It can be tough getting people to say what you want them to

For the last two-and-a-half years I've been writing these day-in-the-life slots, so you'd think I could confidently say: "Ah, the ditl [shorthand used by Harry, the Media Scope editor, and me - vvvvvv busy people!], sure I could do that in my sleep." But the truth is you never really know what you're going to come up against. Some people are very nervous. Others want to yabble on for hours and hours.

So, while there is a list of bog-standard questions per interviewee, there is usually a lot of teasing things out and generally keeping people on the phone asking the same question in a thousand different ways - until you finally get an answer which is quotable.

Some people are very media-savvy and know how to take control of the interview. But most people I talk to for this slot have no experience and, often as not, say something they would rather the whole world wasn't going to read about over breakfast. Which brings us to the daily dilemma for hacks of all sorts: to publish and be damned, or to show some respect, at the expense of "good copy"? If you can't make the article newsworthy, informative and captivating, it may as well not be published.

In general, interviewees are sort of facilitators for a story a journalist wants to tell. Mostly it is the same story the interviewee wants to tell, but you never can be too sure.

Personally, I would never agree to be interviewed. But, lucky me, today I get to ask and answer my own questions - and no challenge when I lie!

The day-in-the-life interview starts with basic factual stuff such as how do you spell your name - yes, that basic. Other questions would be: why did you choose this job? What's the best thing about your job? The worst part? Most embarrassing mistake? How does your typical day go?

So here goes. Why journalism? Passionate convictions - cringe. But I'm more or less over all that now. More or less.

Best part? Access to info on the strangest of things without as much as looking at a book - just interview the expert!

Worst part? The expert isn't contactable. The deadline is looming, tick, tick, tick, deadline passing, tock, story not done - nightmare.

Embarrassing stuff? Too embarrassing to talk about. Typical day? Get up much too early and do my real job - take care of the kids, Yan (12), Mia (10). Prise them out of their warm, cuddly beds, stick bowls of cereal in front of them (which they inevitably splash back asleep into) and effect military command mode: "Quick, move, eat, dress, teeth, lunch into bag, coat, bus fare, go, go, go!"

Maintain that general pace for the rest of the working day. Into office, log on, check messages, check post, lash through any reports, etc, get on the phone, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. Write story.

Leave office to collect the kids from school around 2.30 p.m. From then on, as just about everyone I've ever interviewed says, there really is no typical day.

As a journalist, you tend to spend the day asking questions. Recently I interviewed a 77-year-old man who had been in a Nazi concentration camp during the second World War. We did the interview in German, a language I once spoke. I understood everything he told me, but the speaking part eluded me. I couldn't interrupt him (a crucial skill for any journalist) and far from me steering the interview to get the story I wanted to write, he was in charge. Panic-stricken though I was, what transpired was an extraordinary story of horror, ingenuity, forgiveness and tenderness. Hearing stories, telling stories, contriving stories, exposing stories, avoiding stories. I suppose that pretty much sums up a typical "day in the life" of myself.