Dream Day at Wimbledon

I've just had two amazing days at Wimbledon. As a real tennis fan I was completely starstruck when John Isner walked right past me, and the Williams sisters were playing so close to me on an outside court. Today I had tickets for a show court so I was further away but I got to see a lot of my favorite stars, including the marathon between Federer and Del Potro. I wasn't on the right court to watch Andy Murray in person, but I joined the throng on Henman Hill (or is it now Murray Mound?) sitting on the wet grass and getting colder and colder. But I did watch him going through to the gold medal round. So exciting.

My husband couldn't understand this star-struck attitude. He'd rather watch on TV than see players in person. I love the atmosphere--people waving their national flags, chanting and clapping. It's like a giant collective heartbeat, feeling that one is part of an organism.

A couple of things surprised me: one was that so much alcohol is consumed. People were buying beer at ten this morning. There was Pimms and champagne for the more sophisticated. The group next to me on Murray Mound were buying bottles of champagne and kindly offered me a glass. I had a few sips, not wanting to drink in the middle of the day.
The other thing that surprised and annoyed me was that the volunteers are not allowed to fill empty seats. These people have given up two weeks of their lives to be Olympic volunteers. They pay their own expenses, sometimes including hotel bills in London. All they get for it is a uniform. And yet the organizers are being so strict that they let seats remain empty rather than let volunteers fill them during their free time. So wrong.

I think it's disheartening to the athletes to see rows of empty seats. Why not offer them to the military, to nurses, firemen, people who do public service?

Downton Here I come!

I'm rushing around in crazy mode this week because next week we're off to England. Our primary purpose is to go to the Olympics. A friend in London has a house within walking distance of the stadium so it was too good to miss. The slight glitch was that we couldn't get any tickets to any event in the stadium. We put in for 5 days of track, 5 days of swimming and got ZILCH.

It's all done on a lottery system and tickets are..well, rather expensive. We decided the maximum we wanted to spend per event and decided we really couldn't bring ourselves to spend $500 to watch Michael Phelps swim up and down a couple of times. So we've ended up with a strange mixture of events--the only one at the Olympic venue is women's water polo (and of course we have a strong tie to that sport as our daughter Jane is an All American who used to play on the US team)

Then we have women's soccer semi final (should be good), a day of badminton (not my idea--John's. Could be boring) And two days of tennis. At Wimbledon. Yeah! Go Andy Murray. Maybe he'll redeem himself and beat Federer for the gold?

And when I'm not Olympic watching I've got some other fun things lined up: a tour of Buckingham Palace. I've been to the Queen's Gallery before but never through the actual state rooms.(although I did have tea with the queen, it wasn't at the palace).
Then a tour of the Harry Potter experience at Warner Brothers studios. The actual sets and costumes etc. Big Harry fan.
And last,but not least... a tour of the real Downton Abbey.

Is this going to be fun or what? And to crown it all, we're coming home on the Queen Mary 2. This in anticipation of sending my heroine Lady Georgie across the Atlantic in next year's book!

I am so glad I worked hard at my physical therapy so that I can walk well again, otherwise a lot of this would have been impossible. So expect reports from me during the coming weeks. I'll be Our Gal in London to give you the latest scoop!