Wimbledon 2006

Long story short: queued for three and a half hours, got in, drank Pimms and lemonade, saw Roger, watched some tennis, took some photos, visited the gift shop, sat on the hill, watched the big screen and ate strawberries and cream.

Queuing to get in:


Inside Wimbledon:


Man playing tennis:


Woman playing tennis:


Me with my strawberries and cream on the hill:

I have to leave soon :(

This is just a quick post to point out that I'll be leaving Dublin in a matter of hours. I'm quite sad about this because I've had such a good time here. I'll definitely be coming back. I've put a brief summary of the last 4 days here. If I went into detail, this post would go on for ages. I'll add photos soon.

Saturday:

* It was decided the night before that we would sleep in (a.k.a. "sleep out")
* Nice big breakfast
* We went to the museum to see the "bog bodies" exhibition
* We went to a book shop and to toy shops (so Cormac and Susan could get a birthday present for their nephew)
* We got pizza for dinner
* We went to the pub, where I had two half pints of Guinness. Half a pint at a time is a good amount for me while I'm still learning!

Sunday:

* Another sleep in (out)
* We went for a late breakfast at a cafe near Cormac and Susan's place with friends of theirs, Fiona and John. John is starring in a Guinness ad.
* We went south of Dublin, to the beach, and then we went to a pub.
* While the guys stayed in the pub watching the hurling match on the big screen TV (rather than England's world cup match which was on at the same time), the girls went for a wander around the town.

Monday:

* I went on a tour of Trinity College, which included seeing the Book of Kells.
* I had planned to go on a walking tour of sites significant in the 1916 rising, but as I was one of only two people to show up for the tour, it didn't go ahead. Poor form!
* Instead, I went to Dublin Castle, where I hoped to go on a tour, but the tours were booked out until the afternoon.
* I went to St Patrick's Cathedral and looked around there for a while.
* I then walked over to the north side of town to St Michan's church to see the mummies in one of their vaults.

Very Irish day of sightseeing

Today was my second day in Dublin, but my first serious sightseeing day. Yesterday, I arrived at Dublin airport at about 10:50am. It was about midday before I made it into central Dublin to meet Cormac. We went back to his place and had lunch. I went out again and had a wander around St Stephen's Green and Trinity College. Cormac met me again after he'd finished work for the day. We went to the tourist information centre and then had coffee.

We then went back to his place for dinner before he went out to play "tag". Susan got home before long, and we stayed in to watch the Australia vs Croatia match. Can you believe not a single pub we could find was showing this game, not even the "Downunder Bar"? Everyone was showing the Brazil vs Japan game, and who cares about that. So shame on them, because the Australia game had everything, even a player getting THREE yellow cards before getting sent off!

Anyway, this post is supposed to be about today's outing! I caught the tram into St Stephen's Green. It was such a lovely day, sunny but not hot, that I was really overwhelmed by the beauty of the park and wandered around for a while, taking pictures and watching bees (and trying to take photos of bees). I got back on track, and went to the tourist office to get a Dublin Pass. I then walked across town to catch another tram over to the Old Jameson Distillery. There I went on the tour and learned all about Irish whiskey, or "water of life". The tour included a Jameson whiskey at the end.

Next I went up "The Chimney", which is a viewing tower from which you can see all around Dublin. I didn't spend long up there because I had to go and meet Cormac at Kilmainham Gaol. It took me longer to get there than I thought it would, but that was ok because it also took Cormac longer to get there than he thought it would. Although we had just missed the start of a tour, they let us join it anyway. This was handy because we would have had to wait about half an hour until the next one.

The Gaol was interesting for many reasons. It has two wings, built at different times and so very different in style. The west wing is dark and gloomy. The east wing is well lit via sky lights, and also features in "The Italian Job" (the original). In historical terms, the gaol holds significance in Irish history. After the Easter Rising in 1916, the leaders of rebellion were arrested and subsequently executed at the Gaol. While the rising itself had little public support, making martyrs of the leaders aided the cause. I learnt everything I know about Irish history since I arrived in Dublin, so I hope my brief summary has done it some justice.

Next, Cormac and I went to the Guinness Storehouse. It's a self guided tour, so we were able to look around at the exhibits as we saw fit. We learnt how Guinness is made and we looked at the section on advertising, but we were fairly keen to get up to the Galaxy Bar to get our pints (well, Cormac was) and check out the view.

I was pretty nervous about the prospect of drinking a pint of Guinness. However, it wasn't as bad as I expected and was definitely better than Guinness in Australia. Unfortunately, it was getting late, the bar was about to close and we were meeting Susan in town so I didn't finish my pint, but I probably got through about half of it. I could have continued if I'd had more time I reckon.

We met Susan and went to a pub for dinner. This continued the Irish theme of the day. I had beef and Guinness stew with vegetables and two types of potato, roasted and mashed.

Hope at last

I have been getting increasingly worried about my lack of employment. So much so that I've been reviewing my idea of what I'm going to do while I'm here. I had planned to do contract work, such that I'd work for a bit, then travel for a bit, then work some more, and so on. However, nothing at all has come of my applications for contract work, and recruitment agents are a pain in the butt to deal with.

In my desparation for work, I have even registered with Office Angels, in the hope that office temping work would be easier to come by than engineering work. I had to do a typing test (38 w.p.m.). I came close to getting work via that avenue today. This morning I was "sitting in" (i.e. waiting in their office in case some company needs someone immediately). Nothing came up for today, but I was told they had a job for all of next week. Well who, but a couple of days ago, made plans to go to Dublin on Thursday next week? So, I couldn't take the assignment. D'oh.

Also, in reviewing my plans for this trip, I've started considering trying to get a permanent position. This would, of course, limit my ability to go travelling. However, I sent my CV off to several companies.

Anyway, getting to the subject of the post, this afternoon I had an email waiting for me from a company I emailed only yesterday. It asked me to let them know dates that would be convenient for me to attend an interview. I replied, they replied, I replied, they replied, and I have an interview on Wednesday next week. Hooray!! It's also a good sign that they responded so quickly. I like that.

Fingers crossed!!

P.S. It's for an ASIC design engineer position. More of the same!

Go the Socceroos!!

This afternoon was set aside to watch Australia's first world cup match against Japan. There was talk of going to a pub, but as it was showing on free-to-air TV, we stayed at home. By "we" I'm referring to myself and Damien (brother-in-law), who took the afternoon off work to watch this all important game.

Before the game, I changed into my generic green-and-gold "Australia" shirt, which I bought at Sydney airport on my way out. Damien was wearning a Wallabies shirt. There was a feeling of nervousness, given the importance of a win if Australia is to have any hope of getting into the second round (as it's almost certain Brazil will be going through).

When Australia's national anthem came on, we both stood automatically. We didn't sing though (there were guys around painting the house).

From the beginning, it seemed that the referee was showing favour to the Japanese team. This was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt when Japan "scored". For those who haven't heard, Australia's goalie was fouled while trying to defend, though somehow the ref missed this fact. Things were looking more and more hopeless, and Damo's swearing was getting louder and more obscene.

I wondered during this time, what the feeling about this game would be at CISRA.

Then, in the 84th minute, Cahill scored the equilizer. Shouts of exhilaration followed. Five minutes later, he scored again. Can we nominate this guy for Australian of the year? Then, another substitute, Aloisi, scored a third goal. He seemed to try and put his shirt over his head, but only got it as far as his mouth. I guess they wear tighter shirts nowadays. Damien tells me Aloisi is the reason that Australia is in the world cup, having scored the equalizer against Uruguay in the qualifier. Another hero!

After watching the game, I'm proud to say that I didn't see any Aussie player do the roll on the ground and act injured thing. Japan, sadly, did it lots.

Damien wants me to mention here that the Wallabies played like crap yesterday against England, and still kicked their arse.

P.S. Today was another stinking hot and sunny day. How's the weather in Sydney and Brisvegas?

House party

Yesterday was the house party at Kate and Sarah's place. The day started early with a trip to Sainsbury's to do the last minute grocery shopping. The party was due to start at 5pm with dinner for about a dozen of Kate's closer friends (in honour of Kate's birthday on Tuesday), with other people arriving from about 7:30 onwards.

After shopping, Sarah and I assisted Kate in an almighty cook up. On the menu was jambalaya for the main course and chocolate pavalova for dessert. I won't go into detail about the many hours spent in the kitchen, except to say that beating egg whites for pavalova by hand is hard work (and fortunately Kate and I shared this job).

It's probably worth mentioning that it was a very hot and sunny day yesterday, which made being in the kitchen just that little bit more exhausting. It was pretty fun though, cooking up a storm (well, helping to).

All the effort was well and truly worthwhile, and dinner was enjoyed by all.


Dessert was fanatastic too, with the chocolate pav being supplemented by a pav from Marks & Spencer (brought by one of Kate's friends), fruit salad and ice cream.


After dinner, the real party began, and a reasonable amount of alcohol was consumed. At the supermarket earlier in the day, I discovered that Smirnoff double black comes in 700ml bottles over here. All good!!


The party continued well into the night. Sarah, Kate and I finally retired at about 4am, at which point it was starting to get light. It was starting to get warm as well, shaping up to be another warm, summer day in sunny London.

London tourist for an afternoon

Yesterday afternoon I took a break from the ever so painful search for a job to play tourist in London. The lovely weather here has continued, and it was a warm and sunny day. I caught the tube to Waterloo station and started my tour of famous London sights with the London Eye. For anyone who doesn't know, this is a very large and very slow moving ferris wheel on the south bank of the Thames. I had no intention of actually going on it, due to the cost, but on top of that the queue was huge.

I walked along the south bank, past the London Aquarium, and over the Westminster Bridge to check out Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. They're adding a visitor centre to the Houses of Parliament at the moment. I next went and inspected the exterior of Westminster Abbey. Again, I wasn't actually prepared to spend money so I didn't go in. Maybe some other time. I then went walking down Whitehall, but I went down a side street and found myself beside St James's Park. As I walked along whatever this road was, I noticed there were a lot of police around. It would have been impossible not to notice, there were that many of them. I learned later that there was something with the horse guards going on that day which the Queen would be attending. Mystery solved.

From the map I had, I knew number 10 (Downing St) had to be around here somewhere. I did see a fortified entrance, which I thought might be it, but I wasn't sure. I considered asking one of the many cops about, but decided not to, just in case.

Next, I walked down The Mall (beside St James's Park) towards Buckingham Palace. It's certainly not the most impressive building in London, but the Queen hangs out there so you're got to take a look, don't you? The changing of the guards is in the morning, so I wasn't there to see that, but they did do some marching up and down while I was there.

Next I walked through The Green Park so I could get on to Piccadilly. Walking along this road, I looked in the windows of a few shops, but the only one I went into was a Japanese confectionary shop. Here I bought sweet red bean paste sandwiched between two packcakes. It cost 1.50 and it was quite nice.

About this time I got a call from my sister who I was to meet at 5:30pm. It was about 4:30pm, but she'd finished work early and wanted me to come and meet her sooner (back at Waterloo). I walked as far as Piccadilly Circus, where I could have could the tube to Waterloo, but I thought to myself "it won't take that long to walk back".

On I walked, managing to take in Trafalgar Square. I ended up back on Whitehall. Walking back down, I did find Downing Street, but couldn't specifically see number 10. The whole street is blocked off, with gates and security and cops.

I kept walking, back past Big Ben and back over the Westminster Bridge. It was around 5pm so it had taken me a bit longer than I'd thought, and I'd kept Genevieve waiting. Oops.

We were also meeting Damien (Gen's husband), but while we waited, Gen showed me her work. She works in a hospital in the area (St Evelina's). She was on call, so had to stay close by, which is why we met in there for dinner.

Damien arrived sooner than expected, so it was a bit early for dinner. We killed some time sitting on the grass in a park near the Eye and writing a postcard to my grandmother.

We went to dinner at Yo Sushi, a sushi train place, with a rather large conveyor belt. I'd never actually been to a suchi train before. All the plates are colour coded to indicate their price, so you take what you want and they tally up the cost at the end. I decided to give myself a limit of 10 pounds. The food was very good, and 10 pounds got enough to fill me up. I did think, as I was sitting there having my dinner, that a place like that would be welcomed in North Ryde!

Dragon boating on the Thames

Today I went dragon boating on the Thames. I was invited to go by Sarah, who was supposed to be there too. She was meant to arrive back in London, after a month visiting her family in Australia, on Friday (i.e. two days ago). However, she got sick and postponed her flight. She should be here on Thursday this coming week.

Fortunately, Sarah wasn't the only person who knew the people organising the dragon boating team. Kate (Sarah's housemate, and also someone we went to high school with) had met some of them once. Better than nothing. So I went along with Kate to the location of the dragon boating event, where we were to meet the others.

The dragon boat races are an annual charity event organised by the Kingston upon Thames Rotary club. The team that Kate and I were to be a part of was organised by the Wimbledon Rotaract club (Rotaract is like Rotary for under 30s).

For anyone who doesn't know, a dragon boat is a long, narrow boat which is crewed by two rows of people with paddles. For the races today (I'm not sure if it's always the case), we could have between 12 and 16 paddlers. There is also a drummer at the front to keep everyone paddling in time and someone at the back steering. Although our paddlers and our drummer were all amateurs (one person in our team had done it once before), fortunately the steerers were experienced and were provided by the race organisers. They also served as our instructors.

Each team had three heats. Each heat consisted of two boats racing over a 250 metre course. What mattered in the heats was the time, not whether we came in first or second. Each team's best time out of their three heats would be used to seed the team for the finals.

Before our first heat (and before we were allowed in the boat), we were given instructions on technique, along the lines of this is how you hold the paddle, and when I say this, do that, etc. Our first heat was about the tenth race of round one, so we'd had a bit of time to watch some other teams. I overheard some of my team mates criticising the other teams on their lack of synchronised paddling, but once we got in the boat, we realised it was much harder than it looked. Apart from the fact that we came close to capsizing (and I had thought the "If we capsize..." part of our pre-race talk was just a formality), we did struggle with paddling in time as much as anyone else. In our first heat, I repeatedly clashed paddles with the person behind me, though I'm pretty sure she was the one with the timing issues!

For this first race, we were paddling against one of the dragon boat club teams. A little unfair you may think. It wasn't so bad though. Although we were sharing heats, they were competing for a club teams only final and were not eligible for the open final. Still, given that they crossed the finish line a good 20 seconds before we did, it was a bit depressing. They got a sub-one minute time. We got just over 1 minute, 19 seconds.

In the second heat, we did much better. We didn't almost fall out. There weren't nearly as many paddle clashes (though I wasn't sitting in front of the same girl this time), and we improved by over 8 seconds! Our time was just under 1 minute 11 seconds. We also beat the other team in our heat, the "Rainbow Girls". I forgot to mention, our team name was the "Wet Wombles" (this was decided by someone else before the event).

To me, our third heat seemed better again. We had a different steerer to the first two heats, who was more instructive on getting us to paddle in time. Again, we were against a club team, but they didn't seem nearly so far in front this time. Alas, we only improved our time by 43 hundredths of a second, and didn't manage to get below the 1 minute 10 second mark. Oh well. We'd had fun and there was no risk of us being in the finals. I don't think anyone in the team was too disappointed about that.