Notes to Myself

Wimbledon Visit

We arrived at day three of Wimbledon yesterday by about 7 am to join an already lengthy queue (my number was 2007). The queue started moving quicker once the gates opened at 9:30 and we finally got our £17 ground passes by about 10:30 to 11:00. Those seeking the more expensive Centre Court, Court 1 and Court 2 tickets queue up all night for a chance to buy tickets before they sell out. But the ground ticket is well worth the cost, especially early in the tournament when there are so many great matches taking place on Court 2 (standing only) and Courts 3-19 (all unreserved seating).

One of the highlights was going to the practice courts where I watched Maria Sharapova and Justine Henin-Hardenne warming up. Seeing Sharapova in the flesh was different from seeing her on TV, with her amazing height and trim figure. Henin-Hardenne has to be one of my favourite women players because she's not a giant, yet her game is so powerful and see has that killer one-handed backhand. As I left the practice area I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Rafael Nadal!

I saw a large part of a five set battle between Marcos Baghdatis and Alan Mackin (GBR) but saw so many other matches it's hard to list them all. Some of the more famous male players I had saw in action at the Championships included James Blake, Lleyton Hewitt, Mark Philippoussis, J C. Ferrero, Xavier Malisse; famous women included Justine Henin-Hardenne (amazing!) and no less than three Japanese players: A. Sugiyama, A. Morigami and S. Asagoe.

Like most of the people in the country I was hoping that Tim Henman would be able to put up a fight against Roger Federer on Centre Court. Surrounded by the great atmosphere at Henman Hill, I watched most of the first set on the large screen. I went to look around the other courts with a plan to return to watch the latter part of the match, but before I knew what had happened it was all over!

There was a nice end to the day when Boris Becker and Pat Cash appeared on top of the Broadcast Cenre building. There was a camera so I presume they were doing work for the BBC. There were so many ignored shouts of 'Boris' that eventually Pat Cash grabbed Boris Becker's wrist, turned around and made Boris wave like a puppet!

Japanese Agency

In London there are several recruitment agencies which deal with Japanese language related jobs. It would be great if I could use some Japanese at work and it would certainly help to keep my Japanese up to scratch. The jobs require different levels of Japanese ability although many do seem aimed at fluent Japanese-English bilingual types. Even though I have not found too much success with recruitment agencies so far, I thought there would be nothing to lose by registering.

After choosing an agency and sending my CV off, I was invited for an interview today in the city. I was a little surprised for there to be two interviewers, but they were both very friendly people. We went through my CV and the types of jobs they typically place applicants in that might be suitable for me. With my somewhat limited comercial experience and time away in Japan, it was suggested that IT support would be a good place to start. I agree that gaining experience in support would improve my CV and I'm willing to be flexible.

There were a few sudden spur-of-the-moment switches to Japanese thrown in for good measure, but in the end I felt as though I hadn't spoken all that much Japanese. I wonder whether my Japanese qualifications had any influence on that?

At the moment there are no relevant vacancies, but my CV will be sent to some of the agency's regular clients to see if there is any interest. I'm looking forward to seeing whether I will get any calls and how this agency compares to the other (normal) ones I have dealt with so far.

N. Ireland

A christening in the family provided a good excuse for a short visit to Northern Ireland at the weekend, my first visit in over 15 years. It was the first time I've travelled on EasyJet, the low-cost airline. The service was certainly minimal, but we arrived on time, in under an hour. I thought to myself how I often spend longer on the London Underground.

The weather was sunny and the temperature noticeably cooler than London. As time was so limited, we didn't get to see much of the beautiful countryside, which was a bit of a shame. I'd love to drive through Ireland one day, as I've heard great things about the landscapes.

The christening itself was a batch job: a number of babies at the same time. By all accounts, the ceremony was long for a christening and the priest was a little long-winded. A woman was in charge of filling the font with water, which she got from lots of small bottles. Where does this holy water come from exactly? When I prodded the baby's leg, the father said, 'Yes, she's real!' What can I say, I don't have much experience with babies.

After the ceremony there was a dinner put on. I opted for the ham and turkey dinner and was shocked by the amount of meat on my plate. The beef option also came in huge meaty quantities. I've never seen that much meat! I wonder whether big portions are the norm when eating out in Ireland?

On the return flight there was an announcement which said, 'Good news, David Beckham has just scored from a free kick for England.' Whether all the Irish on board thought this was good news or not, I'm not sure. Anyway, well done England and good luck for the rest of the World Cup.

Rainy Wimbledon

Were you looking forward to the start of Wimbledon today? The weather was cool and dreary here in London and after just 44 minutes of play, the rain brought a halt to proceedings. Such a shame considering the form Federer was in. Incredibly, refunds will cost the Championships approximately £1million!

You Startin'?

Are you startin'?!

Intrigue

On the District Line a couple of guys sat down next to me. As it happened, I'd just got out a Japanese textbook for a quick browse (of all the kanji I used to know). The guy closest to me looked intently at the Japanese script, then turned to look me in the face. I hate it when people do that when they are sitting right next to you! It's so obvious - you are only 30cm away from each other. Every now and then he'd repeat the process. Argh! I wonder exactly what he was trying to figure out.

On top of that, he was taking up too much space and crossing into my 'personal zone' - you know, the inivisible one defined by the layout of the seats and arm rests - I also hate it when people lean on you or touch you without seeming to mind. One of my good friends in Japan always said I had a small 'personal bubble' and I think she was right.

Ok, thanks, I needed to get that off my chest.

Stamps End

After popping into Subway I was horrified to find that the whole stamp campaign is coming to an end. How could they do this to us?

A friend was telling me recently how hundreds of Subway stamps were up for auction on eBay. Can you imagine the poor guy who one them thinking they'd save him so much money? He'll need to use them all up by the end of the month - or eBay them ;)

Digital Sport

At last my family has invested in a digital set-top box with freeview - free digital channels! The main reason I was excited to get this set up was that I was able to watch the French Open tennis on BBCi, which wasn't on Terrestrial TV. So I was hooked on that pretty much every day for two weeks.

When the French Open finished, the very next day Queen's Club kicked off the grass court season and of course, I had to watch lots of that too. Actually, I'd planned on visiting the event on Thursday but had to cancel because of the cold I had.

Queen's finished yesterday (congratulations to Hewitt), but the World Cup is also in full swing. With only a week until Wimbledon starts it's just getting too much - when will all this great sport end? See you at Wimbledon!

Summer Cold

Over the last few days I've been struck down by a bit of a vicious cold. At the beginning I wasn't sure if my runny nose wasn't just due to hayfever, which was particularly bad with the hot weather at the weekend and earlier in the week. But then my throat really got sore and then throughout the night I developed a fever and a pain in the small of my back, the like of which I have never experienced. I can't remember the last time I spent three days at home, but I'm almost ready to resurface!

Sushi Caption

Just like Have I Got News For You let's have a caption competition. What's the most amusing caption you can come up with for this photo?

Air Conditioner

The increasing summer temperatures are starting to make my room uncomfortably hot at night. It's the hottest room in the house and when I walk downstairs in the evening I'm sure there's at least a 5 degree difference in temperature. If anything, my room gets hotter when the sun sets - as if all the stored up heat in the loft turns my room into a mini oven.

So today I got out the huge air conditioner I bought last summer. This thing is about a metre in height and is makes an unbelievable amount of noise. It wasn't even cheap!

I miss my Japanese air-conditioner which was attached unobtrusively to one of the top corners of my room. It was smaller, out of the way, quieter... and probably cooler to boot! Still, I am happy to be reuinited with my oversized air-conditioner. What a blessing!

Power Cut

It's not uncommon for the lights on Underground trains to go off, only to flicker back on within a couple of seconds. Today, though, when they didn't come back on I started to wonder... The only light coming into the Piccadilly Line train was from lights along the tunnel walls. The train kept slowling until it finally stopped. Then the driver announced, 'There has apparently been a power cut in the area. Hopefully we will be on our way shortly.'

I started imagining newspaper headlines, 'People stuck on hot train deep underground for hours,' that kind of thing. Didn't that happen just the other day somewhere? Suprisingly, we only had to wait about a minute until the train lights came on and the train started moving again. For some reason I was a little disappointed. Is my life becoming too boring?

England House

The lengths some people will go to...

666

I was about to post something to my blog when I realised today's date: 06/06/06. Scared?

Frescato

After another trip to Costa I discovered what my coffee should have been like the other day. This is probably the official 'mocha frescato', as it's called on the menu.

Live Tennis

According to the BBC website, this year's Wimbledon Championships will be broadcast live on the BBC Sport website. Nice!

The service will be available to UK broadband users and will mirror terrestrial and interactive coverage. Three-minute highlight packages rounding up each day's play will be available to a global audience.

How do you suppose they will enforce this? Via IP addresses or site registration?