Wimbledon 2011

Anyone for Tennis? Katie and I had planned (and were looking forward to) an exciting weekend down in Londinium to watch some Tennis at Wimbledon. It's been a busy year and with all the applying for jobs and stuff it was a good way to finish the school term. Our friend Clare had tickets for Katie and herself and I was just going to wing it when I got down there.

Flights were booked and we had made plans to catch up with friends, but unfortunately about two days before we planned to travel I got a call telling me I had a job interview that was smack in the middle of our travel plans so I had to pull out. As it turns out I would have been better just going to watch the tennis as the interview was a bit of a waste of time.

Anyway, I'll leave Katie to add to this post at some point and tell you how great it all was but for now I will just put up some photos from Katie's trip. The photos of my interview preparation and subsequent disappointment aren't exciting enough to make it onto the blog.

In the meantime please try and play "Spot Big Joe" - in photograph 2 Katie snapped Joe in the crowd, now it's your turn to spot him. Joe teaches at the school I was at last year and was on a school trip - he doesn't really need describing, you should be able to see him if you look. Good luck!

I lied - here are some tennis shots I couldn't leave out

Some more Tennis action

I am not going to bore you with all of our tennis shots (we have many) so this will be the final tennis post - if you want to see all the tennis shots then go to www.flickr.com/katieandsteph88

For the rest of the time at the Open we spent most of our time soaking up the atmosphere, soaking up the beer and basically cramming in as much action as possible.

Notable tennis highlights were:

1) Seeing Andy Murray play a few times and getting our Scotland flag signed.
2) Queueing for 3 hours to get tickets to the Rod Laver to see Federer.
3) Seeing the William's sisters play doubles.
4) Recording a segment for Eurosport where we had to walk towards the camera and shout C'mon Murray. I am not sure if it was ever broadcast but Lorna's brother said he did see us in the crowd at one point.

Here are the final tennis pics







I almost forgot - Prince William turned up at the Federer game - I'll bet he didn't queue for 3 hours.



He seemed like a good laugh though and when someone n the crowd shouted "give us a wave" - he laughed and did indeed give a wave! Good lad.

Australian Open

Once we had checked into our hostel we then had to plan our strategy for getting some maximum tennis action and trying to see most of Murray's games.

Katie had already managed to secure some tickets from her colleagues which was great but we had to plan when to use them to fit in everything we wanted to do whilst in Melbourne. Primarily we planned to drink beer and watch tennis but we did have other things to do as well.

Off we went to the tennis then and it was spectacular, they put on quite a show in Melbourne and we were all blown away with how simple everything was. The way it worked out it made sense for Lorna to become a Member (there was a decent package available that Katie already had as a member) so we got some more tickets and access to the members lounge.

On the first day we got into the Hisense arena and there we got to see Del Potro, Roddick, Henin and Dementieva. 4 big stars done in day 1. Here are some shots.









It's hard to describe exactly what the atmosphere was like but it was all pretty laid back mixed with almost a football type of supporter - singing songs, waving flags and generally having a good time.

Melbourne

Hi everyone,

we are back online and I have an awful lot of catching up to do with this blog so here goes!

As you probably know by now I had the surprise of a lifetime when I arrived tired and disorientated in Melbourne - if you remember Katie and I were only two days away from not getting to go at all because my visa hadn't been approved.

As Katie and I made our way down to collect our luggage, Katie started to suddenly act all strange. She wanted to nip out and "see about the buses" and then she said, "You've got to turn round and take a look at this guy behind you" and I thought, well I can't be that obvious but finally I turned around and there he was, a grinning big brother standing there with his camera out to take an action shot. I believe my surprised look here surpasses my Taggart suprised look from back when I was a child (ok 18) acting prodigy. ;o)



And then of course I realised what was going on, and that Katie was in on the whole thing. Here she is with me looking very pleased with herself for an amzing covert operation successfully completed.



And here am I with Paul - who also looks very pleased with himself for collaborating with Katie on possible the greatest surprise since the time I woke up on Christmas day to open an empty eggbox that directed me to look behind the curtain and I found a flippin snooker table! That was a classic from my Mum, Dad and Santa.

Well done to Paul and Katie (and everyone else who knew! It's not been confirmed if Santa played a part in this one or not) What had promised to be an amazing trip had just turned into a sensational one (just the type that journalists like eh Paul?)



And so, to the tennis we went...............