Best Table Topic Speaker - The Turning Point In My Life

At Filcom Toastmasters Club, Monday March 25 2019, I won the best speaker ribbon on the topic:
The Turning Point of My Life

The turning point of my life was when I got married. The day after I got married I discovered there are two ways to put toilet paper in the holder. I always thought that the way my family had done it was the same as the way it was done all around the world. I was wrong.

There are two ways to hang up toilet paper. One is the way my mother did it. That other is the way my husband's mother did it.

We argued about this. For two whole days. On day three we stopped arguing about this. We started arguing about something else. How to boil an egg.

There are two ways to boil an egg. The way my mother did it. The way his mother did it.

The way my mother did it was start with cold water and cook for five minutes. The way his mother cooked an egg was boil the water then add the egg and cook for three minutes.

After two days we stopped arguing about this. He cooked the eggs.

I put the toilet paper in the holder the way he liked it because I was living with him and I was not living with my mother.

Now whenever I look at toilet paper or a boiled egg I remember the turning point in my life.

Angela Lansbury, blogger and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

  

My winning table topic Jan 15 2019 on Your Wedding Day

At Bukit Timah Toastmasters, at Bukit Timah Community Centre, in Singapore, I was given the table topic for a two-minute impromptu speech:
Question Tell us about your wedding day.

Answer:
My wedding day was surprising, not one surprise but three surprises. The first was that I expected some ex-boyfriend of mine to rush in, the way they do in the movies, shouting, "Stop! Don't do it. Marry me instead." But nobody did.

I looked all around, up in the gallery, at the back - nobody. I was very surprised.

My husband-to-be did not look surprised. Nor did his mother. Nor did my mother.

Nothing for it but to continue. I was wearing a long white dress. You ladies will know how careful you have to be walking in a long white dress. You must not go too fast or you are likely to catch your pointed-toe shoes in the hem of your dress and trip yourself up.

My father dragged me along at a fast pace, the way impatient men with long legs do. (Maybe he wanted to marry me off in a hurry.) I was trying to proceed at a slow stately pace, but he insisted on rushing up the aisle to hand me over.

When I got there my mother started a running commentary of advice as if I were a five-year-old. "Stand up. Speak up." I felt like a competitor in a televised race with a commentator voice over.

Finally, we had finished, I thought, and went to sign the register. But the best man was my husband's cousin and somebody queried whether a cousin was too close to be a witness. It turned out that the cousin was distant enough to be a witness.

After all those stressful surprises I never wanted to get married again. That's why my husband and I are still married!