I may not be a hardcore tennis fan, but when my classmate Becky mentioned going to Wimbledon I was in! We decided to go on Tuesday 26th June because we were both free the entire day. This turned out to be a good choice seeing as that has been the only day of the championships so far that hasn't had rain delays. After a long tube ride, we arrived near the grounds and began to queue (wait in line). We knew it was going to be a bit of a wait when we were given a booklet entitled 'A Guide to Queueing for the Championships'! We also received a sticker proclaiming 'I've queued at Wimbledon 2007'. Our plan was to buy a Ground Pass that would give us access to the grounds and all the courts except for centre, one and two. Tickets for those show courts are rather pricey and people often queue overnight for the few tickets that have not been presold. The queue moved fairly quickly and we were through security and inside by about noon. We walked around a bit and then laid out Becky's blanket on the hill where we would have a good view of the big screen. The matches taking place in the show courts are shown live on the big screen for those with Ground Passes. Mid-afternoon the hill suddenly started to fill up and became really crowded. At first we weren't sure what was going on, but then the coverage on the big screen switched to Tim Henman's (a popular British player) match. The whole hill was silent during play just as if we were in the stands. When Henman won the match the whole hillside went crazy! Many people left the hill when that match ended but we stayed to continue watching and chatting. We got to see Americans Venus Williams and Marty Fish and just had a relaxing day. Although there was no rain, the day was rather chilly and we were finally so cold that we decided it was time to head out. We had stopped to take some photos by the Wimbledon banners when a man came over to us and offered his two tickets to centre court! He and his wife were done watching for the day and said we could have them for free. We didn't care how cold we were, we were watching tennis in centre court at Wimbledon! We got to see the last match of the day between Potito Starace and Novak Djokovic. We felt so posh as we watched Djokovic claim his victory. When that match ended, we were definitely too cold and knew it was about time to get home. As it was, there were severe tube delays and I didn't even make it back to Uxbridge until 10:45. What a fun day!

In other news, Tony Blair is out and Gordon Brown is now the new British Prime Minister. At least I got to see Blair in the flesh before he left. On Sunday the Smoking Ban went into place across England. It is now illegal to smoke in enclosed public places and work places. This ban is already in place in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. And the most recent news are the attempted terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow, Scotland. The UK has raised the terror alert to the highest level and a number of arrests have been made. I want everyone to know that I am fine and feel as safe here as I do anywhere else. There is no need to worry.

Happy 4th of July to everyone! I'm sure you'll be celebrating tomorrow with picnics and fireworks. Unfortunately I won't be experiencing the excitement since the British are not fans of celebrating American independence! While I will miss it, I would settle for some beautiful summer weather. The weather here has been miserable for a couple weeks--hardly even reaching 70 degrees and rain everyday. I guess this is what I get for bragging on Easter that I was sitting outside enjoying warm sunshine while people at home were putting on their winter coats and going out into the snow!