Wimbledon-Failure and Success

As you all know, we're in the final days of Wimbledon, here in England. Until poor Andy Murray was crushed on Wednesday, there was actually hope that a Brit would make it to the semi-finals. But, alas, he was buried from the start by Nadal. Not that it was much of a surprise-even to Andy.

Anyhoo, I digress. I was having a chat with the MD of my company on Tuesday, and he asked if I was going to see any of the matches. I lamented my ability to get any tickets for under £200 at this late of a date, and he suggested that I should just show up late one evening (meaning I'd have to take off work early...), and try to buy tickets from someone as they leave early. His daughter had just been successful at getting centre court tickets for £5 on Monday-and was able to catch the the last two hours of the Andy Murray match. Not too shabby.

So, I took off work a little early yesterday (perhaps my first leave early-ie before 4p in my year and a half at Amazon. lame...) with a co-worker, and we headed down to Wimbledon. Unfortunately, just as we get to the gate where folks would be departing from, we realize that people are getting busted for doing the very thing we were going to try to do. Apparently, they really take the concept of 'non-transferrable' very seriously at Wimbledon. poo. Failure.

But, it is Friday at 4.30p. July 4th. My country's birthday, the sun is shining, and I'm in a great part of town. So, we head to a pub (Dog and Fox) in Wimbledon Village and settle in for a few pints. Get ready. Here comes the 'success' part of the story..

At about 5.30, we're just sitting there in the outdoor area, having a beer, and guess who strolls by with her 'people'?!?! Venus Williams. WOW. Makes sense-we're only about a 15 minute walk from the tennis grounds. She was stunning. More sizeable than most of the group she was with-but not nearly as large (read: muscle-y) as she appears to be on TV.

We were the closest to her as she walked by, and a few guys at our table actually said, 'Look. It's Venus!' and when he did, eveybody started staring, and clapping and cheering. Good fun. She actually seemed a little embarrassed by it all. Humble, even.

Success! My first official celebrity sighting in London-and I actually knew who it was. There were also apparently some big name rugby players in the pub last night, but I sure as heck had no idea who they were...