Skip to main content
It started as a dreary, rainy, and cold morning. I set out from Maze Hill at 6am, taking the train to the London Bridge; then I tranferred to another train to the Wimbledon station. Transferring yet again with 6 other passengers onto a shuttle bus, which let us out at the end of a very very long queue at around 7:45am. Supposedly the Brits love to queue. And they don't speak up when someone cuts in front of them because they have too much pride to make a scene. The queue was very orderly. I made friends with my neighbors in front and behind me, who kept my position in line while I got myself a bacon sandwich and some bad coffee (for 5 quids!). There are queue stewards who gave each person joining the queue a queuing card, providing the legitimacy of the queuing position.
It was good to have made friends with the ladies behind me, and the tennis gods must have been very kind to me. At about noon, the rain came pouring down, halting play on all the courts. Many people were going in and out of it, and we somehow managed to slip past the guards and entered the stadium! And once you are in, no one comes to check your ticket anymore. And I was lucky that the second seat I chose turned out to be empty all day. I saw Fernando Gonzales losing a long five-setters to Tipsarevic and I also saw Serena Williams!! And of course I got horribly sun burned without any sunscreen. If I didn't have dinner plans with my friend Sophie in London, I would have stayed to watch Roger Federer.
And before I had left the Wimbledon grounds, how could I have gone without having the famous strawberries and cream? It was lovely.
It started as a dreary, rainy, and cold morning. I set out from Maze Hill at 6am, taking the train to the London Bridge; then I tranferred to another train to the Wimbledon station. Transferring yet again with 6 other passengers onto a shuttle bus, which let us out at the end of a very very long queue at around 7:45am. Supposedly the Brits love to queue. And they don't speak up when someone cuts in front of them because they have too much pride to make a scene. The queue was very orderly. I made friends with my neighbors in front and behind me, who kept my position in line while I got myself a bacon sandwich and some bad coffee (for 5 quids!). There are queue stewards who gave each person joining the queue a queuing card, providing the legitimacy of the queuing position.
It was good to have made friends with the ladies behind me, and the tennis gods must have been very kind to me. At about noon, the rain came pouring down, halting play on all the courts. Many people were going in and out of it, and we somehow managed to slip past the guards and entered the stadium! And once you are in, no one comes to check your ticket anymore. And I was lucky that the second seat I chose turned out to be empty all day. I saw Fernando Gonzales losing a long five-setters to Tipsarevic and I also saw Serena Williams!! And of course I got horribly sun burned without any sunscreen. If I didn't have dinner plans with my friend Sophie in London, I would have stayed to watch Roger Federer.
And before I had left the Wimbledon grounds, how could I have gone without having the famous strawberries and cream? It was lovely.
Comments