Awsome 80’s Meeting #872
Kristy Lawler rocked us into action and set the scene for our toe tapping, seat dancing meeting this morning.
Sabine Parry’s Awsome 80’s theme linked our speech marathon meeting with the speakers favourite 80’s song – a very creative way of getting to know our members – and delivered in true 80’s dress style – loved it, thanks Sabine.
Walking on Sunshine Terrelle Hegarty’s “Thesis in 3” gave eye opening stats about the basis of her thesis on the theories of Women in Construction, admitting one of her biggest challenges will be solving her time hog traits when delivering the thesis in real life.
Welcome to the Jungle Mark Glanville’s “Grief is a Serious Business” encouraging us to be aware of the different forms of grief so we can be more prepared when faced with it ourselves or others around us, giving us some serious business stats.
Fairytale in New York Steve Kennelly’s “Power of Attorney” another very informative and valuable need to know topic delivered with humour using a personal experience with his in-laws to get across some cautions & tips about the need to consider having a Power of Attorney.
Leading in with Working Hard for her Money, not sure we were expecting Vivien Cowey’s topic to be “We don’t want to be compared to Accountants” … but another very informative and useful topic explaining the differences between a Bookkeeper and an Accountant, with a clever analogy between doctors and nurses …
Living on a Prayer David Cooper’s “Signs of Life” helping us ensure we get what we want out of life using atleast 1 if not all 3 of the key ingredients LOVE, ACCEPTANCE & FORGIVENESS and the warning signs if these are missing from your life.
Living Doll Rodney Ford’s “Misfits” about how digging through some brain junk which in reality is the valuable talents we’ve pushed aside from our youth, has led him to joining a musical band “Misfits”. Another gem from Rodney’s hidden talent collection surfaced this morning within his 1980’s pride and joy guitar – bring your amp next time!
See you all on Friday 😊
Read MoreMeeting #784 – 26 June 2015
Toastmaster Brett Snow danced us through this morning’s meeting with plenty of anecdotes and quips related to dancing to keep us on our toes. Embrace change – move with it and enjoy the dance; dance like nobody is watching; and dancing is a vertical expression of a horizontal desire!! Mmmm…. the tango, yes, line dancing ….???
Kelvin had us doing a bit of heel-toe tapping to warm up, followed by a wonderfully stirring haka led by Brent Ruru, accompanied by Mark, Steve K, Danny and Brett, which really get the meeting underway.
Bard Deb McAlpine gave a hilarious rendition of a mature woman wanting to buy a suitable swim suit. The mind images created were amazing, for example, the leopard-skin-look lycra suit – think Tarzan’s Jane, pregnant and having a bad day. Loved it, Deb can always make us laugh. Great tonic for early Friday morning.
The three prepared speeches danced from rhubarb to intentional ignoring and back to organic produce.
Brandishing a freshly picked stick of rhubarb, Rodney Ford began his speech “I’ve been radicalised where eating oil” for CC project Persuade with power. The rhubarb was there to illustrate that it needs nitrogen to grow, as do many things, and the nitrogen is disappearing from top soil. From there we get to oil, as oil produces nitrogen. If the oil runs out, nitrogen runs out and then it’s curtains for everything, including us! So Rodney ‘Ford is crazy’ is now set to eat only meat and veg to live – he’s radicalised to that to that so there will be nitrogen for his rhubarb! Have I got this right! Did flying over the Middle East generate this train of thought for Rodney? Or the fickle growth rate of his rhubarb?
Did you know that about 100,000 words come our way each day? How many of those do we ignore as we operate on auto pilot? Roydon Gibbs’ speech illustrated that “the art of intentional ignoring” is important to good listening. Sounds contradictory at first, but Roydon’s ABC acronym for listening explains that it is not so. A is for attending, focus completely on the speaker, ignore everything else; B is Be present, not only physically but ensure the brain is in the present too, and not intentionally ignoring by being in the past or future; C for confirm, using tools to stay in the present, such as formulating questions and summarising. Excellent advice, as many of us at times would be guilty of ‘drifting away’ and being elsewhere when supposedly listening.
Back to produce for Colin Clapp’s “Entrepreneurial grocers and power of the past” for project 2 of the Storytelling manual, tell a personal story. His story was an entrepreneurial roller coaster of life and business, beginning from his first dip into this venture in 1995 when he attempted to set up a home shopping business, after witnessing the bedlam of shopping in Tescos in UK (Countdown on steroids). Like many entrepreneurial adventures this came to a sad end, but undeterred, Colin brushed himself down and began again. Move forward to present time and, resulting from a couple of serendipitous moments, Colin and Elly are now taking on an organic home shopping business, so the entrepreneurial dance continues – with Colin the grocer! Colin finished with a delightful ditty on this, but I couldn’t get it written down in time. Ask the man in question for the lyrics.
Jenn Chowaniek continued the dance theme into table topics. Flamenco dancing inspired Helen McLeod to stamp feet about the zig-zag lane markings on roads, or no markings at all; hip-hop led Mark to describe the free-style building of his house; the rain dance illustrated guest Darryn’s belief that the more you put out, the more you get back; robotic dancing is imitating what others have done, which Rachel applied to her landscape designing; and even though rock and roll was suggested for Steve K, he went with line dancing, feeling that the structured nature of the dance is more in keeping with an accountant.
It’s always enjoyable and fascinating how each week everyone adopts the theme of the meeting and runs with it, with innovative results.
This is my last blog/meeting write-up for the time being as the new leadership team takes over the reins next week. A change of blog writing style will be welcome.
Have fun, keep warm, enjoy the dance through life. See you next week.
Thanks Sandra for all of your fantastic blogging!
Read MoreMeeting #783 – 19 June 2015
With Danny de Hek at the helm, you can expect something different and entertaining, and today didn’t disappoint. Danny’s theme was ‘Weird and awesome inventions’ and S@A Steve Thomas picked up on this by describing some inventions of his own: the flattened bottle – a fottle, a folded down carton – a farton, and the folding bucket …… well this blog need not sink any lower!
Throughout the meeting Danny displayed on screen all sorts of very weird and crazy inventions. Too many to mention them all, but some favourites – the hug me pillow, LED slippers, anti-pervert hairy stockings, the baby mop, anti-theft lunch bags and so many more. If you missed this meeting and would like to know about more weird inventions, see Danny.
Caleb Vercoe took us on a journey of conquering fear with his speech from CC manual project 2, Organise your speech. This was about his invitation to go climbing when a friend presented him with a climbing belt, (it looked a bit like some form of torture, but obviously an essential, rather than weird invention). Caleb’s dilemma was whether he should do this or not, having a fear of heights. But smiling all the way, he broke through his block, after letting his wife do the climb first, (how gallant), and conquered the wall. He’s learnt that success builds courage and endurance. Final words – ‘Grab the chance with both hands, enjoy the fall – the rope has got you!’ A bit of trust in the strength of that rope is needed too, I think.
Naturally communication is always easier if it’s in the same language, and meanings are not ‘lost in translation’. This was the title of Helen MacDonald’s speech, How to say it from CC manual project 4. She was referring to the book ‘The five love languages’ which explains that if partners have a different love language, it amounts to the same communication issues as if one spoke in English and the other in Mandarin. For example, for one their love ‘language’ could be acts of service, but for the other, quality time. And so the misunderstandings arise. Powerful messages from this speech; discover your partner’s primary love language, and ensure that the way you show love, is being understood as love.
For my final ‘date’ with the Interpersonal Communication manual, I informed people how to deal assertively with those issues that get up your nose. Deal with the issue straightway; describe the problem, say how it affects you (think “I” statements), state a solution and the positive consequences that would follow on. Remember the acronym D I S C. Once again Claire ably assisted with the role play scenario, being the waitress at a busy restaurant when the meals weren’t quite up to scratch. At least the waitress didn’t burst into tears!
An extremely innovative and entertaining Table Topics session from Colin Clapp this morning, which managed to have a record nine people speaking. Taking his lead from the latest Toastmaster magazine’s article ‘Improve with improv’, Colin had three people at a time, working together to tell a story, with each person speaking in a different style. Complete with alliterative titles we had the stories ‘Wendy the will maker’ featuring Brett (romance style), Roydon (horror) and Jenn (fairytale); ‘Albert the aeroplane maker’ involving Kelvin (adventure style), Deb (horror) and Steve M (sports); and finally with ‘Charlie the clockmaker’ we had Helen McL (mystery), Emma (adventure) and Terrelle (fairy tale). Well done everyone for your innovation, humour and quick thinking.
Cold and wet this morning, but no snow, except Brett (sorry!) but plenty of crisp, sparkling wit and entertainment to warm us up.
Thanks Sandra
Read MoreMeeting #782 – 12 June 2015
Toastmaster Garry Musson was looking for excitement from us – any excitement we’d had in the previous week, or today ….. Judging by the response, a bit of a quiet week has been had by all. But undeterred, even though Garry didn’t have a theme for today, he injected his own humour and enthusiasm into the meeting and kept it moving at a snappy pace.
A beautiful sonnet ‘High Flight’ by Spitfire aviator John Magee was read by Steve Mydlowski; even more moving in that the sonnet was written not long before Magee died at the age of 19. A large picture of a Spitfire added to the poignancy of the poem.
Our three introducers Bee, Steve K and Helen McL all set the scene well for the speakers, giving us detailed background information about the speakers, their speeches and their objectives. This was later complemented by the speech evaluators Vivien, Jennifer and Rachel who all evaluated to the speech objectives and provided helpful recommendations, which is what it’s all about.
Emma Hayes speaking from CC manual project 2, shared her extensive knowledge about hip replacements, why they are needed and why custom solutions, with a very informative speech on the subject. In coming years who knows how many of us might require such surgery, so it was encouraging to learn how the latest technology will help us. Emma explained about how she designs custom hip sockets, complete with wonderful props of bones and joints to demonstrate how it works. With people like Emma specialising in this area our hips will be in good hands.
The man who specialises in pain, John MacVicar , today discussed dependency versus addiction, with reference to Sidumo Peaberry. And the latter, should you not know, is a variety of coffee bean from Ethiopia, which John used to describe the processes the cherry-like bean passes through before we drink it. Complete with cups and saucers, mugs and a coffee machine, John entertainingly illustrated how his introduction to coffee began at a tender age, to the continuance of his consumption of it through out his life. But he considers his is a dependency (rather than addiction) to the stuff! No withdrawal symptoms yet experienced apparently.
Third speaker Brent Ruru urged us to be inspired. Speaking from a snippet of his book ‘Rekindle you’, he spoke of how it takes a lot to create a good habit, how hard it is to replace a bad habit. Brent’s aim is to become a better conversationalist by looking up, and truly listening to a person before talking. Illustrating his point by sharing a story of when he did just this with a good friend, he showed how the resulting actions of the friend were an inspiration to himself. So … create the habit of conversation, look up, listen, watch the person grow – and be inspired. Great advice.
Alannah Vickery had a range of amusing table topics somehow loosely connected to there not being many single men around! The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach – for Mark, as long as it’s KFC. Brent wouldn’t be happy if his partner brought home a handbag dog – got to have a real dog , like a labrador. Alana would seduce her man with delicious food. Helen MacDonald only gets annoyed with ‘hot Brad’ when he doesn’t replace the empty toilet roll, and when he does, puts it on the wrong way. Danny told us of the pitfalls (and expense) of online dating – all is not as it originally appears; and Claire shared one or two intimacies of living in close quarters in a caravan. Wasn’t there a mention last week of porn stars from this couple???
What we learn at Toastmasters!
Blogger – Sandra Smith
Read MoreMeeting #781 – 5 June 2015
A lovely Irish greeting to begin the meeting on a cold wet morning; I can’t type the lyrical words of Sergeant at Arms Emma Hayes, but it translated to a ‘hundred thousand welcomes’. Or so she said!
Taking a break from parking, Toastmaster Kevin Warwood’s theme was ‘Today in history’. Throughout the meeting he supplied us with a number of interesting snippets of information about people and events associated with 5 June.
Tina Mackie was our bard this morning, reflecting on the change of seasons with the timeless words of the song ‘Turn, turn, turn, to everything there is a season’. I don’t expect many of us knew that these lyrics trace back to the biblical times of King Solomon.
IT security aficionado Kim Carter was first speaker, speaking from the CC manual project 3, Getting to the point. The point Kim was driving home was that cyber risk is very much alive and well, the hackers know all the tricks and the majority of passwords are so easy to crack. We need to keep ourselves safe online, and passwords that can’t be hacked easily or compromised are the answer – at least 16 characters long and made up of random characters. And to remember them, use a password database. Kim is very happy to advise people about this. Thanks Kim!
‘Porn stars’ – a speech title to make you sit up and pay attention at 7.20a.m. Claire Ruru, also speaking from CC project 3, got to the point by informing and inspiring us as to how it’s possible to afford to travel for months at a time – without being a bank robber or a porn star! Lots of great tips about saving money on the small things when planning to go travelling; (think no takeaway coffees, limiting eating out, clothes shopping in Op shops) and also having the discipline to bank all those savings. And when travelling, forget the posh hotels, hostels are fine and heaps of fun, eat in the markets, pick up some teaching and you’ll be able to keep on the move for months. It’s all about finding the courage to do it. Living in a ‘beachside, private, gated community’ also helps! But nipping out for a morning shower when it’s -4C takes a lot of courage, I think!
Going to the loo in open places! Getting to the bottom of the subject, Amanda Cartridge’s speech from CC project 5, Your body speaks, explored ‘loo services’ and what makes you happy. Her recount of digging her hole in Africa to ‘go’ , thinking she was private, only to turn to find a grinning goat herd watching, was entertaining. But to the goatherd it’s natural and he is happy with his lot, even if that is little. The message was to reflect on what makes you happy and do it at least once, or twice a day.
Vivien Cowey’s table topics session covered bringing about world peace (Deb is all for banning religion); living on the moon for a year (side-stepped by Garry to talk about Bill Black and his helicopter – well it is up in the air); convincing authorities to turn off the internet for a week (Brent somehow managed to bring this back to watching porn!!???); and finally the world is actually flat (Mark has found though, that on Google Earth it is in fact round).
Kevin didn’t disappoint by managing to bring in a mention of parking at the end of meeting, but still finished off with a couple more interesting ‘today in history’ facts.
I couldn’t resist googling a few random facts myself and this one has to be my favourite. So …. did you know that on this day, 5 June, in 1977, Alice Cooper’s pet boa constrictor was bitten by a rat it was trying to eat, and died.
Have fun, change your passwords, go well, save you money – and eat plants.
Thanks for your fantastic blog Sandra Smith
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