Wimbledon - Day 20

Started the day out fairly early and headed down to the restaurant to grab a quick breakfast. The price was steep, and the quality of the food somewhat suspect, so while we did pay the 28 Euros today, we decided we would find somewhere else to have breakfast moving forward. One thing I was surprised by was the table was set with Marmite and it was close enough to the Australian Vegemite that Colleen and I were instantly in heaven. Add in the fact that they made good coffee and we knew we were in for a reasonable time here in Dublin.

Our first stop for the day was Dublin Castle. It was a very interesting tour, as the building is a working government facility still to this day, and has roots as far back as 1204. The guide was very quick to deviate from the tour, and had lots of editorial comments to make about English, Americans, and Irish and their failure to embrace their own history. That meant we got to see history dating back to the Vikings and up until the current Prime Minister. The guide told us that an entire generation had grown up with a woman as leader of the country (some 20+ years of rule between two women to this point) and indicated that the next generation of voters would expect to see a woman in office. I found that very interesting.

Saint Patrick's Cathedral was our next stop. It was very interesting, and is somewhat a tourist trap. I guess it all depends on the kind of vacation you want. Colleen and I do enjoy a bit of this kind of tourism, though admittedly we aren't as keen on it as would mandate we go into every church and building we find that was a church. Still, there were some awesome stained glass windows, marble statues, and headstones and models indicating just how old this church really is. It still holds services, but we weren't going to attend church there, though it might have been interesting to hear the choir. From there, we meandered back to Christ Church Cathedral for the Anglican view on ancient churches. We didn't actually pay to go inside, as we didn't feel it would be worthwhile, though we did get a couple of pretty good shots of the surrounding garden.

There is a fish and chips place just across the street from Christ Church, and the board of famous names was pretty lengthy. So, that means of course we had to try some fish and chips for lunch. They came wrapped in butcher paper, and were piping hot. There was WAY too much food there, but Colleen and I managed. Tasty white fish for sure, but the lack of salt, and a desperate need for more vinegar on the chips really left us suspecting we could have had better. Still, we can say we have dined with a fish monger that served Bono, Serena Williams, and Bob Dylan. Not too shabby a list, and that was just the names I remembered.

I finally got it on this trip. Once again, I was disappointed to learn there would be no Crown Royal, despite the monster presence Diageo holds in Ireland and the UK in general (they own Guinness, Kilkenny, Smithwick's, Jameson, and Bushmills) but I turned my attention to discovering why my choice in whiskey must be wrong. To that end, I talked Colleen into a trip to the Jameson's Irish Whiskey and the Old Distillery Tour which is there in Dublin. Jameson doesn't still distill whiskey in this plant, having moved the operations North and South, but they do still put on a fine tour of how it should be done. We got to see how whiskey is made Irish style, and I have to be honest, I now understand why I don't care for Scotch whiskey, and why I'll never find Canadian whiskey in any of these countries. Scotch malting does not trap the smoke, instead allowing it to permeat the barley. This gives Scotch the peaty, smoky flavor it is known for. Those are flavors I don't like, quite frankly. Irish whiskey encloses the smoke, so that all they do is roast the barley. This heating gives it a distinctly mellower taste. Lastly, the good old USA and Jack Daniels. Corn whiskey instead of barley, obviously, but they are also required to use a cask only once, and they must be new for each casking. That is what creates the harsh woody taste in Jack, and the primary reason I now understand that I don't care for it either. I got to be one of the four tasters pulled out of the audience, by pure coincidence. They wanted volunteers, and on one half of the room (we saw a short video and the aisle literally split the room in half) had almost all of the men raise their hands, while my half of the room had no men. Since they wanted two men and two women, I assumed I'd have no chance, given the number of men that had initially raised their hand. To my surprise, the woman said "we need someone from this side" and since no one had expressed any interest in the first round, my hand shot up. I was chosen as the 4th taste tester, which meant I got to compare several Irish whiskeys to the most popular Scotch whiskey and the most popular American whiskey. It was very cool to be able to discern the differences in the whiskeys, and in the end, I came to the conclusion that while Johnny Walker Red is not likely a great candidate for Scotch, I do see how I prefer the Irish variety to the premise of Scotch. Much smoother straight, much easier to sip, and less fire in the belly while ingesting. I also discovered a whiskey drink for Colleen, as she decided that Jameson and Ginger Ale is a pretty solid combination, and was one of the options offered by the tour for her free drink.

Found and scored my city pin for the Hard Rock Cafe in Dublin. We then went to a place next door and had dinner, though we were both mildly disappointed. Her Bangers and Mash wasn't as good as the price suggested, and my steak sandwich was literally steak and bread, with nothing else. At least the chips were hot, and they did manage to hold a good bit of malt vinegar. We ate quietly, if sweatily, since once again, this was another facility that thought A/C was optional. SIGH!

Wound up having a few pints at a bar that had a rooftop lounge, which meant up there you could drink and smoke at the same time. EU countries do not allow smoking in any building and outdoor is allowed, so a few spots are winding up with rooftop "gardens" that offer the best of both for the discerning smoker. We watched the spectacle, and Collen was entertained by my assertion about which men would be leaving alone (sausage fests) and which girls had no plans of doing anything more than leading the guys on for free drinks. I like to people watch, and bars are always full of the possibility of watching something very entertaining.

Bed around 1. Damn, it is still hot here, and with no A/C in the room, it isn't going to cool off much, I can imagine. Tomorrow, more tours, and more ways to see Dublin the way we like, wandering aimlessly. :-)

Cheers!

Wimbledon - Day 19

Day 19 was a travel day. That meant for Colleen and I it was time to try out my plan of using the tube to Heathrow for our Aer Lingus flight to Dublin. We were only a bit hung over, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been, though of course, lugging those cases was not an easy task. But, of course, I am getting ahead of myself a bit there. First, I had to check out of the Marriott. The video check out wasn't working, for some unknown reason, so I couldn't check out from the room. Then, I get downstairs and find out that I won't be able to get a room for a single night there for our night before flying back to Raleigh anyway. They had a room at the Hyde Park Marriott, but somehow paying 225 pounds for a single night didn't appeal to me. So, we did manage to get them to store our luggage (we had one bag full of souvenirs, etc. we didn't want to lug all over Ireland) and they didn't even charge us for the service. Considering how large the bill was, I am glad to hear they didn't get me an additional charge.

So, we now had to find a place to stay. I liked Colleen's line of thinking. We were familiar with the Kensington area, we knew the tube stops, and the extra luggage would be in Kensington already. So, why stay in another part of town? All that meant was I had to find a hotel that had an available night for our booking. To make a long story short, we ended up finding a hotel right behind the Marriott, so it was too good to pass up. The Premiere Travel Inn isn't exactly a high end facility, but they had everything we needed for one night's rest. I will have to apologize to Clare. She had offered us her room, but when Colleen found out that there was a flat mate, she wasn't too keen on the idea. I can't say I disagree. Using the apartment of a casual friend was probably asking a bit much to start; using the apartment of a casual friend that has a roommate you have never met was not going to be a comfortable situation. So, yes, we spent money we didn't have to for the sake of our own comfort and feeling at ease, but I think it was money well spent. Once we had the booking, it was time to hit the tube and get to Heathrow for our flight.

The tube ride itself wasn't too bad. The navigation of the tube system was another matter altogether. Most stations have lifts for the disabled, but finding them can take you so far out of your way, I fail to see how it would save any time. That of course meant that more than once, Colleen and I had to lug suitcases up or down stairs to get to the platform. That was a minor annoyance, when you compare it to the working our way through tube pedestrian traffic. Folks just don't care, don't get out of the way, and in general seemed to be oblivious to the fact that we had luggage and needed extra space or time. The Picadilly line took us straight to the Heathrow terminal, so we were able to just catch an escalator up to the terminal. Aer Lingus was interesting. They told us in the e-mail that we could not use the kiosks for checking in for our flight. So, we stood in queue. At one point, a woman walked up from behind the counter and aske for our reservation. To confirm and assign our seats, she went to a kiosk and signed in using my passport, so I fail to see how that really required her intervention. Then, since it is like the Southwest Airlines of Ireland (no first class, just a plane with a ton of seats) it is of course in a remote part of the South Terminal. By the time we got there, it was stuffy, close, and very warm. There were a variety of odd smells, not the least of which was the hippy tree hugger Patchouli Oil stink. At least we got on the plane.

Now, this was the first (and not to be the last) time that I learned the real difference between an EU member nation and the United Kingdom. Ireland uses Euros, not pounds. That meant that the refreshments (none of which were complimentary) could only be purchased using Euro Dollars and not pounds. Bummer. At least the flight was short, as it was really only 50 minutes which means we spent more time in ascent and descent than any real flying.

Dublin Airport. That was an adventure. Since we were on the cattle car flight, our baggage claim was also in the bowels of the terminal and not convenient to where we landed, or where we had to go to pick up the car. Of course not. :-) Then, it turned out we arrived at almost the same time as three distinct groups of Italian school aged children. None of them was in the least polite. As I stood waiting for the luggage, I kept feeling more and more crowded. As I turned around to find Colleen, I discovered that I am surrounded to the point of being crushed against the baggage carousel. In order to get my luggage off the carousel, I literally had to hurl it into a boy who would not move no matter how many times I said "scuzi" to him. In the end, I got a lot of hard stares but I didn't care. Get out of the way, or show some courtesy when you see someone in front of you trying to lift a 22 kg suitcase. Oh well, boorish American Derek just wanted to get his luggage and get to the rental car.

The Dublin Airport had one ATM. I found that very odd, but couldn't very well argue the point. I just had to wait in queue to withdraw some Euros so that Colleen and I could enjoy a soda or a bite to eat until we found the hotel. Hertz is the bomb, no matter how many times I have felt like they were not. They had a slightly larger car than I had ordered, and it was at my quoted rate. They also had NeverLost, their GPS system. For some reason, my rental didn't show up on the Gold Club list, so I had to go get in line for my rental, but it was processed fairly quickly. We got to the car, and it was time for my shifting on the left experience. Now, for those faithful readers, they remember my previous discussions about driving on the left side of the road, as is common in all United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries. I was not surprised to find that even as an independent nation, Ireland still used the left side of the road. This time, however, the rental was significantly more expensive to step up to an automatic, so I chose to get a 5 speed manual transmission. That meant shifting on the left, where the stick was at my left hand, since I was sitting on the right side of the car to do the driving. At this time, let me thank my mother for making sure I learned how to drive a manual transmission when I was learning to drive. I was a bit rusty, and of course every car has a slightly different clutch feel, but for the most part, I was able to drive the car fairly easily.

Now, the same cannot be said for navigating the roads in Dublin. Few of them had street signs, and when they did, they were small signs affixed to buildings and were prone to changing names while on the same roadway. Unfortunately, the address for the hotel did not include a street number, and NeverLost wants a street address for finding locations. We circled the Temple Bar District quite a few times before we actually found the hotel entrance. Then, of course, we discovered that while the hotel web site indicated access to parking, that rarely means on site car park. So, I circled the block quite a few times more (and even farther down given the number of one way streets in the downtown area) while Colleen found out where the car park was and how much that was going to add in hidden costs to the hotel deal we got. Of course, the map we got from the front desk wasn't intuitive and we missed the turn more than once to find the car park. We got parked, got our luggage to the room and discovered we had wasted almost 4 hours just getting from the airport (we landed at 12:30 PM) and getting checked in and relatively settled. That meant I had wasted much of the first day, and it was totally because I was too dependent on the GPS, and then too nervous about driving around Dublin with the narrow streets and hidden street signs. Oh well, water under the bridge.

The hotel had an adjacent pub and I wasn't going to waste any time. I walked in and plopped down at the bar while I waited for Colleen to get freshened up a bit. This was the first indication to me the trip was going to be a good one. There were no pulled pints, meaning I'd be drinking cold, fizzy beer, and not the English equivalent I had come to understand if not necessarily appreciate. There was Smithwick's, Guinness, and Kilkenny on draft there. That somewhat puzzled me. I had been told that Smithwick's was the export equivalent of Kilkenny. If that were true, why would there be three taps here in Dublin? So, of course, that meant I had to find out, and the best way to find out is through experimentation. So, I had a Kilkenny and a Smithwick's. Sad to say, they are not the same beer at all. Kilkenny is what I got in Australia; creamy, nitrogen loaded for extra fizz, a medium bodied red ale. Smithwick's that I had was a red ale, but did not have the creamy head or the wait to let it settle. More of a mystery now then ever. Turns out, like most of my favorite alcohol apparently, Diageo owns the international distribution and manufacturing rights for these two beers, which are brewed in the same plant, in Kilkenny, Ireland. Guinness is owned by Diageo as well, so no point in arguing which is which. Still, it did give me the feeling of three choices and all of them truly cold beer, and definitely no chance of being flat.

Dinner was across the street in a little Italian restaurant called Little Sicily. Now, despite what this review says on the link I posted, the restaurant next door, Sinners, is where the belly dancing was. Nothing in this Italian restaurant said belly dancing, trust me. Our only issue there was that I had ordered a white wine, was told that the one I wanted wasn't available, was offered a substitute but was then brought out a red wine of the same name. Sigh. At least I didn't have to pay for the red she had opened by mistake. We ate like royalty and then decided to head back to the bar across the street for a couple more pints. In the end, we settled into our room relateively early hoping to get a jump on the next day. Turns out the hotel did not have air conditioning, and we were actually overlooking the vents and ducts for the sections of the hotel that were air conditioned, so we picked up a bit of heat from those as well. At least it was a decent room and a soft enough bed to get some sleep.

Cheers!

Wimbledon - Day 18

So, today ended up being more a tourist day than a work day. We started out with a tube trip to the London Eye. It turned out I made the mistake of not booking on-line, and that meant we had to call the ticket office and then pay 2 pounds more per ticket than we could have if I had just booked them on-line. Oh well. It was an impressive ride. The capsule is a large bubble that is completely enclosed. They put a mobile A/C unit in them, so it is even fairly temperate. There is a bench in the center, and handrails around the outside, but for the most part, the bubble is just enclosed glass. I was quite white knuckled as I sat on the center bench the whole time, but I did manage to look out and see some wonderful views of London. Definitely worth the time to go, and of course paying for the fast track ticket was well worth the time, as we ended up getting on early and bypassed a fairly large queue to get on.

Hey look kids! There it is, Big Ben and Parliament. That became the joke of the vacation. We couldn't stop thinking about National Lampoon's European Vacation and them getting stuck in the traffic Island near the two famous landmarks. We of course took pictures of the clock, the building and the roundabout they were stuck in. It made us giggle, which is all we want from a vacation anyway.

Saw Westminster Abbey, though only from the outside. We would have had to wait in a queue that looked to be hours long, based on the sweaty visages I saw, so we decided it was a church, and the inside wouldn't be worth that kind of wait in line. We hoofed it over to the Hard Rock Cafe, but Colleen decided she didn't really want anything from the store after all. We wandered all over town, opting to allow me the chance to finish one of the pub crawls, from the Dick Whittington Ale Trails. That meant 5 pints in five different bars, and did include a bit of pub grub at the first. It wasn't too bad after all.

We popped into the King's Head for dinner and discovered it was Trivia night. I didn't expect to do well, as the questions would be slanted toward pop culture England style, but I did want to play. In the end, I got a free pint for knowing that Lleyton Hewitt was married to Beck Cartwright, the Australian Soap star. That made it more fun. We only got 13 out of 25, so we weren't even in the running for the cash jackpot. Oh well. We got in touch with BJ and Judy and we managed to meet them for a pint and then we cleaned out the fridges in our rooms of all the purchased beer. It seemed odd that after three separate instances where folks had brews they purchased themselves down at the bar, that this would be the time we'd get hassled. It meant we had to go up to BJ's room to finish up, and I guess that wasn't too bad.

Feeling more than a bit tipsy, we decided to call it a night. We all had to travel anyway. Just some of us were moving on to our next phase and some were going home.

Cheers!

Wimbledon - Day 17

Woke up this morning feeling more refreshed than I have in the entire time I have been here. It was amazing how much getting to sleep next to Colleen meant to me as well. I got up and got ready for the venue trek while I let Colleen sort of take her own time. She's much more sure of herself here, and a good deal of that is of course because of the lack of language barriers, and so I wasn't worried about getting her out and about to wander here.

Play started at noon again today, and while the weather looked threatening, we did not see any rain leading up to the start of the men's final at 2 PM. That was impressive, and there were even bursts of sun through the clouds as we saw the day start. It almost assured we would not have a Monday final, and I'd narrowly escape having to scramble to make changes to my travel plans. The trip in was alone again. I have to admit, I don't really mind that at all. I threw on the headset, and jammed my way up to the gates once again.

I managed to acquire a ground's pass for Colleen, so I got her in gate 5 around 1:30. She had walked up from the tube station, and had bought the t-shirts we needed as souvenirs from the stand along the way. After getting her into the grounds, we popped down to the food village and had some fish and chips and a pimm's number 1 cup. She admitted it wasn't bad at all. Since I was working, I had to leave her to her own devices and head down to the hole. We did meet up one last time as she got bored (there is only so much you can do without a seat in the good courts) and wanted to go wander back to the tube stop and then back to the hotel. I had suggested that she might need to come back to the venue closer to the end of play, and she didn't seem too thrilled by that but she knows I prefer at least a bit of polite gamesmanship and team unity. In the end, I am sure if I press she'd do it for me. That might mean I have to take a mandatory trip on the London Eye but at the same time, after finding this site, I may take one anyway. It is an enclosed capsule, not an open seat like the ferris wheels I have been white knuckled on before.

Play ended at a very reasonable time. I chose at the end to avoid the dinner with the greater team as they were going for Thai, and we had eaten Thai yesterday. That means I get to take a tube trip back to the hotel and then find somewhere for dinner with my wife. I like the team, and I appreciate their open arms during the event, but I have missed my wife and I want to go spend time with her. I will say I got a couple of glasses of champagne to toast a successful event.

I also chose to wait to do the booking for the London Eye. I want Colleen to see our options and let her make the choice. I have decided I'll suck it up and go on the ride, so maybe I'll have a horror story to share about my white knuckle time on the thing. Maybe I'll surprise myself and actually not be totally freaked out. Right now, the anxiety is high. 135 meters is a pretty high structure, even if it is supposed to be safe.

Wrapped everything up that I could. I had to struggle to get the phone headset disconnected. The UK telephony folks broke off the tabs for the handset and the line into the phone, so moving things around wasn't all that easy. Still, I had all my stuff packed up and out of the way for tomorrow.

Colleen and I wound up having a quiet dinner and then to bed early. Tomorrow promises to be a busy day.

Cheers!

Wimbledon - Day 16

Got up at 6 after about 5 hours sleep (give or take) and had to really scramble. The effects of the wine at last night's dinner had my head a bit sluggish, so I didn't quite make the timing I had hoped for. I got to Victoria station at 5 minutes after 7, and the train left the station at 7. Bummer. Oh well, I had told Colleen it would probably be 7:45 before I got there, and I definitely was on track to make that time. I have to say I was quite impressed with the Gatwick Express and Victoria Station in general. It was easy to get the tickets, and easy to get aboard, and the trip really was just under 30 minutes as promised.

Now for the drama, because I knew I'd encounter some in this whole thing. First, I was unaware that there were two terminals and that they were separated by a tram. Second, I had no idea that International filights might come into more than one terminal. So, I got off the train, and followed the signs to International Arrivals. I sat there for 20 minutes almost baffled as I couldn't find her flight, and didn't see any indication she'd made it in. I then took 10 minutes in queue to find out that American landed in the terminal I was not in, and that the Gatwick Express wouldn't have let me off over there anyway. So, I found the tram to the other terminal (they are labeled North and South, but I can't for the life of me remember which was which) and got over there to International arrivals once again. Unfortunately, once again, no indication of her flight on the board. It is now 8:15 and Colleen was due in at 7:20. I am near panicked, so I (finally) found the information desk in this terminal. The man there informs me that once the plane has completely landed, cleared and all luggage is off, the flight is removed from the board. He then informed me that the American Airlines flight I had been looking for landed shortly after 6 AM, and by 8:30, it was unreasonable for me to expect there to be any remnants of the flight on the board. 6AM!!!!! I said to him that all I needed to do now was find a panicked American in the terminal that was my wife. He said, fairly tongue in cheek "unless she's found another husband" and I laughed and said if she had at this point, I had no one to blame but myself. To wrap up the story, I found her standing in the queue for the ATM. She was ready to withdraw some cash and take a cab to the hotel, as she did have the exact details. Alternatively, she was going to call my cell phone and find out where I was. I have to say I was really proud of her when I heard that. She's no longer the timid flyer that had such a hard time with the flight to Paris. She was cool, calm, and prepared. I was so glad to see it.

Got her back to the hotel and took the chance to explain some of the tube and the area we walked through. I chose to get her an Oyster for our tube excursions, as I am convinced even with the extra 3 pounds deposit for the card. Besides, we plan on making pretty good use of the trains in the limited time we're here. Got her into the hotel, and she was ready for a shower. I can't blame her, even though there's not a lot of strenuous work associated with it, I always feel grimy as well. I got her a coffee on the train (Starbucks no less) so I had confidence I could keep her at least moderately awake for most of the day. My goal was really to keep her up until 6 or 7 and then let her take a couple of hours for a nap before dinner.

So, onto sight seeing. We took the tube to Hyde Park corner, and then started our stroll through the park. It was wonderful. The weather was what I had expected. Bright, sunny and breezy. Cool enough to keep it from being miserable, warm enough to not require a coat. Colleen took the camera from me (of course, she is convinced I am horrible at the photo diary of our vacation, and I am not going to stop her) so I don't have any photos to add to the blog for this post. You'll just have to wait for the album at this point. We saw the Princess Diana memorial, and even stuck our feet in it, as is allowed according to the signs we saw walking in. From there, I realized I hadn't eaten all day to that point, and really wanted to have a bit of lunch. I used it as the excuse to get Colleen into Harrod's, so we walked a couple of blocks there and then dropped down to the below ground level and enjoyed the Tapas Bar for lunch. Yes, 46 pounds is a lot to pay for lunch, but I had a Harrod's ale, we both had a double espresso (Colleen was fading) and a couple of very lovely desserts. The healthy eating is definitely off the menu as we took in some very high calorie eats. :-) In the end, she did a lot of browsing, but we just didn't do any shopping. I can't say I blame her, the prices were not exactly attractive. As we left Harrod's, there was a protest going on, indicating that we should boycott Harrod's anyway since fur is murder. I didn't have the heart to stop and argue with the woman shouting into the bullhorn, but she was wearing leather shoes and had a leather bag on her shoulder. Hypocrisy at its finest. On an unrelated note, I am always amazed at how conservative I feel when I see things like that. My first reaction was "shut up you hippie tree hugger!" even though I honestly believe in her right to speak her mind, and other than the hypocrisy of her clothing and accessories, I personally wouldn't ever buy a fur. Age? Maturity? Just outright lunacy on my part? I'll leave that to the interpretation.

Back onto the tube (a station right outside Harrod's) and we're off to Picadilly Circus and the signs, sights and smells of what has to be one of the busiest intersections I have ever seen. We popped into Lillywhite's which enjoys the miracle of being in Picadilly Circus to generate more foot traffic than I thought would be possible. We did our bit of shopping. I opted for a close approximation of manpris in jet black. I was puzzled by the response I got at Harrod's. "3/4 length men's trousers are a fashion faux pas" was the word from the man in the men's department "and therefore we do NOT carry them. Long shorts, yes, 3/4 length trousers, no." Given how many people I have seen wearing what I assume to be 3/4 length men's trousers, maybe I have just missed the true definition. Either way, these looked very good and felt very lightweight. Colleen and I also scored a pair of what we've now dubbed vacation shoes. The premise being that we'll buy a pair of shoes that should only be available in the country we're in. We chose Lonsdale shoes, since I know there are some clothes available, and definitely boxing wear, but I am not aware of anywhere in the U.S. to buy the shoes. Colleen's actually said the Wimbledon line, so that had a good tie in. We also found her a replacement pair of sandals as she had brought a pair that were basically falling apart, and after the day in town were definitely not in the shape I would have preferred.

From there, we popped into a pub called the Red Lion. It was a free house as well, so we got some pretty decent beer (nothing against Young's beer, I am just going for variety.) I would have thought the experience to be good, except that we got hassled by some rowdy drunk who claimed he was arrested in Raleigh, North Caroleena (isn't that near Turtle Beach?) for wearing a crucifix and then called us bloody Protestants. I calmy tried to play it off and indicated that he had to be exaggerating as there were probably more Catholics in the United States than he really could expect. Fortunately, his friends quieted him down and we were able to enjoy our pint in relative peace. The beer, unfortunately, took Colleen down for the count. She really couldn't keep her eyes open any longer, and I didn't want to keep her up much longer. Just didn't seem fair.

Got Colleen back to the room after we popped in for a hummus and rye cracker snack purchase at a small grocer. She fell asleep almost immediately. It was about 6:30 and I felt I had done it justice to keep her up that late. Dinner was at a small Thai restaurant near the hotel and ended up being quite tasty even for a hole in the wall. Colleen wasn't interested in drinking, as she was still pretty groggy, so we called it an early night, and I got to get a decent night of sleep without any significant amount of alcohol. That's a novelty. Tomorrow, the men's final and the end of the tournament.

Cheers!

Wimbledon - Day 15

Woke up at the regular time. The Marriott announced that they had put updated bedding on my bed, and I must say it was quite comfortable. I slept more deeply than I had slept to this point. It was very nice.

Since I got up very early (play was slated to start at noon) and I was given the chance to come in a bit late anyway, I decided to go for a bit of a walk up to Kensington Gardens just to get a feel for the sights. It was very tranquil, though not as sculpted as the gardens I walked in Australia. They have what is described as an elfin oak here, which intrigued me because it should have been similar in nature to the fairy tree we saw in Melbourne. I was right in that assumption, but apparently there is too much chance of vandalism here, as the tree is surrounded by a cage of sorts. I took a pretty good pic, so I'm posting it, though I am still disappointed in the experience.



All in all, I did enjoy the walk through the garden. I saw a few items I liked. The best statue I saw was the Energy Monument. I am not exactly sure what that means, other than the artist called it a tribute to pure energy in movement. Here's that picture:



We're hoping that play ends earlier, but given it started later, I really doubt it. I did hedge my bets that we'd be able to have dinner out, and maybe we will. I just think that will end up being a bad choice, as we'll be here too late to actually eat a proper dinner.

Spoke to Colleen for the last time on the phone before she gets here!!! How cool is that going to be? I can't even begin to express how much it means to have her coming in shortly. Of course, I now regret not packing a ball cap for the trip. I honestly thought we'd get one here. I am still not sure I understand why we didn't. I guess I should not have assumed that we would. Oh well, I'll just have to get up and shower in a hurry in the morning so I can get out to Gatwick.

We did manage to get to dinner at Villaggio Italiano and I had the most wonderful dessert called a moca. It is on their menu off the link. I highly suggest it. We also shared a couple of bottles of wine, which was a nice change of pace from the beer swilling we have been doing to this time. We did wander over to the Rose and Crown, though getting there after 11 is a bad proposition, as it closes at midnight anyway.

Finally made use of Zingo Taxi service successfully. Their web site is down, apparently, as I did find the link, but don't feel posting the dead link is worthwhile. Basically, a Zingo cab uses a GPS tracking to locate your mobile phone and then locate the closest taxi to your GPS location. It isn't a cab company, as much as a cab service. Zingo charges additional fees for using the service, but there's nothing like standing in front of a pub full of drunks trying to hail a cab and have one looking specifically for you. It doesn't hurt to have an American accent either as some of those cabbies will still avoid fares for no good reason.

Drifted off to sleep knowing I'd be able to get up in the morning and pick up my wife!!! Woo-hooo!

Cheers!

Wimbledon - Day 14

It is a mild morning, and I woke relatively refreshed. I am still not sleeping all that well, but I am at least getting enough sleep to not feel like poop all day. I get to head to the venue solo this morning, and I was excited at the prospect of doing my kind of trip. I put on my headphones, pulled out the iPod and bugger if the battery hadn't said it was dead. It really isn't holding a charge any longer, and it is beginning to annoy me.

The walk in was pleasant, though the mists started as I was coming in. I don't know what that will mean for play today, but I don't have a good feeling. I actually heard whispers of a Monday final, and it has me a bit on edge. I don't know how many times it has happened to this point, but I really would just shake my head if it happened here during my turn. I guess all I can do is hope at this point. Still, there seems to be a way this tournament sticks to its schedule and we won't end up having to cope with it.

Things are really wrapping up and that means that Colleen will be arriving. With the change in the weather, I won't have steered her wrong in terms of packing. I'd feel pretty badly if I had told her to plan for cool weather and then it was hot the entire time she was here. So far, the weather channel site indicates I am dead on, so I don't feel as nervous about it now. :-) I am starting to get excited about the premise of her getting here, and also a bit nervous. I have to go through the tube to catch a train, because I can't really justify paying for a cab on our dime. I need to verify the timing and then plan for the trip time. I am not sure how long it will take to get to the tube stop from my stop. It is 30 minutes from Victoria station to Gatwick on the Gatwick Express so I should be OK. I also have no idea how to actually purchase the tickets, as there are quite a few options and corresponding price points.

Play ended really early today. Most of the matches were really over quickly. The last two matches were actually over 45 doubles, and they are out there for the spectacle, not the tennis. That means we should have dinner out again today. I think the plans are Italian at Villagio Italiano, Wimbledon and I am looking forward to a bit of Italian for dinner. In the end, oddly, we wound up at Est Est Est which was decent, but not nearly as good.

I got back to the hotel at a reasonable time and then proceeded to burn up every bit of the 5 pounds I had used to top up on the cell phone. That was more than an hour on the phone to Colleen. I miss her, and she misses me. We actually chatted about odd crap and I discovered that her player won't actually talk to the Mac like I had hoped. I found this site and was pretty disappointed to hear the news there. Oh well, maybe she got them onto her device and they'll play. If not, we'll figure something out.

Drifted off shortly after 1. Tomorrow is 7/7, and there are a ton of memorial functions being done to honor the victims. Pretty serious stuff around here, considering the fact that I ride the tube everywhere.

Cheers!

Wimbledon - Day 13

Day 13 brought the rains back with a vengeance. I don't have a good feel for whether or not we'll get play in, but I can only hope at this point. Brian made a deal with me, and I got to head to work late instead of being there at the start of the day. That gave me a chance to go pick up my laundry and to get a new calling card and pay as you go voucher for the cell phone. Judy reminded me that these are actually HPODS phones, and that means I need to carry one home anyway. In that sense, I wanted to be able to use it and the calling card from Ireland, so I was down to 51 pence which is the English plural of penny, and well less than a full pound. The calling card might not have been necessary, but it was down to less than 50 minutes of total time, and I didn't want to take a chance and have it run out. 10 pounds seems relatively reasonable for the amount of calling time I have gotten from the phone and the card.

Since I was able to come in late, Judy and I chose to hit the Victoria and Albert Museum since it was free. It houses some very interesting plaster casts of great works of art and design. I am posting a couple of the pictures I took. The first is a lion cast:




And, the cast of Michelangelo's David




It was an interesting museum in general. From there, we went to Harrod's. Harrod's is the world famous department store/arcade. It has a full deli, grocer, oyster bar, and even brews its own beer. We only wandered the first floor and I was blown away. It is an experience for sure. I hope to take Colleen there, and maybe we'll do a small bit of shopping, but I saw some prices there that made my head spin, so I doubt it will be for men's or women's clothing of any kind. :-) I didn't see any 3/4 length men's trousers anyway, so I would only be interested in toys for our niece and nephew anyway. Well, maybe some cool shoes, though I would hate to have to carry them with me. :-)

Rain interrupted play off and on all day. I hedged my bets that we'd get out of here in time for a decent meal, and I may live to regret that choice. I just wanted to be able to hang out with the larger team outside of this place if I can, and a very late night dinner seems the best way to make that happen. :-) In the end, we chose to leave the rest of the folks and head back to the Indian Restaurant again. While waiting there for a table, I had what would have to be considered a much more real brush with greatness. Chris Fowler, Brad Gilbert and MaliVai Washington tried to push ahead of us for a table, but in the end, the Indians would not allow it and they slinked off. I did make solid eye contact with Brad, and he knew I knew who he was, but I was in my venue shirt and still in the "we don't talk to the celebrities" mode. Still, not too bad at all.

We discovered that Zingo cabs actually does work, we just haven't been patient enough. Twice I have tried calling and then "caught one" just before I got connected to the cab through Zingo. It turned out both times, as we got the same driver, he actually was responding, we just weren't patient enough, or thought that we had gotten lucky and didn't need to wait. He's a good guy, and has never shown a lack of willingness to take us into Kensington. We actually had three other cabbies pull off after finding out where we were going. I think Judy had suggested that we try to get into the cab without a destination response and then tell him once we were all situated. I don't know, honestly, and I think we'd be better served to just catch the last train but I keep hearing grumbling every time I suggest it.

Got back to the room and spoke with Colleen for a good bit. Two more days! She'll be here before she knows it. I can only hope the business class experience helps her with the flight, as her prior coach experiences have not been all that solid. Drifted off to sleep a bit after 1 AM and will be heading the venue solo in the morning. I actually look forward to that.

Cheers!

Wimbledon - Day 12

This week is always hardest for me logistically speaking. I don't want to take out too much foreign currency, as the exchange rate back home will suck, and I don't want to wind up short cash at all. I also have to time out how much laundry I have done and when. In that regard, I did take down some laundry this morning. It was another 5.90 GBP. I just can't believe how cheap the laundry there is compared to the hotel. Or, should I say I can't believe how expensive the hotel is compared to a laundry right across the street. If it weren't directly across the street, I could understand. But, I can just as easily walk the bags across the street as I can walk it to the lobby, so I am really puzzled. I guess, much like hotel's crappy exchange rates, they just see it as easy money.

The walk in this morning wasn't too bad. The trains were backed up so we had to spend a bit of time at the first stop, and that meant the train was the most full it has been since we started taking them. I don't dislike the cramped quarters as much as it guarantees a complete lack of moving air, so of course I was sweating like I had just run the marathon. Still, it seems like it could be nicer here today than it has been lately. That would be a relief.

I saw Mary Carillo in the cafeteria. Another brush with greatness, although I have to admit I never thought she was all that good a player, and is a much better commentator. Still I can't believe how much easier it is here to see someone even mildly famous. I can only hope I get to come back at some point. Lunch was an odd compromise for me. I had salmon, very healthy, with chips, which of course are not at all healthy. Still I am almost sure I have lost weight since I got here, and I don't want to look too thin or Colleen won't let me live it down. Well, she will, but she's convinced I am too thin now, and that I am deeply obsessed with losing more weight. I'll admit to a mild obsession, but that is all! :)

So, today is July 4th, and oddly, the cafeteria is decorated for the event. I don't quite understand that, they even had 4th of July cake and the serving girls asked me if I was celebrating my independence today. To me, it almost seems one of those things that 90% of the English really don't even understand and if they did, they'd realize that they are celebrating with us the fact that we chose to secede from the Empire and as a result really spelled the final death blow to British Imperialism. Oh well. I won't spend a lot of time on this subject with respect to the English. For me, there is a slight tinge of disappointment at being here for the 4th, as this is without question my favorite holiday. I love fireworks, and of course creating and executing my own pyrotechnic display. This will mark the first year in almost a decade I have not done something. Not that I would have passed up this venue and this chance for the world, but I did need to mention that it was a tradeoff.

This is the part of the tournament that drags. There are very few players left in the main draws, so it is all about the doubles, mixed doubles, juniors, and ancient players. Now, ancient is of course relative, because there is a draw that starts for women younger than I am (35+) and men have 35+ and 45+ (though I don't know why.) Traffic is low today of course because of the holiday, though the English all believe it is because women's tennis is less interesting. It amazes me how much there are still some institutional biases out there.

The evenings have settled in for sunset on the garden. That means the rooftop garden, which overlooks large amounts of the stadium, and has a bar for the press. The BBC does interviews up there, so there are reasonable chances for brushes with greatness, though it is generally an interview with an exiting player. Yesterday, I saw Flavia Pennetta as she provided her exit interview. Anyway, we go up before 6:30 and then enjoy a Pimms cup and watch a bit of odd tennis. We got to watch Cedric Pioline play in the aged men's doubles. I last saw him at the 2004 French Open soiree. He still is very tall, and still very French.

The shuttle launch was today. I remember when I was in school and they'd stop everything, wheel a television in and let us watch. Since then, things have become quite mundane in terms of the shuttle. That is, until the last disaster. Now, it was a serious deal and most of us stopped and watched it here at the venue. Even the BBC had live coverage. We watched it slightly delayed on the NASA web site as well, since the BBC coverage spent a lot of time talking about things we didn't really care about.

Play ended relatively early. A few folks decided at the last minute to go to dinner, but I had already had dinner here in the cafeteria. I wish they would have told us earlier. I suspect we'll be able to do it again, so I am going to start hedging my bets and just snacking at the venue. That likely means less healthy eating, but I would like to get out with the rest of the folks. They are usually fun to hang out with. Instead, Judy and I caught the train and looked around for a pub. We were surprised to find that the World Cup match was still going on, which meant it was standing room only in every pub. We did find a table at the King's Head (which seems to be our preferred choice) so we had a couple of pints there in time to catch the best two minutes of the match, with Italy winning 2-0 after two overtime periods. We also met a couple of Germans who were most displeased at the results, but were in reasonably good spirits after having what was obviously a ton of drinks.

I tried to call Colleen, only to find out that she had gone to see Journey and Def Leppard. Not a shabby way to spend the fourth, if she couldn't spend it with me.

Cheers!!

Wimbledon - Day 11

Started out the morning feeling very relaxed and refreshed. A good night's sleep followed by a lovely hot shower and a bit of breakfast (well a cereal bar and a diet coke.) I was leisurely getting ready to head downstairs to meet the team and discovered that I had no idea where my credentials were. Now, there are very few things related to the event that can be considered irreplacable, and the credentials are it. Normally, when I don't have them around my neck (required) I put them in the pocket of my cargo pants/shorts. Checked every pair, no luck. Checked the room safe (sometimes I lock stuff in there I think someone might consider valuable, though it rarely is) and it wasn't there. Basically dumped the contents of my laptop backpack onto the bed (and that's no easy task) and no luck. By now, my heartbeat is so loud in my ears I am sure I am going to drop dead from it. I am now sweating bullets. I lifted (talk about adrenalin power) the dresser with TV and refrigerator in it to verify it hadn't fallen under the thing, moved it from the wall to verify it didn't drop behind the wall. Neither was the case. By now, I am almost at the point of hysteria (Colleen has seen this before, and she'd probably claim it was hysteria. Either way, not pretty at all.) Because my cell phone is dead, and the charger is at the venue (another thing I rarely do) I have no way to contact my team and if they call me, they'll get a voice mail or some other crappy message (I assume crappy message because I wouldn't see a pay as you go phone having a voice mail box) and it would make them late as well as me. Now, I know that people always say they find it in the last place they look (duh, why keep looking if you've found it?) but in this case it was in the last place I expected to find it. I did remember putting it into the shirt drawer between some clean t-shirts after I found the thing, but up to that point, it was hardly where I would have expected it. It wound up there because I had originally left it on the dresser prior to leaving Sunday for our sight seeing and at the last minute had decided it might have value to someone and stuck it in between the shirts. THANK GOD!

What a hot day. It is going to be somewhere between 31C and 32C today. BBC Breakfast (roughly the equivalent of the Today Show) said that the temperature was 10-12C hotter than it normally would be this time of year. You can tell. What amazes me, however, is the number of people that are in long shirts, jackets, and the like. If I thought I could have walked up here without a shirt on, I probably would have, though I know no one wants to see that.

Went to the shop today and spent some money on stuff for Colleen. I found out that you only have to spend 50 GBP to get your VAT TAX refunded, but I haven't actually done so yet. I will have to give that a try, as they have a place to do so there at the shop. I also made sure to spend that so I could get the free AMEX gift (meaning I charged it to my American Express card, so I will pay it off when I get the bill) and it is some kind of beach ball and tube. It is really heavy, so it might not make the journey to Ireland at all. We'll see. If nothing else, I will blow it up and play with it while I am here. :) I just hope Colleen likes what I got for her. She didn't know I had plans, and I am not being sneaky since I know she reads this.

Spent part of the day working on the pictures. I am still not the best at it, but I did take some 40 pictures on Sunday so I posted some (seen in yesterday's post) and some to e-mail to Colleen. I have heard there is an amature contest here, mostly for bragging rights, but I know that the guys with multi-thousand dollar cameras will soundly thrash me. It of course doesn't help that I am generally bad at photography in the first place, so I'll just keep taking pictures and posting them for my family and friends.

Play ended about the same time again. I am amazed at how late it is here before it is truly dark. It was 9:45 or later. We walked to the tube stop and while we caught the tube fairly quickly, in the end we got delayed at every stop from where we boarded. I was sweating bullets because it was so stuffy in the tube tunnel. I was carrying my purchased bounty, and my laptop bag, and I wasn't really in the mood for drinking anyway, so we agreed we'd go to the hotel, and then find a quiet corner in the bar and have one beer from our room stash. You'd think that would be easy enough. Instead, Judy comes down to the lobby almost in tears and informs us that somehow, somewhere, she's either lost her iPod Nano or it has been stolen from the room. Because she left her pack in the room on Sunday, she suspected the housekeeping staff had gone through her bag and took the iPod. I don't know either way, but I would have thought the premise of the laptop would have been compelling enough to take the whole bag, but I guess that would have been easier to spot as missing. Just another bit of drama for our intrepid world traveller Judy.

Called Colleen and was I happy to hear her voice. I shared with her the bits I had purchased and asked what she thought of the photos I sent. Really not much else, as talking daily I don't have lots of interesting news to share. Then, I almost drifted off watching ECW wrestling (I forgot the English love WWE as much as I do) and managed a decent night's sleep. Tomorrow, BJ will be coming in late so that he can visit Harrod's, and I am glad to see we've moved into more of a stable mode in his mind so that we don't both need to be here the entire day.

Cheers!

Wimbledon - Day 10 - Middle Sunday

The English are very proper, and as such, they schedule their tournament to have no play on the first Sunday. That happens unless there is significant rain, and despite London being notorious for rain, middle Sunday rarely has had play in the 100 plus years of the tournament (OK, those details are likely available on the web site http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/index.html but I didn't have the will to go find the links for my readers. Go hit the site and find them yourself.)

So, I got to sleep in. Now, that's a bit of a misnomer, as I had passed out the night before and then tossed and turned as I tried to figure out how to keep cool in a room that was not cool, but it is at least the premise that I had alarm to set, and other than our agreement to meet in the lobby at 10AM for sightseeing, had no agenda for the day. We had hoped to go to a place that had highly reviewed and rated fish and chips named Gaele's but I guess BJ's research hadn't gone as far as mine did, as the website I just posted clearly indicates the place would not be open at 11AM on a Sunday. In the end, we had to abandon our fish and chips for simpler fare and had a breakfast bagel at Great American Bagel Factory and then hit the tube. I had a green tea that could have been tasty if not for the fact that it was tepid, much like the rest of the drinks are in Europe.

We ended up heading to the British Museum. It is a donation site, so you can come and go without issue, though they do ask for a 3 GBP donation. There's no enforcement, so not like that's a hard and fast rule, but of course we did put our coins into the collection tub. The museum is an interesting mix of antiquities, most relieved of the country that was either pillaged by England during its reign, or by simply purchasing them when countries were tearing down old ruins they didn't care about. Most of that ends up being quite controversial, as the Greeks would prefer to get back the Parthenon ruins that were purchased in the 1700s, but England is having none of it.

I would have to say that the crown jewel there at the museum is the Rosetta Stone and I did not miss it. My picture isn't as good as the one on this wiki entry, so I won't post mine. I will however, post one I like which is a picture of a line of tourists taking pictures of the museum entrance.



Yes, they are all Asians. I really wasn't trying to advance the stereotype, but I did find it funny.

We chose to do some walking, and I popped into a shop to purchase my first souvenir for the folks back home. I won't say what it is in case they are reading this blog. :-)

From there, we took a short walk to the theater district. We stopped in at a pub The Cambridge for lunch. I took a picture of the front



It is also a free house, so I got to try more different beer. I probably should not have, however, as I was sweating like there was no tomorrow, and I am sure I was dehydrated. Oh well. BJ chose the spot because the menu indicated Bangers and Mash and that was definitely something I wanted to try. I also got a chance to sample Yorkshire pudding though how it counts as a pudding really escapes me, since it is baked to a crisp consistency. Judy had Toad in the hole, though the picture on this wiki entry doesn't really do it justice.

Outside the pub was a collection of phone boxes, that are the traditional phone boxes you see on television and cartoons. I had to capture a picture of the whole thing, and you can see they are just as stereotypical as television, etc. suggests.



At the pub, we found a map for a variety of pub walks called the Dick Whittington Ale trails. There are 6 or 7 total, and I suspect I am going to try to talk Colleen into one of them when we're here. There are a few shorter ones, and some that are longer only in the sense that they are 15 or 16 pubs deep but are only 3 or 4 blocks of walking. Either way, I am sure I can convince Colleen to have a couple of pints with me along the way, especially since there's a lot of really good shopping to be done in that part of the city.

We wandered to Picadilly Circus, and then I asked a policeman if he could point me in the direction of the Hard Rock Cafe. He wasn't exceptionally polite about it, but he did at least let me know. This was what I had expected London to look like. A massive roundabout not unlike the joke in European Vacation (even if you couldn't see Big Ben or Parliament from there) and a swarm of people walking streets made more narrow by buildings using every inch of space they can along the streets. There were also some of the larger neon signs I had thought we'd see. That implies returning to the circus at night. Fortunately, I understand the mechanics of the tube better now and it won't require much walking at all. There's a tube stop very near the circus.

From there, I asked if we could get to the Hard Rock Cafe in London so that I could collect my next city pin. It ended up being across from Hyde Park, so our walk from Soho was pretty long, and brutally hot. But, I did get my pin, sweet!!!

Back to the hotel and a shower (desperately needed) to get read for the party. The IBM U.K. folks rent a house (next to a Bhuddist colony) and were throwing a garden party there. Getting there was a comedy of errors. First, we couldn't catch a cab, since apparently cabbies don't like to get out of their regular area, and Wimbledon is on the fringes. So, we walked to the tube. On the way, I called Colleen, but I noticed I was down to 1 bar on the battery, so I knew it would die soon. Colleen liked hearing the sounds of the city as I boarded the train. We got off likely a stop or two too early, and then couldn't find a cab. We got onto a bus because we had already done a ton of walking, and then we found we got off the bus a few stops too early. It was a joke because in the end, we didn't get to the house until after 5 PM on what should have taken about 30 minutes altogether.

The dinner for the evening was part of the IBM U.K. house party. I wanted to show I was open to new things, so I tried the pork pie and that was a complete mistake. It is without question the worst thing I have ever eaten in my life. I do NOT want to go through that again, and I will not let anyone else that I am around experience it unless they are a veteran consumer. I did have a Scotch egg though I personally think they'd be better hot. For the most part, I stuck to traditional ham, pulled chicken, and salad. We did get to have a few beers, and since it started at 4PM, I was pretty loaded by the time we got back to the hotel at 11.

Spoke briefly with Colleen. Because the cell phone had died, I had to call from the hotel room, and pay 99 pence for a local call. She actually had called me first because somehow my Yahoo message when she was offline showed up two days late, but it was still good to hear from her, even if it costs a few bucks for her to call directly. Bed before midnight was an amazing concept, and it turned out the problem with the air conditioning was corrected as the room was quite comfortable the rest of the night. I slept like a baby!

Cheers!

Wimbledon - Day 9

Another scorcher. Woke up and ran down to pick up my laundry. I didn't do a very good job of inventory prior to drop off, so I am certain I lost a pair of socks, though I cannot prove it. It doesn't really matter, but it annoys me when I get there and feel like something's been lost.

Play started early today, as the Juniors make their debut here at the All England Lawn and Tennis Centre (Wimbledon.) That is not normally a big deal, except for me. I have been "stalking" Kevin Botti for obvious reasons. Since none of the Web sites manage to have an official photo, I am going to post a couple here:





And, a shot of Kevin himself:




I will note that he and I have the same style, as he is not afraid to sport the 3/4 length men's trousers (affectionately known as manpris.) Unfortunately, he lost again in the first round, so it will be another year before we have a chance to see my surname listed as a champion at Wimbledon. Bummer for the Botti family.

Lunch was a really tasty chicken, bacon, and mozerella pannini. I didn't have anything with it, though I do have my macadamias here to snack on, so it didn't matter.

I felt bad for the England team. They lost on penalty kicks. That's got to be the hardest way to lose a soccer match I know. Especially since they played all of the second half and both overtime sessions with a player out for red card. I still think that guy just put his balls under Rooney's foot, and a red card was hardly deserved.

It was disappointing to see Agassi bow out. I know it was a daunting task, as Nadal is a start on the rise, but still it would have been nice if he had survived into the second week. He is the king, arguably, and has had epic matches against players from a couple of generations, and ranks among the greats in history in my mind. I guess I'll now root for Lleyton Hewitt, or perhaps Baghdatis. I'll find some underdog, though I actually don't think anyone can beat Federer.

We avoided the Rose and Crown yet again and headed to the King's Head near the hotel again. This time, we got there just in time to have missed a potential bar brawl, though the details still escape me. I found a table while BJ and Judy got the drinks. As I sat down, a very, very drunk woman leaned over and implored me to explain to her why if she wanted to buy something, had the money, and had offered it to the bartender, she should not be allowed to purchase it. Let me back up a bit and say that the King's Head has artwork on the walls that is from local artists. She apparently had found a painting at 45 GBP she wanted to purchase. She had offered the bartender 50 GBP in notes and pointed to the picture, but he informed her that the proprietor had to be present to complete the sale. This apparently started a tempest in the pub, and we got there for the very end of it. Her last comment as she stalked out the door with her similarly drunk partner that the next time she was in the pub she would trash the place. I thought nothing of it, execpt to ponder what I had done to make these two sots believe that I would be approachable. Not 5 minutes later, however, a cadre of police appeared and started questioning patrons. Fortunately, I avoided that. I did, however, find it funny as I listened to one of the interviewees tell what she saw. Now, she was a short woman, and the drunk rowdy woman was taller, but she actually told the police that the woman was roughly the height of her boyfriend. He turned around and said he was 6 feet 4 inches tall. Now, the drunk woman might have been as tall as 5'9", but I cannot honestly say she was taller than that. If she had really been that tall, I am sure the police could have found her easily, as 6 foot tall drunk women wouldn't be that hard to spot. :-)

So, the pub again closed at 11. That meant we had to move on, and BJ chose this as his chance to head back to the hotel. Judy and I went to Croutchfield's, another free house near the tube station, and ordered a pint. This time, our drunk "companion" was some 50-ish man who decided I looked like someone he wanted to talk to. If any of my readers has any clue at all as to what my face says that gives these people the impression that I am willing to talk to them, let me know so I can get it fixed. LOL. Worst of all, he apparently had family in Ocean Isle, NC, so when he found out were were from NC (I tried to just say "the states" but his response was "I know more about the states than most Americans" so I relented and offered we were from Raleigh, NC) he decided we must be mates at some level, and proceeded to tell us how his 1st (OF 4) wives had moved to somewhere in South Dakota and after her second divorce, had moved his children to Ocean Isle and his daughter was still there raising her family, as she had married an American and chose to stay. It droned and rambled, and those were the only pertintent details I was able to remember.

Surprisingly, I got a call from BJ. I had thought perhaps a problem, as last we knew he was going to bed. It turned out that Sacha Gibson from IBM Australia had arrived and was staying at the Mariott as well (I can only thank Sandy Berman for that coincidence, as I don't know what would have motivated her to make that choice other than Sandy.) So, we finished up our pints (chugging Guinness is not easy) and headed to the lobby bar. I switched to Jameson and soda (tasty, but a bad idea that late at night) and we had a couple of rounds at the hotel bar. Got upstairs, spoke to Colleen (missing her is so strong now it is almost a physical ache) and literally passed out, waking up about 3 to discover that the damned hotel air conditioning was not behaving. So, I sweltered for a bit, at least knowing that I had off for middle Sunday, Day 10.

Cheers!

Wimbledon - Day 8

Really hard to believe I have been in town a week, but my pile of dirty clothes definitely shows it!! I bundled all of it up and decided to see what my chances were across the street. If you remember from yesterday's post, I had concerns about whether or not I could actually afford to use the laundry across the street. Turns out that was completely unfounded. It was only 8.50 GBP for a week's laundry, as opposed to 7 GBP for a single pair of jeans at the hotel. They are also open on Saturday, so I can pick up my duds without worry about running across the street naked. Let me just say for the record I will avoid hotel laundry service like the plague any more. Of course, thinking about the venues I have done in the last couple of years, I am not sure many have the option of a laundry across the street, so avoid like the plague is subject to interpretation.

I popped back into the grocery for some more almonds, some macadamias, and cereal bars. Tasty stuff really. I did determine I could use my card to pay, though I have never understood those digital signing pads. The signature was not even close to what mine looks like, and I suppose in theory I could contest that I never made the purchase, but it was only 7.62 GBP and I wouldn't actually do something like that. I just find it amusing. The guys at work that handle the shipping have something similar and when I sign for a package, I am always amazed at how crappy my signature comes out.

Today was a banner day for me in terms of celebrity worship (or as we call them, brushes with greatness.) We started this morning almost running down (literally) Dick Enberg, since we came in a direct broadcast centre entrance. I was stunned, as there he was. I grew up listening to that man on TV for all my breakfasts at Wimbledon and to actually almost have run into him while walking to work was really a treat! Then, during lunch, it was John McEnroe and Mary Fernandez in the cafeteria. Now, apparently McEnroe sightings are not uncommon, and we have gone to just putting a check box on our reports to indicate we saw him, but for me it was a treat. He is looking old, but then again, he is!! Mary Fernandez (I guess she dropped the Jo when she became a serious commentator) does look like she's aging well, and ate quite healthy, while Mr. McEnroe was stuffing his face with sausage and chips. For shame!! This brings up an interesting point for me. I am hard pressed to not feel a bit of idol worship. These are tennis players I idolized as a kid, and seeing them brings out the fan in me. I am working, however, and I don't want to raise any eyebrows, so I generally will not approach them, but it is so hard to resist.

Well, I spoke too soon. I managed today to exceed my badge limit, though I am not really sure how. I had to pay 3.60 GBP out of pocket. Oh well, still well below the meal allowance, so not exactly strife.

We left late, again, and chose to catch the tube straight back to Earl's Court. That allowed us to pop into the King's Head, a pub right around the corner from our hotel. Here's a picture of the front:


As a free house, they also had a variety of beers, and despite being in a country famous for its pride in beer, I chose a brew from another country that takes great pride in its beer. Germany's own Paulaner Brewery makes unquestionably one of the better German lagers and the King's Head even did it the honor of serving it cold. That means American cold, not English cold, as I have learned those are two different standards. Unfortunately, the King's Head closes at 11, so we worked our way back up and found The Prince of Teck. It wasn't bad, and they were another free house. I am getting quite a sample of beers this way, and the noise factors are significantly lower. The drunk factors are significantly higher, but since it is just the three of us, I don't really mind dodging drunks. The second night in a row we did find the strength to have more than 2 pints, which is apparently something our 3rd line manager wants us to do more often.

Back to the hotel and bed. Play starts earlier tomorrow as the juniors make their appearance. I, of course, get a bit giddy about that because now Kevin Botti will be here. He is still stinking it up on the junior circuit, but he has managed to show at every slam I have attended, so he can't be that bad. I hope to capture some photos of his match.

Cheers!