That was not an enjoyable experience.

As arranged, the phone rang at 9.15am. It was the lady from the Japanese Speech Contest organising committee, and she was phoning to interview me.

I remember the experience well from two years ago. Ten minutes of panic, desperately trying to recall bits of vocab. (I didn't make it through then).

This time it was almost as painful. I made an idle comment, which the interviewer picked up on and drilled me about. Something I really didn't want to talk about as it focused upon the 'badness' of a particular group of people (European tourists). I don't agree with slagging others off - and it's not exactly a great first impression if all you talk about is how bad other people are.

It serves me right though. I shouldn't even have let it slip that I preferred serving Japanese tourists to European tourists. There's a lesson there for you Joseph.

I'm now going to try and forget all about the speech contest, and concentrate on writing two essays, preparing two high-tech presentations, and getting a dissertation outline together. All by the 19th December. Hurrah!

Chocolate. I must buy chocolate first.