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!
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!
posted by Derek Botti at
12:28 PM
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