the world according to kmuki: The Queue!

With the previous week having been such a busy one, I decided last week that it was time to do something for myself for a change.

Seeing as it is the end of June, that can only mean one thing in London - Wimbledon. As seeing as I am such an avid tennis fan (surprise, surprise, especially as I sooo have the physique for it - couch potato tennis, that is!) - well I simply had to go!

There's only one problem - getting tickets. Wimbledon is one of the very few sporting tournaments in the UK where it is still possible to buy tickets at the gate on the day. Ordinarily thats a good thing, except that there are only a limited number of tickets available on the day for show courts, and as a result, people have to queue. And queue. Overnight, if you want to actually get any sort of decent tickets - there's only 500 Centre Court, 500 Court One and 500 Court Two tickets available each day... and much, much, more than 1500 people wanting them. And your chances of being in the first 500 are usually pretty slim - because people start queuing for the next day's play any time after about 7am, especially if the weather forecast is good...so if you have to work that day, your chances of getting to the queue at any useful time is pretty slim...

Fortunately Jane and I managed to get to the queue relatively early on Friday night in preparation for Saturday's tennis, and we were given queue cards at numbers 363 and 364 - thus being guaranteed of Centre Court tickets! Woo hoo! And this year they're trialling a new system, where instead of having the queue snaking along the streets of Wimbledon, outside people's houses, causing disruption and inconvenience to the neighbours, this year they made one big queue inside Wimbledon Park. This was an excellent idea because in keeping everyone in one place, they also kept the feeling of comaraderie and unity of purpose. There was such a party atmosphere in the queue, it really isn't that difficult or boring to be in the queue. Most people think you're nuts if you tell them that's what you're going to do, but actually, because of the queue cards you don't have to be there every minute, you can leave for short periods to go to the loo, or get refreshments and stuff. The only problem was, Jane and I didn't really want manky hamburgers - so we sneakily did up the tent and wandered off into Southfields to get dinner in one of the local pubs. They had the tennis on there too, so we got to see the tail end of Friday's play!

Anyway, we headed back to the queue and the rest of the evening went without much ado, except for at 1am some louts had to be chucked out for queue-jumping or something.

The next day they got us up real early, 6am, to pack up the tents and condense the queue. From then on it was pretty quick moving, and it seemed like in no time at all we were receiving our wrist bands to determine which tickets we would get. Then we had a bit of a wait, and it was during this time that I practised up a bit of my Japanese as the couple behind us in the queue were having trouble re-confirming their hotel reservation that evening - so I helped out a bit, in my very bad, faltering Japanese.

Anyway in next to no time at all we were inside the gates and heading off for the Wimbledon experience - the Wimbledon shop, strawberries and cream, exhibition games on outside courts - before the main event kicked off on Centre Court at 1pm.

First match: Jelena Jankovic vs Caroline Wozniacki. Eventually Jankovic won this, but not without drama - the trainer had to be called for Jankovic for an injured knee or something - and then it was on to the next match - Andy Murray vs Tommy Haas. Now personally, I was really interested in this one, because Tommy Haas is absolutely gorgeous, and a fabulous player to boot - but unfortunately Murray (the most miserable looking tennis player on the planet - seriously dude, you could afford to smile every now and then) won in 3 sets. Alas.

Finally, in failing light, it was time for Nadal vs Kiefer. Personally, again I wanted Kiefer to win, on account of he is very nice eye candy, but alas, it was not to be. But I have to point out something that you wouldn't normally see on the TV. Nadal has the most unfortunate habit of picking his bum just before every serve, or every return! Its awful - and became a real joke, especially around where we were sitting, as everyone just started laughing each time he did it! Honestly, boyo, you need to sort that one out - its gross!

Anyway, it had been a fabulous day, we had a brilliant time and I was so pleased that I made it yet again to Wimbledon for another year!

Here is a little slideshow of what we saw:

Now the only thing is that videos uploaded to blogger often are poor quality - so here's some of the better pics for a clearer view...