October 5th gave us a meeting that few of us will forget for a while.
We had just one speech, from Kieran Mangan. Kieran is not a man for doing something predictable (Kieran’s previoius speeches were his icebreaker based on what he learned from doing a paper-round and a 6 minute explanation of the Time Dilation Effect, part of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity). So we were prepared for something different, and we got it – Kieran shared his knowledge of Sumo wrestling with us, complete with a broad selection of Japanese terms and insight into the lives of some of the champion wrestlers.
The other highlight was Table Topics, where Saadia Alege took an unusual approach – she had pictures of classic (and not-so-classic) cars and asked members in turn to variously describe, sell or critique the car they had been given. What followed was a series of remarkably good responses, with highlights including John Cross describing his misbehaviour in the back seat as a child, cracking debut speeches from new members Tom Daniels and David Murray, and Guy Dennis describing a Nissan sports car with all the credibility of a motoring journalist. Come to Bromley Speakers, we’ll show you how to wing it convincingly!
But then our guest, Alpha, stunned the whole room with his description of the humble 2CV and the role it plays in the life of farmers in his native Ghana. It was informative, poignant and funny all at the same time.
Our thanks go to the evaluators of the evening – Neil Pettgrew who evaluated <Mieran, David Hampton eveluating Table Topics and Guy Dennis who evaluated the evening as a whole – all ably supported by Mohammed Bashiru (aka Bash) on the lights and Susan Rayner counting the ums and ers, Our thanks especially to Na Jiang, who was Toastmaster for the evening and ensured a warm and jovial atmosphere.
Do come and join us for our next meeting on Thursday, October 19th,