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Post by DBBN on Jun 26, 2008 16:15:07 GMT -5
I'm going to be in London in early October. I'm staying at the Copthorne Tara from a priceline bid of $130 after tax. I plan to spend a ton on food and admission prices. This isn't really relevant to Godom's thread, but yeaah. Yep, I was just there, and it's ridiculous. Prepare to eat less than you ever have in your life.
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Post by DBBN on Jun 26, 2008 16:16:04 GMT -5
which blows because London closes down at 1 am. For realz! What is with that? That's like Washington DC-lame.
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Post by :rolleyes: on Jun 26, 2008 16:19:39 GMT -5
I'm going to be in London in early October. I'm staying at the Copthorne Tara from a priceline bid of $130 after tax. I plan to spend a ton on food and admission prices. This isn't really relevant to Godom's thread, but yeaah. Yep, I was just there, and it's ridiculous. Prepare to eat less than you ever have in your life. Hell no, I'm going to eat whatever I want. I have |3|5|K in the bank, excluding my retirement fund, and it's time to spend it. I already made reservations at the Ritz for tea for $70 a pop, and I don't even like tea. I'll make reservations for the Ivy if I can get them, and I might try that Gordon Ramsay place everyone raves about.
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Post by DBBN on Jun 26, 2008 16:27:07 GMT -5
Give me money. Thanks.
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Post by :rolleyes: on Jun 26, 2008 16:28:13 GMT -5
you said you made a ton of from the paramonkey job you had.
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Post by GoDom on Jun 26, 2008 16:28:36 GMT -5
Wednesday Peschke/Stubbs def. Bammer/Mueller: Three players played fairly well. One didn't. The end. Dementieva def. Camerin: The usual unnecessary drama from Elena' when it was completely obvious that she wouldn't lose this. Some decent rallies tho. Szavay def. Niculescu: Oh Monica! It is clear what happened: I madeMonica my fave, and she immediately becomes a horrible choker. How could she lose this. Agnes played brainless tennis for most parts of the match, she couldn't adjust at all even to those slices that were sitting up and also missed tons of overheads. Sadly, whenever Monica could have closed out the match, she made bad shot selections herself. 7-5 3-0, had 30-0 on Agnes' serve. Had more chances at 4-1. 4-2 40-0, lost serve. Broke again to 5-3 and played a stupid shot at 30-30. After that Agnes slowly took control. Monica's attitude sucked too, slumping shoulders and more or less giving up in the third. Urgh, that blew. And I might have seen lexpretend but not sure. The day sucked somewhat results-wise but had a happy ending with Stadler def. Bellucci. I watched the first set where Bellucci dominated from the baseline. When I came back I was kinda surprised that Stadler had taken the next two sets and was also in control in the 4th, always holding easily. Bellucci struggled with his serve but he kept fighting. He was also down in the tie-break after some bad calls but he won it on will alone, very impressive. He's very emotional and fiery, while Stadler is quiet. Bellucci was always ahead on serve in the 5th and had some advantages but Staler hung in there. He saved a match-point at 4-5 I think and at 6-6 Bellucci had several game-points but double-faulted a couple of times and then Stadler got a forehand past him. Then he served it out in style. Great great win, all the other German losers should watch and learn from this guy. He was delighted.
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Post by :rolleyes: on Jun 26, 2008 16:29:10 GMT -5
being an accountant in a city that thrives off high oil prices can be very very lucrative.
:hug:
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Post by DBBN on Jun 26, 2008 16:29:32 GMT -5
It all goes to my student loans. With more to come! Wheee.
I live a pretty good life at the moment, but that will end shortly.
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Post by DBBN on Jun 26, 2008 16:34:46 GMT -5
Wednesday Peschke/Stubbs def. Bammer/Mueller: Three players played fairly well. One didn't. The end. Dementieva def. Camerin: The usual unnecessary drama from Elena' when it was completely obvious that she wouldn't lose this. Some decent rallies tho. Szavay def. Niculescu: Oh Monica! It is clear what happened: I madeMonica my fave, and she immediately becomes a horrible choker. How could she lose this. Agnes played brainless tennis for most parts of the match, she couldn't adjust at all even to those slices that were sitting up and also missed tons of overheads. Sadly, whenever Monica could have closed out the match, she made bad shot selections herself. 7-5 3-0, had 30-0 on Agnes' serve. Had more chances at 4-1. 4-2 40-0, lost serve. Broke again to 5-3 and played a stupid shot at 30-30. After that Agnes slowly took control. Monica's attitude sucked too, slumping shoulders and more or less giving up in the third. Urgh, that blew. And I might have seen lexpretend but not sure. The day sucked somewhat results-wise but had a happy ending with Stadler def. Bellucci. I watched the first set where Bellucci dominated from the baseline. When I came back I was kinda surprised that Stadler had taken the next two sets and was also in control in the 4th, always holding easily. Bellucci struggled with his serve but he kept fighting. He was also down in the tie-break after some bad calls but he won it on will alone, very impressive. He's very emotional and fiery, while Stadler is quiet. Bellucci was always ahead on serve in the 5th and had some advantages but Staler hung in there. He saved a match-point at 4-5 I think and at 6-6 Bellucci had several game-points but double-faulted a couple of times and then Stadler got a forehand past him. Then he served it out in style. Great great win, all the other German losers should watch and learn from this guy. He was delighted. More But the Germans are big winners this week!
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Post by GoDom on Jun 26, 2008 16:39:55 GMT -5
Thursday Tammy def. Vera Z: Watched the first set and some of the second. Some nice rallies, but after Vera came back from 0-3 in the second I really thought she would win the 3rd quite comfortably. Since I don't like her I'm fine with the result though. Erakovic def. Goerges: Marina is quite good. Very solid all around and also quite intelligent. Julia insisted on blasting her shots which didn't work at all until 2-6 0-2. She then got into the match but Marina stayed on top and was mentally stronger in the tie-break which ended on a horrible Goerges volley. Quite a letdown after the 1st round match. Maria's loss: Watched the second set on the big screen. The other girl whose name I have forgotten right now obviously loves opponents who hit hard. Very funny post match interview. Williamses def. Polish girls: Quite entertaining match. I must say that that the Williamses will win the title easily if they keep playing like that, some decent attacking and volleying which was a bit surprising. Aga played some nice shots but it wasn't enough. Sat right next to the Williams clan except Richard who was around too but elsewhere during the match. Isha is morbidly obese, yet kept eating candy or something. Oracene is funny. Then there is this young tall guy with shoe size 50, who is he? And also that white coach. I don't really get these relations.
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Post by GoDom on Jun 26, 2008 16:50:11 GMT -5
Oh, just read the other thread where people complained about AIMG advancing. The reason for this is that Schiavone is the dumbest player ever. Was up 6/3 5/4 30/0 then tries to hit a risky drive volley into the open court which goes wide, then misses another easy forehand. Break, set, match. So so dumb, she should retire.
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Post by lexpretend on Jun 26, 2008 16:55:04 GMT -5
which blows because London closes down at 1 am. For realz! What is with that? That's like Washington DC-lame. I know right. London sucks at being a 24-hour city. To be fair, it's more like 2am. And there are a few good bars and pubs which stay open til 6am, but you need to know about them. (The Russian bar on Kingsland Road, Dalston and the Castle in Whitechapel are my favourite all night haunts.) But seriously...I go to Berlin or Tokyo or Barcelona, and everywhere is open all night by default. And if it's 6 or 7am and you've just come out of a club and want to go somewhere to drink beer and gently come down, there's absolutely nowhere to go. I mean, we did find this weird cafe in Farringdon once after Ellen Allien and Apparat at Fabric which served us tea and beer all morning, but I've not seen it before or since so it may have been a collective hallucination.
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Post by lexpretend on Jun 26, 2008 16:59:07 GMT -5
Szavay def. Niculescu: Oh Monica! It is clear what happened: I madeMonica my fave, and she immediately becomes a horrible choker. How could she lose this. Agnes played brainless tennis for most parts of the match, she couldn't adjust at all even to those slices that were sitting up and also missed tons of overheads. Sadly, whenever Monica could have closed out the match, she made bad shot selections herself. 7-5 3-0, had 30-0 on Agnes' serve. Had more chances at 4-1. 4-2 40-0, lost serve. Broke again to 5-3 and played a stupid shot at 30-30. After that Agnes slowly took control. Monica's attitude sucked too, slumping shoulders and more or less giving up in the third. Urgh, that blew. And I might have seen lexpretend but not sure. I was sitting on the wooden benches, the Court 2 side, not on the side where the players' chairs were. Wearing green/grey striped T-shirt and aviators, with a girl wearing black and white top.
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Post by lexpretend on Jun 26, 2008 17:31:16 GMT -5
Anyway, yes, my report! Queued from 8.30 - it's funny, in everyday life I hate queuing, to the extent that even if I urgently need to buy something, if there's a queue in the shop I'll go without, but the Wimbledon queue never seems like a trial. My friend Annabel had never been to Wimbledon before so I'd prepared myself for not doing my usual court-hopping thing - we got to see some terrific tennis though. Wawrinka v Del Potro: I guess a warning sign should have been JMDP warming up his volleys from behind the service line Neither Annabel nor I had a clear favourite at the start but Stanislas the Manislas won us both over. Spent much of the time trying to work out if I think he's hot - still haven't decided. First time I'd seen him play at length though and I love his game - that backhand is . The first set was scrappy, both players took a while to find their game, but the second was great. JMDP still hasn't learnt to put his big shots together into a proper game plan yet though, and his volleys suck. Left after the second set. Ferrero v Zverev: got there just as Zverev was trying to serve out the first set. Served DFs on his first two set points but JCF couldn't take advantage of the choke. JCF played wonderfully at the start of the second set - some really amazing winners from all over the court - but couldn't sustain it. He took an injury time-out at 4-3 up, I think, but I didn't notice anything wrong except an increase in dumb errors. "He's just missing his mummy," snorted the sarcastic man next to me when he retired. He attracted a gaggle of posh schoolgirls to the court and their conversation was hugely entertaining - he was literally two feet away from us when one of them turned to her friends and said very loudly and clearly, "I've decided that I definitely would sleep with him." Niculescu v Szavay: got there at 5-5 in the first. Monica is a wonderful moody bitch who constantly chatters to herself and chirps when she wins points. Gamewise, she really is a female Santoro - so many crazy angles and spins. On one point, she hit a FH with so much spin that it bounced backwards. (She hit about 60% FH slices, btw - it's not her default rallying shot, but then she doesn't really have any default shot.) She was really slicing and dicing Szavay up but you could feel her getting tighter and playing more passively as the second set went on - that 4-2 service game where she had 40-0 was key, but she had tons of chances to close Szavay out after that and missed them all. She doesn't really have a kill shot she can rely on, either. Szavay did adjust really well - started making her smashes, seemed to focus on just getting Niculescu's spinny shit back into court until she got a simple putaway. I didn't feel the crowd was appreciative enough of Niculescu's crazy junk, but Annabel and I loved the crazy bitch. Left at the end of the second set and felt as though we'd abandoned her. Mauresmo v Ruano Pascual: eek. Saw end of first set and most of the second. Amelie is going to get annihilated by Silliams. FH went anywhere but the court, anything that did go in was the usual passive loopy crap. Big bulldyke behind us said "Oh, for fuck's sake" after almost every point. She was right. Saw a couple of games of Rodina v Vesnina. Kind of dull. Pavlyuchenkova v Li - the big match that Annabel and I both really wanted to see! Only saw the last few games though. Surprised at how much of a hard hitter A-Pav is, for some reason I hadn't thought she was that powerful. Don't know why she had so many bad results in Challengers - she's got massive groundstrokes off both wings and seemed to control them fairly well. Li was disappointing, she didn't seem to be hitting as explosively as she usually does and committed a million UEs. Went to CC for boring women's doubles just so Annabel could see inside it. Then we went to a birthday party where I topped up my champagne intake with more champagne, then gin, then I came home and fell asleep before setting my alarm and was an hour late into work today and thought I was going to die. But I'm fine now
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Post by DBBN on Jun 26, 2008 21:03:57 GMT -5
I will have to go next year!
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Post by lexpretend on Jun 27, 2008 1:39:09 GMT -5
Also, I must say that Court 6 - where Niculescu and Szavay played - might be my favourite court at Wimbledon. It doesn't get as crowded as the other outside courts, and it feels really remote from the rest of the club - it's noticeably quieter than the other courts (though we still heard the Serena grunt from two courts away). A very tranquil and relaxing place to watch tennis.
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 27, 2008 9:53:10 GMT -5
Forehand Slice Girl! These are great reports. Any more detailed observations about Bellucci? Judging from the stats he's either a high-risk player, wild as hell, or both.
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Post by GoDom on Jun 27, 2008 18:22:41 GMT -5
Bellucci is actually more solid than wild. At least against Stadler he mostly played it safe from the baseline.
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Post by GoDom on Jun 27, 2008 18:24:12 GMT -5
Anyway, I would like to add some concluding comments about my trip, Wimby and the whole experience. Most of it won't be of interest to you but I want to write them down so why not here.
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Post by GoDom on Jun 27, 2008 18:35:19 GMT -5
Going to and from London
I flew in and out with Ryanair from Bremen, for €90 in total. Could have it even cheaper but booked late. Bremen is a tiny airport, if you check in online there's no need to be early. Flying with Ryanair is uncomplicated, especially if you have no luggage. The flight goes to London-Stansted. Last year it was quite a mess, this year I was through the controls within one minute. For travelling into London I recommend the Terravision Bus, return ticket is 14 pounds. Admittedly I haven't tried the train but the bus goes to Victoria Station which is just four tube stations from Earl's Court (where my hotel was, which is six tube stations from Wimby). The bus route goes past Tower Bridge, Big Ben/Westminster so you get some free sight-seeing. They leave every 30 minutes. My return route is not recommended for cold winter days. The bus left at 2.40 am and there's NO waiting place anywhere from 1 am, especially if you have lots of luggage, so you have to sit on the cold pavement. I explained already why I did it, but it's still retarded. Anyway, the flight was on time again so all in all not too bad.
Staying in London
I'm not a hostel guy, I guess because I hate people. So I chose the same hotel as last year, 35 pounds per night, 2 mins walk from Earl's Court station. The hotel is terrible but it has certain advantages: the location is perfect for going to Wimby. And there's all sorts of supermarkets, fast food and Internet cafes at Earl's Court. I don't need anything else because after coming back from a full court-hopping day at Wimby, I'm dead. It's not for everyone but if you are a loner like me who just wants some peace at night, I guess it's a decent solution.
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Post by R. Black on Jun 27, 2008 18:45:17 GMT -5
Have you ever tried Air Berlin?
I'm suspicious of EasyJet and Ryanair. But I have to try one of those 1 euro flights one day.
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Post by GoDom on Jun 27, 2008 19:00:37 GMT -5
Wimbledon - The Queue
To join the queue, you go to Southfields station by District Line (I recommend the Oyster card for tube usage). From there it's a 10 min walk to the queue, just join the stream of people. Until last year there was a second queue from the other side, but not anymore. They made some changes for queueing procedures this year, and IMO they are all very good. They now let you queue (and put your tents up if you queue overnight) in Wimbledon Park. It is really nice, at least when the weather is good as it was all 4 days here. Here's an example on how things proceeded: I joined the queue at 9 am. You get a card with a number, in this case 5700 or so. This is your place in the queue. You then sit down on the grass field and you can take a nap/sunbathe/picnic. There are toilets and of course "refreshments" (= burger stands)available too. The waiting lasts until about 10.30 am, that's when you start moving. The queue is a lot faster now than before and it's now within the park, not on the pavement. After an hour or so you reach security search. Once you are past that it's another 10 minutes to the ticket turnstiles (no queue there). Then, you're in! So queueing now consists of 90 minutes picnic and 60 minutes moving along, whereas you were moving along for two or more hours in previous years. If your queue number is below 6000 you get in for sure and in time for the matches although some of the outer show courts may already be crowded depending on who plays. So if you want to have free choice, join the queue earlier. And on my first day when I arrived at 12.45 pm, my number was 8700, and I still got in. So all in all queueing is really simple and also for lazy people. Of course, if you want a show court ticket it's a bit harder.
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Post by GoDom on Jun 27, 2008 19:05:20 GMT -5
Have you ever tried Air Berlin? I'm suspicious of EasyJet and Ryanair. But I have to try one of those 1 euro flights one day. No I haven't. Can you specify your suspicions? I have now made four flights with Ryanair and I had no complaints. I don't agree on the cheap flight concept in general for environmental reasons, but I'm very weak, and it's Wimby.
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Post by R. Black on Jun 27, 2008 19:13:49 GMT -5
Have you ever tried Air Berlin? I'm suspicious of EasyJet and Ryanair. But I have to try one of those 1 euro flights one day. No I haven't. Can you specify your suspicions? I have now made four flights with Ryanair and I had no complaints. I don't agree on the cheap flight concept in general for environmental reasons, but I'm very weak, and it's Wimby. I've read a lot of complains about Ryanair actually. Flights cancelled without any compensation, flights sometimes very late, rude crew, hidden fees, etc. Also their website looks horrible, which is very rare for a airline website. Re: hostel. I don't know how people manage to sleep with strangers. I tried 2 times and each time I slept one hour.
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Post by GoDom on Jun 27, 2008 19:20:35 GMT -5
Yes, the website looks awful, but the booking system works well. And there are fees. The flight is advertised as costing €2.99 but it ends up being a lot more. But I don't think it's too bad. If you book online, the "airport taxes" and stuff are given right away so you know what you are in for. After that it's luggage (I had none), insurance (I declined) and payment fee (€5). If you check in online that's free, but only without luggage, which wouldn't apply for you I guess. So I'm just like oh well, it's still cheaper than any other option.
Again, with four flights my sample size is still too small. None of them got cancelled, and they were all more or less on time. And I can say that the crew was nice so far, not that I had a lot of interaction with them.
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Post by lexpretend on Jun 28, 2008 3:12:32 GMT -5
I've flown on Ryanair and Easyjet most times I've flown to Europe. They're, you know, budget airlines, so it's never going to be comfortable as such, but I've never had an awful experience and you only have to cope for 1-2hrs on the actual plane. The biggest negative is that you usually end up sharing the plane with a British stag/hen party.
Stayed in a hostel for the last time in Tokyo this year - I had a room to myself and it wasn't terrible, but it sparked a revelation along the lines of "hang on, I am not a student or broke any more, I don't NEED to do this shit any more".
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