Life & Death

This morning, I also made a return visit to MIM Toastmasters of Kuala Lumpur Club (thanks to Geoff Andrew), and I did my speech # 2: Leave Them with a Smile from the advanced manual, Humorously Speaking. My speech title was “Life & Death”. My evaluator was the eloquent ACG CL Ahmad Fakhri who explained that this was a challenging speech that requires me to express emotions that swing from being humorous to being serious. He said that my speech was – to use his own words – ‘brilliantly-choreographed’. But if I had done well, I must also admit that his evaluation was also exceptional – I thoroughly enjoyed his excellent wordplay.

I was a little more nervous than usual when I came for this meeting because I prepared this speech only at 6.30 AM this morning itself. And I surprised myself when I contributed a joke during the Humor Session too. I didn’t know I could be funny!

I have now reached the halfway mark. I have completed 5 speeches, and I have 5 speeches remaining. If this continues, I will be done by Thursday! So, if all goes well, I should celebrate – perhaps have a couple of beers? I don’t know why but suddenly, the image of Tiger Crystal beer lighted up in my mind.

And in the afternoon, I attended the Division B International Speech and Table Topic contest and saw and heard 5 International Speech contestants on stage. Dennis Wee was the champion, In the Table Topic contest, G Sivalingam was declared the winner from amongst 5 speakers also.

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After today, only the Division W contest remains. I have now heard the champions from Divisions C, P and B. If I can claim victory next week, my chances are bright in Miri. Don’t ask me why but I just know it. After Miri, it is the US of A where the winner will represent District 51. An enticing prospect!