Week 65 in London

Week 65: 27 June – 3 July 2016

On Wednesday morning we awoke to the terrible news of gunfire and bombings at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport. For us, the cruel irony of this was the fact that only a month prior we had passed through this very same airport on our trip to Istanbul, and thought that the security was far better than most other airports.

In the lead up to the 2016 Australian Federal Election, the Australian High Commission at Australia House was the sole UK location providing in person voting services. After having already been opened for pre-polling for a fortnight, we headed across on the final evening, Friday 1^st July, where the line up was wrapped around a good majority of the peninsula shaped block that Australia House sits on. No polling was available on Saturday 2^nd July, so as to coincide with the Australian time difference.

Australia House will surely be the most impressive building that we ever attend for voting. From the outside it is a grand building that fits in well with its other historic neighbours on the Strand, and internally there are high ceilings, chandeliers and exquisite detailing galore.

We spent the day on Saturday at the prestigious All England Lawn Tennis Club for Day 6 of the Wimbledon Championships. The entire tennis complex is very impressive, spotlessly pristine. With our miraculous tickets in hand, we headed towards the coveted Centre Court. While play on other courts starts from 11am, play on Centre Court didn’t commence until 1pm and so we watched (and listened to) matches being played on the surrounding courts.

Scheduled to play today were several high ranking players and household names, including Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Nick Kyrgios, Serena and Venus Williams, Lleyton Hewitt, Samantha Stosur, and tennis bad boy Bernard Tomic.

Once it hit 1pm on Centre Court, we watched Simona Halep defeat Kiki Bertens in the third round of Ladies Singles, the total match lasting a little over an hour. Located directly at the opposite end of the court from where we were sitting was the Royal Box, with David Beckham one of the esteemed attendees.

The next match was the third round of Gentlemen's Singles, with Britain's own world number 2, Andy Murray, up against Australian John Millman. This match was suspended several times because of rainfall, however luckily Centre Court is equipped with a retractable fabric roof. Due to the roof taking several minutes to open and close, sprinting ball boys and girls deploy the court covers immediately. This occurred several times during the match, much to the dismay of the stadium fans. A source of entertainment during the first sprinkling was one of the ball girls slipping over as she attempted to round the corner.

Although Millman didn’t win any one of the three sets, “Johnny” (as we called him) played well and we thought he was a worthy opponent for Murray. The second set was close with the end score at 7-5, but after more than two hours we could see that the Aussie underdog was becoming tired finally being beaten by Murray in the third set, 6-2.

The third match to take place on Centre Court was another third round of Gentlemen's Singles between Milos Raonic and Jack Sock. Having now been seated in Centre Court for several hours, we decided to head outside and see what else was happening amongst the 18 other courts. We spotted Lleyton Hewitt who despite playing Gentelmen’s Doubles on Court 9, a court without any seating, had attracted quite a crowd. So much so that we weren’t allowed down the side of the court due to overcrowding. Another well known Aussie player we found was Samantha Stosur playing Mixed Doubles, where we sat courtside.

The next day we headed out to Camden Markets and got ourselves an ice cream crone, a fusion of ice cream and crossover pastry invented by Dum Dum Donutterie. The word “crone”, we can only assume, is derived from cronut and cone. Cronut is in itself the result of a croissant-doughnut merger. Sat at the markets on a beach chair with this delicious, sugary and highly unhealthy snack melting and dripping down our hands, this was the perfect way to enjoy a summers day in London.

Highlights for the week:

- Tragedy at Istanbul’s  Atatürk Airport

- Voting at Australia House

- Wimbledon Championships Day 6

- Simona Halep defeated Kiki Bertens in the third round of Ladies Singles

- Andy Murray defeated Aussie John Millman in the third round of Gentlemen's Singles

- Saw David Beckham and Cliff Richard in the crowd opposite

- Saw Lleyton Hewitt

- Sat courtside to watch Samantha Stosur

- Ate ice cream crones at Camden Markets