Wimbledon 2007 - Day 10, July 2

Monday from the new hotel. Woke early to the sounds of banging outside and it turns out that I'm close enough to the road to hear construction on the street. Oh well, for the most part the room was comfy and I won't complain. The room has an electric kettle and instant coffee available, and I had both cups getting ready for our unknown commute in.

Breakfast was exceptionally lame. I suppose it is a continental breakfast, but still there is no Marmite!! I would probably not mind if I could have whole meal toast and Marmite, but the jams are just chock full of sugar and I can't see myself having that. Croissants are also available warmed, but they just look unhealthy. The coffee was good, and I did have some fresh squeezed orange juice. I also took the chance to have my first Weetabix. Not a bad cereal with a sachet of Splenda on it, though I could see where it would be better hot and there was no way to heat it.

The trip has moved from Underground stops to Bus stops. This means that our routes are somewhat more subjective, which is annoying. We chose a bus that did get us into Wimbledon commons, but we still either had to ascend the hill or find another bus. We did catch one that got us up the hill and was descending toward the grounds when suddenly they announce that we should have gotten off earlier as the bus can no longer stop near the grounds. Annoying to say the least, but the bus driver spoke to a policeman and he agreed to let us off.

We got in significantly earlier than I had planned. I am almost sure that's because I had no idea how we were getting in. But, I can listen to my iPod (which is dying a slow painful death it appears) and haven't had a problem getting a seat.

Rain, rain and more rain. I don't know how much real tennis we got in, but I do know that Nadal has now played a match that will span 3 days. I am not sure how I'd cope as an athlete, but I was reminded that test matches in cricket can run for longer, so he should be able to suck it up. :-) In the end, play ended early again as the last rain delay started around 8:20 PM. It was almost as if we should have played on Sunday anyway.

We caught a bus that had the number we wanted, but it turned out it went a different direction from our desired stop. That meant we were now in an area of London called Tooting. I am not sure where London really stops and some of these other areas become distinct towns. Even my pals at Wikipedia can't really adequately define what London is and what it isn't. So, for me, Tooting was still London. The Northern Line did have a stop on Tooting Broadway, so even though we got off the bus too early, we managed to walk the right direction to find the stop in the driving rain. Across the street, like appears to be common for most Underground stops, there was a pub, and we chose to pop in for a quick pint since we didn't know when we would actually be back in that area. The bar was obviously a locals haunt, as we got more than a few sideways glances. Of course, I was in shorts instead of long pants, so I am sure that had more than a bit to do with some of the looking.

One stop down the Northern line and we were in Collier's Wood. We decided to hit the pub next to the Hotel, The Collier's Tup. I ended up having a Russian Beer on tap, which wasn't bad, and was definitely cold as a lager.

Back to the hotel. I had sent my laundry in, and now had to identify it. Even though I know I had the tag with the room number and quantity completed, someone decided I hadn't, or it got lost. So, I had to go through the bags and pick out what was mine. At least it was all there.

Back to the room to discover that they'd left the extra key in the power slot, but had turned off the air conditioning. That somewhat defeated the purpose, but I guess I don't really care. It isn't exactly sweltering hot right now and the cool room is just so I can sleep better. I tried to call Colleen, but she had gone to the gym. Missing her is such a regular part of my day I take it for granted. I can only hope she knows that. I left the number to the new hotel on the message, maybe she'll call me at some point overnight. :-) Drifted off to sleep watching Cliffhanger.

Cheers!