TM Comitee Meeting

It was wonderful to have for the first time Guests in my apartment, even if they came to work: it was our first meeting with the new leaders of the Lewisham Speakers Club. We have so much to learn yet!

I am from now on, for a year, Vice President of Membership. My role is large, but in a phrase, I have to insure new members will join and those in the club are happy with what we do and how the Toastmasters program help them.

From "prospective" to Guests. From Guests, new Members. And so on... happily, I am not the only one greeting guests and members and making sure our club operates well. I was happy with the mood yesterday evening, proving to me (as I think back now) that our goals, of each of us, is to make it work better.

Through discussions, sometimes even passionate, the important was "how to be more effective" for each of our members, and not at all any personal agendas. That is very important! Lots and lots of work awaits us from now on, for a year!

I am happy to have chosen to invest more energy in the Toastmasters and Public speaking, and having volunteered, when it was needed, to take a more active role, not only speaking. Of course, when you choose one way, you can not go others: I'll have to go lot less in the different Meetups I used, but I'll not drop all of them, just pace them farther apart, as of course my time and my energy is finite.

Twelve more days, and I'll turn 75!

Yes, I have now to prove myself (more then for others) then "there is life after 70" - and event 75 of course. My new friend, Klara does prove it to me: she is 86 and very active.

Lunch in the garden: a warm welcome

A wonderful afternoon (and lunch), and to say that a few weeks ago we did not know each other!

We met in Greenwich park, where she was walking her small dog, Pipa, and I was with my great-daughter anniversary party.

If I would not have asked that interesting lady of certain age and great intelligence for a photo, we would have never met. She was the one who detected my Hungarian accent, as it is also her mother language. Both of us did not speak it for a long time.

And we do have so much to tell each other!

We have sometimes difficulty to find the right words in Hungarian, but what a joy! And what a great hostess she is too! Difficult to describe all she did to make me feel welcome.

Some photos of the garden and her beloved dog

I love having guests

For the first time, I'll have people not from my immediate familly, and more then one or two visitors from around here, coming to my place.

What a joy to prepare, to imagine, even - to remember.

Remembering other times, far away in my life, when I lived in an apartment were we could dance. It was in Bucarest, I was 23, and for the first time, I finally had a group. In fact, they were the friends of my boyfriend, not mine, but they invited their girlfriends and I invited my friends with their boyfriends or alone.

OK, so it finished with one of my not so good friends taking away my boyfriend. She was probably ready to give him more then me, and I was away on a holiday where my parents send me to be farther from him. But I do remember with joy the excitement of preparation.

We will not dance of course, it is an official meeting, but I'll have different, not yet well known people come and as they go home, I'll know them better. Preparing, expecting, is great anyway!

Going nearer, playing

Trying to capture this morning what I liked in my living room, I took a few different pictures with the Canon, from farther, from nearer.

Then, after uploading them to my computer, I looked at each of them and finally took one and played. Changed, distorted, created something different.

A pleasure to play, even if I am not sure at all of my artistic ability to judge the results.

But here are a few from this morning: if you like any of them, download them to your own computer, play with them!

TM Club festive evening

This is our youngest member in the newly formed group, he did make already stunning progress from the time he joined!

At our festive meeting, he was the first going around with the microphone and warming up the meeting, a role he performed with lots of poise and elegance.

I told him so, before taking this photo, and you can see also his mother in the background really proud of him.

It is a pleasure to meet and speak and I hope his mother will have the courage to come and learn too, if I can do it at 75 (and went as I told her 30 years ago) she can do it too. And she has already wonderful gestures, a very speaking face and body language and a great voice too.

Another good contact I had with the District Governor Gary Sander responsible of at all the Toastmasters Clubs in United Kingdom , District 71. He was, as usual to really great men, very open and modest, he spoke mostly of his long hours of work and him forgetting even to eat. "One more year. But we are now at the 8th position world wide."

At the pause, he came near my chair and I took a picture looking up, I knew from my experience with the professional photographer who took the best one of me like that for the Magazine I appeared last June.

I did take a few other pictures, not bad at all, but these two are the best: one of a beginner Toastmaster, the other of the one at almost the top, with lots of experience behind him.

From Flickr to YouTube, new discovery

I love country music and this one is between one of the bests!
Just discovered the song and him this morning

Two tiny mouses

I took this picture last Thursday, at my new friend, Klara's place, on her table set for lunch.

Today she visited me, I am still amazed, also I do not know why I should be, how young she is at eighty-seven! She goes to walk her dog every day, of course, but also goes to College Classes three times a week.

No time is too late to learn about computers, or take joga classes, or buy and learn how to use a digital photo camera! And looking to my photos of people, she even begun to dare to take some of them.

Some so wonderful ones.

What a refreshing exemple she gives me!