Probus/Rotary news
Rotary Club of Linlithgow Grange President John Reid chaired Monday’s meeting with the very pleasant duty of inducting two new members to the club, husband and wife David and Joan Hale. Dr Ken MacKenzie introduced David and Joan and outlined their backgrounds, their suitability as members, and the commitment and involvement they had both made in attending the club as guests and supporting events and projects. President John welcomed David and Joan and introduced them to each of the members present. Following the meal Derek Chambers introduced the speaker for the evening, Robin Howie whose subject would be hill walking. Derek commented that Robin had around 70 munros still to bag to complete all 282 in Scotland. However, Derek then added that this was now Robin’s eleventh round of the munros; an extraordinary achievement. Robin opened his talk by explaining that he had once written a letter to the Scotsman correcting an error in an article in the Saturday magazine section on hill walking. As he received no reply and the error was repeated in further editions he contacted the newspaper again and received a call from the editor who invited him to submit a hill walking ‘diary’ article for the magazine. 15 years and 750 walls later Robin is still contributing and has published two books on the subject – 100 Scottish Walks and Another 100 Scottish Walks. Robin’s talk was illustrated by the many photos taken on a wide range of high and low level walks throughout Scotland in all seasons and with interesting insights on the many spectacular features and locations. Robin brought his excellent talk to a close by showing five photos and asking members to identify their locations. The winner was Dr Ken MacKenzie, and the prize was a copy of Robin’s latest book – Another 100 Scotsman Walks. President John then asked all members to support the club’s next event, the Marches Musical Variety Show at Linlithgow Academy on Thursday 1st June. Tickets (£8, £6 concessions) are available from The Line Gallery, Far From the Madding Crowd book shop or from any member of the club. Normal club meeting resumes on Monday, 15th May. Whitburn Probus President Bobby Nowrie welcomed 45 members to this weeks meeting, held as usual in the Hilcroft Hotel. Todays speaker saw the welcome return of Probus favourites, Fred and Rita Daniels. Before Fred presented the main part of his talk entitled “USA Part 3” he presented a slide show of pictures he had taken during a Probus visit to Hampden Park several months ago, much to the delight of the members who attended. The main part of the talk picked up where Fred and Rita finished their previous talk in the Colorado mountains. This time they covered the section from Colorado Springs to New Mexico and as usual, the talk was full of fantastic photos, in depth background details all presented with Fred’s usual inimitable style. With still much more to see of their epic 9700 mile car journey, we all await the next installment. The vote of thanks was given by Ediie McLay who thanked Fred and Rita for sharing their experiences with us and providing glimpses of places many of us will never see.