Toastmaster Icebreaker - Me, my likes and dislikes

I mentioned a while ago going to Toastmasters. I have now joined and did my first planned speech yesteday. The word of the day was Segue which I did manage to incorporate.

There was a moment just before that I was a bit tempted to do a runner - I popped to the loo and my evaluator looked quite worried when I came back - I think he thought I wasn't coming back.

Title - Me, my likes and dislikes

“A good speech should be like a woman's skirt; long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest.” 

― Winston S. Churchill

Mr Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters and guests (I managed to miss this bit out, having been so excited I managed to remember my quote above - it just would not stick in my mind through it is quite funny)

I'm going to give you the just short enough, just long enough tour or me my likes and dislikes

First a quick history of me - Rhoda Weatherill

I was born and grew up in Scotland in St.Andrews where my parents worked at the University. I was born on the 29th of February, that's a leap year. I have a younger brother who lives in London and who I get on very well with. We didn't have a tv or car when we were growing up. My parents thought playing outside and cycling would be healthier. At the time I wasn't convinced, but now I think they were right!

I then went to University in London to study electrical and electronic engineering at UCL. My husband was on the same course although we didn't really get to know each other until some years later. We got married in Las Vegas on the spur of the moment - we let our parents know by text message. I stayed in London after University working in IT mainly for banks.

Then we moved France, buying a decrepit farm house in the Pyrenees, it is close to a ski area with enough land for horses. I lived there full time for a couple of years and now work in London four days a week while my husband stays in France, renovates the house, and looks after the animals - we have horses, cows, sheep, pigs, quail, rabbits, chickens and a cat and dog.

Now some of my likes:

I like Work. For people who know me this would seem an unlikely like, but having lived for a while in France not working I now have a renewed enthusiasm for the benefits of it - it pays for all my other activities - and the shoes, I like shoes.

I like outdoors activities, I sailed a lot as a child and now ski and horse ride. I enjoy these activities for many reasons, but not least because they can be a bit scary and I find that I need scary things in life otherwise I get bored.

I like making things, or I could call it the 'domestic arts', knitting, sewing and cooking. I find these activities relaxing but mentally challenging enough not to be boring.

And finally some dislikes

I dislike speaking in public. particularly impromptu speaking where I find it hard to organise my thoughts in to words quickly.

I dislike not getting enough sleep, this has to be the biggest part of my wish not to have children.

I dislike celery, spring onion and various of the green garnishes restaurants insist on putting on food

So, I have gone from Scotland to London to France. I like work - for the money, outdoors activities - for the thrills, and the domestic arts - for relaxation. I dislike public speaking, lack of sleep and unnecessary green garnishes

I will leave you with thought from Virgil Thomson (composer)

Try a thing you haven’t done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it (that's this speech!). Twice, to learn how to do it (it may take a few more times than that). And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not (I am confident that having joined Toastmasters I can learn, with your help, to like public speaking)

It went very very very well considering how nervous I was. I had a struggle to remember the quote at the beginning, but remembered it 'on the night'. There were two other speakers and the other members vote for the best speaker. I have seen many many who are really really good and much better than me, but these guys were trying more challenging subjects than me and but I got lucky this time! 

Being the first time I probably spent hundreds of times longer preparing than the other people. 

Here is the dog patiently listening to it. Doug wasn't so keen and only got it once.

One of the others (who has done quite a few Toastmaster speeches) went for quite a challenging attempt of comic story telling which didn't quite come off - but I think it is like skiing where they say if you don't fall over you aren't trying hard enough, so if you can't take risks and try things in this environment you won't learn.

You get feedback from an evaluator and the other members give you short written feedback. 

It is a rule that feedback is always very encouraging with positive feedback and things to work on rather than criticism. Previously for impromtu speeches I have been given feedback that I wring my hands and tap dance. So I focused on not doing those things. Now feedback is that I am too fixed in position - but this is a good step I think as I wasn't aware of the hand wringing and dancing and now I can spend some time getting rid of them and some time managing to have spare brain capacity for deliberate movement.

I discovered that a good quote at the beginning makes a massive difference to how you feel going in to the whole speech. V important for the future to remember that. I tried quite a few before picking this one.

Back to work in grey London boo hoo

The view from my office. Flat is at the very left of the photo by the big red arrow

Holiday activities

We went camping

with the bbq and some lamb, pork and sausages

Up at sunrise!

This is the tent which pitches itself when thrown in the air. Magic. A little bit more tricky to fold back up again.

We took the horses in to the mountains in their snazzy new trailer (this time not at the same time as the camping - though we would like to go camping with them sometime)

This bit of land was really good for working them on as it is pretty flat.

This is a ruined diary. The little square things at the middle right were for keeping the cream and milk cool.

Went for several picnics

Ate lots. Yummy duck

Made sausages

More walking the dog and picnic

Met our neighbor up a mountain where we were having a picnic (having driven up there) and he had walked up ready to fly down. We totally failed to recognise him out of context which made for a confusing experience until se realised!

Put up some fireproof plasterboard above the wood burning stove. Doug needed help with that one because the lifter couldn't fit in above the stove. I am impressed he can lift them up at all single handedly.

Frozen Yogurt Recipe

1 part sugar (by weight)

4.5 parts yogurt

Pinch of salt

Mix together ingredients until the sugar melts 

Put in icecream maker.

Yes it's that easy!

Darn pigs

No, the back of their house is not meant to look like this, they are going to be chilly as it gets colder. Hopefully nice Doug will find an offcut fom the house and fix it for the little vandals.

Ceiling

Despite being on holiday this week Doug has done a bit on the house getting part of the ceiling up in the downstairs room. We should really do the bit over the heating while I am here to help. Bit concerned that I cannot lift the sheets - somehow Doug manages it on his own in easy places. We shall see.

Holiday

I am on holiday for a week now. Hurrah!

We have some useful things planned like eartag the sheep and register the horse trailer but also fun things like going camping and taking the horses in to the mountains in the horse trailer for the first time. Of course there are the normal animal things like feeding the pigs, chickens and rabbits, trimming the horses feet and at the moment we are milking Bluebell (since we weaned Lismore). So perhaps some cheese and yogurt making too.

Here is the white russian I had to celebrate the first day of the holiday. It is made with Bluebell cream and was DELICIOUS. Normally I am not keen on drinks that are so sweet... but in this case I make an exception.

Setting an example to other guests!

Janet recently came to stay and did lots of useful things.

Look at the garden

Before

After. Most the remaining plants look a bit feeble as they have been starved of light for a while, buried in weeds. It is a relief not to have the weeding hanging over us. 

We can now get in to harvest the things that are there. Those are baby corn not giant hands and tomatoes!

There is not a before picture, but the window was filthy and we could hardly see put of it. Particularly at the bottom where the dog rests her nose on it while waiting to be let in.

The floor was also hoovered and many many cobwebs removed.

Of course you are welcome back whether you do helpful things or not. But it was much appreciated!

Happy Birthday Doug!

Not a very clear photo! It is dark. 

The garden

The garden has been engulfd in weeks. It has been weeks and weeks and weeks since we have had a chance to do anything with it and the warm wet weather has encouraged the weeds to go MENTAL.

There is a bean frame in here somewhere, honest!

Doug has recently mown round the edge as you can see on the right - it is not so long. This is the sweetcorn

General view of the jungle

But there is still some produce in there and now Doug has mown round the edge we can get to a bit of it. The baby sweetcorn comes from special plants rather than us just picking them early.

Some of the tomatoes are doing well. These are down by the house.

Apple peeler

I am sure I have posted about the apple peeler before. But just in case, and as it is so brilliant here is a photo of it.

You just stab the apples on and wind the handle and it peels, slices and cores all at once!

Buttercup has been Artificially Inseminated

You will see from the previous post that Buttercup was in heat today. You can tell because first they start mounting other cows (who run away) and then after that other cows mount them - initially they will move off, but eventually they will stop doing that, which is then called standing heat. This is the time to call the AI guy who you want to turn up sometime within the next 12 hours.

You can see Hainoa mounting Buttercup, who is standing still, in the background.

I phoned the AI guy and he was able to come a few hours later. Janet stayed at home while we took Islay and Hainoa to Hunt Cam to see the bull. The reason we haven't had them AIed (which frankly would be easier than getting them transported to the bull) is becuase they aren't very obvious about being in heat so we have never managd to catch them at the right time.

This is the details about the Jersey bull the semen came from.

If it takes, she will give birth in 9 months, so mid June.

Taking the coos to the bull

When we bought the highland coos we arranged that we could take them back, when they were old enough, to see a bull that wasn't their father.

http://www.hunt-cam.fr

The time has finally come.

We had a great deal of 'fun' getting them in to the horse trailer.

Getting the trailer ready

Towing Islay up the field. Look what Hainoa is up to in the background! She is mounting Buttercup, and as Buttercup is standing still this means Buttercup is in heat.

We had to drag them both in to the trailer which was quite exhausting.

Islay was ok in the trailer once Hainoa was with her but Hainoa wasn't very happy. She was scared.

There are no photos at the the end as it was all a bit hectic. We got Islay out fine (or rather Sebastien did). Hainoa decided to fire out dragging Doug who had to let her go and then she set off through the village at full tilt having gored Sebastien (quite gently really). She ploughed through a fence then another fence still looking crazed and manic with Sebastien's son following her. Sebastien assured us it was all going to be ok and not to worry about her, so we focused on getting Islay to the field with the other cows. Islay decided to behave really really well, I think she is quite a calm cow really, just teenage at the moment. Fortunately - and as Sebastien had suspected - when we got to the field we found Hainoa already there making friends with nine new cows and the bull who is called Capi

This is him when he was younger. He is very fine looking now.

They have 30 coos altogether and maybe 3 bulls. They also have some Alpaca.

We hung around a bit but everything seemed very calm so we left them to have fun with their new friends. They will be there something like a month, maybe a bit more depending when they come in to heat. We saw two of Hainoa's sisters while we were there. One of them looked exactly like her.

I am not really looking forward to trying to get them back in to the trailer, but Sebastien is very calm and the cows love him so hopefully it will go ok!

A run

I haven't been running since July, my knees got sore.

Finally motivated myself to go out this morning - started thinking about getting fit for skiing. Bit humid and sweaty feeling.

You can just see my work there. Lovely.

Weaning Lismore

Lismore is getting on for a year old, we have been wanting to wean her for some time but did not have suitable fields fenced to keep her and Bluebell well apart. They need sturdy fences with strong electric.

Doug finished fencing what we call 'Owens field' last week and we have finally split them up.

We put eartags in them both so they are legal - we have had the eartags some time but not got around to putting them in as it is a bit of an undertaking.

Poor Lismore had to have her head tied to a tree to hold it still enough. She seemed to recover from the indignity quite quickly. The light on her side makes it look like she has a wound, but she doesn't 

Bluebell didn't seem very bothered about having her ears pierced. This is her 'where is my piece or bread as a reward' look.

We put Lismore in with the herd (Buttercup, Hainoa, Islay and Bif) and Bluebell is on her own for a while now until Bif goes to the abattoir and Buttercup dries up. We put a nose spike (the red thing in her nose in the photo) on her as we think Buttercup might let her feed with Bif otherwise - she is very obliging.

Both mum and daughter have spent hours roaring and calling to the other, but neither has managed to bust out yet and hopefully both will get over it soon.

We haven't bothered weaning Bif as he is going to the abattoir soon and we want to keep him fat until then. 

Finally we can take the highlands to the bull

We wanted to take the highland cows to the bull last year but could not manage to get access to a trailer to take them in. This year we will finally be able to - hopefully next weekend.

Here are the horses trying the trailer out.

And having a nice feed afterwards