Dinner and Small Talk

This was a day that our Toastmasters club has been planning for sometime, as typically, everybody is busy with their own lives, making the confirmation of the date almost an impossible task. And to think that one of us had to fall sick on this very day. On this day, the club exco members were supposed to have a dinner together using some of the money the club received for its contribution to our organisation. So after work, we proceeded to this restaurant in the East in this small group of four ladies and two men, including me. Our mode of travel was a car large enough to put a cow in. And with a majority of ladies, there was always going to be a chatter in constricted space. So we were like a small family singing on a long journey or an outing in a family car, only that all the nostalgic singing was replaced by gossips and office news. Yes, it did feel like a family.

We met another two of ours at the restaurant. And soon enough, we were down to business - an all out assault at the buffet table, comprising Japanese Sushi (my favourite), Herbal soups (their favourite) and erotic cocktails (our favourite) and a whole load of other stuff. There was no mercy for our stomachs, especially my. In between, there was the normal social mingling and small talks, and no doubt about it, I was totally out of it. I felt I was with the wrong crowd somehow. At one point, I thought I was the only one speaking, the rest just ate their way through the three hours. Well, one thing was obvious - there was the age gap. Somehow, I always surfed through and connected. But not this time and I felt it full force. I got this feeling that this won't be the last time I will hear of it.