15 December 2016 Synopsis

2016 ended on a high note with our Christmas meeting. There was a feast consisting of salad, pasta, beehoon, fishball, chips and dips, peach jelly, fruits and marshmallows with chocolate fondue, and an irrestitable rum & raisin log cake to tantalise our taste buds.

SAA Ida invited us to share about the best thing that happened to us in 2016. For Aarti, it was joining a mindfulness workshop and improving relations with her son; for Geri, it was going on a trip with her family to Sydney to celebrate her parents' 50th wedding anniversary.

Our club President Raj shared about the values of giving and forgiving through the inspiring story of Sindhutai Sapkal also known as Mother of Orphans. She is an Indian social worker and social activist known for her work of raising orphan children. She was born into a poor family, married off at age 10 and later abandoned by her husband. She had to turn to begging and realised there were so many children abandoned by their parents. She adopted them as her own and started begging even more vigorously to feed them. She decided to become a mother to anyone and everyone who came across to her as an orphan. She has nurtured over 1050 orphaned children. As of today, she has a grand family of 207 son-in-laws, 36 daughter-in-laws and over 1000 grandchildren. Many were choked with emotions after hearing this story.

Our three speakers entertained and enthralled us with their speeches. Rosean in her P5 speech Lost in Translation shared hilarious stories about misunderstanding when she first came to Singapore. Lena read us a beautiful story about The Quiltmaker's Gift where a greedy king learnt the value of sharing his gifts with others. Malcolm accepted the Advanced Communicator Bronze Award and gave a heartfelt speech entitled Milestones to recognise and thank the people who have travelled with him on his public speaking journey.

Our evaluators Gee Shing, Geri and Wen Liang were lavish in their commendations of the speakers. They also shared insights on areas for improvement.

Games master Joni made the audience put on their thinking hat for a Christmas Trivia Quiz. This was followed by a round of Christmas Bingo which saw the Geri-Aarti duo clinch the top prizes.

Audience members cracking their heads to answer questions in the Trivia Quiz

Table Topics Master Malcolm enticed the audience with mystery packages. Each speaker could open the package and talk about the gift or try to guess what the gift was. Tracey, Richardo, Joslyn and Li Ying gamely attempted the challenge and walked away with a name card holder, a cute toy, a scented candle and an IQ chain respectively.

Our LE Linda rounded up the evening's program with her incisive and insightful evaluation. She highlighted ways we could avoid saying "very" and mispronounced words such as "stature", "heavy", and "repetitive".

Congratulations to the following ribbon award winners:

Best Speakers Rosean and Leena (tied)

Best Table Topics Speaker Ricardo (guest)

Best Evaluator Geri Kan

Festive Christmas celebration!

A big thank you to our visiting Toastmasters Gee Shing, Linda and Wen Liang.