Off to the tennis

This weekend was fun -- we went to Wimbledon!

It started Friday. I was working from home during the day because it was The Big Implementation of our software this weekend, so I was going to work until midnight that night. (Sidebar: had lunch with Dee and Stolly at a Turkish restaurant, then went to the gym. On the way there it started to rain and rain ... Stolly was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, so ducked into a shop and bought an umbrella for £3.50. He came out looking so pleased with himself that we went in a bought one each too -- so then we skipped down the road with matching umbrellas! Oh the hilarity.)

Earlier in the week a friend of Chris's (Joyce, who he met in Thailand) had mentioned going to the tennis at Wimbledon this weekend. It was going to be an "experience" -- queueing for hours to buy the general ground admission tickets. But we thought if we went a bit later in the day then the queue wouldn't be so long. Anyway, I went to work Friday night and mentioned it to one of my work colleagues. "Really?" he said, "Because I just happen to have some free general admission tickets ... if you want them."

Oh yeah! Talk about "who you know"! So we thought we'd turn up a little earlier than the other, then just casually stroll straight in, laughing at the poor chumps in the queue. So we figured out our route (using Google and Transport For London) and jumped on the first of three buses. It wasn't too bad -- we were on early so the bus wasn't packed, and we got to sit up stairs at the front both times (Sidebar #2: If you can figure them out, buses are a cheap way to see London. On the way back in we drove through posh Chelsea, along the river, past Victoria Station, Hyde Park and finally to Marble Arch -- all great touristy things to see!)

So we got to Wimbledon (more precisely, Wimbledon Stadium) and walked around. There was a stadium, but we were expecting something ... grander. (Also we couldn't figure out how to get in.) We stopped a passerby to ask, and he was kind enough not to laugh too much. "The tennis? Oh, that's about 2 miles that way. And yes, it's much more posh than this." Into a taxi for the last leg of our journey -- why would you lie to us, Internet?!

Once we arrived we agreed -- it was much more posh. There were also considerably more people around! At least one part of our plan worked -- we walked straight in. "Yes, here's my members-guest tickets. We know a member of the club. We're so connected. Ta-ra, wot?"



Inside it was more people, but we found seats at a couple of matches. It's cool watching tennis! Much better than on the telly... and this was at Wimbledon! For free! Heh heh.



Eventually the poor chumps our dear friends made it inside the ground, and we watched some more tennis before slumping on the lawn in front of a giant screen which showed what was happening in center-court. Quite an English thing to do, judging from all the people -- sit on the grass, eat strawberries and cream and drink Pimm's.





When the tennis was all but over, Dee and I jumped on another bus back into London (the scenic one). Got back into Marble Arch, then walked along Oxford Street towards home (about a 2 hour walk). We were tired when we got home, but we still beat Chris and Tina (who took the bus to the local Tube station rather than all the way back into the city).