Holiday.

I had a lovely week away last week. I firstly went to stay with my brother and then went to stay with my sister for a few days. They don't live far away - about 40 miles, so it was just far enough to be called a mini-holiday!

We spent the weekend in the garden & I managed to get some stitching done. The sun was very hot, so my teenage nephews constructed a shade/windbreak for us from old duvet covers pegged to the washing line, but of course as soon as the wind blew they kept blowing round themselves on the line & getting tangled up! So then the boys put an assortment of brooms & a heavy piece of wood in the bottom of them which worked much better, except when the wind really blew, the brooms kept batting my SIL in the head! Lol. Don't worry, she wasn't injured but was most irked that we found it all so funny!!

Whilst I was at my brother's I also went up to Wimbledon on the Monday with my poor bashed SIL to see the tennis and we were lucky enough to have Centre Court tickets which my SIL had won in the ticket ballot. It was the first day of the tournament which always opens with the previous year's mens champion in the first match, so we knew we would be seeing Roger Federer, but didn't know who else until they announced the order of play the night before. The other matches featured Lindsay Davenport (who for some reason has always been known as Big Lindsay!!! She is VERY tall) and Marat Safin vs Paradorn Schrichapan, so all in all the line-up sounded pretty good.

We found our seats which were excellent - the best seats either of us had ever had at Wimbledon: 5 rows from the front, opposite the umpire almost directly in the centre. Unfortunately it was extremely hot that day & we knew that we were going to bake in the sun. There was no breeze at all & we were going to be surrounded by thousands of hot sweaty bodies. The seats aren't particularly wide at Wimbledon (unless you get a special invite to the Royal Box of course!), so we went to take our seats and the elderly lady to my left had obviously decided not to make an inch of space for me & was already overlapping my seat. For those that don't know me, I am a big cowardy custard, wouldn't say boo to a goose unless I was really riled, so I didn't say anything to the lady & just tried to make myself as comfortable as possible. I also felt her elbow digging me in the side & as she was not the smallest of people either, I just stuck it out. The match was good - very entertaining. Federer's opponent was French I believe & served first. This gave me hysterics as the grunt he gave out when he was serving to Roger Federer sounded like he was saying "Roger!". So there we were in the silence of the tennis court trying our hardest not to giggle each time this poor lad served!!! In the end I knew I just had to get a grip, but the whole thing tickled me immensely :o)

By the beginning of the 3rd set we really had had enough of the intense heat & had to go out & get some air. Federer was winning pretty easily, so we knew which way the match was going. So we missed Big Lindsay's match & wandered about the grounds for a while. Sally, my SIL has been going to Wimbledon for over 30 years, since she was... I won't give away her age, but I will say that she's been going a while. So each year we like to wander about & see what's changed around the place.

An hour or so later we went back to Centre Court & Sally had volunteered to sit next to 'Elbow Woman' as she had been dubbed, but as we arrived 'EW' & her companion were just going out, so we had lots of room. We watched the Safin/Schrichapan match which was fantastic & at one point Schrichapan did the full splits! He must have very flexible joints indeed. :o) After a while Elbow Woman came back, but by then the couple to the other side of us had gone and we moved over one seat so that Sally wouldn't get the elbow treatment. But as EW sat down, we both noticed at the same time that she picked up her right arm with her left hand & placed it on her lap....... Yes folks - she had a prosthetic arm! Lololololol!! Not at her - she probably didn't even realise she had been digging me in the ribs, but at me for not noticing before, even that close up! We thoroughly enjoyed our day. Sally has gone up there again today with her eldest son David. We're all going up again on Thursday with the addition of her other son Paul. No proper court tickets this time - we will buy ground entry tickets & watch some of the 'oldies' matches around the outside courts which are always great fun. I'm also up there again on Friday with my good friend Jane & we have tickets for Court No.1. I can't wait to go! To see some photos I took on my visit last week, look at this link: http://community.webshots.com/album/320955700laYhSb but ignore the first 10 photos which were from a tour earlier this year.

When I went over to my sister's last week we went for a lovely 3hr long walk on one of the days, all along the south coast from Rustington right up to the outskirts of Worthing and then back again! We worked out afterwards that we probably walked about 8 miles & I was suffering by the end of it. I'm so unfit!! There were some really beautiful houses that backed onto lovely green areas facing the sea. I'd love to have a sea view like that, but I guess the houses are on the expensive side! :o(

I've managed to do some stitching whilst I was away - I've reached burn out on Celtic Spring which I started 4 weeks ago so I've picked up Petal Fairy again today to try & make some headway on all that over 1 skin. I've only had 1 finish so far this year & I really want to have some more!!