What does it take to awaken your senses? And what exactly is your favourite smell? Good question and one which the Vox members tried valiantly to answer during the course of Wednesday night’s meeting! Jeremy, our impressive Toastmaster for the evening, shared with us that the smells of hay, turf fire and petrol are among his favourites. Meanwhile, James revealed that his favourite smells are the scent of trees in Spring and the scent of freshly baked doughnuts from the kiosk on O’Connell Street. I was waiting for someone to own up and say that their favourite smell was the smell of chewing gum, but no one did, so I guess that’s one preference I’ll be keeping to myself :)
Jacinta, challenged us all to an exciting Topics session, as Topicsmaster. As Conor commented at the end of the Topics session, the sign of a good session is when there are several responses to any one topic and on Wednesday night, you couldn’t keep the Vox members from the floor, the responses to the topics were so good! The first topic of the night generated a lively debate on the subject of when Spring officially starts. Tony stated that Spring starts when the birds begin to sing. Merrrilyn declared that there is some confusion in Ireland about this, as Spring starts in February in Ireland but in March for the rest of the world. Typically Irish eh? We’d have to be different!
On the subject of New Year’s resolutions, Rosie put forward the innovative suggestion that it is better to have ‘Spring Resolutions’ rather than New Year’s resolutions. Dan O’Neill waxed lyrical on the topic of free events in Dublin, stating that one of the best free things to do in Dublin was to go for a walk on Dun Laoghaire pier, take in the sea air and enjoy an ice cream from Teddy’s afterwards! While Ciara shared with us the delights of ‘pop up events’ from ‘The Happening’ including something which I really must try out myself (if I am ever flexible enough) ‘Pop Up Yoga’ on Sandymount beach.
Moving on, Conor gave us a ‘tongue in cheek’ account of why he ‘loves’ Facebook. He cited the main reason for this as being the 500 close and personal friends he has on Facebook – including that one particular close and personal friend he met at the underage disco when he was a teenager and never laid eyes on again after that LOL
Fiona Fahey, wowed us with another powerful ‘Open Mic’ slot at last night’s meeting. She read a poem to us that she had written herself which had been prompted by the passing of her friend’s father. It was a very moving piece of writing, beautifully written and was spoken with great feeling.
Anna Marie gave us a delightfully humorous CC1 speech on the subject of why ‘Trouble is her friend’, sharing with us her colourful stories from her time in India – including her role in an Indian TV commercial no less! Garrett also gave us a great CC1 speech, recounting the fact that he played semi-professional rugby in the past. Impressive or what?
Jean Marie gave us a stimulating speech on the subject of whether ‘Statistics are all lies’, a very interesting and illuminating speech on the problems that can arise with statistical analysis, if the correct methods aren’t used. Finally Fiona O’Meara gave us a magical speech on ‘The Death of the Reader’, describing how she got lost in the world of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia as a child.
The Evaluators for the night rose to the occasion once again. Conor commended Anna Marie’s ability to weave a story, while Rosie complimented Garrett’s great connection with the audience.
Dan O’Neill evaluating Jean Marie, praised him for speaking without notes and Frank praised the mesmerising content of Fiona’s speech.
Finally Merrilyn rounded off the evening with an extremely thorough and enjoyable General Evaluation. She commended those doing a role for the first time last night – Jeremy as Toastmaster, James as Timer, Michelle as Grammarian and Maria McGrath as Ah Counter and encouraged everyone else to get up and ‘have a go’. Congratulations to Frank who won the prize for the best evaluation and to Fiona O’Meara who won the prize for the best topic.
So the only question that remains to be answered after Wednesday’s meeting is … when do YOU believe Spring actually begins? Is there a ‘Spring already in your step’ and if not, well then there’s always the option of some Pop up Yoga on Sandymount beach – with an electric heater in close proximity LOL
Next week: 12th February 2014, there will be a Toastmasters workshop with wine tasting! Venue: the Harbour Playhouse, Portobello at 7pm.
Gemma Shannon, Vice President Public Relations