Well, I had an interesting, eventful week. I began the week camping, queuing, and attending Wimbledon, and ended the week, not celebrating our independence, but sick in bed. Yuck. Obviously, Wimbledon is the more happy of the two occasions, and that is what I choose to document here!
Wimbledon is one of the few sporting events the general public has the opportunity toget good seats, the day of the event. All you have to do is queue! Yes, folks, we camped out at Wimbledon Park from 4:30 pm on Monday in order to get good seats for Wimbledon on Tuesday.
Here is how it went:
We put up our tents around 4:30 pm. At 6:00 official Wimbledon employees, called Stewards, handed us queue cards. These cards are numbered, and indicate when you can claim a wristband for the court of your choice. I was number #28, which guaranteed I would get the court of my choice. We then hung out all night, got around three hours of sleep, and were woken up by an Honorary Steward (a Steward of an advanced age) at 5:30 am. I will say if I could an alarm clock of an old English man whispering politely each morning, I would!
After that it was many more hours of queuing, before we got to purchase our Centre Court tickets! Then it was more waiting for a match to actually begin. FINALLY, around 1 pm, the first match on Centre Court began. We were only seven rows back!
It was a quarterfinal match between Elena Dementieva and Nadia Petrova. It was actually a great match, with Dementieva having match point in the second set, but Petrova forcing a new game, and winning the set. In the end Dementieva prevailed.
Our second game was Serena Williams! She totally dominated her opponent Agnieszka Radwanska winning 6-4, 6-0. It was amazing to see her, she looks even stronger in person.
Centre Court looks much smaller in person, than on television, but you can really feel the tradition. From the way the ball boys and girls have to give the players tennis balls, to the way we marched in the queue, everything felt very old and English. So, to fit right in, after
a long day in the sun, we capped off our day with two Wimbledon traditions: Pimm’s and Lemonade and Strawberries and Creme. (see me, tired and happy, left)
Wimbledon was a great, long, exhaustive experience! I might even do it again next year! The two pictures in this post are of Serena Williams in the middle of a serve, and me with my Pimm's and Strawberries. But, I have updated my photo page with many more Wimbledon pictures. If you'd like to see more, just click here. Don't forget you can always get to my photos from the link to the left, about 5 sections down.
As always, until next week.
After that it was many more hours of queuing, before we got to purchase our Centre Court tickets! Then it was more waiting for a match to actually begin. FINALLY, around 1 pm, the first match on Centre Court began. We were only seven rows back!
It was a quarterfinal match between Elena Dementieva and Nadia Petrova. It was actually a great match, with Dementieva having match point in the second set, but Petrova forcing a new game, and winning the set. In the end Dementieva prevailed.
Our second game was Serena Williams! She totally dominated her opponent Agnieszka Radwanska winning 6-4, 6-0. It was amazing to see her, she looks even stronger in person.
Centre Court looks much smaller in person, than on television, but you can really feel the tradition. From the way the ball boys and girls have to give the players tennis balls, to the way we marched in the queue, everything felt very old and English. So, to fit right in, after
a long day in the sun, we capped off our day with two Wimbledon traditions: Pimm’s and Lemonade and Strawberries and Creme. (see me, tired and happy, left)Wimbledon was a great, long, exhaustive experience! I might even do it again next year! The two pictures in this post are of Serena Williams in the middle of a serve, and me with my Pimm's and Strawberries. But, I have updated my photo page with many more Wimbledon pictures. If you'd like to see more, just click here. Don't forget you can always get to my photos from the link to the left, about 5 sections down.
As always, until next week.
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