Anchorvale TMC Chapter Meeting on 14th February 2015

Balloon, roses, chocolate

14^th February. Valentine’s Day. On that lovely afternoon, Anchorvale TMC gathered for a short and sweet chapter meeting at Seng Kang West Zone ‘D’ RC Centre. The meeting quickly got started with our President Sathiyaa, CC asking everyone to introduce themselves by sharing an interesting incident of their loved ones.

The meeting immediately moved on to the prepared speech segment. Senthil spoke on how to relax ourselves through a short and simple meditation exercise. Deb shared his story on how he earned everyone’s respect during his university times. His dramatic recount bagged him the gold. Ken then gave an amusing speech on how ugly he was as a kid. Chee Sian explained how love is able to change the growth of living things. In Thiam then persuaded everyone to change how they view photography by keeping it simple.

The table topics segment followed right after. The table topics followed the theme of the day – Valentine’s Day. Kin Foong, CC’s cheeky explanation of his topic won him the best table topics speaker ribbon.

Next was the evaluation segment where Salma, CC, CL, Sathiya, CC, Kin Foong, CC, Devesh and Zulhafni, ACB gave very helpful tips for our speakers. Zulhafni eventually beat the rest for the best project evaluation.

Since it’s Valentine’s Day, the ribbons were awarded with balloons. Surprisingly, the colour of the balloon matches the colour of the attire worn by the speakers perfectly! (See below for photos!) And it wasn’t a set-up!

Our first big event of the year, Anchorvale TMC International Speech and Table Topics Contest, will be held on 28^th February 2015 from 1:00 to 5:45 PM. It is an event not to be missed as you will get to see the best of Anchorvale battling it out for honour and glory.

Special thanks to all appointment holders and visiting guests: Ng Kin Foong, CC (Tampines Changkat Toastmasters) and Devesh Nair (Grassroots TMC).

Best Prepared Speech: Deb, TM

Best Project Evaulation: Zulhafni, ACB

Best Table Topics: Kin Foong, CC

Written by: Chen Ken

Hot Pink!

Light Pink!

Purple!

Division A Amazing Race on 31st January 2015

Wearing her shoes, all twenty-four carat,

To The Prom, she starts to walk.

After a meal, at the Old Market,

The Catfish swims, back to his spot.

This is a riddle. Can you guess the four landmarks it is referring to? For Anchorvale CC Toastmasters contestants to the first ever Division A Amazing Race; Norman Tan (Catch Us), Rachel Heng (The Killer Girl Squad), Roger Yap, Julie Mae, Ken and Rasu (Anchorvale Avengers), Suresh plus son Liktesh, Deb and Chee Sian (Anchorvale Minions), beside scratching our head, we had to frantically draw lines on the map linking Golden Shoe to The Promontory and Merlion to Lau Pa Sat. Next come the running to the metal cone sculpture (where the lines crosses) to take picture before running back to the starting point at UOB Plaza for the next clue.

Interestingly, our assignment at UOB Plaza was to do a spontaneous group dance for a minute, what a great workout! The Avengers and Minions (not the super heroes and the cute playful lots) decided to do a Macarena! You know, the one with folding arms and head touching movements……. All for the sake of the next clue, which is…..

Dashing off to Haw Par Villa! Taking the trains, it’s about one of few times we can take a breather. Phew! But on reaching the car park there, we have to stomach this; literally two pieces of bread and two biscuits per person from two members in each team before we can proceed into the villa. There we were treated to a hurried, or shall I add sweating, educational tour of traditional Chinese values, by taking picture of statues and information boards (if any) with at least two members from each group based on the clues given. On correctly identifying and photographing the five needed, one of which is Confucius (one other is Statue of Liberty – traditional Chinese values? How confusing!), we were given the next instruction to……

Scurry down to Vivo City! To the roof top near the hanging man for our next clue. Running around in an air-conditioned shopping mall, taking embarrassing pictures with mannequins (each team member to take one with each) and collecting free samples (at least one food, one cosmetic and one brochure) is another mad men experience. In addition to that, remembering at least fifteen words and acting out five of which from a gymnasium advertising “wall of offerings” is testimony the organizers (our member, Salma, is one of) believe in both mental and physical extreme stretch before we are allowed to…….

Enter Sentosa Island by foot! A great day to burn calories. No, the bread and biscuits cannot make up for it. We could take train or bus once we are in the island to Palawan Beach though. Again, no, not the one in sunny beautiful Philippines. But we were helped by beautiful beach goers in taking photograph of all four of us in a team jumping up, captured at the precise moment when we are in mid air, with the beach and the sun as our background. Taking in mind the jump was a challenge in itself as it was done with weak knees. This is so as we had just built a sand castle approximately a meter wide and, ahem, knee high! We had fun going back to our childhood play though. And alas, the moment of truth…..

Crossing the shaky and crowded hanging bridge with our shaky knees, we made our way to the final pit stop, which is the Southern Most Point of Continental Asia. Hurray! Anchorvale Minions emerged third in this inaugural Amazing Race! The magnificent bonding continues……

Written by: Chee Sian, TM

Groupie!

If it's not a full-stop, what is it?

Macarena!

Rushing to the checkpoint!

@Vivo!

Deb, you look really tired...

So hungry...

Chee Sian... 

2nd Runner-up!

Chilling out after a tiring day.

Anchorvale!

Group shot with all the participants!