Congratulations to James who is the winner of the "Hold me now moments" competition. A cheque for Eur500 is winging itself out to you at the moment. James's embarrassing story is as follows...

It's quite hard knowing where to begin. On July 12th, 2006, I began an odyssey of misfortune and anguish. Myself and two friends went to Berlin, with me living alone and them sharing a flat an hours ride on the train from me. The torture began as I started working in a hotel, 5 days a week, 8 and ½ hours a day, earning Eur2.35 an hour. Although, it was plenty to feed myself on the German Euro Saver Menü, with change to spare! Well as you may have noticed while watching World Cup matches, Berlin was going through a heat wave. The humid sweaty trains that greeted us should have been a warning sign. After a long week working in the hotel and trying to teach the staff English, myself and my friends, Amy and Liz, decided we'd see the sites the German Capital has to offer. We spent the whole Saturday walking around, seeing the remains of the Wall, the TV tower, the Brandenburg Gate, while taking in the sun. Too much sun.



By the end of the day, we were probably suffering sunstroke, if standing and laughing at cheese for 45 minutes is a symptom (Amy says she can't even remember going to supermarket!). In our wisdom, we decided that we would go swimming the next day, to cool off. Liz stayed home, but Amy and I made our way across the city. To save money, we decided to share a locker, leaving all our stuff as we went to do the breaststroke. An hour later, we returned to find our locker forced open and our bags missing. The grim reality hit us. Amy had her bikini, I had my shorts. That was it. No shoes, no clothes, no towels, no keys, no phones, no money. We couldn't even drown our sorrows in a McFlurry.



Standing in the heat, we looked at each other and knew what had to be done.

Picture this: two pasty skinned, depressed looking Irish students, riding the U-Bahn, Berlin's subway, in swimming togs. When we eventually got back to the girls' flat, my very generous friend Liz let me wear her new T-shirt, while we rang home, looking for sympathy. If ever there was a moment when I wanted to see Johnny Logan brandishing some Twisty Fries and singing "Hold Me Now", that was it. Liz then took a picture of me and Amy sitting on a couch. By that stage I wanted to laugh and cry, but the look on Amy's face says it all (and for the record, her glasses were stolen, so that's why she was wearing those beauties).

Of course, that wasn't the end of my troubles: I locked myself out of my flat, lost my keys, spent an evening wearing a bin liner in a bin searching for them, missed my flight home because of work on the train lines and then fell out of bed the next day, breaking two toes. Sadly, this is all true. As Johnny himself wrote, What can you say when words are not enough?

Hi all,

You only have a few days left to be in with the chance of winning Eur500.

To enter all you have to do is tell Johnny your most embarrassing “Hold me now moment”.

You can submit your story by posting it on Johnny’s Comments Board or by visiting www.mcdonalds.ie.

We’re picking the winner early next week so don’t delay.

Good luck.

Hi all,

You can now enter the "Hold me now moment" competition by submitting your entry on the comments section on my bebo page.

Good luck.