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Friday 28 February 2014

471st Meeting Recap (20th February 2014), or The Nails, The File and The Fire Engine

Best Prepared Speech: Darren Loh
Best Evaluator: Ang Wee Yong, ACG, ALB

Our Toastmaster of the Day, Toastmaster Joe Wan, gave the meeting his own unique flavour when he asked us to pair up in groups of 2, and tell each other “I think I'm going to love this guy!!” (“This guy” meaning Joe)

Club President Gurmit Singh, CC, officially started the meeting with a story: there was once a boy who used to get angry often. His father told him, to control his anger, he had to hammer in a nail into a wooden fence post, each time he got angry. It took quite a bit of effort to hammer the nails in (these were the days before nail guns, or his father didn't allow him to use one). Soon, the boy learned to control his anger. After a few consecutive days of angerless bliss, his father told him to pull out each of the nails: but he could only pull out one nail per day. When he finally finished pulling out ALL the nails in the fence post, his father told him to look carefully at the wooden fence post. There were holes in the fence post (the boy was a genius), where the nails used to be. His father told him, “You see, these holes are like the hurt we cause whenever we say something in anger. Even though the nails are gone, but the hurt remains”

The first Prepared Speech by Toastmaster See Shunwei, began with him showing us a coin. He told us that it had 2 sides, a head and a tail. And Shunwei talked about how many of the things that we see can be interpreted 2 ways, eg pictures of schoolkids sleeping on the MRT train seats. Are they really tired, or do they just want to occupy the seats by pretending to sleep? Or consider the case of a guy with tattoos and piercings wanting to share a table with us, during mealtimes. Would we be willing to share the table with them, or say that the seats available are occupied, even though it is not?

The second Prepared Speech, by Shaun Li, ACS, ALB, started with a question: “What if, only after getting married, the true colours of your spouse emerges?” Shaun illustrated, full of drama, to show us what a daily commute to the city was like. More importantly, Shaun shared with us 2 techniques of entering MRT trains: 'The File' and 'The Prata'. 'The File' involves slotting in sideways in a narrow space (like placing a file on a shelf), and 'The Prata' is when you weave in between people to get ahead.

The third Prepared Speech, by Toastmaster Kathryn Low, was about her Chinese New Year Celebration. Kathryn spoke in detail about how she prepared for Chinese New Year, why some people avoid relatives during this time (it's like a Police interrogation, even though they may 'mean well'- they're probably just really bored) and why she makes sure there is fish at mealtimes ('fish' in Chinese sounds like 'yu' or 'abundance)

The fourth Prepared Speech by Toastmaster Darren Loh, started with “I have a dream” like Martin Luther King, Jr's landmark speech. Darren then proceeded to talk about how his son dreamed of becoming 'a fire engine' (sic). Darren wanted to correct his son's grammar, saying what his son really wanted to be, was a 'fireman' (actually I agree with his son, because to me 'fireman' conjures up an image of a man on fire. Either that, or Donald Trump). “It's really pointless arguing with a boy that has a fire engine in his hand” Darren conceded. He's right. Later when he asked his son again, his son wanted to be a 'gardener'. His son clearly took pride in his work, watering the plants in their garden with amazing regularity. Darren said he can change his original dream of becoming 'the best engineer' to 'the best father' to support his son's ambition. That's a Dedicated Daddy if I ever saw one.

The fifth Speaker, Toastmaster Flora Fong, in her speech entitled “Everything Happens for a Reason”, told the sad tale of how she flew all the way to Singapore for a job interview, and ended up not getting the job. However, Flora was persistent and asked her interviewer what she did wrong, and why she wasn't hired. Her interviewer was kind enough to tell her the area she needed to improve: her communication skills. Flora took it in the right spirit and concentrated on improving that area of her life. Long story short, Flora is now working in Singapore!

Andrew Chen, ATMB, ALS, presented a speech for the AP4 “Addressing the Opposition” project. He talked about how Tampines Changkat Toastmasters has evolved from NCOC 1 (thank goodness we got rid of that robotic name, even though it's our heritage) to the present form. Each time the club had to close down, we found a way to resurrect it! In a hypothetical situation where we were going to be charged to use the Community Centre's facilities, we basically had 3 options:
  1. Raise membership fees to offset the additional charges (not everyone's favourite option)
  2. Hand over control to the Community Centre, (including all decision making and funds!)
  3. Move to another Community Centre, which allows us free reign of usage time and fund allocation
After the presentation, there was a Question and Answer session. Then we all took a vote to decide the (hypothetical) future of the club. Can you guess which option most people went for?*

Our seventh speaker, Toastmaster Linda Low, gave a speech entitled “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?”, which got our attention. She talked about how there are 3 types of millionaires:
  1. Those self-made millionaires
  2. Those who inherited their millions
  3. The 'windfall' type: eg lottery winners
Can you guess which type will have the millions at the end of their lives?**
(Even though I aspire to be Type 3, I just have to accept that I'm going to be a Type 1- time to get cracking!)

Last but not least, we had John Bhaddo Lee talk about a place he's travelled to: Chiengmai, in Thailand. I've personally heard wonderful things about Chiengmai, mostly involving tall, supermodel-looking women populating the city. I must go someday!

Back to John: he described the wonderful food, noodles with grilled meat and something called “Kau Soy”- a soup with crispy egg noodles. Sounds yummy! Everything except the tall, supermodel-looking women. Wonder if it's true...?

After a really short break, and listening to the incredibly energetic and enthusiastic Evaluators, we ended the meeting. Next meeting, we'll be having our club's International Speech and Table Topics Contest.

Till next meeting, be a millionaire so that you can support your kids' ambitions!

Carl Wong HL
Vice President of Public Relations

*Option 3: Move to another CC

**Type 1: Self-made millionaires, barring any financial catastrophes, eg planes dropping down and totally destroying their cargo ships. Hey, it happens. Or, if they were in said cargo ships, then yes, they did die with their millions.

Best Prepared Speech: Darren Loh

Best Evaluator: Ang Wee Yong, ACG, ALB

Roy just joined us as a member!

Pijush who just joined Tampines Changkat TMC, giving his thoughts about the meeting

Irene Choo, one of our guests

Kheng Soon

Shaun Li and Johnbosco: Do they look like brothers?

Thursday 13 February 2014

470th Meeting Recap (6th Feb 2014), or The Apple Millionaire, The Pearls and The Kobe Beef

Best Prepared Speech: Gladys Tye, CC
Best Evaluator: Andrew Chen, ATMB, ALS
Best Table Topics: Shirley Lam

Club President kicked off the meeting with a story. Once upon a time, there was a millionaire who was explaining how he got rich. “My father gave me 20 cents. I used it to buy an apple, polished it, and sold it for 40 cents. The next day, with that 40 cents, I bought 2 apples, polished them and sold them for a total of 80 cents...” His audience was on the edge of their seats. “Then my uncle died and left me a huge inheritance. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was how I became a millionaire”

Hey, don't throw the keyboard at me. You knew that was coming. Whoever heard of an Apple Millionaire?

Our club was also graced with the presence of Raphael, a 10-year-young boy who seems to have all the qualities of a great Toastmaster, however he's too young to join. He did, however participate in Table Topics.

The first Prepared Speech was by Gladys Tye, CC. She was presenting an Advanced Speech from the Storytelling Manual, but we had to guess the title from the speech content, and it was only revealed at the end of her speech. It was the story of two sisters, Ah Lian and Ah Huay (the story has been localized for a Singaporean audience), who were kind and nasty, respectively, and their mother. Ah Lian had to fetch water from a well. She met an old lady who asked her for a drink of water. After Ah Lian gave her the drink (and the extended conversation), she got herself into trouble because she was late. However, pearls started dropping out of her mouth whenever she spoke (these were real pearls, not the bubble tea kind). Long story short, her mother wanted Ah Huay to have the same gift (why anyone would want TWO daughters with pearls coming out their mouths is beyond me- you'd have to wash and dry the pearls before selling them, and set up a Pearl Sales and Marketing Department, collect money, set up and maintain websites, etc), but since Ah Huay was cruel to the lady (who now looked very pretty, like Jessica Alba) she had frogs coming out of her mouth each time she spoke. If I were Ah Huay I'd keep my mouth shut. Or sell the frogs to Biology students. There was a happy ending for Ah Lian, but not for Ah Huay or her Mum. Can you guess the title of the speech? Hint: it's about what came out of the sisters' mouths.*

The second speech was by Carl Wong, CC. His Advanced Speech was from The Entertaining Speaker manual, entitled “I Wish I Had a Wife”, taken from a 2001 Korean movie of the same name. Carl spoke about being introduced to a 1-year-old wife (yes, that's what really happened), the story of the Korean movie that he chose, and how things were not as easy as 'spouse shopping', ie buying a spouse from a supermarket. Also Carl shared his criteria for a wife, which was met by groans of agony from the audience: Kind, Loving, Intelligent, Sexy, Beautiful, Understanding, Tall and Humourous... but acting on advice from his married colleague, he has modified it to only 2: must speak English, and must be a Toastmaster (well having a great sense of humour and looking like Jessica Alba won't hurt)

The third speech was by Toastmaster Joe Wan. His P5 speech from the Competent Communicator manual was about his experience in Japan. He and his wife were having their honeymoon, and decided to try a Syabu-syabu Japanese Buffet (thin beef slices that were cooked quickly in boiling water). Since the cost was only 3,900 yen, they thought it reasonable and ordered it. But then they saw it (cue Mr Bean theme song and light shining from above, on the menu)- Kobe beef, one of the most expensive beef ever (my friend told me that they play music for the cows, feed them beer and massage the cows. No kidding. But he called it Wagyu Beef). Again, long story short, Joe saw that the bill amount seemed more than he had anticipated (27,000 yen), talked to the manager to get a discount, and got charged for the Kobe beef 'at cost' (10,000 yen total). One Toastmaster even had the cheek to ask (jokingly) for the restaurant name, so that they could attempt the same stunt again.

The fourth speech, by Richard Lam, ATMB, CL, was about “Choices”. He elaborated about how he had decided to uproot his family and relocate to Bangkok 15 years ago, stepping up to a challenge. He and his wife Shirley Lam joined a Toastmasters Club to mingle with other English-speaking expatriates in Bangkok, and that's what made him the amazing Toastmaster that he is now.

The final speech by Coen Tan, ACS, ALB, was entitled “The Choice” (singular, this time, and preceded by “The”; the similarity with Richard Lam's speech was the title and how choices made at pivotal points in their lives have altered them greatly, but otherwise the 2 speeches differ greatly). Coen began by imitating his secondary school Additional Maths teacher in Sec 4: “You're a disgrace to the school! You're lazy! You don't give a damn! You don't care!” (Methinks you need to read The Secret and learn about the Law of Attraction, teacher)
Then Coen talked about how he confessed his love for the girl that he liked, asking her to be his steady girlfriend. “You're a nice guy, Coen” (Oh, that usually doesn't end well). “I like you... as a friend”
Coen articulated the voices in his head: “LOSER!! FRIEND ZONE!” But he remembered something his mentor taught him (and I, in turn, learned from Coen): “You can close your heart in fear, or open it in LOVE” And that, dear friends, is how Coen came to be with his current girlfriend.

Till next meeting, Check buffet price lists and open your heart in love!

Carl Wong HL
Vice President of Public Relations


*Answer: Pearls and Frogs
Happy Birthday too youu...
  
February babies!
Blowing out the candle

Cutting the cake

What enthusiastic singing and photo taking

You can see Raphael standing next to Shaun

Preparing the Yu Sheng

The Lou Hei

We got more Yu Sheng on the table than on our plates

Linda Huang, CC; Coen Tan, ACS, ALB; Gladys Tye, CC; Zhuo Shuzhen, ACB, ALB
Our youngest speaker!!

Best Prepared Speech: Gladys Tye, CC

Best Evaluator: Andrew Chen, ATMB, ALS

Best Table Topic: Shirley Lam

21st Anniversary Celebration at Tropica Condo

Darren, Thomas, Shaun, Linda, Terence and Cheng Lee
Nui, June and Coen

Mr Augustine Lee and Cheng Lee

Yummylicious!!

Club President Gurmit Singh demonstrating how he would dodge a bullet if he were in The Matrix



Sexy... Blue... NUI!!

You can now find out your exam results on Nui's Head Display

Politician... Hot... Mum...
"Ladies and gentlemen, this magic iPad can show you who comes to Roger's mind when he closes his eyes. Oh, it's not Jane..."
"Let's try this without the iPad: How many fingers am I holding up?"

"HAHAHA!! We won't tell Mingjian where we've hidden his... item"
Mr Augustine Lee talks about the beginnings of Tampines Changkat Toastmasters
Popping open the champagne isn't as fun as guessing where the cork will land

When his initial attempts with a lighter prove unsuccessful, Mingjian uses his mini lightsaber instead to light the candle
Cheng Lee giving an emotional speech

Our 21st Birthday Cake!!

With Champagne!

What 4 bottles of wine will do to you... the banner's floating away, like in the movie "Up"

Everyone smiling

Past and current Club Presidents
Group photo

"Whoever loses this round has to eat the paper plates"
For more photos, check out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/inpho_sg/sets/72157640009369513/

Thursday 6 February 2014

469th Meeting Recap 16/1/2014 or “The Emperor, The Stewardess and The Bohliao Times”

Best Prepared Speech: Coen Tan, ACS, ALB
Best Evaluator: Chia Choon Kiat, ACB, CL
Best Table Topics: Gladys Tye, CC and Pak Wing (tied)
Word of the Day: PARAGON

“What's the most memorable thing you've done in 2013?” asked the Sergeant-at-arms, Nui Thantong Bang-on, CC. I didn't have to answer verbally because we were focusing on our guests. In my mind, I thought of last year's Speechcraft, which I helped organize, and as Club Secretary Gladys Tye, CC, mentioned, I had the most able people help me and advise me. It seemed one of those challenges, in which you wonder “What have I gotten myself into? I don't know how to do this” but we pulled it off, as a team.

Michael Wee, DTM, gave us “PARAGON” as Word of the Day. It means a perfect example of something, eg “Carl is the paragon of narcissism”

Club President, Gurmit Singh, CC, talked about “self-doubt” in his Opening Address. He gave the example of insurance agents who had to set their annual goals, and had to balance their yearly targets: set it too low, they're not ambitious enough; set it too high, and gasps of disbelief are heard.

In this particular meeting, we tried a revolutionary reshuffle of the programme: to have Table Topics first, before the Prepared Speech segment. Some of the questions were: “What is your favourite family tradition?”, “Is it harder for you to eat healthy or exercise?”, “Is it better to be a kid or a parent, and why?” and “What age would you like to be, and why?”

Toastmaster Matthew Er, spoke eloquently about the First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, how he united the warring states and built the Great Wall of China.

Linda Huang, CC, shared many job search tips and statistics, eg the number of passive job seekers are on the rise (passive job seekers are job seekers who are not actively looking, and are not really motivated to change jobs). One important tip was to have a Linked In account and update it regularly.

Coen Tan, ACS, ALB, did an Advanced Project called “The Press Conference”. The background is that a female flight attendant was caught in a compromising situation with a male passenger, and Coen has to defuse the situation and turn it into an advantage. The Q and A session with journalists from “Bedok Baozhi”, “Punjab Times” and “Bohliao Times” turned out to be more interesting, but Coen kept a straight face and ended the press conference just before time was up.

Shaun Li, ACS, ALB, gave a hilarious speech about finding spouses from Toastmasters. He had seen some successful couples in our club, and thought he could perhaps do likewise. Unfortunately for Shaun, our club was attracting more guys than girls...

Below are the photos of the Best Speaker, Best Evaluator and Best Table Topics.

Till next meeting, learn, implement and prosper!

Carl Wong
Vice President of Public Relations

Best Table Topic: Pak Wing

Best Table Topic: Gladys Tye, CC

Best Prepared Speech: Coen Tan, ACS, ALB

Best Evaluator: Chia Choon Kiat, ACB, CL