Queens Day 3 - Wednesday 12 June 2013

Made it!

After days tracking the BBC weather forecast it wasn't looking good is a huge understatement. The tournament director, Chris Kermode made the sensible decision to start play on all courts at 11am as the weather dictated play much like yesterday. It was supposed to be dry up to 4pm. The forecast was really lousy after that though.

It was early, hence the short queue. Relief!

A typical British summer day was in store. Wet, windy, quite cold and overcast. Perfect tennis weather! (That last bit was sarcasm if that didn't come across). 

We arrived at Queens shortly after 11am and saw some players warming up on one of the outside practice courts. 

Hewitt with a low backhand get

First up on centre court was Grigor Dimitrov v Lleyton Hewitt. I expected this could go the distance, on paper it was to be a juicy encounter but the veteran Hewitt played the best I've seen him for a long time. Despite my slightly reticent shouts of "Grigor", the tenth seed was dispatched with ease by Hewitt in under an hour. Starter over, it was time for the main course. 

Vicious unbrellas, might look tame now but turn your back...

Next up was Thomas Berdych v Thiemo De Bakker, again this was a straight sets affair, the Dutch player, De Bakker getting only five games, it ended 6-1 6-4. I didn't see this, I probably could have had as much exercise as the players running in and out between rain breaks but instead decided to indulge in a beverage or how ever many, and a good, but well overpriced sandwich. Oh and it rained, and rained. We sat outside, put the umbrella up and down and up and down until it too had had enough of the weather and part of the metal upright sheared off missing my head by mere inches. Luckily it had stopped raining by then, but of course it started again. We tried to make do with the umbrella as Queens apparently don't have any spares. The material kept swaying up and down in front of my face hitting me which wasn't annoying at all! It really was one of those days it seemed!

Mahut about to serve to Murray

Murray returning serve from Mahut

I guess Andy Murray v Nicolas Mahut should have been the main course. They were next to brave centre court. I really thought this match could go the distance with Murray being a being a bit rusty and Mahut famous for his five setter at Wimbledon a few years back. Andy was on top form though, hardly missing a ball and grabbed the set with a pretty convincing 6-3 score line. It then rained for a change. Murray and Mahut traded blows in the second set, the match was stopped at 2-2 due to (fill in the blank). Enough was enough, play was cancelled for the day at 6.30pm but we had long gone to have some proper dessert. It was a shame not to see Tsonga play singles and Del Potro in his doubles, but I guess it wasn't meant to be.

Rain!

Still having not been for a few years it was an enjoyable day out. I estimate we saw a couple of hours of rain in-between the tennis. If the ticket prices were not so exorbitant for centre court I'd certainly consider going again. I think I paid almost as much this year as in the final a few years back. It's certainly not a cheap day out but to get to watch the top players up close really is something special, when it's not raining of course! Even just soaking (sorry)! up the atmosphere is well worth it. 

Portugal - Tavira Christmas 2010 (Turkeygate)

Note: Pics to hopefully be added too.

Day 1
Snowed in. Didnt think would get to gatwick as snow had cancelled buses. Tried digging mums car out of 7" of snow. No luck. Tony gave us a lift to bus in his ancient land rover. Stressful but made gatwick in time although flight delayed 6 mins when left but on arrival was an hour but we still had to check in the usual time. WTF? Only just made flight. No upgrade to our hire car, got a crappy punto instead of the slightly less crappy Renault megane, certainly less battered, which we got a few months ago from same dealer. Car had hub cab missing and all wheels were scratched not just the two that were mentioned on paperwork. Not a great start really. Managed to find hotel vile gale tavira easily, well the journey to the town of tavira was easy anyway. The Sat nav went mental but by chance found hotel. I have to add at this point that anna (@flickj on twitter) made an excellent sat nav holder as the plastic one was forgotten back at home in a drawer somewhere no doubt. Grrr. Drinks and food in bar were very welcome by 9.30pm when we arrived. On entering the hotel you can't help notice the imposing turquoise columns around the huge centrally located Christmas tree. They would be quite overpowering except for the vast lounge area and subtle furnishings. Except for the strange lamps, that all seemed broken but on closer inspection were made to stick out at strange angles. This didn't work well with the otherwise traditional decor in my opinion and it did grate me slightly, but I'll cope I hope.

Day 2
Walked into tavira centre and walked out.

Its more of a quaint village than a town really I would say. It's pretty tiny really. Some cool traditional architecture though. Walked quite a bit along the river but missed the tourist office by minutes. Will try again tomorrow.  

It has to be mentioned, and should have been sooner, that we had a lovely view from the third floor balcony of the road below, fish and fruit Market and building works. The place was full of silver threads - oaps - which made us feel young!

Day 3
Strolled back into Tavira and got maps of the place and faro. Always useful. Anna got new shoooooooes well boots but shooooooes sounds better. Visited castle, now I'm not picky but to me most have a moat, turrets, that zig zaggety wall on top, and well let's just say this was a garden, pretty it must be said, but nevertheless a garden with some walls around it and totally void of zigzagertyness. Still the sun was out, so that certainly helped its appearance. Near the walled garden was an observatory. You could see Tavira on only what can be described as a giant plate, which showed close ups of all that was going on around town at the current time and even as far as Spain on a clearer day. A bit creepy and voyeuristic? Perhaps. There are only 50 left in the world of these things. Leonardo de Vinci had one we were informed. It's ok in my book then.

Took the car for a spin got lost but eventually found a large shopping centre. After consuming some junk food trekked around and found a plastic version of anna to use as a sat nav holder. Not as universal in use, but more compact that's for sure. ;) it's a pretty impressive centre it has to be said. Walked into the town centre in the evening and found a brilliant pizza place. 6 euros for a seafood pizza, fantastic value and damn fine pizza to boot. Cheap drinks too so had a few. €26 for everything. It's €20 each at hotel for just a buffet meal. WTF!

Day 4
Drugged up, consumed paracetomol, ibuprofen strepsils decongestants by bucket load. Got Flu, slept rested and slept some more. :(

Day 5 - Christmas eve
Flu, slept more did make breakfast, tried Benedictine which a fellow inmate, sorry I meant guest suggested. He promised one would knock me out. The taste certainly does, it's foul. Although considering cough medicine had been my delicacy of choice the last few days maybe I wasn't the best judge. That cough syrup really did taste good though! Anyway i digress. After eating nothing much for two days the drink surprisingly didn't floor me. The second one made me sleep well though. It was great to sleep that night for more than 3 hrs on the trot rather than the maximum 1hr the previous two nights.

Day 6 - Christmas day
Awoke with eyes and sinuses throbbing with pain and a sore back. I think the Benedictine might be partly to blame, but it really felt freezing last night too. Paracetemol didn't help, made breakfast but wanted to leave room for the Christmas turkey and stuffing meal (buffet) extravaganza. Oh yes something to look forward to. The time arrived, the momentous occasion. It was a buffet, same as other nights, a few more nibbles on offer but not enough to command a €45 per head penance. There was turkey with lobster source which was pretty good but where was the turkey and stuffing though? I searched through thick and thin and up and down in and out round and round but none was to be found. Finally there it was SAGA had it all. It looked good the table next to us got some, we asked for some but were told it wasn't available. We left it there but were pretty miffed. To be honest I didn't have the energy to complain.

Had a rest and watched underworld, a quite entertaining vampire vs werewolf's movie.

One mighty decongestant and ibruprofin later I was a new man. I stormed into town to try and find free wi fi but to no avail. Storming back I confronted the hotel reception about the missing turkey - It can't have flown away, turkeys don't fly for a start! Never mind the whole death thing, which goes without saying, hence not mentioning it, although now I have, too late now. Reception called the restaurant manager who assured me about 71 times that the turkey and stuffing was indeed roosting and we had just missed it. I collected anna on the way to the restaurant as I argued with the restaurant guy. I was enjoying venting my frustration and I assume he was enjoying lying to me aswell. He showed me where it was, it was evening by now so it was the evening menu, of course it was there now. He laughably looked through the food display cards as if that would prove his invalid point. It didn't. He even said that SAGA paid more for their whole turkey, which is plausible I suppose. He said that the table next to us paid extra too, which is possible but unlikely as the couple said to us before that they thought everyone would get it and were surprised they had to ask for it. I did raise my voice, but our argument finished with us getting free drinks. My whiskey sour went down well as a hollow victory, an apology was the least I expected though.

We had a nice evening after that. Chatted to a guy from holland who sets up golfing holidays and he agreed hotel was overpriced. Still over flu now, so things looking up. Live music was good too. Some real classics from Santana, elvis, pink floyd all helped as did the tequila I'm sure.  I'm not sure watching 21 grams helped my sleep pattern though, but it's a good film.

Day 7 - Boxing day
Just about made breakfast this morning. The sun is out. It's the last whole day before going home. We are both pretty tired though. Pretty lazy day, watched a bit of Sunderland lose to man u while anna rested. Our allies from turkeygate were there so i checked if they knew that they were charged for the infamous feathered friend, they said if they were they wouldnt pay anyway. We went to mama mia pizza in evening and were followed by two kittens, now to find a way to smuggle them back with us, if only they would shut up for a second or two that is. More drinks at bar, had some herby Jägermeister like thing, lots of lemon juice was needed, said goodbyes to people had chatted to. Night.

Day 8 - Home sweet home.
At breakfast I was very tempted to write turkeygate in pieces of fruit or crumbs, but didn't. Not sure why.

Checked out of hotel and headed to Olhao, saw sea, drove to Loule, not much there either so went onto Vilamoura where we enjoyed a late lunch of scampi and chips at Porkys Irish bar. It was funny, a Portuguese man came in and the Irish bar lass couldn't understand him. We felt more at home though having been there about two months ago.

Some twat had hit the front of the car, not sure when, must have been when parked at the hotel, luckily insurance covered damage, so just had to chat to a quite pretty lady who pointed where I had to fill in form. Sorted. Now the wait to check in our over weight bag. I reckon it could be twenty quid, but we will see.

We will both be glad to get home and relax and have a holiday. I felt bad when the hotel bar man said are you coming back? He is from Lisbon, my thought was why are you here? I only said maybe, but the answer was unfortunately no.

We didn't have to pay extra for our luggage. What a result. Had a good flight but had 15 minutes to catch our bus, otherwise it would have been another two hours wait. Sprinted to baggage claim, ours was there quickly, two minutes to get to bus, and we made it. Home sweet home, and before midnight too.


Disclaimer: some exaggeration maybe made in the above, it's up to you to work it out though. There are a few facts thrown in too.