What puts a smile on your face? Topicsmaster Jill gave the Vox crowd last Wednesday night plenty of chances to answer this question as we watched Donal bring out his inner Basil Fawlty as a straight talking waiter, Deirdre described the horrors of a pathological swan and Paul stoked our enthusiasm for Gangnam style – by not performing it! Frank’s smile only got wider as he described his petrolhead’s love of the ‘oomph’ of petrol over diesel while Dan’s grá for golf came to the fore as he described it as both a sport and a skill, debatable for those of us who see it as a nice walk spoiled!
The topic of childhood fears brought us to Zimbabwe, where the thought of a spider bite on the derriere had a few Voxers twitching in their seats. Tony brought the room to a standstill on the topic of whether slapping a child is wrong by asking for a volunteer – surprisingly none were forthcoming..
The Central Hotel really warmed up as the discussion turned to slow dances and the relative merits of Dublin vs Galway as a capital city – two topics guaranteed to get an Irish crowd on their feet to address the audience!
The heat and passion with which the culture and architecture of Dublin were contrasted with the fresh air and celebrity holiday homes (yes Mr Tubridy again!) of the Wesht was truly a sight to see.. I wouldn’t like to pick a winner on the night, the best line goes to John with the bold statement that the Irish never got to choose their own capital city, Dublin was chosen by ‘the English, Cromwell and the troika’!
After a break to settle ongoing arguments in the bar, Stephen brought our attention to a topic we could all relate to – procrastination. His year-long progress towards making this week’s presentation became the subject of the speech itself, while his suggested steps for overcoming it made for very useful listening for this blogger at least!
Beulah then introduced us to Jewish Dublin in the form of an app, the butchers in Clanbrassil St, connections with James Joyce and historical slides of Dublin life.
On the night the answers to ‘what puts a smile on your face?’ ranged from babies to being unhappy – smile and you’ll forget that you’re not happy – sometimes it’s enough just to hear someone talk about getting bitten on the arse by a spider in the dark. Not so funny when it happens to you!
Merrilyn Campbell, VPPR