Joan and Ashley, former Barry University student

I spent a couple of hours at the British Museum, which is vast and full of the ”oldest” and ”largest” and ”most unique” items around. There’s so much it’s impossible to see it all. I love history (something I think I got from my Mom, who read Winston Churchill’s tomes at bedtime) and really can’t get enough of it, which is why I think I’m so fascinated by England.

The ride back to Wimbledon from London on the tube (the Underground) was long and hot, and I had a couple of hours to kill before I planned to meet up with Ashley, my daughter’s friend who works for the Women’s Tennis Association in player development, for dinner. I stepped into the Prince of Wales pub, where I ordered my food and drink at the bar and then headed for a table near one of the big-screen TVs–where I watched the first Wimbledon matches I’ve seen since I got to London. I saw the number 4 men’s player win handily (did you guess Jokovich?), then did some walking around town and found an Internet cafe and a grocery store and the Odeon Theatre where I will see some movies before I leave town.

Around 9 p.m, Ashley picked me up in her car and we went to a French restaurant in Wimbledon Village called Cote. We got a table near the front door, where we could see everyone coming and going, ordered a bottle of pinot noir, then had sour dough bread and butter and delicious salads of endirve and walnuts and warm roquefort dressing. I had the duck with cherry sauce and au gratin potatoes–delicious! We splurged on dessert and I had almost-frozen berries–raspberries, blueberries and a small red berry I didn’t recognize–with warm white chocolate. Very decadent!

By the way, you will notice I’ve been imbibing an extraordinary amount of alcohol–and I don’t drink! Well, not much. But so far I’ve had an evening of champagne, split a bottle of wine, and drunk several Pimm’s at Wimbledon (more about that later)–which is essentially a cucumber/lemon gin gimlet.

I’m not sure how much of my feeling waterlogged on occasion is jetlag and how much is the surprising amount of alcohol I’ve been consuming.

Ashley and I ended our day at midnight and she dropped me off at the home where I’m staying in Wimbledon. Since it was late, I assumed Veronica (who’s staying there with me) was already in–and bolted the front door closed. She arrived some time later and didn’t want to ring the bell because it was so late and ended up spending the night at her home which is being renovated. Sorry Veronica!

I wanted to watch the women’s matches on Centre Court, so I left Jonie in the box and headed up the hill. In the a.m., it wasn’t too crowded and I managed to find a spot on an angled hill in the grass behind the picnic tables, where I took off my shoes and put my feet in the cool grass to watch Ana Ivanovic win her match. Then a couple seated at the picnic table in front of me got up, and I took their seats facing–and situated directly in the center–of the large TV screen. I joined a bunch of Australian girls also sitting at the table (hence my knowledge above).

Bez, Joan and Jonie

I was up early Saturday morning because I had two box seat tickets Ashley got for me to Wimbledon. I took the 156 bus to Wimbledon Village, where I got another bus right to the stadium. I met my friend Jonie Hawksley and her nephew Bez, who also had a ticket, at Gate 5 where I picked up the tickets Ashley had arranged (Thank you, Ashley!). We found our seats in Court 1, and I headed back out to what was called Henman Hill (after British tennis play Tim Henman) and has been renamed Murray Mount (after Scottish tennis player Andy Murray). Murray Mount is an elevated area behind court one that begins with about fifteen stone stairs that lead to a hill of soft grass where plastic picnic tables (very few–maybe ten) are scattered. People who only have a ground’s pass–that is, they can get on the grounds of Wimbledon, but don’t have tickets for a particular stadium–can set up camp and watch the matches from Centre Court on an ENORMOUS TV screen facing the hill.

One of the things that’s fascinating to me about Wimbledon is that everyone is allowed to bring as many bottles, cans or containers of alcohol, and as much food of any kind, and as many blankets and clothes, as they wish into the stadium–that is, as much as you can carry in a 12”x12” backpack. Which, believe me, is a lot! I saw bottles of vodka, bottles of champagne, bottles of beer, appetitzers, dips, chips, sandwiches. Well, after all, they’re picnicking on Murray Mount, and they’re going to be there from 10:00 a.m. till 8:00 at night. The Pimm’s tent wasn’t far from my table, and I got tired of the warm water, which was all I’d brought; hence, my venture into icy, minty gin gimlets!

I also watched the Venus Williams match on the screen, then went into Court 1 to watch Svetlana Kuznetzova’s match. Svet just won the French Open, so I was excited to see her match. I didn’t recognize the other player, who wasn’t ranked (19-year-old Lisceki (?)). Svet played even worse than the other player; Sevt lost. Both players played badly. I was upset that I’d watched such bad tennis and missed the Roddick match, which was playing on the Centre Court TV screen.

I headed back outside to the picnic table on Murray Mount, where I’d promised the kids there I’d buy them a Pimm’s if they’d hold the table for me and Jonie so we could watch the Murray match–which they did. When we got back to Murray Mount two hours later, it was much changed from the idyllic, spacious place it had been in the morning. People were squashed together with barely a footfall to make your way around. Despite efforts by stewards, litter covered the ground. Dark gray clouds threatened and we could see lightning in the distance. The breeze kept it from being stifling.

Stewards walk around to make sure the men don’t remove their shirts, but the girls had the straps off their dresses and had taken off layers so they were dressed in short shorts (normally, everyone is wearing black leggings to the ankle with their precociously short skirts). I’d spent most of the day with an umbrella up, held close to my head, to fend off the sun. Now I was afraid I was going to need the umbrella to keep off the rain. And I worried about being on Murray Mount with all that lightning.

I brought four Pimm’s back to the table (all by myself!) two for our helpers and one each for Jonie and me while Jonie got us some fried chicken and chips (fried potatoes) for supper. We watched the first set of the match while I ate and drank my Pimm’s and then I found my way down the hill to do some souvenir shopping. I wanted to beat the crowd–and the rain–so left Jonie and Bez to watch on the hill while I headed for the cab stand. Got home in time to watch the last set of the match on the telly at Liz’s place (around 8:00 p.m.), then watched a little more TV before heading up to bed.

Woke up at 4:00 this a.m. (eyemask had slipped off), put it back on and slept till 9:30. Still trying to dump the jetlag. I’m going to spend the afternoon in London with Veronica, but I’m heading in to Wimbledon Village to have some lunch (it’s around 11:30 a.m.). Will catch up with you later!