QUICK thinking and vivid imagination were in evidence at Malvern Speakers’ last meeting.

In the unprepared TableTopics session, when members were given an object and asked to describe why it would always be in their suitcase when travelling, some remarkable ideas emerged, including Hilary Benoit’s fictional encounter with a polar bear and Sarah Colloby’s use of Vegemite as a tanning aid.

The evening’s prize, however, went to guest Raj Hopkinson – on holiday from Tanzania – for her surreal but engaging account of how she was an alien from Planet Pinkbox come to sort out the world’s problems.

Voted best prepared speech was Sarah Colloby’s account of her love affair with worms after she acquired a composting wormery. Her eulogy to her little invertebrate buddies, superstars of the crawling community was peppered with colourful alliterations and delivered without notes or hesitation. It also probably changed everyone’s view of the humble earthworm!

Other main speakers were Alan Roberts, with a review of his varied and colourful career and Stuart Telling, whose thought-provoking speech made us all reconsider t our use of time – the 1,440 minutes each of us has every day in life.

Next meeting will be at the Great Malvern Hotel at 7.30pm on Tuesday, August 12. More information about the Malvern Speakers and Toastmasters International can be found on the club website malvernspeakers.toastmasterclub.org.

COLIN JACKSON