite ludicrous compared to what it would have cost in Britain, probably less than half. We arrived at the hotel, the Principie de Savoie, and were immediately transported into another world. A truly magificent hotel, unfortunately the only two unfortunate things were that the leisure suite and the complimentary limousine were both unavailable in August. However, the hotel upgraded our room to a suite, and believe me it was impressive, huge bed, huge tv, sitting room, kingsized bathroom, in all the suite was about the size of the ground floor of our four bedroom house!

The weather was very warm and exceptionally humid. August is the month the Milanese all leave the city for cooler climes, however the phrase ‘mad dogs and Englishmen’ springs to mind, however we weren’t the only strange foreigners holidaying in the ‘wrong’ month, it appears that 2/3 of Japan had decided to do the same. We found a chinese restaurant just 5 minutes walk from the hotel which had a large sign in the window stating ‘Aporto Agosto’ i.e. open in August – such is the rarity of places being open! The three course meal cost about £20, including drinks, long live the strong pound! We were awoken the following morning, not by the trams that run along the back of the hotel, but by thunder and lightning, hmm, perhaps my mother was right when she told us to take our raincoats … (raincoats in Milan in August? – HA!) However, undaunted we decided to walk to the Cathedral (Duomo) and take a walk around. The cathedral was most impressive, there was a service in progress and the smell of incense added to the atmosphere. The stained glass windows were absolutely amazing. We visited the crypt of some dead bloke, who ever he was he must have been important, because it was very posh, but being unable to read Italian we missed quite a bit. We paid £2 each for the pleasure (?) of walking up to the top of the cathedral, and it wasn’t until were were about half way up I decided that it would have been a better idea to pay the extra £1 and take the lift. I didn’t count the steps, but take it from me, there were thousands! The view from the roof of the cathedral was spectacular, I think it is the Milanese version of the Eiffel tower. The whole of the city was laid out below us, right across to the Alps on the horizon. Inever realised just how close Milan was to the mountains. The return journey down was much easier but by now the humidity was such that we returned to the hotel, set the air conditioning to ‘freezing’ and took a siesta. In the early evening we went over to visit the Castle, an impressive building that was very busy. Milan doesn’t come alive until the evening, at least it doesn’t in August!

The following day was the return to Britain, we again caught the train to Malpensa and flew back to Britain, a good flight and wonderful to be back to the dull, cool summer weather we are used to!

© Karen Taylor 2000