Monday, June 28, 2010

The Wimbledon Experience

Morning everyone...and it's another gorgeous morning after a night of heavy rain...saves me having to water the garden...up bright and early...lots to catch up on this week. Had a relaxing day yesterday popping out to see the grandkiddies with their goodies from Wimbledon  and guess what...ended up playing tennis in the garden...not quite up to LTA standards but lots of fun especially when Grandma lobbed the ball into space and it ended up about 3 gardens away.
Now it's time to bore you all with heaps of pics of my Wimbledon experience...we arrived at Terminal 5 and took a quick tube hop to our apartment which was fabulous...a lovely place to rest our weary heads for 2 nights....
quickly dumped our luggage and set off to Putney Bridge where we strolled along the river in the beautiful summer sunshine...


finishing off the day with a gorgeous meal at Carluccios with my lovely Wimbledon groupies

up bright and early next morning...4.00am that's seriously early even for me...all showered and picnics packed...not wanting to miss even one second of the Wimbledon experience...not even the daunting queue c could dampen our spirits...

but before you know we've arrived at the top of that queue...
and this was a dream come true for this tennis fan...to finally stand at the main entrance to Centre Court
but play doesn't start until 1pm so we managed to catch a couple of matches on the outside courts


just time to do a bit of retail shopping and head to that hallowed place beloved of all tennis fans and this is where it all went pear shaped...a friendly steward offered to take a group pic and goodness knows what buttons he pushed but all my photos from then on were seriously out of focus....basically a blurry mess and it took me hours last night reading the manual to get things back to normal...never mind...his heart was in the right place And my hero was definitely back on form and sailed through to the next round in 3 straight sets but after a whole day of eyes flicking right and left you'd think we'd be completely tennised out...not a bit of it...we then managed to get Resale Tickets for the final match of the day on Court No 1....best £5 I've ever spent...cracker of a match and delighted to see Andy Roddick also through to the next round.
To be honest folks...unless you have a camera with a huge zoom lens...it's impossible to get good up close and personal pics and you definitely don't see the players as well as on TV but it's the atmosphere of the crowd and the excitement of every point played that has you sitting on the edge of your seat and what I truly love about this great game...the crowd applaud the tennis not just the player they are willing to win.
After a thrilling day and just one more bowl of strawberries and cream...we said our goodbyes to Wimbledon around 10pm...
 and wandered up to Wimbledon Park Village...tucked into a gorgeous Chinese meal and arrived back at our apartment well after midnight...four very tired but happy souls...fell into bed and I think we were all asleep before our heads hit the pillows.
All too soon it was time to come home but I have memories I shall cherish forever of a wonderful Wimbledon experience...finally seeing Centre Court....Henman Hill or Murray Mount as it's now called...cracking tennis...the lovely folks we met and a big thank you to the "GIRLS" for your wonderful company...


 and to M&S for the yummy picnics.....can't wait to do it all again
Catch up with you all later.
Hugs Kath xxx