Brawn and Brain

Brawn although it's so mental too

We got in to wimby just slightly earlier than Friday, at about 7am. We were directed to k10, a row down from Friday though, and it seemed more crowded. I was already fearful that my Murray hopes would be dashed; nonetheless there was nothing to do at that point but wait. So we slept under a beautifully burning morning sun for several hours til we were called in at 11.10, which was actually earlier than Friday.

We got through security and the ticketing counters and rushed over to the resale ticket line. It was just before 12 and the line was about 20m long. We parked ourselves at the end and had a chat with the guy regulating it, he said we would probably be able to get center court tickets, but only at about 5 or 6 on the other hand, court 1 tickets might be gotten at 3 plus.

At that point my hopes of seeing Murray in the flesh were dashed. Sigh. Well I knew it had been a possibility, I'd discussed what to do with K for like a hour the night before. Sucks but what can I do? So the new plan was to try for Sharapova on court 1.

Queuing rules for resale are much more relaxed than for entry, so K went off to try for Lopez and isner on court 3, while I walked over a few metres to court 18 to watch safarova own her opponent, and then to enjoy the first bit of chardy vs cilic!

It's really quite fun to watch a live tennis match because there are so many things to see. The match, of course, but also the ball kids, professional and precise as clockwork, the line judges switching seats as the players switch serves, the spectators' heads whipping from left to right to left to right, TV presenters with their camera crews on the balcony, Rod Laver being interviewed 20m away... And things you don't notice on TV because of replays, like how picky cilic is about the balls he gets.

Wimby strawberries and cream! Woohoo! Tradition fulfilled

It rained for 45min at 1.30, but after that it was back to being bright and sunny. Thank God for the good weather, seriously, I was so afraid that it would turn out miserably again like Saturday. While it rained we sat in our ponchos on the grass, and I stuck my head and arms inside so I could blog lolol. We managed to get Court 1 tickets at about 4pm, and we skipped happily to our seats. Sat beside this lovely old couple from Yorkshire, and watched Dimitrov vs Mayer. Or we tried, because it started pouring at 4.30 and they had to stop play. It was great though that we were seated high enough to be sheltered and to not have to vacate!

Nonetheless there was no hope to really watch anything, so we left our 5 pound resale tickets with the security guard (to be passed on to some lucky people - we regretted and wished we'd sold it to someone still queueing outside for like 30 pounds lol) and made our way to Queen's Theatre.

Brain or ears? Heart?

We collected our tickets with ease (we were all freaking out cos I'd bought them with my dad's credit card, which obviously I didn't have on me) and then ran over to Four Seasons for some 6.5 pound (14 sgd???) duck rice. Yes it was great but so overpriced. We ate on the red gate hahahaha where i dropped my food, lucky my box landed right side up and I only lost a drumstick, which I seriously considered eating, but then my bro ate it for me and gave me some of his hahahahhaa. Again, this only happens to me.

Went into Queen's Theatre, had a bit of drama when one of our food boxes didn't go into the bin right and we were scrambling on our knees to clean the fallen rice up. Hahahaha. But the musical was starting so one of the attendants told us not to bother (we were almost done anyway) and rushed us to our seats.

And it started, and it was awesome, I teared when I dreamed a dream came on. Eponine was awesome, she's so much cooler than that pansy Cosette. Okay strong words, Cosette can't help being so sheltered, but dude, don't fall in love with someone based on 5s of looking into his face, okay? That goes for you too, Marius, even if you are droolingly cute. You should've gone with Eponine.

And then, just as one of my favourite songs On my own began, the mikes went out and the stage lights went out, and a murmur broke out among the crowd. After a moment, the curtains came down and a technical fault was announced. It took them about 15min to rectify the issue, and the song restarted. Eponine! They still went on to have the intermission though. I almost cried when Gavroche died sho shad.

Overall, the songs were well done, loved them. They also made really good use of the revolving platform on the stage, like making it look like people are walking faster than they are, and for scene changes. Javert's fall was really cool too, he basically waved himself about weirdly in slow motion on the spot and then on the floor, while wavy lights danced around him. And the huge blood red flag was present three or four times times, once in the background moving eerily in and out of the fog, and later under Enjolras as he sprawls dead on the barricade. I also love how they use the fog machine, for the flag (as mentioned) and also to make people fade in or out just by walking forward or backward on the stage. Very very cool.

Eventually it was over, and I was a little sad because it was my last night in London, and my last night outside Hamburg before my July trip. Oh well.

All the poetry of the evening manifested in the window of the bus back. Red poppies behind a black iron fence, a man's face half lit by a streetlight, the twitch of a mouth, the stories of the people passed on London streets. I think I need to read more.

I'm still sad that I didn't get to see Murray. Sigh. Maybe USO? (: kidding, where got money? I did manage to watch some men and women's singles and sit in Court 1, so that's not too bad. And anyway Murray lost in the next round to the very same guy I watched in Court 1 haha. I really believe that Murray has it in him to win big, but I also know how inconsistent he can be. That's why I didn't even expect him to win this year's Wimby. But we shall see what Mauresmo does for him, maybe he'll win USO hmmmmmm.

Also, this will probably be my last post for the next three weeks while I study for exams, except maybe one on Amsterdam which I still have yet to write!!! Boohoo, grounded for 3 weeks. Haven't stayed in the same place for so long since April hahaha. Wow, I've gotten spoiled.