**************Update*******************
So I took your advice with the presentation, I was on at 3:30pm. So I arrived at about 2:45pm. I sat down, had a cup of tea and listened to my music. I then went out had a couple of cigarettes and came in at about 3:10 to wait to be called.
3.30pm on the dot I went in and gave my presentation.
The presentation went as follows. A brief introduction by the chair of the panel and then I was up.
My powerpoint slides were classy yet simple. Easy on the eye and no stupid backgrounds/animations.
I introduced myself and thanked them for coming I then made a joke ;o
The joke was
"I know what you are thinking as far as my presnetation is concerned, its the tie isnt it....*pause*....My girlfriend picked it for me, sorry!"
Everyone chuckled and smiled, apart from the Russian bloke who appeared to piss himself in laughter, really heavy laughs.
It was quite interesting the rest of the presentation, I was quite free flowing, didnt look at my notes too much, smiled, eye contact etc, and suprisingly I knew my lines. I made a few comments and kept within my time limit.
I then had questions and in one of them I was asked "how important are the islands to the japanese" I talked about the sovereign state of Japan etc, Japanese pride blah blah blah. I then said plus I hear the Japanese people are partial to some fish" I then turned to the guy from the embassy and said "is that true?" he laughed and said "oh yes, we love our fish" followed by some laughter in the audience.
The guy who was marking it had a beaming smile by the end of the presentation and shook my hand and said well done.
Also everyone asked for a copy of my notes which is
So I think it went ok (apart from the corny jokes)