"HAVE THE LAST LAUGH"

That was the title of the first of the two great speeches that kicked off our last meeting on Thursday 19th November.
Carol was speaking from the 'Entertaining Speaker' manual and told us about an embarrassing time she accidentally locked herself out of her hotel room. She had some great descriptions that helped us to visualise exactly what was happening! Helen, Carol's evaluator mentioned that this was a 'new and improved' version of a speech Carol had given before and had lots of commendations for her.

The second prepared speech was by Barbara, titled "Time to Say Goodbye". This was the 'touching story' assignment from the 'Story Telling' Manual. Barbara gave a personal story about the loss of her father and even though it was over 20 years ago, it was still a very emotional subject. Barbara saidshe coped well with it a the time by doing what she does best- writing a poem, which she read to us at the conclusion of her speech. We have heard a number of poems over the years from Barbara, from the light-hearted to the serious, and like this others this one was also a pleasure to listen to. Perhaps we can get a copy to share on the website? Noel gave a warm and sincere evaluation, and encouraged comments from the audience that showed the impact that Barbara's speech had.

Darryl was our Grammarian and gave an entertaining introduction to the word of the day "kibosh", which a few members enabled to work into their presentations. Darryl also pointed out some very good word pictures and also some not quite so well used words!!

Wendy was Table Topics Master and gave a good example of how to do this well, with a quick introduction and short questions, allowing time for four speakers to come up and tell us about a time they had actually met a celebrity. We heard about Jonah Lomu, Sir Peter Blake, Dame Kiri te Kanawa and Bill T. James. David evaluated and gave some good commendations.

Throughout the meeting our Toastmaster, Linda kept a steady 'hand on the tiller' so to speak, making sure that we started on time and kept things moving. She had a clear, well presented agenda and the fact that there were no changes necessary on it was an indication of the preparation that no doubt occurred before the meeting- Well done Linda.

Our Timekeeper, Russell kept on task throughout  the meeting (with an occasional prod from the Toastmaster!) and I am sure that he would have given a brilliant timekeeper's report if the General Evaluator (that was Laurence!!) had remembered to call on him to give a report!! Sorry ,Russell

(The General Evaluator obviously needs to get back into the swing of Toastmaster meetings before he gets tooo rusty-Ed)

Next meetings Thursday 26th November- See you there-- Laurence