Notes to Myself

Centre Court

Yesterday, on the fifth day of the Wimbledon Championships 2007, I got to see Centre Court in reality for the first time.

Centre Court is truly magnificent, nothing like I could have imagined. I'd never really noticed on TV before but the court itself (including the space around it) is larger than other courts and the seating towers up around the court. With only two people battling it out below it feels like a gladiator's arena. The sound from high up at first sounds distant and quiet, but after a short while feels close and intimate. I was high up but was surprised at how well I could see the tennis.

I got a resale ticket in the evening and so didn't get to see a whole match on Centre Court, but another one of my dreams came true to see almost a full set of Federer in action. All I can say is that his play is incredible. He defused Safin's power with ease and his own attacking play was a joy to behold. His forehand was brilliant, as was his delightful top spin backhand not to mention his serve which was a lot faster than I'd thought. In short everything was brilliant!

Before entering Centre Court I saw many other matches and players around Wimbledon on the outer courts. I was privileged to witness both the men's number one in the world and the women's number one: Henin Hardenne blew her opponent, E. Vesnina off Court 2 with impressive style depsite a rain delay mid-way through the match. Her backhand is just unbelievable!

In other matches I saw T. Haas Vs. D. Tursunov, Daniela Hantuchova Vs. K. Srebotnik. Lubicic was also in action playing doubles and I watched Marcos Baghdatis doing drills on the practice courts. Expect a new photo gallery to follow!

> Wimbledon Tennis 2007 Photo Gallery
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Round One

After coming back from lunch I quickly checked the BBC website and saw that Henman had resumed play following the cliff hanger finish to last night's match against Moya that ended at 5-5 in the fifth set.

It was hard to concentrate on work as I kept checking the score. 6-6, then 7-7... 11-11! In the end I tried to watch the UK only live feed from the BBC website but I think half the working nation must have been doing the same. The 'streaming' video became more like a slide show, presumably with the site not having enough bandwidth.

Suddenly some other tennis fans in the office shouted out that it was match point and they ran off to the staff area to see it on the TV. A few seconds later and I ran after them, just in time to see Moya double faulting and losing the match .

What an epic match! Henman's matches are always so nail-biting but you can't put the fellow down. Can you believe that was only the first round? Another colleague said, 'Yes, he won, but he'll probably go out like a lamb in the next round.' Come on, give the guy some credit!

Tim Henman's Wimbledon dream lives on after he finally overcame Carlos Moya in their delayed first-round match at Wimbledon on Tuesday.

Lebanese

By all accounts there are many JET alumni taking part in regular meet ups and organising events. Personally, I've never decided to go to any, though last night felt like just such an event.

A friend I met on JET in Japan was visiting London for a couple of days, so we arranged to meet up. The plans kept changing and he said that we'd be meeting other ex-JETs. There were five of us altogether, three British and two Americans.

We went to a Lebanese restaurant near Paddington station called Levantine. It was my first time to have Lebanese food and I wondered what it would be like. Inside it was quite dark and lavishly decorated. There are rugs covering the floor and there were many red, gold and brown colours. When I saw the petals scattered over the tables I realised it might not be a cheap evening.

The actual food was fantastic. The starters seemed tiny at first but when eating them with bread you quickly fill yourself up. We shared main dishes too: beautiful chicken, lam and salmon(!) kebabs on rice. I was

During the meal the lights dimmed. Next the background music got suprisingly loud. At first we wondered why, but then a belly dancer came out! She danced this way and that in a blue sequin covered bikini top and unsurprisingly got a lot of attention.

After dinner we walked along the Southbank, from Waterloo to London Bridge. I used to go there quite a bit but this was the first time in a while. The rain held off and it was nice to be beside the river in the cool air.

Social Night

Gratefully, I accepted an offer to an open night at a tennis club in East London. The well-kept courts were beside a small lake and on the other side of the courts a cricket field with men dressed in white completed what should have been a very picturesque scene.

Unfortunately, the wind was wild and it wasn't long before raining started to fall. Before the rain really started coming down I played a game of doubles.

As you might expect on a social night the tennis wasn't of a very high standard and most of the people were aged 40-60. There was just one young man, 20 or so, who seemed to be a Nadal fan with his latest Babolat kit. Though the club was welcoming it had a distinctly local feel to it.

The rain washed out any chance of continuing so everyone headed to the bar. I couldn't believe that a huge glass of fruit juice cost just 50p!

It's a nice little club, but a bit far for me to consider joining.

You Again

It often strikes me how odd it feels to see the same people day in, day out, when you don't even know them. I'm talking about the commute to and from work.

If you follow a similar routine Monday to Friday you end up seeing the same people who get on the train at the same time each morning. Most of the time people seem to get onto the same carriage. It's amazing how we're such creatures of habit.

Often I see a young private school boy, about 12 years old, sitting on the same carriage as me. He always reads a paper as if he wants to be like his father, a business man who is sometimes on the train with him.

Then there's the huge fat man who must be near 7ft tall who gets off at the same stop as me. That guy is massive - he makes me feel even smaller than I already feel.

This week has been good because there's a beautiful young woman with golden blond hair who also gets on the same train and gets off at the same station. Let's hope she's a new regular on the District Line.

Then at the station there's the City AM guy from whom I cheerfully accept a newspaper. How many people, I wonder, does he recognise on an average morning?

It makes you think how many other people must also recognise you, too. That's a bit freaky - I don't really want people to know my daily routine.

Thinking about this from another angle, you will always see new people on the Underground. You're not going to remember every face, or come across each and every Tube user on your travels. At the risk of sounding like an odd-ball, people watching can be very interesting.

Married

Congratulations to a good friend of mine from secondary school who tied the knot at the weekend.

Though he lives in London he actually travelled to Singapore for his wedding! Being so far away I couldn't attend which I have to say I feel guilty about.

I'm truly happy for my friend and his new bride. I wish them much happiness and hope that things work out well - you're not supposed to say that are you?

Bad Day

Talk about a bad day at the office. Today was one of those days where try as I might, things kept going wrong. It often feels like the harder you try, the more mistakes you make. Though these mistakes might be trivial, I ended up feeling like an idiot in front of the people in my department. Then there are people who point out your mistakes as if to poke fun. What a frustrating day.

Boggle Applet

'Instead of playing Boggle on my DS, how about programming it?' I thought. So I've started to knock up a trial applet version of Boggle, pictured here.

Though far from complete, the mechanics for creating the grid and grid selection are all in place. Each word you spell out while holding down the mouse is printed in the corner of the screen.

Currently the words you spell are not yet stored or spell checked. I wonder if you can download text dictionaries which include plurals? Another piece of the puzzle is to add a timer, which I've never done before.

It's been quite fun tinkering with Java. If I get my applet running to a decent enough standard I'll upload it so that you can try it out in your browser.

Pillow Arm

You've got to check out this genius idea:

Japan's single women are being offered the ultimate sleeping partner - a comfort to cuddle up to, but one which does not snore or make demands