Area contests conclude: E7 and E9

What a time of it! There's been giggles and snorts all over the Wellington region. On Thursday night (24th September) it was E7's turn to add a few more.

Turbine Talkers hosted a combined Table Topics and Humorous Speech event at St Matthews Church. (Thank you! The half-time supper was lovely.)

Russell Turney chaired the Humorous Contest and Rose Wyse the Table Topics.

In the Humorous Contest we were captivated by a broad range topics given more than a slight tweak to reveal their funny sides.

Deborah Lambie reflected on the mixed pleasures of being a morning person working through the night in a hospital delivery suite, Ella Kahu deliberated whether to choose a red car over a toy boy to sidestep her next midlife crisis, Paul Beres begged for empathy and understanding of his All Black addiction disorder during the ongoing World Cup season, Chris Woodhouse bravely bared his soul revealing the limitations of his DIY Man GPS, Miranda Struthers put her 7.3 seconds worth of TV celebrity fame in perspective and Khorshed Irani examined the merits of three items on her bucket list.

E7 Humorous Speech Contest: L-R Ella Kahu, Paul Beres, Deborah Lambie, Khorshed Irani, Miranda Struthers, Chris Woodhouse, Contest Chair Russell Turney.

The contest was won by Ella Kahu (Island Bay). Deborah Lambie was placed second and Chris Woodhouse, third.

E7 Humorous Contest place getters: L-R Area Director Mike Mckee, 2nd place  Deborah Lambie, 1st place Ella Kahu, 3rd place Chris Woodhouse, Contest Chair Russell Turney.

Five table topic contestants gave their considerably varied opinions as to whether "we should return to the old ways of teaching".

We learned from Pamela Snow that we should not: that we should extend and celebrate interactive exploratory teaching. Jill Skinner figured that as she hadn't turned out all that badly, it was a reasonably good idea to retain some of that methodology. John Lowe confessed he had no recall of 8 years worth Latin taught the old way and remembered instead an ogre of a teacher. Patrick O'Rourke demonstrated the benefits of rote learning and Kate Roberts thought bringing back the cane would solve attention difficulties in the class room.

E7 Table Topics Contest: L-R Kate Roberts, Jill Skinner, John Lowe, Pamela Snow, Patrick O'Rourke, Contest Chair Rose Wyse.

The contest place-getters were: 1st Kate Roberts (Island Bay), 2nd John Lowe and 3rd Pamela Snow.

E7 Table Topics Contest Winners: L-R Area Director Mike McKee, John Lowe (2nd place), Kate Roberts (1st place,) Pamela Snow (3rd place), Contest chair Rose Wyse. 

Over in Area E9, the Table Topics contest was hosted by Terrace@12. Contest chair Peter Scholtens challenged contestants with the question "Whose responsibility is it to teach life skills - schools or family?". While some responses emphasised the importance of family, others argued that "it takes a village to raise a child". Contest winner Rose Austen-Falloon (Terrace@12) pointed out that schools are already doing plenty with their standard curriculum, and adding life skills as well would be a burden.

E9 Table Topics placegetters: L-R 2nd place Raymond Kemp, 1st place Rose Austen-Falloon, contest chair Peter Scholtens

In the very last Area contest of the season, the Area E9 Humorous contest was held at Victoria University Toastmasters. The audience was entertained by two contestants, who held our attention with ruminations on hiring and firing, and the strangeness that sometimes creeps into an ordinary day. The contest was won by Raymond Kemp (Five Crowns).

Area E9 Humorous placegetters: L-R 2nd place Zaine Mitchell, 1st place Raymond Kemp, contest chair John Stapleton

That concludes this Area contest season. See you all at the Division conference, where we can watch all our winners compete to find the Wellington champion!