Baby it really was cold outside, but luckily the warmth of Algoa Toasties was enough to keep all of us cosy and welcoming. Again, we had a wealth of visitors – 10 this week – which is surely an indication of the vibrancy of our club.A special welcome to Rosemary Sampson who was inducted as a member tonight. Warm congratulations go to her on the nomination of her daughter to the JCC (which incidentally carries out its business under the wise guidance of our own Marlene van Wyk – as if being past Division Governor and energetic toastmaster weren’t enough to keep her busy!)
President Colleen regaled us with stories of the Club Officer Training which took place last Saturday. One of the team tasks was to make a Club sandwich which comprised the following:
A slice of bread at the bottom representing HQ which is the foundation of all activities
Chicken, which is a symbol of being up bright and early (I suppose a slice of sparrow would have been too un-PC!)
Lettuce – because we are so environmentally friendly
Tomato, a sign of our happy shiny members
Mustard, because we like to keep things spicy!
A Purple flower for creativity*
Rosemary for remembrance*
A top slice of bread representing our members because they are the most important ingredient of all.
Congrats to Quinton Jacobs for showing the initiative of raiding the garden for the flowery additions!
Of course, we would fight to the death to prove our team should have won, although admittedly we liked the idea of the winning sandwich which was cut into small pieces, showing that TM develops all individuals equally.
Colleen reminded us of the Humorous speech competition scheduled for 13 August. Her injunction? To step out of our comfortable corner, and to be brave and strong – because we can do it! Speak to Colleen if you think you might want to enter. The competition is open to all members, regardless of CC level.
Mimi Makapula was our Toast Master for tonight’s meeting – and as always we were cheered by her charming smile and warm sense of humour. This was Mimi’s first time as TM – and she picked up the task at 24 hours’ notice!
We especially loved her new take on ums and ahs, with her impromptu karatedemonstration, complete with appropriate sound effects!
Louise Erasmus as grammarian offered us a challenging word of the day – mercurial – which five members managed to use.
Table Topics were conducted by entertaining-as-ever Nicholas Mitchell who introduced the fun or terrifying part of evening (depending on one’s perspective!). We were impressed that two or three of our guests had to courage to take part. Well done, guys.
Nicholas’s topic area was explaining to school leavers why they should follow a particular career path. He reminded us that if we are passionate about what we do, we will never work a day in our lives. Some bizarre vocations included:
Whisky ambassador
Furniture tester
Professional whistler
Dice inspector
Wrinkle chaser
Fortune cookie writer – who could predict – accurately – the winners of horse races and the Lotto – would that were possible!
Cow hoof trimmer
Fantasy Broker – actually a real job which involves planning extreme adventure holidays
Chicken sexer (something I learnt to do at school when I was a member of the Young Farmers’ Club – for true! I even won a prize on the Salisbury show!)
Oyster floaters
Snake milker – (be thankful if you just get to stand at a blackboard!)
The clear winner was Marlene who kept us amused with an account of her enviable job as a whisky ambassador.
The formal speech part of the evening kicked off with two CC1 icebreaker speakers. Well done Tanja and Liandra for getting your feet wet!
Tanja Gauss’s speech was entitled “Lame Fairy Queen with Math Talent”, courtesy of Namipaedia. (Her name Tanja means “fairy queen in Russian; her second name, Claudine, is Latin for “lame”; while a certain Mein Herr
Gauss was a famous German mathematician. She told us of her passion for rowing (and asked that we should please note the difference between “paddling” and “rowing” which is of course far superior!)
Liandra Schoultz shared her enthusiasm for music in a speech entitled “Music and Lyrics”. This multi-talented young lady has her grade 8 in both cello and piano, as danced in Youth ballets and plans to play for her licentiate in cello next year (while undertaking her pupilage to be an advocate in her spare time!)
Barry Serfontein (CC2 – organise your speech) made public speaking look easy with his speech “SIM”plicity, making the complicated technology of SIM cards understandable even for laymen such as us – and offered proof that smaller sometimes is better!
Alison Immelman did her CC8 (get comfortable with visual aids) on ways to be EQ Alive. She reminded us to face each day with a smile on our lips, and a song in our hearts.
Marianah Lourens was responsible for the toast of the day.
She shared with us her thoughts when she heard tributes pouring in for Tata Madiba on the occasion of his 93rd birthday. She suggested how honoured we might feel if he were our father or grandfather. She reminded us, though, that we all have an unassuming, honourable man in our own lives. We were glad to join her in a toast to the ordinary men who do extraordinary things. Amen!
General evaluator and new division governor, Glenis, made us laugh at her tales of troubles with hand luggage. Surely only in Africa will you hear someone say “Come Mama – we’ll go this way!”Colleen ended the evening with the award of Top Toastie to Alison Immelman.
Roll on next meeting!
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