h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've been to two Toastmasters meetings so far. Tullamore Toastmasters meet once a fortnight in the Court Hotel. I'm yet to speak at a meeting, but they're fun. It costs seven euro to attend, but the first three meetings are free. After the last meeting, I was asked to be the Grammarian at the next meeting. I turned it down, but said I'd do the one after. That means getting up at the end to talk about the way people have used and abused the English language over the course of the meeting.

The meetings are in two parts, with a break for tea and biscuits in the middle, so I've had a chance to get to know the group. There are about twenty-five people there.

TRiG.

I know another guy in Ireland who joined them.
He enjoyed it too.

Sounds interesting. Woodpigeon used to be involved with them down in Cork, if I remember rightly.

Zarquon's Singing Fish used to be really active in her local group:

F75037?thread=5649081

No equivalent here in Germany. They don't even have debating clubs.

They seem to have a few groups in Germany, TC:

http://reports.toastmasters.org/findaclub/ (pick Germany and click "find".)

Good heavens - I spoke too soon! There are 2 near me!

Anyway, I'm not sure it's my thing - I'll look forward to reading about your antics and successes, like I did about ZSF's.

There's one in Mannheim, TC:

http://reports.toastmasters.org/findaclub/searchresults.cfm?Country=Germany&State=&City=Mannheim

There's one in Frankfurt, too, not very far from where I live.

What do they do?

They're a bunch of nutters, actually.








Suits me, so.

Actually, at the last meeting, we had impromptu speeches from Goldilocks' prosecuting and defending attourneys.

TRiG.

That sounds better than the impression I had.

How big's Tullamore anyway? I've never been there, but there seems to be a lot there.

There isn't really much here. Some of the oldest primeval oak woods in the country, a nice castle, the Tullamore Dew Heritage Centre, and a few hotels.

There's amateur dramatics and amateur musical societies and a bit of stuff going on. We're the only county town without an arts centre.

TRiG.

Build it and they will come....

I didn't think it would be that big. But oddly in the past couple of months I've noticed the town popping up in lots of different contexts.

Must be a lot of ley lines running through it.

I get the impression that Toasmasters clubs can vary widely. The general idea is to improve your public speaking, but some people are there for the social evening and others are there to improve their management or salesman skills. The Tullamore Toastmasters club are a fairly relaxed bunch of nutters, so the meetings are fun. Last Thursday was my fourth meeting, and therefore the first at which I had to pay. So I'm now officially a member. I also had an official role, as grammarian, and I spoke a few times during the Topics section. My first time to speak at a meeting. So I was given a bottle of wine. Apparently loads of people brought spot prizes for the Christmas party and they weren't given out, so the president of the club has been handing them out at meetings ever since.

And then I hung around in the hotel bar chatting after the meeting, and got home at 1 a.m.

TRiG.