Jun 2008

Wowzers..what an adventure today to make it to Wimbledon, one of the major tennis tournaments (part of the Grand Slam) at the All England Lawn and Tennis club. Personally, i'm not a big fan of tennis but I am a sports fan so while we were here, we just had to go check it out...

• Center Court tickets are actually sold the year before in a random ballot and on the day of the matches, there are limited tickets left for people to buy. Approx 500 Center court tickets and 6000 gorunds passes are available but to get the center court ones, people camp overnight. We were not doing that. So we went for the grounds passes but still, it was advised to go early to queue up for them....and then...

• We left our place at 6:00 AM (yes read that right) and caught the train to Wimbledon and finally got in the queue close to 7:45. Let me tell you, the amount of people already there was unreal!!! By the time we got our queue ticket (which you need to prove your place in line), we were already #6437!! We waited outside, luckily it was nice out, for just over 3.5 hours and finally got into the place 10 minutes before the 1st match started!!

• While we were walking on the grounds, a guy accidentally bumped into Lisa. I kept on looking at him since he looked familiar and then when I saw people runnning to get his autograph, I realized it was Rafael Nadal, the current #2 player in the world!! he was just going into the Center Court building but i managed to run in front of him and get a quick snap (see below)

• Extremely expensive there - but had to get the traditional Wimbledon fare - champagne, Pimm's, strawberries and cream..mmmmmmm.

• Watched a few matches (no real big names) of junior girls on the outer courts and one men's match at the end on court 18 (A. Clement i believe was the dude who won it). The junior girls were all pretty tall and lean but i think i could've played with them...lol right.

• Very cool experience but if you can, you must try and get Center Court tickets to get the full experience!

• Stonehenge - Our first attempt was shot down (why did we pick the one day (Summer Solstice) when they close it down to clean up after the all-night party!) so I decided to go back on Thursday to finally 'conquer' Stonehenge. The mystery of the reason behind Stonehenge is , well still a mystery with theories abound like it was the work of druids, a pre-historic observatory, a sacrificial area, etc.

• Set in the middle of a field , it actually comes out of nowhere as you make a turn off the A303. The thing is, it's not even complete and doesn't make the nice circle as I always pictured it. They also keep a rope around the perimeter of the site so you can't go up and touch the stones (unless you book private tours with the English Heritage Society).

• Still, it is a wonder of the world and I had to see it...and I was still impressed. How they actually moved those stones and erected them is also still a mystery but it still looked grand and awe-inspring. I started listening to the free audio guide about the history/facts but i got bored and just wandered around the perimeter snapping some photos. Glad to say I've been here now and seen it, i would definitely recommend it if you had the time to.

Well i finally made a solo day trip out to London by National Rail from Woking to London-Waterloo (return price: £12! for half an hour's ride). The ride in isn't too bad, pass through Wimbledon and such but actually not much to see.

Anyways, some random observations from today:

• It was HOT today! Very nice day out and as i took Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus stop, the 'tube' was not air-conditioned and it was gettin a bit muggy in there. Luckily, it was only 3 stops to Oxford Circus and i was able to come out from underground quickly to get some fresh air...AND a million other people! This is the London i sort of remember: streets packed on a Tuesday with residents and foreigners (since London is a world-class city, the diversity is apparent here and i couldn't tell who was a resident and who was a tourist a la moi!), brand-name shops on either side of the street, writings on the street at crosswalks saying 'Look Left' or 'Look Right', double-decker buses everywhere, etc...

• I'm still trying to confirm if this is a style or something with men's jeans here but i must have tried over 5-6 different brands from different stores and even though the waist and legs fit well, the crotch and seat are like automatic wedgies! Seriously, do guys really wear them this tight here?? I couldn't believe how hard it was to find a pair of jeans and even though i managed to find one, i really don't hope its all about 'tight like a bike seat' here..haha...or not.

• Managed to pick up a few items for myself here and there and hoping i scored some deals but once the conversion is made, it's borderline. For example, my jeans were £40 which seemed cheap but converted thats $80 CDN so back to normal again. Picked up 2 nice sweaters for £10 each but even at $20 CDN, they were still a steal...so it is expensive (like everyone says) depending on what you buy.

• Ok this was expensve: one-way ride on the Tube: £4

• Wandered around just keeping an eye for a Tube station (since it's easy to find your way home from there) and made it through Tottenham square, found a lil ol Soho park, walked through Chinatown and emerged in Piccadilly Circus with the infamous fountain and needle. Again, the place was PACKED with people but it was all good..great one-day day trip out to the city.

• Ascot - Drove into the town of Ascot where a big horse racetrack, Ascot Racecourse, and a huger race Royal Ascot, was being held that weekend. Let's just say, everyone was dressed up - ladies in their fancy, elegant hats and men in their suits with or without tails, windsor ties (of course) and walking, or should i say staggering around town. As we drove the main thoroughfare, all of these nicely dressed people were staggering about, queueing up at a few pubs, ladies removing their shoes, and it was about 9pm only! haha, i guess beyond the nice wear and classiness, even the rich like to get drunk and booze it up.....all in the streets.
  
  
• Belvedere Arms - met up with our friend Lucy, who was coincidentally in town for training. Yep, travelled from Canada to Frimley for her specialized training! Found a place, called the Belvedere Arms which was in Ascot and in Sunninghill on the edge of Windsor Great Park, near to Blacknest Gate, and just a short drive from Wentworth Golf Club and Guards Polo Club (got that from the official website).

• Caught up with Lucy and surprised she made the drive from Heathrow to Frimley every morning (approx 20-30 mins) and as usual, first time driving on the wrong side of the road. She wants to move here and work and i think the experience of checking out the non-city-like environment of England and scenery of where we were might have made her closer to sealing the deal..lol. I wouldn't blame her, so 'cmon Jeff! Get that transfer to the UK from your work!'. Also our waiter was a chap from South Africa who gave up his teaching job to do a 5-yr plan of touring around the world. Each year is a different continent ...unreal eh?

• Arrived at Wilton House (after getting turned away from Stonehenge due to the aftermath of the summer solstice celebration - good one, we had no idea) which is the home of the Earl of Pembroke for the past 400 years. It was cloudy and slightly raining on and off and we were the only ones walking the grounds. Let me just say, being royalty, definitely has it's perks. I mean, here was a castle-like home built on acres on land with finely cut grass, huge oak (i assume) trees with a rose garden, water garden and beautiful Palladian bridge which we weren't allowed to cross. How much space does this guy really need? Unfortunately the state rooms were also closed but just wandering around the grounds and imagining what it would be like to live in this country home was incredible.

• Salisbury - this town contains England's tallest spire atop Salisbury Cathedral. We walked through a town that still had it's medieval setting and architecture and this made it seem like we were walking through history....well certain parts of it. The North gate led into the Close (again, largest in England), which was an area that contained the Salibury cathedral and a number of preserved medieval houses. The houses all faced the cathedral which was situated in the middle and a huge area of turf sat between them...very, very cool for people to take a seat and chill on the 'lawn'. Unfortunately most places were closed for us to actually go in and the cathedral had a service going on, so it was more 'window shopping'.

So we've finally arrived in England, I came 2 weeks after Michelle, but so far it's been great and we're still feeling the place out and orienting ourselves with the geography/location. A few notes from the first little bit:

• Went driving on my second day here; 'learning' to drive on the left hand side and entering/exiting roundabouts are not that bad, the toughest part so far is getting used to the space on the left side of the car. Especially when you're driving on narrow one-lane streets with cars parked on the side, and cars oncoming, everything seems so tight and a) you'll knock off the side-view mirror of the car parked on the left or b) you'll go head-on with an oncoming car. Other than that, it's been fine.

• Second day here, hit Pine Ridge Golf Center with some of Michelle's co-workers. Late tee-off time so we managed to get in 13-14 holes. Nice course, wide fairways, well-kept but greens were still being aerated. Booked myself for Chobham golf course next week, 20 GBP, 2pm special!

• Cooked adobo for the first time and it was actually really good!

• Getting our broadband internet + TV hooked up next week so researching on things to do will be a lot easier. Currently using a Vodafone broadband USB mobile key and it is sloooow. This weekend might be a weekend to Stonehenge and/or Windsor Palace and/or the Cotswolds. Stat tuned!