I recently went to a ladies night and they had one of those ‘awful’ icebreaker activities – I hate icebreakers! But this one went quite well. You were all given a card with the following questions on it but attached to that was a pink slip that had written on it either a city or a country and you had to find your matching pair before you could go and ‘break the ice’!!
I found my partner and it was good because we had never met before so it was an opportunity to get to know someone new to town. I actually found it hard to answer these questions honestly and briefly. It made me reflect on how complex we are really and how it does take time to get to know each other.
I thought I’d share these answers here on my blog… just a get to know me post.
- The country I’d most like to visit and why? I am sure that when I was young I would have answered the U.K. but now I can’t help be influenced by my children and their passions. They would love to visit Turkey (to see the sites of the 7 Churches of Revelation as well as Gallipoli), Rome, and Egypt. Peter has a passion for Africa so no doubt that would come on my list somewhere too. You can’t help be influenced by the passions and interests of those around you.
- My favourite colour – I find this one hard to answer. If we are talking about my favourite colour to decorate my house I love green and white. If you talk about clothing then it is, I start to fumble because I really don’t know – maybe hot pink, purple – love purple, or maybe white.
- The thing you most like about your home town – it is home. I know this answer!! I love living where I live because I know it is where God has placed our family. It has become our home, a place full of memories both withour family but also with memories of people we have loved over the years. But I can’t help but drive around the valley, especially at sun set, and marvel at the beautiful world God has made.
- Best loved hobby or pastime, give the reason – Well, another hard to answer question if I want to be quick! I currently scrapbook in any spare moments I have. I love scrapbooking because the words I write, and the memories I record build up my family. But I miss working with fabric the most – sewing clothes and decorating my home. Maybe the season will return when I can get back to my first love!
- Share a funny experience from your life – I personally think my life is fairly mundane, normal and not so funny so I had to think hard on this on. I decided to dobb myself in and retell a story that is often retold to me in my ‘blonde’ moments. One day I was finishing a craft project and I scotchguarded it (Scotchguard is a spray on product that makes things waterproof) only problem is that I also Scotchguarded a teatowel…. Making it completely unusable. Ever tried to use a waterproof teatowel!
So there are some random facts about me! As I type this up I think it would be a good exercise to ask these questions to my kids or even Peter. We often think we know someone and yet the little things often go under the radar – even if we live with the other person.
Actually some of these types of questions have come up when we draw a card from TAOC – a game we often play (by our own rules) at the dinner table. This game – there are 4 variations – poses questions that each person has an opportunity to answer. To play by the rules you would also give each person an opportunity to ask further questions to the person doing the answering. We don’t play by the rules, but we do find some stimulating conversation happening which is our goal.
So what does TAOC stand for?
TAOC – The Art of Conversation. We’ve had good conversations from pulling cards
* Are you a good leader which lead into what makes a good leader
* Is reading anything (rubbish included) better than not reading at all
* If you were the leader of the country what would you change (we had to limit Josh to 3minutes!!)
Great questions. I’ve saved them so I can refer back to them when I need something like this – thinking planning weekend. Phyllis
Hi Phyllis – think of you often! Two of my friends here in town have either worked with your book this year or are working on it at the moment. The couple working on it currently are doing a question at a time whenever they get a date opportunity. It is working for them, and they are talking about things they have not previously done. It is very exciting to see what a planning weekend can do. I reckon Pete and I should be up for another too soon! Enjoy your time away.