Wet Wimbledon

Another year at Wimbledon and another year in the rain. Except today was ridiculous - it lashed down with rain and I only managed to see an hour of tennis. The roar you hear in this video isn't any kind of crowd - it is the rain hitting the roof of No.1 Court. That was the one silver lining today: my tickets were for the only court with a roof this year, so there was at least some shelter. Centre Court tickets later next week and fingers already crossed for some better weather.

Media Refreshment

I have been bogged down in thesis work for weeks now. Long days in the library and sleepless nights as I keep realizing that I'm contradicting myself in my arguments, so I turn the light on and get up and keep typing. I finished a large section this past week so took a couple of days off to allow my brain to do something else. A little bit of media refreshment, as it were:

Viewing: The BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery. Not as good as previous years, but there were a couple of fantastic pieces.

Reading: After Dark by Haruki Murakami, which has finally been translated into English. Right now, a little touch of surrealism is like jumping into a cold lake first thing in the morning to me.

Watching: The last two seasons of Six Feet Under, which for some reason I never got around to watching when they originally aired. I am in love with all of the Fisher family. (And yes, I already know what happens at the end, but am managing to suspend that knowledge as I watch each episode.)

Listening: To nothing. I've fallen into some kind of musical void where nothing sounds good to me. Can you help me out? I'm looking for quirky and catchy and melancholy - an entire album I can fall into.

Vive Le Tennis

I had a wonderful time at Roland Garros - seven hours of tennis. Unlike last time I was at the French Open, the weather was perfect and I didn't bake under the sun, which somehow feels so much worse on clay.


We watched Sharapova win, Mauresmo lose, Mathieu lose, and Nadal win. There are more photos of the tennis in my Paris Flickr set. (So far, my predictions are on course.)

Two Things

I have decided two things. One: Working is much more bearable when doing it on the Eurostar, being whisked to Paris, avec un glass of wine. Two: Being automatically served hot milk with your coffee makes life tremendously more pleasant. Non?