Premier Meeting

Somebody captured me on camera on Thursday – in a rare and quiet moment – I was trying to read my speech. It was imperative that I tried to get some practice because I had the Area W1 International Speech Contest on the same evening. Needless to say, these moments were few and far in between.

On Saturday morning (i.e. yesterday), I went to Bankers Club at Wisma Amoda in Jalan Imbi, KL to attend the Premier Advanced Toastmasters Club meeting as the General Evaluator. An interesting experience altogether because this was a very different club meeting. E.g. Instead of a Table Topics session, they have the “Go with the Flow” session which is more a micro-debate session. Of course I enjoyed myself – well, I will always enjoy wherever and whenever I go to these meetings because to me, Toastmastering is fun! Moreover, it was well-attended, which was something great to behold. I guess, about the only qualm, I may have – although I hasten to add that one cannot judge from just one meeting – the quality of the speeches were just so-so. But then again, I have heard so much about this club that my own expectations may have been unrealistically lofty. But I got to listen to two speakers – Lee Sai Keong “From Zero to Hero” and Marcus Chee “Color of Rights” – who were practicing their respective Division-level International Speech Contests though – and they gave me a good idea of other Toastmasters’ winning speeches.

In a crucial EPL game, Birmingham substitute Kevin Phillips scored a stoppage-time equalizer as Arsenal's title challenge was blown off course in a bruising encounter. They collected a mere point in a match that they should have won in the first place!