So this is it then, a blog! If you knew how terrified of computers I am, and how difficult I find setting up anyhting like this you'd be mega impressed!
So what's it about? Basically I suppose to try to get more people to visit my website: www.classinacoat.co.uk and to share some of the things that hapen in my life as a Toastmaster and Master of Ceremonies, and believe me some of these things are worth sharing. They range from the jaw-droppingly "I don't believe he said that" through the excrutiatingly embarrasingly to the (most of the time) rib-ticklingly funny. Anyway, I hope you enjoy things and please feel free to add.
Well I had a lovely wedding at the weekend. Michael and Fay were an absolute delight and it was all a lovely relaxed affair.
The only other news this week is that I have received my new medal and ribbon now that I am a Fellow of that august body, The National Association of Toastmasters.
More can be read in this week's Mongolian (aka Melton) Times apparently. I have no idea what is being written as this episode is being penned before the publishing date.
It's been a long time since I was able to write about the great microcosm of the world at large that is Frisby-on-the-Wreake.
But I think I've got a good one here and it doesn't actually involve Hammo, although I will try to work him in.
As we progress further and further into the 21st Century technology is progressing at an alarming rate, causing many long and cherished objects and institutions to change or even disappear.
That astoundingly innovative motor company that designed a car in the seventies that was more aerodynamically efficient when it went backwards.
Among the mourned though is the public telephone service. We all have mobiles these days and so the public 'phones are not being maintained. However the sagacious entity that is the Frisby Parish Council have managed to retain our fabulous red telephone box.
This is A Good Thing.
Then they did what I consider another good thing. They put an emergency defibrillator in there for the village's use.
That is when the do-do hit the fan. Big time.
Some people are kicking off, much to my amusement. We have a load of people saying they don't want to be resuscitated, some people saying they do not want to be resuscitated by certain people, some people who are worrying about their obligations to people post life-saving, and the one family of Jehovah's Witnesses in the village are having a dicky-fit.
The muslims are saying they do not want their life saved by a woman and the fascists would rather die than have "an ethnic" save them.
Then of course there's Hammo! (Told you I'd try to work him in.) Let's be real about this and put forward an early Saturday evening scenario during the six nations rugby championship. Hammo has been tanking it in The Cutting Room all day and is suddenly called upon. In the real world no-one in their right mind would dare to predict where his 4,000 volts might end up.
Then there's the kids. Brilliant. They won't need to go to the pub to get their kicks. Just go into the phone box, hold a paddle to their heads and..........
"Hey man.... That was great..... Let's do it again......"
The solution is, apparently we all have a defibrillator buddy. Someone whom we have assigned to electrocute us. Just pray that you haven't fallen out with them! Mary has asked Pete the Post to be her buddy. She has told him she'll try to give him good warning as she wears lots of vests.
I always have done and the stories of him are legion. But I heard a new one this week that I just so hope is true.
He was, at one point in his life a guardsman. He was on sentry duty one night and fell asleep. When he awoke he opened his eyes and saw his commanding officer standing in front of him. Tommy said "Amen".
Genius.
Well gentle reader enough ramblings for this week. I will keep you up to date with the latest in the great defibulator debate.
Isn't it funny how contrary some days can be? This isn't just a rhetorical question, more of an observation.
Yesterday (Wednesday)was just such a day.
Regular readers my have been waiting in paroxysms of agony to find out how I got on at the Fellowship assessment board last Sunday.
It wasn't easy, and I made a few mistakes. However I managed to BBB my way through and yesterday I was informed that I am now a Fellow of the National Association of Toastmasters. I am pleased as punch. In many ways it will make very little difference to my work and the amount of work I get, but it's just a nice feeling.
That was the good news.
The first bit of bad news is that driving out last night a tyre went on the car.
The second bit of bad news is about Jack, my son.
When Jack came back from Meribel at the start of this year he managed to get himself taken on as an apprentice plumber. This is A Good Thing. People will always need toilets.
However.......... he came home on Wednesday evening and announced that his employer was giving up his business and possibly moving to Australia!
This is A Bad Thing.
Jack now has to try and find another plumber to take him on. This is not an easy task in the current economic climate.
On top of all of this, after an abject display England are out of the Rugby World Cup
Back to more mundane things then.
More Toastmaster and Master of Ceremonies work and enquiries are coming in. So now that I am Geoffrey Harris FNAT I can really cut a dash.
It is also the start of the Ghost-walk season with the year's first trip to Center Parcs coming up this weekend.
I really enjoy "The Great British Bake Off" It's a bit nerdy but I really love the challenges and get all excited with the quality of the contestant's mille-feuilles and the consistency and crunch of their macaroons.
Last night was The Final.
It was tense.
It was nervous.
I thought it was gripping.
Until.......................................
THE SQUIRREL!
I must admit I noticed it and I thought it was just me until the press got going today.
What's wrong I say? He is obviously a squirrel he is OBVIOUSLY a boy and he is obviously very proud of that fact.
How does he manage to climb trees?
I just hope that a production team at the BBC slipped it in for their own amusement, hoping that no-one would really notice and least of all get hot under the collar about it!
Back to slightly more serious things.
Toastmaster work seems to be steadily coming in. Three enquiries and a booking this week. The booking is once again through Madhu's and is an Asian wedding near Watford next summer.
Also on Sunday is The Big Exam. I am up before a board to see if I am up to snuff to become a Fellow of the National Association of Toastmasters. It's a funny thing really. Although it will make absolutely no difference to the amount of work I do and get, I'm really quite nervous about it all. Still come 7.00 on Sunday evening I will know!
Now onto really serious stuff. Tomorrow is the quarter-final of the rugby world cup and England are playing France. It will be interesting as England have not been firing on all cylinders and France are a little flaky at the moment. I just hope that the last time they met in the world cup knockout stages is repeated.
Well that's about it for now. Off to do more revision for Sunday. Diplomatic services this morning I think!
