How very European

I'm in the competition room at the IAM European Memory Championship, in a very nice room in the Skovlunde library in Copenhagen. Competitors whose faces I should recognise by now but don't: Sylvain, Norbert, Konsti, Yves, Tobiasz, various others. People who I do recognise without needing to look at the name on their table: Simon. Also, Idriz, who's running the show, and I'll definitely know Lars when he arrives.

I might be a millionaire - I've got one of those "news about your ticket" emails from last night's Euromillions, but the national lottery website won't let you log on from a foreign country, so I'll just have to wait till I get home on Monday to know whether I'm fabulously rich or the lucky winner of £2.70 from my £2.50 ticket. I'll buy a top hat, monocle and cigar, just in case.

I haven't done any training, or particularly thought about memory, since the last competition I went to (which, off the top of my head, I think was in Germany or something). This is probably a good omen, and I'm sure the whole thing will be a great success.