17th November 2015 – Wondrous

Good day, fellow Toastmasters!

A wondrous meeting for all! Wondrous; a synonym for wonderful and remarkable, it was our word of the day by our grammarian TM Kelvin Lai. Our meeting was nothing less than wondrous with three delightful speeches from three cheerful ladies, insightful Table Topics and lessons-filled evaluations.

Sophiana kicked off the delightful speeches with her, ‘Organize your speech’ project. ‘ALWAYS READ THE FINE PRINT’, a simple lesson learned from a terrifying ordeal. It was the night of 12^th August, 2012. The night when almost choking on a 20 cent coin-shape dietary supplement sent Sophiana scrambling for dear life at the emergency room. The coin-shaped supplement simply refused to dislodge in her throat for the longest time! Eventually, she was okay. Someone had to be blamed, a company had to be sued, action must be taken against he who created this almost-deadly supplement that couldn’t be swallowed properly! She picked up the supplement box, lo and behold, she had herself to blame for not reading the print, “chewable supplement”. Well-done on your cleverly organized and humourously delivered speech, Sophiana!

Heidi painted a vivid story in her, ‘How to say it’ speech. Her rich and descriptive words pulled us from start to finish. She shared a heart-felt story on her promise to her daughter. Her daughter hopping around like a bunny, colourful banners screaming, ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY, and friends running around the jungle gym, it would have been a wondrous birthday party for her little girl! Alas, it was not meant to because work distractions kept her from keeping her promise. However, we are all human and we turn our experiences around. After reflecting, Heidi is now more determined than ever to spend as much time as possible with her little girl, be it at school or at home, she will be there. Your story taught us to appreciate blessings in disguise, Heidi.

Pooja comfortably, calmly and confidently showed us bacteria in her, ‘Get comfortable with visual aids’ speech – LISTEN TO YOUR GUT. Bacteria can do us harm and bacteria can do us good. Good bacteria in us help breakdown food and absorb the essential nutrients in our bodies. They help us synthesize essential vitamins. Exposure to bacteria around us builds up our immunity as we grow up. Do you see kids playing in the dirt? Let them be, the dirtier they are, the stronger their immune system gets! Lastly, we get good bacteria to stay healthy from natural fermented food. Tapai, belacan, belutak, eat them all! Your speech was engaging, enlightening, and all those cartoons clearly conveyed your points. Thanks for sharing, Pooja!

Despite a short Table Topics session, our speakers shared interesting and insightful messages. Jordan is a man of practical thoughts. What does he ponder when he lays awake in bed? Whether or not his contact lenses are out, whether or not he should go to the bathroom or whether or not his supper was satisfying. No man is more interesting than Anas when it comes to impressing his lady friends. A day out of shooting each other in paintball, then a meet-the-family session, they would have a connection and a lady is his. Amran reminded us how friends can surprise us and leave us with such memorable memories. A routine fishing trip with mates had become a life-long memory when he was surprised with his birthday celebration. Congratulations, best Table Topics speaker Supatra! Your speech was well-structured, and we can all certainly work on reducing our bad habits!

Kudos to first time role players on stepping up and taking on exciting challenges in our Toastmasters club! Well done, Haryati as Table Topics Master, Sharon as Table Topics Evaluator, Faiz as Timer and Rahmat as Ah Counter and Who Said What! Remember our Best Evaluator’s tip, folks. To stop them in their tracks, BREATH IN YOUR CRUTCH WORDS! Well done, speech evaluators, Ruey, Gerald and Chris, and well done, Rano for leading our evaluations session as our General Evaluator. Last but certainly not least, he was organized, he was cheerful, and he put smiles on all our faces. A huge round of applause to Dalton who organized and ran our meeting smoothly as our Toastmaster of the Evening!

Cheers, all.

 

Written by
Hazwan Kamarulzaman, ACB, ALB

Photography & Caption by
TM Gerald Goh