October Oddities

Darrell hosted a superb Spinnaker Toastmasters meeting on 4 October, with 13 present, 1 online, including one guest. The theme of the meeting was “October oddities” and Darrell peppered the meeting with oddball facts or sayings.

Grammarian Dale’s word of the day was “fanfare”, and several speakers managed to sneak the word into their speeches, including “without fanfare”, “thank you for that fanfare”, “fanfares in every corner”, and “what a fanfare”.

Table Topics Master Ron asked speakers to imagine they were candidates in the forthcoming local body elections and to answer curly questions.

Speaker 1 from Dirk was his “icebreaker” in which he explained “how I got here”. Evaluator Jacqui thought it was honest, in chronological sequence, and showed Dirk’s wry sense of humour.

Speaker 2 was Angela with “Parking with Pride”, part two of the story about getting a new “adult car” and their rules, and first few trips. But one rule was not stated – no throwing up in the new car, and that is exactly what her daughter did one night! Evaluator Katina thought the story had perfect structure, and was very funny.

Speaker 3 was Kathy who was redoing a previous speech on research and presenting entitled “French, Swiss or Italian?” In this speech Kathy explained the difference between these three types of meringue and did a better job of identifying her research sources. We were all hungry after that, and evaluator Megan thought the use of virtual backgrounds to show the various types of meringue were intriguing.

Finally Speaker 4 was Paul with “Whangamomona”, a story about the little known town in the Central North Island which is a self-declared republic. Evaluator Dave thought it was a great story, simple and clear.

Would you like to hear more speeches like this? Then come along and join us at our next meeting on Tuesday 18 October at 7.30 pm. Guests are most welcome!