Our second meeting of 2021 included six guests—two from non-UK Toastmaster clubs—attend together with regular members.

Craig, our Toastmaster for the evening, warmed us up by asking what we are doing or not doing in lockdown that we would normally do, and why. Responses ranged from not going to the gym or exercising as before, not travelling or commuting, not dating, to doing new things such as birdwatching, saving money, walking and discovering new things locally, and starting podcasts. 

Marie, Santiago, and Tonderai delivered our three prepared speeches. Marie gave a speech entitled, ‘Speaking my Love Language’ which included an exploration of her own gap year as inspiration for her daughter’s plans, through which Marie realised her life pleasure centred on shared experiences. Santiago’s proposition that to lose weight, we just needed to drink red wine and eat chocolate was intriguing to us all! In ‘Spanglish’ Santiago described how some food stuffs help us burn more fat. OK, the diet requires other food as well as red wine and chocolate but at least these two foods are in it! Understanding my leadership style is a continuation of Tonderai’s leadership journey. His speech was based around the lessons learned after a former boss told him, ‘you don’t always have to be right.’ Another set of well delivered evaluations were given by Michael, Imogen, and Ron.

Our Topicsmaster for the evening, Qaya, chose to challenge the Table Topics speakers. With seven impromptu speeches delivered, our guest, Charlotte, was voted this week’s Table Topics Champion with a story about taking the last few steps to the summit of Everest.  

Grammarian Steve chose ‘reflection’ as the Word of the Day, which dictionary.cambridge.org defines as a sign or result of something, serious and careful thought which saw a competitive 11 uses during the evening.

Thank you to everyone who took on a role and attended the meeting.