My Road Traffic Accident Survival

After a road traffic accident my car went from the slow lane and ended up hitting the central reservation and spinning to a stop. Debris from two vehicles was in the road. Traffic behind us stopped. Somebody ran over to ask if I was OK and help me out. I could not move. I could open the windows but the door on my side was jammed shut. I kept saying, 'Call the police, stop the traffic before another vehicle hits us.'

The driver of a lorry assured me, 'Somebody is phoning the police.'

He ran back to his vehicle. He had parked it diagonally across the motorway blocking all three lanes so nothing could hit the debris or the two stationary vehicles in the outside two lanes or us vulnerable pedestrians.

I've discussed this with other people several times since.

My first shock was the jolt and bang as my car was hit. The second was realising my car was out of control shooting into the fast lane. The third shock was hitting the central barrier. The fourth was rotating to a stop and realising I was stuck in the fast lane where fast moving vehicles would hit my car.

The next was realising that when I got out I would be stuck on the central reservation unable to cross to the hard shoulder. While waiting to be rescued, I had nothing wider than a kerbstone to stand on. Then last shock was realising I could not get out of the car door.

A lorry driver has a responsible job. He does many hours driving for a living. He has seen accidents before. He would either have had the initiative to think what to do. And/or he knew from experience of being jammed in narrow roads that when his vehicle is diagonally across a road nobody else can pass.

The helper suggested I get out of the passenger side so I did not have the steering wheel in the way. Then he realised I could move my seat back away from the wheel. I did that and made a huge space in front of the two front seats. He told me to turn the engine on and off to see if the car doors would operate. Somebody got the front passenger seat open. Then the man on my side got the back door on my side open. Then I pushed and the door my side opened. He helped me stand up. I was shaken and nervous but uninjured with not a scratch.

Then the driver of the other car appeared with blood on her face, asking anxiously was I all right. I thought that was very nice of her, as she was bloody and I wasn't. Of course she being in the car behind had seen my car shoot across the road. I had not seen her car at all.

It was not until we were escorted back to the hard shoulder that I saw the damage to her car a few yards behind mine.

My son, Anthony, said if she had braked I would have heard a squeal of brakes and seen skid marks on the road.

My car was steered to the hard shoulder to clear the road.
I said, "Let's take photos as evidence first."

We took photos.

By now the Road Traffic police has appeared and the traffic could be seen backing up for as far as I could see.

The Travelling Speaker

In most stage presentations you have a warm-up artist. Ideally your President or Toastmaster of the evening should do this. Somebody should be setting a good example of how to use the whole stage, speak loud enough to be heard, move the lectern out of the way, engage the audience.
For table topics it's often a good idea to put an experienced speaker on first to encourage the others and show how it's done well with verve and confidence and humour. That sets the tone for the evening.
If table topics come before prepared speeches, the way has been paved.

Teaching English overseas and Giving Speeches In English to speakers of other languages

Many people stand up and apologise for their poor English and everybody nods politely and protests and reassures that the speaker is just fine. But in some countries such as Singapore the speakers join clubs specifically to improve their English.
   Clubs could have an educational on clear speech. At the start of the year do an educational on pronunciation. See how many people have problems with each letter of the alphabet and each vowel. Give the club an evening rating on how many members and visitors need and/or would like help. Ask for volunteer mentors. Put people in pairs to practise vowels or consonants for three minutes. Bring them back and see if the club's rating has improved. Either congratulate them on progress or on identifying the problem and finding a helper. Tell them to keep up the good work.
   I once gave an evaluation on a speech and told a speaker it would be improved by props. She thanked me profusely. At the end of the evening I asked if she had any questions. She asked, 'What is 'a prop'?'
   We used her Chinese-English dictionary to find several translations, translated them back into English to find the correct translation in context.
   When I was teaching English, I spoke slowly. We used to have two translators standing by the whiteboard, one for Chinese, one for Malay or Hindi. They wrote translations whenever anybody raised their little finger to show they needed a word translated.

Performing Before A Moving Audience - My Performance

Today I was performing before a moving audience. We had about three rows of chairs in front of the stage. Around the sides and back of the hall were stalls selling jewellery, handicrafts, food and services. The event was a family fun day so I knew in advance there would be children in the audience. I arrived early, in time to rehearse and time the pieces. I was allotted 6 minutes. It took only four minutes to read two poems, the snake and the cat (cautionary tale for children), the taxman (for adults), a song, and from my book of animal poetry, the Aardvark. I could add poems from my poetry book, or read slower.
If I'd been a professional performer in an upmarket venue I would have had autocues and prompts and I would have been paid so I would have put effort into learning every poem by heart. It was a recent poem and I would have to look down to read it so I started by engaging with the audience.
The Owl Puppet
I was surprised how many of the audience were under ten years old. How do performers in pantomimes keep attention? They wear absurd clothes. They talk to the children. Sophisticated poems were not for the younger ones. Nor long poems. I should have had a chorus they could repeat, remember, join in.
Although I went on stage with the red snake around my neck, I put it down and used my owl puppet from the Harry Potter show - that was the best opener.
The Snake Poem
Then back to the snake poem and the large red snake soft toy. I had censored one of my poems about a snake bite, based on a recent story about a man who got bitten in a private place. To get the attention of the children I had a large red toy snake.
Local Colour
I added some local colour, saying the snake was a local snake, but only a soft toy so not to worry.
The Aardvark
My last poem was the Aardvark, the first poem in my book of comic poetry, Angela's Animals. I asked which members of the audience had already heard of an Aardvark. Three mothers raised their hands and I complimented them on their general knowledge. I confided that I'd just spent over an hour paginating my book starting with alligator and showed it to my husband, when he pointed out that I'd left out the Aardvark, first in the dictionary and index of animal names, so I had to write another poem and paginate all over again.
Rival Performers
By now a large number of dancers in Indian costumes were queuing up to my right ready to come on stage. This was unnerving. Was I about to be literally swept off my feet by a surge of dancers?
I ended by rounding off by saying you could see me reading poems with my owl puppet on You Tube, buy my book on Animal Poetry and meet me again at Harrow Writers Circle.

Performing Poetry In Public Places

Today I performed poetry with Harrow Writers. Performing on a stage is different to reading on the radio. It's the opposite. When I did a course in radio journalism they taught us that radio is all about sound. But TV and stage are all about vision.
Static And Moving Audiences
If you are on stage there are two kinds of audiences, static, sitting quietly paying attention, and moving. My first experience of a moving audience was in a pub. What a shock after speaking on radio, where you rarely have any noise feedback, especially not in a studio.
 Ambulating Audiences
Seated audiences who are stuck are more likely to be attentive. But they can still walk in and out.
Audience Control
Toastmasters international helps speakers conquer stage fright. But little is done to help you deal with audience fright, or indeed audiences of any sort. Evaluators do comment on eye contact. Advanced speakers are advised to move about the stage to remind the audience and yourself of a time line, past, present and future.
Audience Warmup
Today I was very away of the vital service of the MC linking acts. His/her job is many layered. First to get attention. To generate an enthusiastic welcome from the audience.
That encourages the performer to look at the audience and speak up. How important it is to check the microphone height and sound so your first words are not lost.
At the start the mc has to tell us what's coming so we stay to listen and smile in anticipation. If the audience is ambulating, the mc can make passers-by sit down, walk forward to hear. Stop them muttering to each other, going to buy drinks, or going home early.
Links
Between acts the mc has to keep the audience paying attention so they don't fidget and talk to each other.
Timing
The mc has to ensure that no act over-runs so that the last performer's spot is cancelled. The last act may be polite enough to claim they didn't mind, but it's fairer to keep to time, more efficient and stops other performers worrying whether it was their fault for running over time.
The mc or last act closes the set, harking back to what was enjoyed, reminding the audience to come back again, or attend regular meetings or buy products associated with the performance.
My next article will be on performing for the ambulating audience.

Accidents Will Happen - until we prevent them

Boats should be segregated from swimmers and people on inflatables.
Boats towing skiers and inflatables should not go round in circles enabling them to hit people, but only straight along strips of water.
An alternative is an A shape channel with a docking point in the middle. You leave the shore in the west and return in the east.  An observer with a megaphone should be observing the direction and safety of the people not in the towing boat but nearby in water.
Alternatively somebody should design a mechanical towing device like on ski lifts which pulls the inflatable or the skier without allowing other boats into the area.

Visit Toastmasters Speakers Groups Around The World For Free Or Inexpensive Fun and Friends (Also Networking & Information & Improve Your Public Speaking & English)

YMCA and

the USA - the start of Toastmasters in the USA
Toastmasters International started in the USA at a YMCA in about 1924. It was called Toastmasters to make it sound like a social occasion. In the sixties it started spreading across Europe and to other English-speaking countries.
Toastmasters Clubs Spreading Worldwide
Now clubs are in the USA, Canada, Australia and South Africa, plus French, Spanish, German, Chinese Japanese and Arabic speaking clubs with speech instruction manuals in those languages. If you are already a member of a club you can speak at any club worldwide which is able and willing to offer you a speaking slot. Should you happen to be near or be interested in visited a club connected to finance, computing or health, you will often be welcome as a visitor. You might be an evaluator of speeches or a language evaluator or grammarian, at an in-house business club, especially if your first language is English and theirs isn't. If you are not a member, but travelling on business or pleasure, you will be welcome at all of the open clubs.
Who So Many Singapore Clubs?
My first visit to an overseas club was in Singapore. The country is small, but has a huge number of clubs. One reason is that long-running previous prime minister (1959-90) and now mentor minister Lee Kuan Yew, who went to Cambridge, is a great advocate of education and speaking the English Language.  He wanted Singapore not to educate a nation of low-paid waiters, with expat foreigners taking all the highly paid jobs, but to make every Singaporean want themselves and their children to have good education and skilled employment. As a result many businesses start in-house clubs to train their staff to present in English. So you can go to a club where all four speeches are business presentation with diagrams on Powerpoint slides.



















Members and Guests Seen On Slides
One of the most memorable meetings I attended was at an insurance company. The room has a floor to ceiling screen behind a stage. I volunteered to speak on a table topic. My name was typed into a laptop and my name and the topic subject appeared on the giant screen. Later I was the topic and again my name and topic appeared on screen with the added word congratulations - best topic!
Easy To Find Central Clubs
I remember the fist meeting I had attended. I looked up toastmasters international find a club and found two clubs, at the YMCA and YWCA in the centre of Singapore. The YMCA club is right next to an underground railway station (MRT Dhoby Ghaut). Singapore is a rapidly expanding area for clubs, over 100, a choice of three to half a dozen most weekday evenings and some Saturday afternoons.
It's a chance to learn more about the local culture, and other cultures.
The first club in Singapore is still the largest and meets in the Sheraton Towers Hotel.
Fun Food For Visitors
At Singapore's centrally located club, especially those in hotels, visitors may be charged a small fee to cover the cost of food. If you pick an out of town club in a community centre, the club is often subsidised by the community centre (paid for out of what in the UK would be called local rates or council tax).
A start-up club may be given cheap or free accommodation, free bottles of water, even free food. So visitors get free snacks, usually brought in from the nearest takeway (could be noodles, rice, dumplings, fruit, glutinous cake or regular cake). If you are lucky, food is made by a member or their family.














Colourful Badges For Visitors
Most clubs have a welcome table with copies of the Toastmasters magazine, a guest book for you to sign with your name and contact details, and badges. Badges range from rolls of address stickers or conference type badges to luminous green and orange stars written on with felt tip pen in calligraphy.
Visitor On Agenda
If you have had the foresight to email in advance and offer to do a role, you may be asked to send a brief CV. Then with luck your name will be on the agenda, and you will be introduced as a VIP in the President's opening speech.

President's Welcome
Bukit Timah's President gave a welcome speech featuring somebody who had inspired her. This was a woman who had lost a limb but went on to climb Everest. A Singaporean.
I thought that if I ever became president again, it would be a good idea to pick the story of somebody inspirational for each welcome speech. In a six month period with two meetings a month allowing for two meetings missed because of national holidays, you need to pick only ten. For example, my ten would be: Winston Churchill, Anne Frank, Sarah Bernhardt, Helen Keller, US President Lincoln.

Gifts
Some clubs give small wrapped gifts to the visiting General Evaluator, all VIP visitors acting as evaluators, or everybody volunteering to do a table topic (impromptu speech).

Grammar, English Dictionaries And Dialects
At the YMCA Club many of the Singaporeans speak Chinese (Mandarin) as a first language. (Singaporeans also often speak other Chinese dialects such as Hokkien.) A dictionary is on the table to help the Grammarian define the Word of the Day, check spelling, and grammar, and settle disputes!
Names, topics and times are written on a whiteboard or blackboard or flipchart so that the audience can vote for the best.

Selecting Topics
The table topics are sometimes topics picked off the table or out of a bag by a volunteer. Better still, the topics master announces the topic, waits while you all think what you will say in case you are chosen, then pounces on somebody who is volunteered.
Another topics person skilled in crafts gave topics with each topic in a seasonally decorated paper cup stuck into a flower arranger's green sponge base, attached like a vase of assorted colour paper flowers hidden behind the flower face on a concertina flag. Most ingenious.



















Baskets And Glasses For Voting Slips
The votes for topics are not merely collected by hand but more stylishly, at a hotel in a handy wineglass, a larger brandy glass, or perhaps in a large ice bucket. At a seaside conference the slips were collected in a plastic pail. Another club used a coloured box with ribbons, probably a discarded chocolate box, which looked like a miniature hat box. I've also seen straw and raffia baskets, even an embroidered container made by a member.
Winner's Prize And/Or Certificate
At one club recently I was given a Best Table topics shiny card slightly larger than the usual address car with the club's address and details on the back. I thought this was handy for two reasons. Firstly, you can remember where you got the award. (I've previously written on the back of white official ribbons, and on the back of small certificates printed on white paper.) The award also reminds you where to go when you pay another visit.
I have heard speeches in the USA, UK, Thailand, Singapore and China.
I've eaten funny and fascinating foreign. I've met funny and fascinating people. I've won prizes. Learned about other cultures. Taken ideas across the world from the UK to Singapore and from Singapore back to London. I've met charming Chinese people, Indians, Afro-Caribbeans, Americans in their homeland and overseas, people from Poland in Singapore, British people worldwide and Irish people all over Britain and prize-winning speakers, including the worldwide winners. What's not to like?
On your next holiday or business trip in your own country or overseas, I recommend you look for a Toastmasters International speakers club. If you cannot travel today, you can travel around on the internet. See speeches, meetings, toastmasters tips, serious and sad or happy, informative or entertaining, humorous and hilarious speeches worldwide.

Toastmasters UK and worldwide

If you are on holiday and want cheap or free entertainment and convivial company, go to a Toastmasters International speakers' meeting. You will find them all over the world, most nights of the week and weekends. A few business or in-house clubs meet before work or lunchtime. Go to the Toastmasters International website and type in Find a club. In London you could visit Harrovians on a Monday or HOD on a Thursday. Try to email or phone in advance to be sure the club will be meeting on the date specified and the same time and venue. Occasionally a meeting is moved because it's a national holiday or Xmas, summer or Xmas. There could be a party. Sometimes a charge if caterers are brought in. If you are already a member and want to practise a speech, sometimes a smaller club offers the biggest welcome and a speaking slot. A smaller club may also offer a speaking slot to a mon-member to fill up the programme. This summer (2013) Harrovians in London has speaking slots.
toastmasters.org

Babies and children annoying you on planes?

On some flights an attendant will help entertain and distract younger passengers, bringing colouring books, smiling and waving at the baby to distract it. One family ruined my night's sleep on an overnight flight to London. It took me a week to recover. I asked to move seats but the plane was full.
If Malaysian Airlines can keep families in one cabin together, surely other airlines could do it. That way children can play with each other.  Attendants can be equipped with free colouring books and even a pacifier (in the UK we call them dummies). Parents booking flights should be issued with a checklist and asked what efforts they will make to keep their children from annoying others.

Performing poetry

Revelation this weekend as I rehearsed for reading two of my poems on stage. Instead of hunting for a poem I'd written which could be easily remembered and was suitable for performing with props on stage, take your props and write a poem to be performed. 

Also express your feelings. Here's the last verse of a clown poem - a clown costume being very easy to find in shops, online or to make yourself.

A Clown verse 1327a

by Angela Lansbury

I want you to laugh

i don’t like a frown

If my poems fail

I’ll be a clown!

-ends-

copyright Angela Lansbury July 13 2013

Keep your distance from animals like lions in parks

Yet another injury by an animal in captivity, this time of a girl who wanted to hug a lion. Despite warning signs that they bite. Buy her a teddy bear. She should not work with any live animal larger than a mouse. For health and safety reasons parks should have double fences keeping animals at a distance so they cannot reach through. The gap should be longer than their limbs.

Utah's Canyon Country

Only 90 minutes north of Las Vegas, you can see canyon country: Arches National Park; Bryce Canyon National Park; Canyonlands National Park; Monument Valley, Natural Bridges; Zion.
Stunning photos. And for both adults and children, the Dinosaur museum.


See www.utahscanyoncountry.com

Over 50s Event

Event at Olympia, London. Over 50s. It's free. You can sign in and get your ticket online.

Writing Courses

Two courses this summer
Writers Holiday
Writers Summer School

Speaking Versus Acting

I've been following several discussions about speaking on LinkedIn. One controversial question is: Should speakers act? Are acting and speaking different?
Being Yourself Close-up
I think people join Toastmasters International because just being yourself is not enough. Watch any vox pop interview of the public and they um and er, change their minds, swear, don't know, think that 'you know' instead of telling you, and bore everybody by not getting to the point.
When you talk close-up to your Mum (Mom to you in the USA), she knows you and you can be yourself.
Acting On Stage To Be Seen And Heard
However, as soon as you get on stage you have to be seen and heard by the stranger in the back row.
A slight grimace or wince can be seen by those in the front row, but the person in the back row won't know. To show you are scared you must shout, 'No!' cover your mouth and retreat to the back of the stage.
Involving The Audience
In a normal dialogue the person you are talking to can interrupt if they misunderstand, want to ask a question, change the subject if they are bored. On stage you have to keep them entertained and emotionally involved. They can't walk out in a contest, but they can walk out mentally.
Being Seen At Sides And Backs Of Halls
The bigger the contest and the room where you perform, the more you have to be larger than life in order to be seen by those sitting at a distance, some of who have sight or hearing problems. Thanks to members of the forum for introducing me to a concept known to actors as breaking through the fourth wall (invisible curtain across stage). You cannot sigh quietly or muttering and ignoring the audience at the sides and back of the hall. If you do, people sitting in the back row will start chatting to their friends. Contests have big audiences sitting both sides of a huge hall. To be seen requires 'acting', large gestures, walking about using the whole stage.
But the Top Speakers Are on TV Screens!
Yes, the US president is on huge TV screens. So are the top speakers. But to get to the position where speakers are on huge TV screens (Toastmasters International speaking contest finals) you have to get through the previous stages, without screens, and act.

My Ideal Home And Home From Home Hotel Or Building

What I from a building:
Arches.
Blending with surroundings.
Colour.
Curves, soothing.
Gables.
Parking for cars.
Privacy.
Romance.
Storage.
Towers.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2359261/Architecture-The-world-s-spectacularly-designed-hous

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/...

Aircrash. Leave your bags, shout onlookers, afterwards.

Yes, we all agree that you get out without delaying and thus endangering yourself and others.
So why did people grab their bags? In the Asiana Airlines crash at San Francisco, bags came hurtling out of overhead lockers. Better to carry them out than leave them obstructing aisles and exits. Those first out are in the seats by the exit and can grab their stuff. It's an instinct. Obviously you don't delay yourself and others. But you must keep your passport and credit card in a pocket. Otherwise when you get off the plane you cannot prove who you are, pay for your medical expenses and hotel and fare home. I read about the people who survived the fire in the hotel in Florida years ago. Those by the pool without identity were stranded without clothes or money or identity. That's another reason to dress for the destination. If your luggage goes missing, you need to be dressed for the place where you have arrived. I got out of a broken down coach leaving behind my camera. While I crossed the road I was worrying about my camera and got hit by a car and nearly died. I'm all for taking luggage with - if you've time to grab it.

Organ Donation - in Wales and elsewhere

Today I read online (Mail on line) about a woman in New York whose eyes opened when a hospital surgical team was about to harvest her organs. It seems that in Wales you are now automatically opted in. In the USA a little heart sign on your driver's license shows whether you want to opt in. In Singapore when members of my family became Permanent Residents they had to sign forms which included a question about organ donation. It was pointed out to me that if you refuse to give organs, you cannot receive organs either. It seems that the main reason allowed in their system is that you tick a box saying you opt out for religious reasons, in which case you can neither give nor receive organs.
1 My relative wanted to donate in the UK. Nurse could not locate any forms for him to sign. After he died and I had seen he was dead and unresponsive I asked about organ donation which he had wanted. I was told it was too late. After he had died his organs had started deteriorating and organs have different life expectancies after death and most or all are useless after 24 hours so you need to be there at the moment of death - or standing ready, or ....
2 First take water away from the patient so they are depressed and in pain and start to want to die. Then kill them. Then take organs. Do not allow family to benefit. Ensure doctors make money. My reaction is that the only fair way would be to give money to estate of anybody who signed a donor's form whether or not organs were used, like public lending right, divide all money between all donors, maybe while you are alive, like insurance. Doctors should get a salary whether doing operations or not, no bonus for removing organs, just time off for overtime. Obviously in each country citizens and medical personnel and legislators need to consider all the options very carefully, with continual reviews updating.

Sugar, smoking and statistics

My Mum ate a bag of sugar a day and lived until she was 112 years old.
- maryh , ipswich, United Kingdom, 08/7/2013 09:50


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2357929/Chocolate-fizzy-drinks-used-cancer-detectors-malignant-tumours-feed-sugar.html#ixzz2YSAlBFny
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Survey of one. How many others of a population of 1000 lived to the same age? My parents survived World War Two. Does not prove war is safe. A better test is to check a thousand people. A scientific survey needs a control group. Even if what your mother did is right for you, because you inherited your mother's cast iron DNA, doesn't mean it applies to 999 other people whose parents died.

Highly Recommended High Wycombe Museum

Free attraction. High Wycombe used to be a centre for wooden furniture. As a newlywed I went there to buy an extending round dining table. Driving back to High Wycombe, I expected 'High' Wycombe to be high, on a hilltop, but although you drive uphill, it is in a hollow with steep, wooded green slopes all around.
The museum has a delightful display of carved wooden chairs, my favourite novelty being the reversible garden chair (my photo below) which you can turn upside down. Why? If your chair's wet from rain or a pigeon used it first. Chairs, like the other displays, appeal to all ages. The low kiddie commode chair is near the teacher's high chair. The tall teacher's chair reminded me of high chairs at swimming pools and tennis matches.
I loved the video showing how chair legs were turned with a foot-operated string, like a treadle sewing machine.
Plenty for children to do and touch. Novelty toys to buy included small marionettes and tiny turning monkeys.
I was pleased to see the museum at the 2013 location, a peaceful old house with a lawn. Steep stairs mean the upstairs galleries are not accessible to some visitors so the council plans to move the whole caboodle to their more modern central location.
The old kitchen is another joy with useful explanations of how the servant bell panels worked. My late parents had one of those in Edgware. Loved the explanation of how electricity changed the domestic house. No wonder all the men had beards before electricity.
Useful timelines tied in with displays. I learned that both Disraeli and Churchill gave speeches in High Wycombe.

Please label buffet dinner dishes to help those with diets and allergies

I am looking forward to attending a buffet dinner but will it contain things I should not eat? Many people need to know, anybody who is vegetarian, seeking kosher or halal food. Also anybody likely to get stressed mentally by certain foods, such as sheep's eyeballs, frog's legs, horsemeat, brains, testicles, haggis, dog, monkey! 

Others have intolerance (feel nauseous) or a full blown allergy (ranging from a rash to trouble breathing and fainting) to dairy food, tannin in red wine, gluten, nuts, strawberries and shellfish.

I'm sure your food will be delicious so I hope to taste as much variety as possible.

But I have previously ended up in hospital after a bad experience eating what I thought was pink salmon but it turned out to be crab.

I can happily eat smoked salmon, whitefish such as trout and cod and plaice, but if I accidentally eat shellfish I am likely to develop a rash like chickenpox. My face swells up. I have trouble breathing. I vomit for 24 hours - I want to prevent this!

If you are running a restaurant, hotel or club buffet, including a pot luck dinner in a private home, please could you label any dish containing shellfish, crustaceans (crawling things with shells), molluscs (things with wavy arms): eg crab, Pacific prawns, shrimps, oysters, octopus. 

I am allergic to crustaceans and shellfish.

I can recognise a large crab and a plate of pacific prawns.

But I don't want to eat: rice containing hidden prawns/shrimps; nor meat in oyster/fish sauce. Other worries are unidentifed contents of sushi; surf and turf; prawn crackers; canapes and vol au vents with white sauce which looks like mushrooms but contains shellfish, crab sticks.

It will save your serving staff a lot of time if they don't have to keep dashing to the kitchen to ask the chefs what's in the food.

Shellfish is the most common allergy so in a large group I will not be the only one.

If your main dishes are normally decorated with shellfish, it would be an advantage to some of your guests to have another plate without the garnish. 

Many thanks. I hope to give your hotel, restaurant or club dinner a glowing report on the internet.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Successful Speeches At Singapore Clubs

 I visited about 8 clubs in Singapore. The presidents in Singapore open with a brief speech telling an inspiring story from their own lives, local hero, hero from the day's newspaper, or a famous speaker.  Then the President or the toastmaster of the evening goes round the room asking all the guests their names and whey they came to Toastmasters. 

If the programme is short of people: 

a) Ask each guest and member to start the evening by adding to their name, and area where they live or club (if a visitor from another club) their thoughts on a topical subject such as, what I do on summer evenings. (eg Sit under an apple tree writing speeches.) 

b) Fill in time by getting each person in the room to comment/evaluate each speech.

c)  Expand table topics so every person in the room speaks.

At the end of the evening the guests are asked to give feedback, what they liked, what they'd improve, and if they are likely to become members. 

Art in Hospitals

How about more art in hospitals. Nothing more depressing than lying in bed alone with nothing to look at except bare walls when you can't move on a drip or just too dozy to use a TV. Should put an art work on every wall to cheer the patients. (Not the painting of the church and cemetery on the wall in Watford General!)

Using Phones After Your Plane Lands Safely & Starts Taxiing?

Passengers use their phone on landing for a good reason, to check the driver of the hire car meeting them knows the passengers are arriving on time, or early, or have arrived despite being late.
The main cited reason for  
another reason is that you need to be alert to hear vital announcements all the time you are on a plane including when taxiing -supposing you hit an object and need to evacuate. Couldn't happen? Well it did. A British Airtours 737 caught fire at Manchester killing 54 at the airport and one more later died in hospital.
Here's a comment from a recent article:
On the 22 August 1985 a British Airtours 737 caught fire on the tarmac at Manchester killing 54 on site, 1 subsequently in hospital (53 passengers, 2 crew). So emergency announcements need to be heard. Mobile phones and personal headphones are definitely NOT a good idea during take-off, landing and taxiing.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2352117/As-BA-relaxes-phones-cabin--Why-experts-STILL-dont-know-using-mobile-make-plane-crash.html#ixzz2Xm4WDIIy
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