SUNGRL

We arrived in London on Saturday and are here until Friday. I was really looking forward to our time here so I could do some of the basics like have a haircut, get my legs waxed and go to a shopping mall where English is the accepted language. Don’t get me wrong I have loved our other destinations but with my poor foreign language skills I am sometimes unsure what I will end up with.

We came over on the Eurostar from Paris and armed ourselves with an Oyster Card for the London Underground. I love the Underground – it is cool being able to navigate your way around a city underground and pop up at your destination. We feel a bit like Meer Cats!

We were quite shattered on Tuesday after our big day at the tennis so all we wanted to do was meander around the city. First stop, Harrods – Steve loves the place. He heads straight to the technology floor and checks out the latest TV’s etc. I head for the food area and look at all the treats that I wouldn’t dream of buying – being a tight arse accountant I need to get value for money otherwise I can’t enjoy it!

We then had a wander through Hyde Park down the Diana, Princess of Wales memorial walk – such a cool green belt to have in the centre of the city. Next stop Oxford Terrace where things are a little more affordable than Harrods.

On Wednesday I went down to Whitstable which according to my good friend Kim is the centre of the universe. Kim’s Mum Gloria lives there so I popped down to visit her and have a spot of lunch. Whitstable is in Kent and it takes 1.5 hours by train from London Victoria Station. It was a very pleasant trip and Gloria was there to meet me at the station.

We walked back to her place via the High Street and spent the next few hours chatting away and admiring her new lounge which she has just had re decorated. I took a few photos for Kim so I could email them to her in outback Australia. It was then back on the train to London.

In my absence, Steve had been charged with finding a laundromat and getting the laundry done. He succeeded on this front and befriended the Polish girl running the laundromat along the way – she is probably booked to visit NZ next year knowing Mr Tourism.

He then proceeded to transform our hotel room into a Chinese laundry. I got back about 5.30pm and he is pacing around the room shifting this shirt to here and those undies to there and then putting that top on the lamp shade and then turning it on to generate heat. All the while he is going on about how hard he has worked sorting it all out and walking to the laundromat with the heavy bags and then walking back with even heavier bags while I swanned around. Please note this is the first time he has had to sort the washing on this trip.

We met a lovely couple from London when we were in Portugal – Denise and Gary. They were sitting next to us in a restaurant with their son Nick and Steve struck up a conversation which started with the All Blacks. It then turned to more serious matters like golf as Nick was a golf pro and Gary was golf mad. Anyway we met up with Denise and Gary for dinner in London at Skylon Grill. It is in the Royal Festival Hall and overlooks the Thames. It was a lovely night – it was great to catch up with them and help plan there trip to NZ in January 2015.

Today we went to Old Spitalfields Market to visit a friend, Glen from Brighton who has a furniture shop there – One Deko check out http://www.onedeko.co,uk. He has some very cool Italian and Italianesque (Glen’s word) furniture. We went for a coffee and caught up on all the news.

Old Spitalfields Market is a covered market in Spitalfields, London. There has been a market on the site for over 350 years. It is situated in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, just outside of the City of London.

There has been a market on the site since 1638 when King Charles gave a licence for flesh, fowl and roots to be sold on Spittle Fields, which was then a rural area on the eastern outskirts of London. After the rights to a market had seemingly lapsed during the time of the Commonwealth, the market was re-founded in 1682 by King Charles II in order to feed the burgeoning population of a new suburb of London.

Market buildings were sited on the rectangular patch of open ground which retained the name Spittle Fields: demarcated by Crispin Street to the west, Lamb Street to the north, Red Lion Street (later subsumed into Commercial Street) to the east and Paternoster Row (later known as Brushfield Street) to the south. The existing buildings were built in 1887 to service a wholesale market, owned by the City of London Corporation.

The wholesale fruit and vegetable market moved to New Spitalfields Market, Leyton, in 1991 and the original site became known as Old Spitalfields Market.

Steve wanted to check out the markets while I wanted to check out the surrounding streets which included Brick Lane. Brick Lane is the heart of the city’s Bangladeshi-Sylheti community and is known to some as Banglatown. It is famous for its many curry houses.

Winding through fields, the street was formerly called Whitechapel Lane. It derives its current name from brick and tile manufacture started in the 15th century, which used the local brick earth deposits. By the 17th century, the street was being developed from the south as a result of expanding population.

Brewing came to Brick Lane before 1680, with water drawn from deep wells. One brewer was Joseph Truman, first recorded in 1683. His family, particularly Benjamin Truman, went on to establish the sizeable Black Eagle Brewery on Brick Lane.

Brick Lane in 1999 was the target of a bomb, detonated as an act of intolerance against the races of people living and working in the area. The same bomber also detonated bombs at Brixton and Soho.

The surrounding streets were also made famous by Jack the Ripper.

We had agreed to meet at 1pm and at 1.10pm Steve turned up red faced and dripping with sweat – I thought what the hell has he been doing! Turns out he had come across some guys playing table tennis. He asked them if he could play but they said “no bat, no play” – he then used his persuasive charm and they gave in. In return they got their asses whipped! They were very impressed with his table tennis prowess and wanted to keep playing and getting tips. They then invited him back tomorrow as their best player will be there then. Unfortunately we will be on route to Venice.

Next stop London Bridge and a cruise on the Thames. It is a good way to see some of the famous landmarks in London like the London Eye, St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster, Tower Bridge and the like.

We then met up with an old colleague from our Kiwi Dairies days – Luke Goodwin. He had suggested meeting at The Dove which was along the river and not far from where we were staying. The site where The Dove is has been a public house since the 17th century and has been patronised by some well known figures over the years. It also hold the Guinness world record for the smallest bar room in the world.

We had a great catch up and meal with Luke.

We arrived in London on Saturday afternoon on the Eurostar via the Chunnel. We caught the tube to Hammersmith and located our hotel Novotel London West.

On Sunday we went to Westfield at Shepherds Bush – it is massive. We were in search of something we could sit on while we queued for Wimbledon on Monday morning. We found these pop up stools that we thought would be perfect. I thought they were GBP5.99 each but when I went to pay for them they were only GBP2.99 each – bargain! We then stocked up on picnic items at Waitrose. We were now armed and ready for our adventure to Wimbledon on Monday.

We decided we would get a taxi from the hotel at 4am so I went to reception to book it. The hotel receptionist had no idea about Wimbledon so couldn’t quite understand why we wanted a taxi at 4am. When she called the taxi company they also double checked four times that the 4am pick up was correct.

The alarm went off at 3.30am – Steve had been awake most of the night I think and I had woken a few times too. At one stage I asked him what the time was and he said twenty to three – I remember thinking – it doesn’t feel like I have been in bed that long. I woke up again and went to the toilet and checked the time myself – it was 11.53pm. Not sure what planet Steve was on but I was very happy to know I still had three and a half hours in bed.

We went downstairs to get our taxi and it didn’t show up. The hotel receptionist called the company and there was some confusion but they sent one pronto. Again the hotel receptionist had no idea about Wimbledon – granted that most of them are foreign but I was starting to wonder what isolated corner of the world had they been living in.

The taxi driver, however, was aware of Wimbledon so we didn’t have to worry about explaining why we were going so early in the morning. We arrived at the park about 4.25am and were directed to the end of the queue. There are a lot of stewards controlling proceedings and they are all so friendly and helpful even at 4.30am!

We saw all the tents lined up – the gates to the park had opened at 8am on Sunday but apparently the first lot of people had turned up at 10am on Saturday. They had to wait and sleep on the street until Sunday at 8am. These early birds were guaranteed Centre Court tickets. We were number 1627 and 1628 in the queue – we were in the first line behind the tents.

We were stationed behind three Australians – one who lived and worked as a teacher in London while the other two were visiting. In front of them was another group of four Australians who were all teaching in London. One of them had taken a sickie from work on the basis that he was going to get his wisdom tooth out. He was applying sunscreen even before the sun came out to make doubly sure he didn’t get burnt – a dead giveaway when you return to work the next day that you weren’t sick! There were TV crews etc… cruising around so he was doing his best to avoid getting on any of those. It was quite amusing. Steve of course enjoyed chatting to them all.

The stewards rounded all the tent people up about 6.30am – they have to pack up and condense into smaller areas. We started moving about 7.30am towards the gates. As we got closer they were coming down with the court allocations – Centre Court and Court 1 were gone but there was still availability on Court 2 so we put our hand up for those. Based on who was playing we had picked Court 2 as our second choice after Centre Court so we were very happy!

It still took another two hours to get through security and the bag checks and then the turnstiles where you finally got to purchase the tickets you had been allocated. By this time it was 9.30am – we had been on the go since 3.30am. We got into the first part of the grounds but then had to wait until 10.30am before they opened the rest of the grounds up. Despite the whole process taking 7 hours it didn’t feel that long. Our tickets cost us GBP38 or NZD76 which is pretty reasonable compared to the other major tennis tournaments. A ground pass will cost you GBP20 or NZD40 – they have tried to keep it affordable so everyone can enjoy it – the only proviso being you have to queue!

We had a look around the other courts where some of the players were warming up – we spotted Li Na having a hit up. It is an amazing ground and you are so close to the action on the ground courts. Play was starting at 11.30am on our court so we headed there to check out our seats. We were in row G, 7 rows back from the front – the seats were good. It was very hot though and there is no shade – yes I am talking about London weather – it has been amazing since we arrived.

First up was Tomas Berdych from the Czech Republic playing Victor Hanescu from Romania. Tomas Berdych is currently ranked number 6 in the world and Victor Hanescu is ranked number 81. Tomas Berdych won in 4 sets. It was a good game with some great rallies. The ball flies a lot lower and longer on the grass courts as they don’t have as much bounce so the game is played at a fast pace. I like it.

Next up was Venus Williams from the USA playing Maria Teresa Torro-Flor from Spain. Venus is currently ranked 31 in the world. She has won Wimbledon 5 times but has had a few injuries and then was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in 2011 so has been clawing her way back to top form. I must say she looks quite lethargic as she comes out to play but is a powerful hitter. Maria Teresa Torro-Flor is ranked number 189 and lost to Venus in three – she is a powerful hitter though and is only 22 years old.

We decided to have another look around and go and sit on Henman Hill. Aorangi Terrace, colloquially known as “Henman Hill” or more recently “Murray Mound” is an area in the grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club where, during the annual Wimbledon tennis championship, crowds of people without showcourt tickets can watch the tennis matches live on a giant television screen at the side of No. 1 Court.

It was 6pm by this stage and we were really starting to feel the effects of our early start so decided to head back to the hotel on the Tube. You hand your tickets back in and they re sell them to people arriving to see the evening sessions. All the money goes to charity and since this concept was introduced in 1954 (60 years ago) they have raised GBP1.75 million for charity.

It was a great day and we really enjoyed the whole experience.

The Championships, Wimbledon, The Wimbledon Championships, or simply Wimbledon is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, and widely considered the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments (Majors), the others being the Australian Open, the French Open (Roland Garros) and the US Open. Since the Australian Open shifted to hard court in 1988, Wimbledon is the only Major still played on grass, the game’s original surface, which gave the game its original name of “lawn tennis”.

Wimbledon traditions include a strict dress code for competitors, the eating of strawberries and cream by the spectators, and Royal patronage. The tournament is also notable for the absence of sponsor advertising around the courts. In 2009, Wimbledon’s Centre Court was fitted with a retractable roof to lessen the loss of playing time due to rain.

Dark green and purple are the traditional Wimbledon colours. However, all tennis players participating in the tournament are required to wear all-white or at least almost all-white clothing, a long-time tradition at Wimbledon. Wearing white clothing with some colour accents is also acceptable, provided the colour scheme is not that of an identifiable commercial brand logo (the outfitter’s brand logo being the sole exception). Controversy followed Martina Navratilova’s wearing branding for “Kim” cigarettes in 1982. Green clothing was worn by the chair umpire, linesmen, ball boys and ball girls until the 2005 Championships; however, beginning with the 2006 Championships, officials, ball boys and ball girls were dressed in new navy blue- and cream-coloured uniforms from American designer Ralph Lauren. This marked the first time in the history of the Championships that an outside company was used to design Wimbledon clothing; the contract with Polo Ralph Lauren is set to end in 2015. It will be replaced by George at Asda or the old Bejam uniform.