CSTMC-RC November Outing

November gathering was held at Orchard Hotel to have afternoon tea. The main organiser, Lani, decided that everyone had to bring along 1 childhood photo to have a mini competition. The cutest photo wins!

Cliff was a handsome young man with many girls chasing him. Look at his buff figure! No joke!

女大十八变，Shuling is a tai-tai in the making.

I'm still the same old playful big-eye girl.

Tricia looked like a Pan-asian when she's a kid. Still look as cute and blur with this pose.

Hweeling is a Cedar girl!

From a small-eye boy to a small-eye Yandao.

And guess who won? It was unanimously decided that Cliff is the winner with his muscular body. Sorry Cliff, no prizes for winning. :)

Food, glorious food! Whats afternoon tea without the pastries and desserts?

The after-math. We ate quite alot of stuffs, and drank lots of tea and coffee.

Once again, toastmasters like to talk. So we eat and talk, that's what we do best! No?

For more photos, click here!

We are taking a break for December but the outing will resume come January 2008. So watch this space!

Note : This entry is written by Lani as the official blogger is once again...enjoying herself in Malaysia.

CSTMC Recreational Club October Outing

For October, CSTMC-RC organised a small gathering at Oilio Dome(Bishan CC). It was coffee-talk and... none-stop yakking.

And since Esther wasn't around because she just came back from Malaysia on that same day, Shuling snapped a picture with Daniel eating his Sundae to tempt her.

Daniel is a lucky chap, left with Cliff Teo, and right with Lani. 左拥右抱！

Hung Jui saw a pretty lady walked past while taking picture, look at his happy face! But he wasn't looking at the camera, gotta re-take!

This is better. But somehow, Hung Jui don't look as happy as before...

Group photo : Lani, Daniel, Hweeling and Cliff

Group photo 2 : Lani, Shuling, Daniel and Cliff

Till next time!

Note : This entry is written by Lani as the official blogger (Esther) was not present on that day.

District 80 Semi-Annual Convention 2007

With laser lights and musical fountain by the beach at Songs of the Sea, Toastmasters' District 80 Semi-Annual Convention started unofficially with oohs and ahhs as delegates from Hong Mong, Macau, Singapore and Thailand were mesmerized by the beauty of Sentosa at night. Dinner by the seaside also brought our moods to the highest.

The next day with a loud bang, the open ceremony commenced with its guest-of-honour Mr Tharman Shamugaratnam and keynote speaker, Michael Podolinsky. The premium that morning was the keynote speaker, speaking on 6 disciplines and 6 barriers. If you did not feel inspired and motivated in that hour or so, then I don't know what will. After a buffet-style lunch, fellow Toastmasters adjourned to their respective venues for three concurrent workshops. With another dose of Podolinsky and hearing from speakers like Ezzy Wang & Stuart Tan, as drained as I was, the many lessons to be learnt and applied made it up for the tiredness.

The highlight for the 2nd night was the Gala Dinner with its theme of "Simply a Superstar Night". Besides good food, good performances, Toastmasters also rewarded various leaders, divisions and clubs for their hardwork in the previous term. What can be more apt than calling it the 'Hall of Fame'? With great educational workshops, talks, dinner and camadarie, I went home, looking forward to another day of yet great fun.

The third and final day commenced at 8.30am with the humourous speech and evaluation contests. It was a fierce fight between the contestants. Surprise surprise, we even had Ramesh Muthusamy as the test speaker. Difficult to evaluate? You bet. Then the convention came to a close with the closing ceremony and a farewell lunch outdoors.

To sum it up, conventions can easily make up for a few years of chapter meetings. The inspiration and motivation within Toastmasters, within me, were further enhanced with the convention. Each convention is a unique experience. This is my 2nd convention, with the 3rd to come next year. Join me, fellow Toastmasters, it's truly an eye-opener.

The thing(s) EXCO does

We all meet on 2nd and 4th Wednesdays for our chapter meetings. But do you know that the EXCO comes back on the every 1st Wednesday of each month to meet, plan and discuss things for our club?

So besides the usual meeting in November, we also geared up to re-arrange our REALLY MESSY cupboard. And ta-da, our cupboard is once again neat and tidy. But we really wonder how long will it last. Haha.

If you would like to chip in and join us in the EXCO next term starting from July 2008, please join us during our EXCO meeting on every 1st Wednesdays of every month, at 7.30pm, at the room next to the conference room at Cheng San CC.

HSBC TreeTop Walk @ MacRitchie

Over a nice Saturday on 11 August 2007, some Cheng San-ians decided to conquer the tree top walk and get some exercise...

Look at everyone's fresh faces in the morning...



We met some squirrels and monkeys at the beginning. The squirrels were to fast, the monkeys were slower, but they seemed to know I was taking a shot, they were about to go off...

Then the gruelling trail started... What seemed like never-endinggggggggggggggggggggggggg.

Until like an hour, we only hit the 1km mark...

After what seemed like another hour, with steep descends and ascends, we hit the 1.5km mark.

And some more walking and perspiring, the 2.0km mark.

And halfway point, 2.5km more to the treetop walk...

And finally, the sign came to us.

And the trail & hike continues...

It's demoralising I tell you, you imagine you keep walking and what you see is a never-ending path.

This was the ranger station where we all took a little break. By this time, we were letting the chicken rice lunch to motivate us to finish the trail.

And finally, the entrance!!!!!! Shuling was almost attacked by a guarding monkey at the hanging bridge... Haha, luckily there was the ranger to help us scare it away...

As we were exiting MacRitchie, raindrops fell, and we took a cab to the famous kampong chicken rice stall and indulged in ice-cold drinks while waiting for Cliff, Roy & Gek Choo whom joined us for lunch.

Hung Jui was expected to come for lunch. But too bad he was caught up with work. Well Hung Jui, you missed out some good people and good food!

Shuling suggested a Cheng San Toastmasters Recreation Club, with sports activities each month. So Cheng San-ians, join us next time!

Installation Night Photos (II)

Hello people, the 2nd batch of photos are finally here! Well, blogger just completed her exams and had a well-deserved rest.

Here is the continuation of the photos from part 1. From here, we see the start of the installation night proper, with the president's opening address. It is quite an emotional speech, Shuling almost teared...

But seriously, don't we all agree that she did a wonderful job in her term? Excellent superb job, President Shuling!


Then Shuling gave out little appreciation hand-made gifts. Yes, female presidents have more of such little things of cards and gifts. First to Selvi, our SAA.

Then to senior Hwee Ling and a hug...

Following that to Hung Jui, VPM and a kiss on the cheek!!

So you see why Daniel's expression is like that. He wanted a kiss too! Forgot whether he got it, camera too slow to catch. Haha! Lucky you Daniel! But Shuling gave every female a kiss!

Then to me!! A hug and a kiss too! Oh, I got this little hammer made of clay from Shuling, it's a symbol of power and advised to use it wisely. Great gift with great meaning. Thank you Shuling! It's on display in the cupboard.

Next to Ronald, a hug too... A well deserved hug to her goodie assistants of EXCO that term.

Then the photographer digressed and took a picture of Hung Jui.

After the opening address was Shenoy's speech. He did his project 10 and helped Cheng San achieved it's PERFECT 10 DCP goals! Congratulations to CC Gaja Shenoy!

See, the training on Shenoy, no nervousness at all!!

Then next it was to discharge the outgoing exco. To do that, we had past-LGET and present DG Michael Wee to do so.

Fernando Young, past-Area S1 Governor and Present Division S Governor helped to give out certificates of appreciation to the outgoing exco.

And a hug first to start the ball rolling...

First up, President Shuling and more hugs!!

A shot of Shuling and Fernando.

Next up, VPE Ronald, and another hug.

Following that a shot of Ronald and Fernando.

Up next, VPM Hung Jui and Fernando, no hugging shots caught. Haha.

Next up, VPPR Daniel, and no hugging shots too.

Ah, next treasurer Fui Long and Fernando and a big hug of course!

Then a formal shot of Fui Long and Fernando.

Next up, SAA Selvi and Fernando..

And IPP Cheng Lin with Fernando.

And a formal shot.

Thanks to DTM Michael Wee that night for gracing our occasion.

This is only the 2nd batch of photos, if you do a quick count, there are 23 photos here. And to upload, write and edit takes about an hour.

So for a sweet entry, be patient. For an impatient blogger, it takes a lot of effort to sit and stare into the screen for a long time. For this, it took about 50 minutes, 10 minutes faster than the previous post.

Look out for the next one!