Written by Svetlana
Introduction
Bloomsbury Speakers Club hosted its regular meeting on Monday 26th January 2015 with an enthusiastic opening from President Jo who emphasized how busy Toastmasters are honing their public speaking skills and supporting each other through active listening and evaluation. This is the right place to be for anyone who wants to improve their public speaking skills till they truly enjoy themselves through this activity.
Prepared Speeches
After the Introduction, Jo handed the meeting over to the Toastmaster of the Evening Bronia, whose jovial and creative manner and the theme of the Evening turned the event into a real intellectual and emotional entertainment as usual! Theme of the evening was Sticky Situations and how we get out of them.
Bronia introduced functionaries of the day: Alefiyah the Timekeeper and Peter L. the Grammarian. Alefiyah copes with sticky situations through writing them through and Peter L. indulges himself in blues till he bounces back to his normal positive self. Peter L. introduced the word of the day “buoyant” and encouraged the meeting participants to use it.
There were three prepared speeches on the agenda. The first speaker Peter F.’s No. 4 Speech Project “Sylvia” was focused on advanced story telling. Peter F. used the opportunity to tell us a remarkable story of a lady who had a difficult life, but who also had a pleasant and sociable character and who managed to make people feel good and enjoy life together with her despite being very ill.
Faith-Rose (who finds solution through sharing and taking advice from her close friends) delivered Speech No. 7 “A New Start” devoted to “Failed Friday” – the 26 January of 2014 and looked into why people fail to fulfil their New Year resolutions. The research identifies some positive factors, which help attain the desired results, which are readiness to change, belief in oneself, taking setbacks constructively, and building up on mental strength.
Samuel in his advanced entertaining speech called “The Weight of my Problem”, which could also sound like “The Problem of My Weight”, gave us a gist of his adventures with various diets. At some point he realised that in addition to the support and encouragement from friends, family and colleagues he needed self-discipline. He also planned to do more exercise instead of watching TV.
We had warm guest introduction from Michelle and well-balanced and well-structured thorough evaluations from Damien, Nathaniel, and Ahmed.
Table topics session conducted by Janet (whose way out of sticky situations is to try and dissipate it with good music and other pleasant things) was a fun session with interesting questions and imaginative impromptu answers. Janet’s questions were related to relationships.
“Acceptable age difference?” went to Blake, who said the acceptable age difference was five years, which was enough room to have different experiences for two persons and not too long otherwise it will feel like dating a parent.
“Do you continue to date a person if it feels slightly wrong?” went to Connor, who shared a personal story of a blind date where he met someone for the first time, who had a different picture on social network and he lied about his age. It didn’t work.
“If your boyfriend is not answering the phone between 6 pm and 10 pm. What would you do?” went to Helen who talked about a different role of phones in the modern life. So, it’s hard to imagine why a person would not reveal his existence via mobile communication for several hours. The only reason she could suggest was for that person to be stuck deep down in the underground.
“Why do you think boys and girls have so much trouble getting along?” went to Aila, who shared her very reasonable thoughts about boys and girls having different interests; they play different games at school, for example. It is just so difficult to get along because they do not have same interests!
“What if a girl you have been dating for a while suddenly removed her teeth would it be a problem?” went to Peter L. who said girls are very strange and weird beings, so, it is more about pushing boundaries. He would be interested in exploring other weird things she might have under her sleeve.
“How long is long enough to have a serious talk in a relationship?” went to Matt who said talk should happen naturally or not happen at all.
“Why there are so many people attracted to the unavailable?” went to Emma who said she was a vivid example of someone who is always attracted to unavailable. The most dreamlike and perfect object or person is the unattainable one.
Egor (whose method of dealing with sticky situations is to sit still and wait till the end of the working day and leave) provided a concise and witty evaluation of Table Topics speakers’ interrupted by cheers and laughter.
Grammarian Peter L.’s report was thorough and very educational as usual with many examples along with some recommendations to the speakers.
It was followed by General Evaluation from Jilly Shaul, Northern Lights Speakers, provided a lot of positive feedback and very helpful recommendations. Her speech was enthusiastic and peppered with humour.
Awards
Best speaker award was handed to Peter F.; best evaluator award went to Nathaniel; and best impromptu speech awards went to Aila, Helen, and Peter L.!!!
Next meeting
Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 9th of February upstairs at The Clerk and Well, 156 Clerkenwell Rd, London EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6:30pm.
