my sore throat 'brewed' into an extremely painful one in 2 days and I suspect the culprit is some ulcer... cos pain feels somewhat localised. i can't even swallow without wincing... let's hope the funny watermelon powder works wonders and that I'll be ok tomorrow. on a totally unrelated note, I'm wondering if I should spend $500 on a good electronic Japanese-English dictionary which will allow me to look up words and how to use them in sentences in a few 'clicks'... hmm.. $500.... quite ex... but may be a good long-term investment though.