At Random
Am-Am is imminent
I’M STARTING to panic. The fantastic annual Rotary Club of Oban Am-Am golf tournament is imminent and I haven’t hit a ball since September last year.
For various reasons I won’t go into, I’ve been unable to get out on a golf course for months and now the big day at Glencruitten is looming. It is, in fact, on Sunday June 3.
As anyone who has had the misfortune of partnering me round a course will know only too well, I’m a rubbish golfer at the best of times. So the idea of taking to the fairways with virtually no practice rounds is a daunting one.
And given that one of the other Oban Times team members tells me he has developed an inexplicable but persistent shank when using a wedge, and I think I can assure all the other four-balls that they face little threat from us lot.
Indeed, if it wasn’t for the fact that The Oban Times is the event’s principal sponsor this year, I’d probably be trying to come up with an excuse to wriggle out of taking part.
However, as with most golfers – and I use the term loosely – hope springs eternal and we will tee off hoping that my dire predictions are misplaced.
Romantic location
NEED evidence that Oban and the West Highlands are viewed as a romantic location?
I met a lovely American couple in the Manor House one Saturday evening a couple of weeks ago. They had spent – by their own admission – at least a couple of hours sitting at the picture window in the hotel’s bar mesmerised by the view.
Duncan and Maureen MacCallum, from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, were kind enough to squeeze over to make room for my wife and I to sit near them and gaze at the fantastic panorama on a clear evening.
Later that night – yes, this sounds like a pub crawl – we bumped into Duncan and Maureen in the Oban Inn, where we had gone coincidentally to listen to live music.
As the conversation and wine flowed, it transpired that they had returned to Oban to relive the magic of the place where they had married 14 years previously.
Duncan and Maureen tied the knot at St John’s Cathedral, with the Rev Norman MacCallum conducting the ceremony.
Maureen said: ‘He was a very special and holy reverend and we were blessed to have him officiate over our marriage.
‘The Rev MacCallum tragically passed away in 2016, well before his time, as a result of cancer but his wedding homily has been remembered by me every day.
‘We just love it here.’
Support the cinema
OBAN’S Phoenix Cinema has been the target of a fair amount of public criticism of late.
However, under new chairman Gary Brown, there are firm plans for remedial work to be carried out over the coming weeks, hopefully to be completed before the start of the tourist season.
One initiative is to hold a community discussion day to explain the development plans.
That is happening in the cinema on Thursday May 17 between 1pm and 8pm, when members of the cinema’s board will be available to talk to residents about what is proposed.
Things have not been great at the cinema for a wee while but serious attempts are being made to address this and I’d urge those critics to back off and support the efforts of the team running the cinema to turn it around.
The cinema is a great asset to the town and deserves our support at this time.
What do you think?
WRITE to me at mlaing@obantimes.co.uk or The Oban Times, Crannog Lane, Oban, PA34 4 HB or call 01631 568021.