Lewisham displays an air of authority

Wednesday 5^th August was a night full of pizzazz and flare. Our virgin Toastmaster Reuben popped his toastmaster cherry by warming us up with a great question – ‘which authority figure do you respect?’ This gave everyone licence to speak, relax and learn. Julie competently MC’d the evening and as the night got into full swing, we were entertained by 3 experienced speakers.

Our lovely president Flavia Gordon, talked about the life of Hitch. No, not the Will Smith character in his comedy movie, but none other than Alfred Hitchcock. She gave us a glimpse of his life and told us that the reason he was such a brilliant film producer is because he was so fearful of authority. Flavia asked us if we use our fears and phobias to fuel our passion. Food for thought!

Richard certainly did use his fear to fuel his passion for life! He told us about his fear of getting off his backside and onto his two wheeled steel horse (otherwise known as his bike) in order to live his life to the max. His sandpapered derriere or the one piece lycra outfit did not deter him from joining the cycling club which he now absolutely loves. His message to us – get of the hamster wheel, don’t become a human cabbage – just do it! Sound words of advice.

Habibu had similar advice. ‘Don’t be one of those people who let problems roll away naturally’ Habibu told us in his no 10 speech. If there is a problem, find a solution and get on with it! Powerful and inspiring words from our new Competent Communicator. Habibu gave us the lowdown on his last 18 months as a member at Lewisham Toastmasters and we all congratulated him on how far he’d come and how much he had grown. I would say ‘well done’ but our general evaluator Jason urged us to use a different praise so ‘salute’ Habibu; Heres to you!

Habibu Mugerwa collecting  his cc award
from Flavia Gordon

The second half of the evening was led by Paul. His maiden voyage as Tabletopics Master was smoothly done with a great set of questions all around the authority theme. I think the question about what 3 settings you would put on social media was wickedly difficult. I’m glad I wasn’t taking part! But all our guests answered really well. No one would have known they were guests unless they told us J

Jenny gave a seamless, supportive and professional evaluation of our guests efforts as did all the evaluators who found positive recommendations for our speakers which was extremely difficult given the quality of the speakers.

As usual, Richard won best speaker. He’s clearly got some clout! Someone else needs to get that best speaker speech next time. Will it be you? You got to be in it to win it so use your phobia of public speaking to passionately smash the cabbage! Come on, just do it!