Toast and jam

irst Toastmasters meeting of the year tonight, and as always it was a lot of fun.  I was the “Table Topics Master”, in charge of the impromptu speaking section of the meeting.  I did have a set of prompts prepared to use to assign speaking topics, but as it turned out we had a huge number of guests along, and the tradition is that guests are invited to stand up and briefly introduce themselves during the Table Topics section, to give them a first taste of public speaking, which didn’t leave much time for actual Table Topics speeches.  That’s ok though, because I’m sure I’ll get landed with the Table Topics Master job again sometime soon, so I can save the prompts I prepared for then.
Toastmasters brought an unexpected benefit tonight – a jar of jam.  One of the members, Maya, had dropped by a few times over the break to visit, and to pick a few lemons from my tree (which I’m more than happy for her to do, as there’s no way I could ever use all the fruit it produces).  Last time she was here she mentioned she’d been trying her hand at jam making for the first time, and I shared some of my limited knowledge (ok, very limited – I’ve never actually made jam myself, though did I help Mum many times as a kid, and I’ve often made chutney, which is similar in principle (apart from the vinegar part, of course)).  So tonight she brought me a jar of her jam.  It’s plum and cherry flavoured, so it should be interesting.  I think I see a batch of scones in my near future…