New Year Party
The first UEM Toastmasters meeting of the year couldn’t come soon enough. As fast as lightning, as quick as any furiously impatient party pooper, we started off the meeting with a very fitting theme – NEW YEAR PARTY! I was so glad to be back as TME after half a year.
The meeting started off with a different vibe. After CC Johan’s presidential speech, 3 minutes were allowed to “Blow Your Balloon”. The plan? Simple. Each person just had to blow their balloon and tie it up in 3 minutes. A very easy activity you could say but for inexplicable reasons, people still laughed. Just for blowing balloons.
Next, we had the Project Speeches:
1. Hishammuddin CCM#4 – Birth
Hishammuddin, our latest humour favourite delivered another tummy tickling speech when he spoke on, not his, but his wife’s experience of giving birth and the way he saw it. It doesn’t matter if I couldn’t remember all that he shared, as long as we all remember it was a “bloody thing” affair.
2. CC Junjun ACM#1 – Sleeping Beauty (The Folk Tale project from the Storytelling manual)
This is Junjun’s first attempt of her Advanced Manual! She recited the old story of Sleeping Beauty and delivered the story in her very own style. It got me wondering half way through. If I were to find a beauty who happens to be sleeping unexpectedly at, say, Mercu Level 20 at Group Finance, what should I do. Call admin?
Before we went for break, we had the Master of all Masters, ATMB "Uncle" Stephen Fernando to deliver his jokes during the Humour Session. He only talked about the facts of Indian movies, but still it was so funny!
-- BREAK --
After the break, before we started Table Topics, we had another special agenda – “Blow Your Whistle” for 1 minute. Usually when we go to speech contests, we have 1 minute of silence. This agenda was the reverse of that silence because we got to blow the party whistles and our lungs out for up to 1 full minute! This was also funny, because after only 35 seconds all of us were already panting and asked the timer, “Hey timer, time not yet up ah?”
Then we had the Table Topics session led by our Master, Chong Jin. Chong Jin gave an interesting series of interconnecting topics, so that when all the speakers spoke, they made up one single story. There were many version of speeches delivered too. They were funny, thought provoking, some raunchy and God knows what else.
1. CC Suhana – When asked on what is the best party you can have for New Year, she gave a really provoking answer. She said the best party is the party for singles only! Of course this shocked the fathers and mothers who were practically, the whole crowd. Nevertheless, she supported her argument very well and sharp.
2. ACB, ALB Chia Hur – He continued on what should be in the party. He said that for a singles only party, there should be… I can’t continue this, sorry. But I guess married people would understand the details. I am single and innocent so I have no clue.
3. Elias – He continued to agree with what both Suhana and Chia Hur mentioned. He managed to elaborate Chia Hur’s point, as he knows what married men know. I still was left blur.
4. Chong Jin – A surprise slot for the Master himself. His speech was a wrap up of what all the previous speakers have said. Despite all the provocations and raunchiness, he still could conjure up a decent summary and say that all the suggestions earlier could benefit the nation!
Right afterwards, the session was handed over to the GE, ACB, ALB Ernest Wong. He surely missed the club after a long absence and he was glad to be back! (Actually, he was there because I told him there was a party)
After some good 5 minutes of telling the club how much he missed us, he call upon the evaluators:
1. DTM Rohijas – He praised Hishammuddin for the “bloody” fantastic speech! Good choice of words with simple sentences. He offered valuable advice when he said that if Hishammuddin used more rhetorical devices, the speech would be more splendid and complete.
2. CC Suhana – Here’s an adult lady who expressed that now she has grown up, she expected to hear an unexpected twist to the story ending. Nevertheless, she enjoyed the enthusiastic delivery.
Then up came Uncle Stephen to deliver his Table Topics Evaluation. He was happy to see that all speakers were very comfortable to express themselves. He also shared his experience entering Table Topics contests up to District (!) level and said that this was a very good session to prepare the speakers for the coming contests.
Since there were only 2 project speeches and 2 evaluators, only the Best Table Topic Speaker was voted. And the winner is…
CC Suhana! Congratulations! It's her first award from the club on her first visit!
Here are some memento pics to mark the occasion:
Me and my uncanny habit of lining my tie next to my buttons
Group 1
Group DTM :)
Chocolate for the GE
Suhana the Table Topics winner! With an unusually serious-looking Uncle 
What's going on?
Everybody had a great party!
The meeting ended early at 9.00 pm. This was indeed a great meeting to open the year. It was full of excitement, fun, and laughter that everybody enjoyed it so much. My hope is that in future meetings, we will carry on to stimulate this *energy* we have so that UEM Toastmasters will always continue to be FUN!
Let’s rev up the party!
Singing off,
TME Hadzrin
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