What I learned from Shell Singapore Toastmasters - The Shoe Speech

I was invited to a meeting at Shell on an island.
I like going to toastmasters meeting at community centres. I catch the MRT train. The MRT trains runs every three minutes. A community club is marked on maps.

When I heard the word island, I thought, islands are trouble. Islands have ferries.

Ferries have tickets.
I have been on small ferries to small islands, off the larger island of Singapore.
Ferries don't go in bad weather. Ferries are small and if you don't have the right ticket, somebody gets left behind. Ferries are infrequent. If you miss one, it's a long wait to the next one.

I had nothing better to do. So I went. That was a mistake. I had lots of better things to do. Listening to music. Sleeping. Anything is better than an entire day of non-stop stress.

The journey
I got lost on the way. I was wearing sandals so I could run.

I was not going to be late and miss the ferry. I left an hour extra, two hours, for a one hour journey.

I reached the MRT station and was told those four ominous words. You can't miss it. Meaning, they can't miss it, because they know it well, and won't bother to describe it properly, because they think you can't miss it. It was half way between the two stations.

I missed it. I walked for thirty minutes until I reached the next station. I spent fifteen minutes walking back, Then ten minutes along a narrow slip road. Then a queue of people for the pass onto the ferry. You have to leave your passport or ID.

Shoes
The man on the desk would not give me the ferry pass because I was wearing the wrong shoes.

I said, I can't go home to change. I live an hour away. A two hour round trip. I'll miss my ferry and my group organiser. We are a lunch time meeting.

I was wearing the wrong shoes. You have to wear closed shoes.
I asked,  Do you have any overshoes.
No.

Any spare shoes?
No.

My organiser has not yet arrived.

You have to watch a video.
I said, maybe she's watching the video. Can I go to the video area? Over there.

She wasn't there. But I watched the video. It says you must wear closed shoes.

She arrives. She has a pass, although she is wearing heels.

The visit organiser, call her Kate, turned up in high heeled shoes.

The man on the security desk called me over. He asked what size shoes I wore.

He was willing to lend me his shoes.

I took mine off.
I tried his on.
They were size eleven.
My sandals are a size too big, not 5 but six.
However, too small for him.
Never mind, he says.
I ll go barefoot until you come back I sit at my desk all day. How long will you be?
About two hours.

They called the ferry passengers.
A long walk.

We arrived at the island. Nobody to meet us. You can't leave the dock wihtout an escort. No reply from their phone.

When he turned up, very apologetically, at 2 pm. He'd been working, and his phone had been off.

I saw why, when we drove to the office block. We passed the huge cylinders of oil, bedecked with warning signs, hundreds of warning signs, in the parking area, on the road, on the stairs, on the sides of the petrol tanks: no naked lights, no phone phones. Imagine a spark from a phone, setting off a fire, with all that oil.

As we

The Moral
Check the dress code. Companies demanding closed showed should keep spare overshoes. Just as Evaluators saying the speaker would dress in a tie, should carry a tie to hand to the speaker.

The person supposed to collect us was not there to meet the seance ferry and not answering the phone. (I always ask for two phone contacts.)

We arrived at the meeting, no sign of lunch. I can't concentrate, it's 2 pm and I need food. I ask, do you have any food, anything to drink except water?

Oh, yes, we have boxes of packed lunches for you. We assumed you had eaten.

No, we didn't leave our bench seats. We could not walk off the pier. We had no escort. The restaurant is for staff only.

We ate lunch. I was allergic to everything, the shellfish, the pickles, I never eat noodles. I ate it all. If I dropped dead, I didn't care.

Speaker
Langeline gave a great evaluation of a speaker who got upset about the illness of his mother (and presumed death) - he was too overcome by emotion to reach the end of the sentence. We missed the first ferry

I am not sure whether it was the event which he recalled which was so upsetting, or the extra excitement of giving a speech which meant that he was overwrought. Probably some of both. What can you say? You will find your next speech easier for two reasons, it is not the ice breaker whose subject all about your life history. You are not performing a speech in front of others for the first time. You know which subject upset you and can avoid them.