Five Reasons Why You Should Visit Travelmasters Online

Angela Lansbury, member of Toastmasters clubs in the UK and Singapore and online LILT languages club (every Sunday; top right Sarah Cossette, Vice President of Education of Travelmasters Toastmasters Internnational Club, and Leesa, Vice President of Membership of Travelmasters Toastmasters Club.

Travelmasters is an online club for speakers, speech trainers, would be speakers, part of worldwide Toastmasters International which started in the USA a hundred years ago and now has hundreds of members and clubs worldwide and exciting, inspiring speech contests.

Why go to the Travelmasters club? Where and when is it? The second and 4th Wednesday evening every month, at 7 pm Eastern Standard time (New York time) on zoom. If you miss it or want to see a past meeting, you will be able to see the recordings

If you are already a Toastmasters you might want to give a speech on your travels overseas or travel in your country, or to take a role in a meeting, such as a timer, timing the speeches and signalling to the speaker how much time they have left and when to finish. Or as evaluator, give them encourgaing feedback and why you loved their speech, what they sid well, and useful suggestions on how they could improve and what to add. 

But this club doesn't just have a niche, a theme, of travel. The policy of the Vice President of Education, Sarah, who organizes meetings (she;s top right in the photo above) and of Leesa (lower in the picture) is to make the meetings fun. Instead of the usual, conventional titles for their role holders, each one has an amusing name on the theme of travel.

 1 You are bound to learn something interesting about travel because all the speeches are about travel

2 The meetings are fun. 

3 You have an opportunty to meet well-travelled, interesting people.

4 It is a fantastic networking experience - they link you up with lots of other groups, such as the Gastronomy Toastmasters Club.

5 They can tell you how they transformed from a physical meeting to online meetings, and rescued and rebranded a club to make it a successful club .

Network, get new ideas, and link to other clubs such as Gastronomy.

Sarah is a member of Travelmasters TMC US based but online, and Gastronomy, US based which meets for meals out with members. 

Leesa is also a member of Travelmasteeers TMC and Gastronomy.

Leesa met Angela by attending a meeting of Singapore Online Dynamic, whose meetings Angela posted in the WhatsApp group of Global (toastmasters) which has a large number of clubs in Asia, especially India and Singapore.

Angela is a member of: UK based clubs Harrovians (in Harrow) which is hybrid, one meeting a month on Zoom, another in person at a church hall in Harrow. HOD meeting at a library in North Harrow, London. Singapore based Tampines Changkat Advanced (in prson meetings, hybrid just for travelling and overseas longterm member Angela who was a former Area Director of Area S), and two online clubs LILT languages club meeting every Sunday, and Singapore Dynamic meeting every Friday   

Travelmasters and LILT are also on Facebook. Angela Lansbury is on LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.

If you ever lose track of a person in a club or the club itself, you can track them down through the Ttoastmasters International websites

Look on Facebook for Travelmasters, also WILL (before we rebranded as LILT), and World Travellers. Sarah is not possessive nor confrontational. On the contrary, she welcomes the idea of travel clubs multiplying, one in every continent, one in every country, with pods or subgroups of particular interest. What a lovely, lively, warm, well-travelled woman. 

Useful Information

toastmastersinternational find a club. 

https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

https://travelmasters.toastmastersclubs.org

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYrf-qrrj8iHdCGM3FlI6jgudQ2cNRLvO1X

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What to do with paper and plastic bags when travelling

You get lots of bags when shopping. I save mine. When I run out of room, I stick shopping bags and tote bags in suitcases. On my next holiday or working trip I will have a handy bag for souvenirs and overflow packing and packing shoes so the dirty soles don't mark clothes.

I see many bags discarded in shopping centres. I think shoppers feel obliged to use them to exit the shop to show they have bought the goods, then decide they have too much to carry. They either wear the clothes they have just bought and then discard the bag, or consolidate the bags.

Why don't they do it in the shop? Not to hold up the queue when paying. Need to find a bin.

No wonder the Singapore MRT train stations' announcements tell you that if you have parcels, please use the lift.

Blocked By Big Shopping Bags
I used to wonder why. Now I know. With wide carrier bags, you block the escalators. You also block the pavements. Try overtaking two parents and two children and their shopping - or three Japanese tourists, all festooned with bags.

Re-using Paper Bags
It hurts me to see perfectly good bags abandoned. Sometimes I rescue a clean bag. I use the bags until they fall apart.

Then I like to save the ribbon handles and the coloured rope handles. I put the ribbons into my sewing box.

In theory you could cut up the bags to create new smaller ones.

Carfts and beds
I recently read a website for crafts-minded people about making beads from paper. there is also papier mache. Or lining drawers.

Drawer Liners
I recently used wrapping paper as drawer liners. Once the drawer is full, it doesn't matter if you have used Xmas paper or wedding paper or some other season paper. You rarely see it under your piles of clothes or stationery.

But what about plastic bags, waterproof bags? Plastic bags can be used to line wastebins. Also as drawer liners.

Plastic Bags when Travelling
Wrappers for shoes when packing a suitcase. Covering or double wrapping liquids such as cosmetics and bottles of drinks. Covering books and notebooks which get battered and would appreciate protection when you are travelling and in rain.

One website has thirty suggestions for reusing paper bags.

Some people have set themselves the task of cutting down on the amount they throw out.

Many items could be re-used by schools for crafts and art lessons if the schools put up a sign and bins to take the treasures which others throw away.

Some supermarkets have bins for bags you no longer need. You might want a big bag to carry home your shopping, but be able to return it later when you are buying only smaller or fewer items.

Some manufacturers suggest new uses for their packaging. I have seen boxes which can be turned inside out to make a toy dolls house or a board game with the game and pieces you fold together, all printed on the back. A bonus for families, as well as good for the environment.

I have seen YouTube videos showing how plastic can be twisted and compressed, or shredded and  used to make bricks for building houses. I look forward to the day when everything is recycled.

Meanwhile a few ideas for those free toothbrushes and old toothbrushes: for painting, cleaning, even making one into a bangle.

Meanwhile, some ideas for you:
https://www.favecrafts.com/Green-Crafting/How-to-Make-a-Purse-from-Plastic-Bags
https://www.favecrafts.com/Green-Crafting/10-Crafty-Uses-for-Old-Toothbrush
https://www.favecrafts.com/Green-Crafting/14-Creative-Uses-for-Mesh-Produce-Bags

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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