IPDG's Travels Week 10

One of the few but big disappointments of my year as Governor, was the last minute cancellation of Elgin RC's Concert in aid of Help for Heroes, due to the sudden and catastrophic floods in that part of the world. Not only had President Graeme Archibald and their Rotarians worked their socks off to make it a sell out, but they had also managed to secure the Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines to perform. As this was one of my special causes for fund raising, I was no less disappointed than the Club members, particularly as it seemed at first that the event could not be re-scheduled,or if it was, then the Royal Marines Band was unlikely to be available. However, Elgin Rotarians do not know the meaning of 'not possible', and with even more hard work and the generous assistance of the Royal Marines, Friday night's Concert came to pass, again to an absolute capacity audience. How nice to enjoy the luxury of a waiting list for such an event! This year's President and his colleagues were wonderful hosts and we enjoyed the opportunity to talk to members of the Band and learn more about the interesting lives they lead. Under the inspired leadership of Captain Ian Davis, we enjoyed a varied and wonderfully vibrant evening of music. The Band contains a wide range of very talented musicians who would not be out of place in any of the top orchestras in the world. From excerpts from West Side Story, through Orpheus in the Underworld, to their Regimental Marches Medley and the Sunset Ceremony, there was something for every taste. If you get the chance to hear them in action, do not miss the opportunity. A large sum of money was raised for this excellent cause, greatly aided by many who either sponsored the occasion or gave their services for nothing. Not content with this, the next Elgin Club fund raiser for Help for Heroes takes place this coming week-end, where they will seek to create a continuous human chain from Elgin to the main gates of Lossiemouth RAF air base. If you can help them to achieve this, please do go along. This event also has the potential to raise many thousands of pounds for a really wonderful cause. Our young men and women willingly put their lives on the line round the world for our benefit. I hope that everyone will help those who have suffered in this cause, as much as they possibly can.

IPDG's Travels Week 9

The two great delights of a past DG are the freedom to decide how you will spend each day, and having the opportunity to get re-acquainted with the members and activities of one's own Club. The latter saw Daphne and I heading westwards to the south bank of the River Tay to join up with some 60 Rotarians and their partners, to cruise up river to Perth. We were fortunate to be in the care of Rotarian Dennis Beattie, who is incredibly knowledgeable about this particular part of the world.The weather was glorious, people had come along with all sorts of refreshments, both liquid and solid, and the views conveyed a totally different outlook on parts so close to our own doorstep. Very quickly after leaving Newburgh, the river took a surprisingly large curve, and Dundee and parts to the east disappeared from view. Ancient explorers reaching this point from the west, could easily be forgiven for thinking that they were approaching the eastern end of a landlocked piece of water, with no obvious way of further progress. In leisurely succession, we passed the reed beds long used to thatch cottages over a surprisingly wide area, the old bothies of the river's salmon fishers, and several still amazingly sound stone piers which figured largely in the transport of goods up and down the river.The magnificent Elcho Castle just appeared over the top of its surrounding cloak of trees, and before long the magnificent Friarton Bridge came into view. The latter is even more impressive from below than it is as one drives over it. Passing by the fringes of King Edward Island and its challenging golf course, we turned in the harbour area before retracing our journey back down river. Passing by the point at which the River Earn enters the Tay, a number of interesting birds were on view to satisfy the ornothologists amongst our group. Approaching Newburgh again, we passed by the area where, as a small boy, I used to fish from a liitle boat for flounders, taking care to assure the Tay River patrols that we were not out to hook a salmon when no one was looking. Daphne and I returned home more knowledgeable than we left, and having enjoyed a really good day out with excellent company and good fellowship. Not surprisingly, further such trips are planned which will cover other parts of the Tay Estuary.

IPDG's Travels Week 6

Some of you may recollect that last year, I was fortunate to hit one decent shot in the St. Andrews Kilrymont Golf Competition at Kingsbarns. The prize for finishing nearest to the pin on the short, but awesome and very intimidating 15th hole, was the use for a week-end of a Honda 2000 sports car, courtesy of the Honda West End Garage in Broughty Ferry. After a very busy year, Daphne and I at long last managed to identify a free week-end to take advantage of this. We based ourselves in Blair Atholl and enjoyed both visiting many of the notable landmarks in the area and driving open-topped between them. First port of call was Falls of Bruar, which looked quite spectacular after the previous night's rain. Inevitably, this had to be followed by the many attractions of the House of Bruar. Retail therapy at its best! After a light lunch, we headed westwards via Loch Rannoch to Rannoch itself, which is as far west as you can go without resorting to foot power. We were fortunate to be there when one of relatively few trains in the day to Fort William and Oban, passed through, then enjoyed the excellent home baking of the station tea room. In the evening, back at Blair Atholl, we walked up one of the many attractive woodland walks on the Atholl Estate, meeting on the way a group of stalwart walkers, ending a long day out, after starting some 26 miles away at Braemar. I could sympathise with their view that any cooling liquid would be better directed to their feet than their throats! The next day, after a quick visit to the Blair Atholl Watermill, we headed down past Loch Tummel to the new House of Menzies Centre which also has excellent home baking, to Aberfeldy, then over the hill to the Sma' Glen. Turning off this, we headed for Perth via Glenalmond College, then round Perth to the south side of the Tay and on through Newburgh, Gauldry, Wormit, Newport and over the road bridge to Dundee. The day was rounded off with a visit to Arbroath to see a rare, but totally invisible, gull. It was with extreme reluctance that I returned the Honda to West End Garage today. It was a real fun week-end, with a chance to relive earlier years. I had forgotten the fun of being so much more exposed to the elements, and being instantly aware of the scent of flowering buddleia, so attractive to bees and other insects, and the evocative smell of a newly-mown field of hay. The Honda drives like a dream and I cannot praise highly enough, the engineers who designed it. My thanks go to the Rotary Club of St. Andrews Kilrymont for coming up with such a wonderful prize and to the West End Garage for their generosity in making it available.

IPDG's Travels Week 5

Happily, the rumours that a DG's life come to a sudden end at midnight on 30 June, have proved to be unfounded. Above all else, it is a great pleasure to maintain contact with all the Clubs which meant so much to me during the past year. This is especially the case when I am returning to them to make presentations for their achievements during 2009-10. The success of the District 1010 Clubs has been outstanding, without doubt, with so many far exceeding my hopes for the year, and in the process demolishing so many of my concerns at a stroke. Nowhere has this been more true than on the question of membership. You may remember my hope, and indeed that of John Kenny, that Clubs would achieve a net gain of one member during the year. Available to Clubs which had been especially successful were three RI Awards - for achieving the highest membership growth rate, for bringing in the most new members and for achieving the highest member retention rate. It would be rare for any one Club to win more than one of these awards, and unknown in my knowledge for one Club to win all three. However, this is exactly what the Glenrothes Club has achieved in the past year. In presenting the certificates signed by John Kenny to Immediate Past President Ian Hastie, it was my pleasure to congratulate him and all of the Glenrothes members for an outstanding achievement.

DG,s Travels

My final duty in a very eventful year was to head north to Cults to chair the Past District Governors' lunchtime meeting. As I drove over the hill from Stonehaven to Maryculter, I thought that the weather was at its very best and the typical upland Scottish scenery looked superb. If we could guarantee weather like this in Scotland, who would wish to go anywhere else. The PDGs were in great form and interested to hear both my report on the year past, and new Governor George's thoughts for the future. The very interesting and searching questions showed without doubt that they were as switched on as ever about Rotary matters, and keen to maintain the very high standing of District 1010. I reflected afterwards that the collective knowledge about Rotary in that one room was enormous and there was a source of information that any DG would be unwise to ignore. I have been grateful to them all for their support, especially those PDGs in my own Club, and a number of them have actually participated in the running of the District during the past 12 months. Clive Bartram, Bill Leslie and John Minhinnick have been especially involved and the District has reaped great benefits from this. All too soon, it was time to head back to Dundee and to what I suspect will be a marked change in the way of life for both myself and Daphne. Even in the last 2-3 days, the number of e-mails has dwindled dramatically and so far today, I have had only one 'phone call. What a difference a day or two can make. This will be the last posting on my DG's blog. To those of you who have read it regularly and have joined me on my journey through a DG's year and round District 1010, thank you for your company. I hope that you have found my notes of interest. I have enjoyed my year as Governor enormously, and I thank all Rotarians for their support, warmth of welcome and good fellowship. You have made it an unforgettable experience.

DG's Travels Week 51

One of the very enjoyable end of Rotary year activities is the evening jointly hosted by the Presidents of Dundee Rotary Club and the Inner Wheel Club. Held in a variety of venues over the years, on this occasion it was in the local John Lloyd Leisure Centre, where we could participate in sporting action, eat, and generally enjoy each others company. It is always a very relaxed way of celebrating the completion of another Rotary year. The major sporting attraction was putting, where I am sure that the surface had been specially engineered with a bias, specifically to misdirect the DG's best efforts! I can think of no other reason why someone who had never even seen a putter, let alone held one, could score three times as many points as I did! As one of relatively few occasions during the past year when I have been able to enjoy the company of members of my own Club, it was a specially enjoyable event.

DG's Travels Week 52

Later in the day saw Daphne and I travel up to Banff for the District Handover lunch, an event very ably planned and executed by the Turrif and District Rotary Club. Under the very capable chairmanship of President Rose, we enjoyed an excellent meal and soon moved on to the essential business of my valedictory address and the hand over to my successor, George Berstan. As always, there was not nearly enough time to adequately thank everyone at District and Club level for their tremendous efforts during the past year and for the phenomenal amounts of money which they had raised for good causes. It was a very convivial meeting, with the opportunity to meet up again with many old friends. It was a special pleasure to have District Governor Elect Iain Macdonald back in our midst, clearly now well on the way to recovery after being seriously ill. While my Governor's duties are not yet quite over, I have to admit to a lighter step as Daphne and I headed back to Dundee. It has been a fabulous year for us both and we will retain many happy memories.

DG's Travels Week 52

The end of the week saw Daphne and I attending the 40th Charter Dinner of the Rotary Club of North Fife. This is a Club with which I have had a long association from well before the time when I was their Assistant Governor, so it was an especial pleasure. We were regaled by a succession of good speakers following an excellent meal. I also had the great pleasure in awarding a Paul Harris Fellowship to one of their members, Phil Higginson, for his activities both in bringing much needed dental aid to indigenous people in South America, by taking a mobile surgery on a comparatively small ship up the Amazon, and for his fund raising and practical assistance in support of the Kigali School Project. All this took place against a background of good company and excellent surroundings in St. Andrews and it came as quite a shock to find that it was already after midnight before we headed home. Thoughts of a very early start later in the day did nothing to dampen the enjopyment.

DG's Travels Week 52

I was always aware that my last few weeks in office would be busy ones, as I think will be evident from the next few entries. Last Wednesday, I was delighted to be a guest at the annual prize-giving of the High School of Dundee, home of our oldest, and exceedingly successful, Interact Club. It was a great delight to see that not only were the young people exceedingly skilled in raising large sums of money for various charities, but that they combined this with high academic and sporting achievements. My faith in the future is always totally restored when I see such young people in action. Some will be returning for a further year of study while others set off now on new challenges at university and elsewhere. Some will be taking a gap year where they hope to not only see more of the world, but also particpate in various aid projects in different countries. In this, they received considerable encouragement from former pupil and guest speaker, Mark Beaumont, who talked about his adventures in cycling round the world and traversing the length of the Americas. Both journeys were no beds of roses and he highlighted the need to be committed and determined in overcoming life's challenges, as he had done on several occasions on the above trips.

DG's Travels Week50

Much though I would have preferred to be playing myself, I was delighted to be able to look into the St.Andrews RC International Golf Competition yesterday, on my way to another Rotary function. However, I could have wished for better weather for the participants. Torrential rain on Tuesday, followed by almost gale force winds yesterday, hardly provide the best mix for good scores. I was commiserating with one player's score saying that I would have been well pleased with 28 Stableford points under such conditions. What was evident thoughout was the great fellowship being enjoyed, irrespective of the weather. Above everything else, I think the great pleasure felt by all at being able to play on the famous St.Andrews Links was very evident. I hope that everyone enjoys better weather today.

DG's Travels Week49

Saturday morning saw us up with the morning bird song for a very early start, to get from Tain down to Oldmeldrum for the District final of the Primary School Quiz. However, I was determined not to miss out on the Morangie House Hotel much praised breakfast. It was no disappointment! However, we could not linger and were through Inverness well before most people were stirring. After a coolish start, the weather soon warmed up and it was a rare occasion this year to need the air-conditioning on. Oldmeldrum was bathed in sunshine and looking splendid, but I had no time to enjoy this, as 80 certificates for the final participants had to be signed before the start. The young people, well supported by families, teachers and Rotarians, were already in evidence, some having travelled from considerable distances the previous day. There was a real buzz about the place but with a nice mixture of competitiveness and willingness to make new friends. The competition was soon under way and was keenly contested throughout. The lead changed with almost every round, and the final outcome was in doubt right to the end. In the event, a play off was necessary to get the final order for first, second and third. The young people were all so knowledgeable , with most of the discomfiture at not being able to answer questions most evident in the ranks of the audience. I have no idea what a second class stamp costs nowadays! All the participants, at all stages, were winners, but a ranking order had to be arrived at in the end to award the prizes. In third place were Cults(Aberdeen) Primary School, in second, Crown(Inverness) Primary School, and in first place and winner of the shield, Robert Gordon's College. Events like this do not just happen. The organisation was absolutely impeccable on the day, as indeed at the earlier stages. I wish to particularly thanks Iain Matthews and all the Rotarians who were involved throughout the competition. I have watched as the event has grown over the years to a stage now where hundreds of primary schools are involved. This is very much another jewel in District's crown.

DG's Travels Week49

Friday saw Daphne and I heading northwards again to Tain for the new Club's first Charter Dinner. Driving through the Cairngorms on a glorious summer day was sheer magic and a brief stop at Aviemore saw us exposed to air which was like pure champagne. Roadworks not withstanding, we made good time and were soon esconced in the comforts of the Morangie House Hotel, in time to check over the evening's arrangements with District Extension Officer Bill Leslie and his wife Mary. As always, events more than full occupy the available time and we were sitting down for our meal before I knew it. The evening was a most convivial one with the official side of speeches and presentation of gifts to the new Club, matched equally by the enjoyment of meeting up again with so many old Rotarian friends. I was delighted that so many Rotarians from around the District had made the effort to be present and help to launch the new Club safely on its way. In the course of the evening we learned more about the new Club's ambitious fund-raising activities, not least Rob Pope's plans to visit every quarter of Scotland, England and Wales in 48 hours. I wish him every success in his endeavours in which he seeks to better the large sums he has raised previously. I see a great future for the Club, with President Ken very intent on ensuring that the Club makes a big impression from the word go. I have to record my sincere thanks to Bill Leslie, Alistair Risk(President of the East Sutherland parent Club) and Mike Phimister for the huige amount of work they have put in during the past year to bring the new Club into existence.

DG's Travels Week49

Tuesday morning was due to see me gazing in wonderment at the patience and skills of our Rotarian fishermen at the Lake of Menteith as they endeavoured to catch all these fish which had got away in previous years. However, a combination of unexpected events at work and the fact that I was highly unlikely to know my dorsals from my pectorals, persuaded me that I should quite literally be let off the hook. I hope that the participants had a really excellent day and look forward to hearing the results, the excuses and the multitude of fishy stories.

DG's Travels Week49

I have had a long standing relationship with the Rotaty Club of Buckie, so it was no hardship on Monday night to travel north to visit them again. The given reasons for my visit were as part of my farewell activities to my DG's year and to join in the partners' evening. There was a third and perhaps ulterior motive, in that I was there to present two Paul Harris Fellowships. The first was to Hugh Patience, formerly of the Rotary Club of Dingwall, who had given many years of service to the Buckie Club, including being their President, while outside he had a lifetime of work and commitment to the fishing industry. A real mover and shaker, it was always Hugh's aim that everyone should be the best they could be, whatever their skills. The second was to another Past President of the Club and one of my past colleagues on District, Malcolm Watt. Malcolm not only has a wealth of good ideas but he puts himself about to bring them to reality. This time round, his idea was to give £50 to a number of schools, with the challenge to see by how much they could make that sum grow. His target was to raise some money for Shelterbox. In this he was outstandingly successful, with a likely total of 31 Shelterboxes being funded. Both are true examples of Service Above Self and I was delighted to make the presentations. The Club was not above some subterfuge to hide the impending awards and, to questions as to why the District Governor was visiting again, a range of somewhat dubious answers were given. However, in view of the cause, I am sure that none of this breached Roatry's high ethical standards.

DG's Travels Week49

As a DG with commitments to all 88 Clubs in the District, I have sometimes struggled to do justice to, and be involved with every Club's activities. Nowhere is this more true than with my own Club, where at times I have been away for substantial periods and have certainly not attended as many of their functions as I would have liked. Accordingly, it was a great pleasure to be able to attend the 'end of term party' held by Dundee President Graham and his wife Joan. Both have had outstanding years, as Joan has also been President of Dundee Inner Wheel Club this year.Their time management must have been second to none. Both have initiated new activities as well as maintaining tried and tested events from previous years, which demonstrates better than words the value of regular change in the leadership of Rotary's various organisations. This change brings not only different personalities but new approaches which can revitalise Clubs on a regular basis.
It was also a very welcome opportunity to catch up with other Dundee Rotarians and to hear not only of achievements during the current year but their plans for the future. It will very soon be time to hit the road again, with Buckie, Tain and Oldmeldrum on the calendar for the coming week, for a variety of reasons. All these events will bring me into close touch with Rotarians all busy in achieving their many targets, which is something I have always enjoyed. I look forward to bringing readers up to date with these at the end of the week.