For today's guest blogger I would like to introduce Iris Wong. Jenny knows her thru Hong Kong Partners Meet Up Group. She requested the post to be posted as per what she has written. Here goes~~
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How would you like your toast?
The classic British style would be to it have it with baked beans. In Hong Kong we like to have it with condensed milk. Other favorites would be to have it with jam, butter, jam AND butter, Marmite, Nutella, kaya, peanut butter, cream cheese, or as a toasties and load it up with cheese, ham or whatever ingredient you want in the middle. The weirdest one I’ve heard to date is to have it covered in chili oil and spam! Yum yum~
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Yesterday I came across a totally different kind of toast. I went to a Toastmasters meeting, where people gather twice a month for a couple of hours. People were all very friendly, but there was not a toaster to be seen. So what is this Toastmasters all about? They even say on their website “No, we don’t make toasters”. Hmm...ok, so what do they do? And more importantly what do they want me to do from 7-9:30pm with an empty stomach? Ah...so they want us to talk! More specifically, they want to develop our ability to talk in public. Originating from California in 1924, this international club is place where people join together, practice and learn public communication and leadership skills.
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This all sounds so serious but I saw people were actually having a good time. That night’s theme was “forgive and forget”. The most enjoyable part of the meeting was table topic time. Volunteer would go out on stage, then given a topic related to the night’s theme and present a two minutes public speech on the spot! You see, it is fun to watch people offer themselves to be under the spotlight and forced to think on their feet. I loved their creativity, courage and the ability to be funny even when they’re lost for word. I was enjoying the evening and thinking that a two minutes speech can’t be that hard when one of the coordinators suddenly began to “invite” a guest to have a go. And guess what? That guest was ME!
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Well, it’s not in my nature to say no to people that easily, so I just stood up and went to the speech area. “Think of something that someone did that made you really angry, and you were able to forgive and forget”. Easy, right? My brain promptly went blank. As I was scanning all the looks in the audiences I couldn’t think of anything that related to the topic. “I must be a bloody forgiving as well as a forgetful person then if I can’t think of anything to say”.
“Good evening everyone, first of all I’d like to let you know that this is my first time ever talking in Toastmasters...” Idiot, I meant public speech!
“...so if I make a mess please forgive me, and if I’ve done it really badly please forget about tonight” OK...sounding a little bit sad but hey ho carry on.
“.................” Two minutes now seems like an eternity.
“...can’t think of anything to forgive and forget, ‘cos I have a very hot and quick temper”. Hmm...
“Just discovered recently what my Enneagram is...” Where’s that come from?
“...so to conclude, I’ll need to learn more on how to forgive and forget, thank you”
I could feel the burn on my cheeks and the return of my talking ability as soon as I sat back down. Yep, I’ve got nicely toasted that night.
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| Photo > Jenny, Jenny & Iris on the Party! |
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Thanks a lot for being our guest blogger today Iris. Very much appreciate for your effort on writing such a good post and I bet many of the readers are hungry when you mentioned about all kinds of toasts in the beginning. Haha!
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Guest Blogger > Iris Wong
Text > -babYmilZ-
Special Thanks > Iris Wong
