Our final meeting at Park Mall

 

Charming Cherlene from Buona Vista Toastmasters' Club, conducting a mini workshop on "Evaluation". The lady in black is our guest, Joan Tjoa.

 

Winsome Natasha from NUSS Toastmasters' Club as our honourable Toastmaster of the Evening! She is also the best table topics speaker.

 

With the Birthday Girl, Aveline Tan, who is also Senior Group Director at Dennis Wee Properties. Accompanying the group singing "Happy Birthday" to Aveline

 

Small, but exuberant group of toastmasters!

Yesterday was our final chapter meeting at Park Mall. At the end of this month, Dennis Wee Group will move to Toa Payoh, just opposite the HDB Hub. We had originally planned to have a big party, but when our President, Walter Lee realised we could only use the small conference room, we had to limit the number of participants to below 12 people.
Although it was a small group gathering, it was a fun and lively meeting.

Charming Cherlene brightened the room with her ready smile and vivacious personality. Her talk on evaluation and hands-on kept everyone excited and alert.

Though a novice, Natasha was an excellent toastmaster of the evening. She connected well with the audience, and her table topic presentation was touching and convincing. She talked about food and how it was her dream to open a restaurant that will provide delicious, yet affordable food to the public. She was voted the best table topic speaker!

I brought along a guest, Joan Tjoa, an attractive lady whom I recently met at the Seminar held by the IEA at NTUC Building. Though her first time at a toastmasters' meeting, Joan spoke quite well on the topic, "Money, Money, Money."

Since we had a small group, Walter and I had the same idea to give the table topics master, Paulin from Rivervale Toastmasters' Club, a topic to present. My topic, "What do you look for in an ideal life partner?" was chosen for her to present.

Tim from Raintree Toastmasters' Club evaluated Aveline's Project 8 speech on "Art is Life." It is always very interesting to watch Tim for she is one of the most expressive toastmasters I have ever met. Cherlene cleverly got everyone to be involved in evaluation of Aveline's and Michael's speech.

We also took the opportunity to celebrate Aveline's birthday. Aveline Tan was the amiable and soft-spoken lady who recruited me to join her team at Dennis Wee Group. Subsequently she also introduced me to the toastmasters' movement for which I am eternally grateful. Since I went to the office after my violin class, I had my violin with me, and played when the group sang her a happy birthday song. I must say I played terribly....ha ha! practising in the quiet of my room and playing in a room of vibrant and vivacious toastmasters are two very different things!!! Moreover, I dared not play the violin too loudly as nobody had ever played an instrument in our office before, and there were 2 seminars held concurrently in the nearby rooms. Nevertheless, I am sure Aveline knew that what I had lost in skillful playing was made up for by the sincerity in my heart.

I had intended to cook curry chicken but have been lethargic these few days as I am still having a cold. Since I was going to Toa Payoh to pick up my glasses, I volunteered to buy some food for the club from Toa Payoh. Just in case, more guests turned up than expected, I bought some extra food.

Aveline kindly cooked her famous "Cheng Tng" and we had many helpings.
As there was more than sufficient food, some of us were able to pack some food home and I was most happy when Cherlene packed some char siew bao for her precious, beloved mom. (Cherlene had presented many speeches on her mom, and we all felt like as if we already knew her mom!)

That is the spirit of toastmasters! We always make use of whatever comes out at every meeting so that we can be creative and ready to learn from one another.

Gan Chau