Tickity Boo

It's womens final Saturday and it hasn't rained. Tickity Boo they say here in London - to indicate that everything is hunky dorey. What is not tickity boo is that fact that I'm creating a contingency plan for a 3rd Monday at Wimbledon. There is heavy rain in the forecast for Sunday and there is a chance that we may be scoring on Monday. However, the weather forecast changes here more than Nadal picks the wedgies from his butt. Nonetheless, there is a plan in place to have services up and running on Monday. We won't be happy about it, but we'll be here. You can't just up and leave Wimbledon - you might not be asked to come back.

On a food related note, I finally took a night off from Chinese or Thai food last night. I met Bill, Erin and Joanne at Nandos (see picture) for an evening of fine chicken cuisine. Nandos is awesome. It is basically a fast food joint that has excellent chicken with a Portugese flavor. It's a chain restaurant, but it can only be found in a few countries - one of them NOT being the US. Anyway, the food was great and I'll either have to go to Australia this winter or back to Wimbledon next year to eat it again.

Wimbdependence Day 12

It is hard to celebrate Independence day in the country which you gained your indepenence from. Apparently there are no hard feelings anymore seeing that the press broadcast centre dining was serving American BBQ today.

I pretty much forgot that is was July 4th. It doesn't really matter, however, since I don't get the day off. And, when you haven't had a day off in almost a month, the days start to run together. I don't think of today as July 4th or Friday. I think of it as Mens Semi-final day. The only day I'm thinking of now is Wednesday, July 9th when I am scheduled to fly home. With my luck, the flight will be cancelled and the airline will go into bankruptcy in the time it takes me to get from the hotel to the airport. If that happens, Andy Doremus will be purchasing me a First Class upgrade back to the US. I'm sure he can find me a free upgrage on ebay.

I will miss the fireworks and the festivities that happen on the 4th. There will be none of that here. We might as well be celebrating the Chinese new year here in Wimbledon as much as we eat Chinese or Thai. Although, now that I think of it, I hear (and smell) fireworks on the walk to and from the site coming from Erich's and Glyn's butt. Thankfully there were no open flames near by. It's simply a case of too much Chinese food as mentioned before.

Happy 4th of July.

Wimby Day 11

I just can't find the words today and/or I just haven't had any inspiration. I'm told I have bloggers block.

We did have a few power outages on our Centre Court scoreboards today. That got the adrenaline going 30 minutes before the Venus Williams Semifinal. There was really nothing we could do since we only send the signal to the board. But in true event fashion, the power was restored without any one touching a thing. We later found out that the power outage/surge killed the UPS that was attached to the processor. By later, I mean during the second women's semifinal match. It's funny how many people know your phone number when something isn't working.

On an unrelated note, I figured out this morning that I have enough pairs of underwear to avoid doing laundry until I get back to the States. This is important because the tiny washer in our huge house fits about 5 items of clothing. I swear we're renting a house that is likely worth 1,000,000 pounds / 2,000,000 dollars. But, the washer is worth about 100 pounds. It is a front load washer - which is nice - but the holding tank is about the size of a 5 gallon bucket. What I really don't comprehend is that the dryer can handle 4 times what the washer can. It is not an issue of space - the laundry room is as big as my spare bedroom in NC. I'm done complaining.

Day 10 Rain and Stats

Today has been a mixture of sun, clouds and rain. It has also been a day to sit back and reflect upon the changes to the tennis scoring system. Glyn was cool enough to get the GHO tennis system up and running for BM and I. Cool because he is like Rico Suave (you know that song from the early nineties) and cool becuase he is wicked smart. No one will admit it, but we all have a man-crush on Glyn. It must be an aussie thing 'cause I definitely had a man-crush on Patrick Rafter too; not so much for Mark Phillipoussis. Anyway, back on point, BM and I were testing out the new system. We were probably the worst two people to first try it out for two reasons. One, we're old and we fear change. Two, we think we know it all and how it should be programmed. Number one is true, number two is just how it is.
On a more serious note, I will need lot's of practice before the US Open. Please don't pair me with Mike Davis... I love the guy, but I can't answer 8 consecutive questions while also inputing 4 additional stats.

Wimby Day 9

My big toe on my left foot is sore today. It is mostly due to me kicking Erich in the butt to move faster on our walk to work. I swear that Erich's body can not physically tolerate a speed over 2 mph. Maybe his newly trimmed hair catches fire from the intense friction of the breeze passing over it. Or my toe could be sore from the 3.2 miles I jogged this morning. Either way, I have an excuse.

I should be tracking our miles walked here. I figure we're walking just over 2 miles a day with our combined trips to and from work. Then if you add to that the 3 miles of running Glyn and I do 3 days a week - it starts to add up. The additional exercise is maintaining my health and keeping Glyn as thin as he has always been. I can tell a change in Erich's metabolism too. He eats no more than 5-6 times a day. I wish I could eat that much and still have the physique that Erich does. Add to that Erich's quiet confidence and his prepotent presence and you see why he's adored by the ladies here in Wimbledon.