Liam Tancock: You'll just have to wait for my secret to be revealed . . .

I love the picture and I found myself in that exact spot last week to film a TV advert. It's going to sound all a bit top secret but I can't tell you who the advert was for. I'm not allowed to, though what I will say is that it will hit your screens next year.

As days go, it was amazing. I woke up for breakfast in London, flew to Barcelona, was there for most of the day filming and nearly made it back to London in time for my dinner.

Sticking with top secrets, I'm really looking forward to Speedo's new swimsuit, FASTSKIN³, coming out. Speedo has a team called Aqualab at its headquarters and it has been developing suits for over 80 years.

I've had a chance to try it on and train in it but behind closed doors as it hasn't been launched yet. I think people will be really blown away by it.

I've been doing a bit of city hopping recently as, prior to Barcelona, I'd only just come back from Berlin where I was competing in the World Cup meeting there.

It wasn't about times or winning at this point in the season but racing hard against the best. I did a bit of backstroke, medley and butterfly and I was pretty pleased with my overall performances.

It was good to line up against some of the best in the world, Michael Phelps included. I've raced at events alongside him before and he strikes me as a really nice guy.

Swimming needs people like Phelps - he helps spread the word of the sport as he's a hero.

Like Phelps, Ian Thorpe has also really helped swimming globally. He's back racing this weekend in Singapore and I'll be interested to see how he gets on. Thorpe knows better than anyone the pressures of competing at a home Olympics as he did in Sydney 2000, along with another, Susie O'Neill, who gave a talk to all the British swimmers in London the other day.

I didn't know what to expect but she had a lot of good things to say. She knows exactly what we all hope to be going through next year so hearing her can only be a good thing.

Back to Berlin, though, I did some sightseeing once the competition was over. The group of British swimmers all went out for some German sausage on the final night and enjoyed a little wander. We saw the Brandenburg Gate and all the stuff around there. It was late so there wasn't a lot open but it was a great city.

Yesterday I was back in London for the launch of my new partnership with Sky Sports, with a scholarship programme supporting me and 10 other British athletes. We'll be getting on-going training and mentoring about life in the spotlight.

Talking of public profile, I've just gone past the 10,000-follower mark on Twitter. It's amazing to think that many people are interested in what I'm doing so thank you.

I've got some warmer weather to look forward to later this month. On the 15th, I fly out to Fort Lauderdale for a month's training camp. It's good to train there and get away from all those colds!

Follow Liam Tancock and the other Sky Sports Scholarship athletes at www.skysports.com