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It was such a lovely morning that I couldn’t bear the thought of taking the tube, so caught the bus instead and rode on the top deck with the sun streaming in. My phone went somewhere around Aldwych. I missed it, but the voicemail was from IRN, wanting to know if I could do an interview about passwords, and how bad everyone is at picking a good one. I rang them back when I got to the office and did five minutes or so, which was probably edited down to five seconds by the time it went out. I never heard it, but I was in at ITN at seven this evening, being interviewed about broadband in London, and Steve’s Challenge said he’d played it several times throughout the day. My credit was apparently as ‘Guru’. Very spiritual.

A busy day of proofs and editing, but a lot of pages shifted, and still well ahead of my workload, which is good. Pub after work to celebrate Andy’s birthday. He bought us all doughnuts and muffins this morning.

Got home to find my travel documents for Lithuania had arrived. I’m a bit disappointed that my flight out is mid Friday afternoon, which allowing for time differences gets in at 8pm. Transfer to the hotel, shower and change and it’s a day gone already, before you’ve even done a thing. The flight home is the following Wednesday lunchtime, so check-in will be late morning, which really only leaves four full days in between. It should be just about enough to see everything on the list I’ve made from flicking through the guidebook, but it doesn’t leave much time for mooching around and sitting in cafes.

Hmmm.

On the sporting front, it’s interesting how Britain seems to have forgotten about the World Cup now England is not playing. Or perhaps it’s just England that has forgotten - after all, Wales and Scotland were never playing anyway, so I guess now we’re all on a level playing field, no pun intended.

I suspect the Wimbledon hysteria will be in full swing by Wednesday, though. The first matches were played today, but it has been a very low-key event so far. Hunting through my hard drive this evening, I came across some notes I wrote when I was at Wimbledon a couple of years ago, in case they’d ever come in handy for an article or book one day:

• People at the end of the court. When a player serves, they bend down and put their hands flat on their knees. When the ball is in the air, the two in the middle, one at each end of the court, stand up again, their hands behind their backs. Surely if we, the public in the stands, can see perfectly well what is happening this can be for nothing other than show.
• The ball-boys and -girls do everything at speed. Balls are rolled in groups of three from one end of the court to the other, stopping off at the half way point enroute. Throwing the balls out to the players, they hold their hands in the air like a secret sporting semaphore. When new balls are required they are not simply collected - one ball carer carries two fresh cans to a point half way between each end of the court while a further two stand, one behind the other. The cans are opened and the balls are poured out into a line before being rolled to the others. The first catches the first three balls before moving quickly out of the way so that the other may intercept the fourth, fifth and sixth.
• Rain on the court has the same effect as boiling water poured on the entrance hole of an ant’s nest. Dozens of green clad officials come running onto the court, literally swarming from one corner, to protect their precious queen, the grass, with a thin green cover.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 24th, 2002 at 9:15 pm and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.