Olympic event #1 – tennis

Peter and I attended our first London 2012 Olympic even today – tennis.

Here’s a play-by-play of our day.

6:15am: Roll out of bed after getting two hours of interrupted sleep. Eat breakfast. Pack backpack. Shower. Dress in multiple layers because the weather in England is unpredictable.

8:05am: Depart house for Maidenhead train station via car. Listen to Peter stress about the possibility of not getting a parking spot.

8:10am: Arrive at the train station. Wait in the queue for ages due to a customer having far too many questions for the ticket agent. Tap foot vigorously and roll eyes repeatedly.

8:36am: Board first of three trains to Wimbledon. Observe sunshine and very few clouds.

10:00am: Arrive at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London. Stand in the security queue. Realize that Wimbledon is the area of London where the famous tennis venue resides, it is not the actual name of the tennis venue as most people believe.

10:25am: Observe people in airport-style security area. Wonder how the spectator behind us with two liters of water managed to avoid/ignore all 17 staff members warnings that liquids over 100ml were not allowed. Take photos of the security area still under construction.

10:30am: Clear security and begin to wander around for the next hour-and-a-half until the first match begins.

11:15am: Locate seats. Sit in the sunshine. Feel sunshine beaming on our epidermis. Relocate to shade to cool down. Oh, the irony of this move.

11:30am: Watch the skies open up and mother nature unleash with pouring rain and rare thunder, lightning, and hail. Retreat for cover. Hold back tears.

12:00pm: Return to seats to see a “court tent”. Wait for the match to start. Decide to hold off on urinating. Note how many empty seats were in the stadium.

12:01pm: Listen to the announcement that the match has been delayed to 12:30pm. Sit and wait. Listen to subsequent announcements about further delays (e.g. 1:00pm, 1:30pm, 2:00pm).

2:00pm: Watch men dressed in green shirts and shorts remove the court tent.

2:02pm: Support crowd by participating in “the wave”.

2:02:15pm: Become bored of “the wave” and wish it would stop and the match would start.

2:05pm: Watch the first set of the first tennis match between Novak Djokovic and Fabio Fognini.

2:05:03pm: Think Djokovic may be a good-looking lad. Google “Novak Djokovic” and confirm he is good-looking and is also the number two tennis player in the world. Fall in love.

2:06pm: Learn the rules of tennis from Peter who appears to be annoyed with my lack of tennis knowledge. Wonder why we did not discuss tennis rules during the period when the court tent was erected. Continue to stare at Djokovic. Brainstorm ways to meet him.

3:05pm: Observe the chair umpire stop the match due to rain. Watch the men dressed in green shirts and shorts bring back the court tent. Scream, “No!” Decide to brave the queues for the restroom. Ponder where an outlet may exist to plug-in my almost-dead phone. Realize I have not brainstormed a successful way to meet Djokovic yet. Make mental note to brainstorm some more.

4:00pm: Watch the men dressed in green outfits take down the court tent again. Try not to get too excited.

4:40pm: Watch the chair umpire walk on to the court with his head hung low and take his belongings off of his chair.

4:45pm: Watch the men dressed in green shirts and shorts setup the court tent again! Become very agitated. Lose all hope in Mother Nature.

4:46pm: Watch it rain and feel the temperature drop. Start shivering. Start calculating what time we would get home if we left right now.

5:10pm: Look at the sky. Look at the weather on my phone. Look at Peter. Look at the sky. Look at Peter. Decide to cut our losses and leave. Feel sadness that I will not see Venus Williams play. Walk back to the Tube station in the rain.

5:20pm: Arrive at the Tube station. Observe total chaos. I wish I was cleaning toilets instead of standing on the train platform with 700 other people, all wanting to board the next train. I hope no one intentionally or unintentionally pushes me off the platform and onto the tracks.

5:50pm: Arrive at Earl’s Court station to more chaos and even more people. How is it possible for there to be so many people needing to ride the Tube on a Sunday? Wait for the train to Ealing Broadway. Wish my shoes and socks were not soaking wet. Feel hunger pangs.

6:53pm: Arrive at Ealing Broadway station, run to train platform in hopes of boarding train that just arrived. Make eye contact with the conductor and proceed to board the train only to have the doors slam in my face. Turn to Peter and scream, “That mother fucker looked right at me and then shut the doors!” Watch the train pull away from the station. Feel defeated.

6:54pm: Reference train schedule and see that the next train is in 30 minutes.

8:15pm: Arrive home via train and short car ride. Take off wet socks and shoes. Search the internet to see if the Djokovic/Fognini match is in progress. Find out that it is. Decide to watch boyfriend, Michael Phelps, medal swimming event. Become impressed. Fall back in love with Phelps, forgetting about Djokovic.

Later on that evening… we found out that the two last matches of the day were postponed and we are not sure if this qualifies us for a partial ticket refund or not. The website states that if an event is canceled, CoSport will attempt to provide tickets to a comparable event and if they are not able to do so, they will refund the ticket price after the Games. While this rule is clear for events that are 100 percent canceled, it is not clear for events that are 50 percent canceled like today’s tennis event.

UPDATE | Jul-30, 2012: It has been reported that due to the rain on Sunday, 32 matches were postponed and four were suspended, meaning only one-quarter of the matches were played to completion.

UPDATE | Sep-27, 2012: CoSport has issued a full refund for our tickets.