Friday the 13th ...

Wow! Today is Friday the 13th. I wonder who started the belief that such a date is inauspicious, in contrary, i had a fufilling day!

Kicked started my day by noting I had lunch appt wif Rachel. She's my wonderful work partner, thou we only knew one another for 3mths. She's a nice gal, & somehow we shared an unspoken chemistry. My job in Co.S had to liaise with Co.G and she was the key contact person. We had a common working style which was being frank & open. As such, we could discuss our marketing ideas & stuff, & chatted via phone calls daily. Can't believe she's a mom of a 4yr old gal, if u get to know her!

We met up at Raffles Place & had no idea where to lunch! Rachel suggested going to a new Jap Restaurant at Golden Shoe Mkt. Well, the food there was alrite & we each had a Bento Set. Despite the limited menu variety, the restaurant was still packed with lunch crowd! Guess this is what happens, when u lunch in town! Actually, i do miss working in the city, buzzing with vigour... as my ofc was situated in some 'rural' areas, haha! We shopped around to digest our heavy lunch & she got to return to ofc at 130pm.

Sharks! On my way home, the skies rained dinosaurs! I was abit wet while getting up the bus. Went home to take a short nap & shower before meeting another fren for dinner. Luckily, by evening time, the rained stopped. I took MRT to Bugis to meet Melanie. We met at 6pm & my proposed dining idea was trashed...cos she din like the ideas. After discussing, we finally settled for Ajisen. It's my 2nd Jap food in a day? Well, good thing is i like to eat Ramen, haha! Mel kept persuading me to attend Toastmasters with her after dinner. I was hesitant & veri undecided to go or not! Cos she said was a few hours thing listening to a bunch of ppl talking...er, juz wonder if i be bored lo.

Mel said that besides me, another 2 of her gf would be going, so i gamely agreed. The Toastmasters gathering was at an industrial ofc in Aljunied...so ulu leh! If u guys have no idea what's Toastmasters...it's basically a USA concept whereby people were put in small grps to practice public speaking. Well, since i'm juz a sit-in guest, i doubt i need to speak...haha! When we arrived, the grp of around 15 ppl had began their intro speech. Even i was called upon to intro myself & what i did last wkend... so i happily tell these strangers, i went St.James last fri, hoho!

The agenda for the evening was some participants had prepared speech. Cos' the Toastmasters programme has projects for them to accomplish before proceeding up each level. The 1st speaker was the president of this grp & spoke about 7 wonders of the world, & relating back to 7 wonders of human beings...nice slide show. Btw, the speakers were also being timed for their speech duration, one of their criteria. Subseqently, a few other speakers spoke on their topics, incl Mel. I was captivated by this guy named Mark who talked abt Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & related it to 4 diff human pesonalities - DISC. Acronym for Dominance, Influence, Steadiness & Conscientiousness.

During break time, I happened to chat with Mark & learned that he's a trainer by profession. So having an interest to pursue this field, i asked him about his job & how to enter this profession. His answer was simple, 'Passion'. In fact, i was surprised he's an engineer by training but he's doing something totally unrelated, & able to speak with gusto. Public speaking is indeed an art, the more you do, the better you get. After the break, they had some evaluations on the earlier speakers. It was approaching 10pm & I tot the meeting would be over. But then, they actually sugg getting the guests to go up & talk!! Oh my god!

The challenge was you won't know what topic you 'lucky drawed' & you had to impromptu think on the spot & talk for 1 to 2 mins! I was eyed to be the 1st guest speaker. So, with abit of nervousness, i put my hand in the bag to pick my topic. My topic was 'Learning is an experience'. I dun wish to hold back anyone, so i juz tot for 10sec & started my impromptu speech! I greeted my audience & clamly said that tonite was a right choice to come. I summarised what i learned from various speakers tonite. Amazingly, when i started talking, the tots juz flew smoothly, & wif no rehearsals, I was talking to a grp of strangers in clear diction. It's been ages since i did such stand up speech! After the meeting, i received postitive feedback from a couple of them & was approached to join their club. Well, I had not decide to join, but i muz admit it was an unforgettable experience.