British Museum

Sunday was a lazy day. We helped one of Anatole's friend move some boxes; his friend just had his appendix removed. Then we went to Reza's and watched Spain beat Russia in Europe Cup 2008.

Monday I returned to the British Museum. Below are some of the pieces I saw.



A draft sketch by Michelangelo.

Ancient Japanese clock.




African bronze work.
African wood work.
Inside the British Museum.
A piece of the Rosetta Stone.

Wimbledon Day 2

Courtesy of Nimish and his USTA connections, we had centre court tickets for Saturday. No need to wait in line overnight! The first match we saw was Wozniacki versus Jankovic.


The second match we saw was Hewitt versus Murray, the Scot.

I found the mechanics and system of the ball boys and ball girls to be interesting. They have a well established system in place to make sure the players always have a ball ready. It is interesting to follow the flow of balls around the court. I think there could be a photo montage just for the ball boys and girls. Maybe next time.
We also saw some junior matches on the outer courts.
And today we had the Wimbledon tradition of strawberries & cream . . .
and Pimms! Since its beginnings in the middle of the 19th century, Pimms has remained a British hot-weather favorite. With flavors that recall gin and a color like that of iced tea, Pimms is a natural thirst-quencher. And at only 50 proof, it's a bit safer to quaff courtside, where decorum counts. Mine also had cucumber mixed in.
Anatole and Nimish enjoying the matches.
They had some reflex machines set up to test one's reflexes.

Last match was Nadal versus Kiefer.

Wimbledon Day 1

Nimish and I lined up for grounds tickets around 8:30am. There are about a total of 7000 tickets given out. Our tickets were number 5284 & 5285.
The first 500 tickets are allocated toward centre court, the next 500 are allocated toward court 1, and the next 500 toward court 2. The remaining 5500 are for the ground's pass, which enable you to view matches on all other courts (and standing area on court 2) and roam around the grounds. To be in the first 1000, one must line up the day before. As we were allowed in the grounds around 11:30am, we saw people lining up for the good tickets the next day.
Once in the grounds, we set up on the lawn to eat and watch some of the matches on the big screen.
Fortunately, the weather has been really good, and there was only a 30 minute rain delay.
I really liked being able to be up close to the action on all the smaller outside courts we were able to view. Up close, you can really feel how hard some of the players hit.

We saw Bethanie Mattek defeat Marion Bartoli, a Wimbledon finalist last year.

We were also up close for the mixed doubles with one side consisting of Igor Andreev and Maria Kirilenko.

The other team consisted of Sonchat Ratiwatana and Alisa Kleybanova.
The chair judge looks very relaxed with his feet on the juice bottles.
Igor and Maria win the match! Close up of Maria as she leaves the court.