Shortly after five ey em it is twenty degrees. It is actually a good time of day to be up. The birds are all chattering away contentedly. Shed doors open. Another good day ahead.
Yesterday was very much a Wimbledon watching day. We got our respective exercise out of the way in the morning and by mid afternoon were back watching the action. Don’t really look at tennis any other time of year but that is ok. I won’t have any purists look down their noses and say I’m not really a tennis fan. I’m not but I do like a bit of Wimbledon.
Time was our John would win Wimbledon tickets in the ballot at the Eastgate Tennis Club of which he was a member. THG and I would take it in turns to go with the lad. The tickets were almost always Centre Court. We would take a picnic and gorge ourselves on strawberries and cream.
The latter was very much not sourced inside the All England Lawn Tennis Club itself, not at a pound a strawberry, or whatever it was. I’d buy a large punnet from a supermarket and a large pot of double cream. Then I’d whip a couple of plastic pint glasses from a bar at the tennis and some sachets of sugar and we were away. A pint of strawberries and cream each.
Harry Dunn met us there once. Harry always had a temporary job there during Wimbledon fortnight. He would look after Rafael Nadal while he was at the ground. Harry brought us bars of chocolate from the men’s changing rooms.
We would always have to leave before the end of the action to catch a train back north. The one exception to this was in John’s last year of membership where THG and I both went leaving the lad at home to watch it on the telly. On that occasion we stayed in a hotel somewhere in Kensington. We were too knackered after a long day in the sun to have much of a night out but at least we didn’t have to rush to catch a train.
Back in the pool this morning. I’m trying to make it a regular morning activity. Still fine tuning the best time to get there. Eleven thirty is looking sensible.
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