Having lived in Clapham for the past 3 years, it is absolutely ridiculous that I've never been before as it's effectively just down the road. On Monday, my school friend, Ana, found out that she didn't have a meeting after school and suggested that we go brave the queue. I jumped at the chance, and before we knew it, we were on the train for a whole of two stops for the short hop from New Malden to Wimbledon.
I didn't check the exact location of Wimbledon. Stupidly I thought it would be close to the station. I was wrong and half an hour later we were still walking to the tennis. When we finally reached Wimbledon we found that our trek was still not over. We had to walk on and on past everyone queueing to reach the end of 'the queue'.
We were then handed a queue card complete with strict rules on queue etiquette. To be honest, the queue before the queue was pretty onerous and long, but when we finally reached the proper queue, the time went really quickly. Ana's been teaching me Spanish and we took the opportunity to practise some present tense verbs. I think in total we queued for around 1.5 hours which really wasn't that bad.
Having watched Wimbledon at home over the years, it was surreal finally being inside. We paid £14 (it's slightly cheaper if you enter after 5pm) which allowed us access to the outer courts. It was pretty frustrating seeing all the empty seats in the larger courts. The various eateries were heaving and for once in my life I was amazed that people seemed more interested in eating than watching the tennis. I never thought I'd ever write those words, seeing as my number one past time is eating, but seriously people, Djokovic is playing.
We enjoyed watching the end of the Djokovic/Golubev match on Murray Mount before deciding to wander around the outer courts.
Ana's little and had to peer over the top of the fence. Happily some people vacated their seats and we quickly nabbed them. We checked beforehand and found that we were allowed to take our own food and drink inside. I was really impressed as I was certain that we'd be forced to pay inflated prices inside the grounds.
At about half eight, the heavens opened and it started raining. The ball boys and girls quickly put the rain cover on, and we took it as our signal to leave.
It was such a great way to spend a Monday evening. Wimbledon, I'll be back!
Ps Sorry for the appalling pics! I didn't take my camera to school with me.
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