Wimbledon!!

How lucky do I feel...
To get tickets for Wimbledon, you have to enter a ballot over 9mths in advance. So I did last yr, & of course I didnt get any! :(

A work friend got a day pass & lucky for me, asked me to tag along to Day1 of Wimbledon! I was soooo excited...the weather was gorgeous (I have a nice tan going!) & watched some great tennis all day/eve. I still cant believe I went to Wimbledon & even got to watch tennis on the centre court - yeh!!! Can you see me smiling...!!!

On Court2, I watched Baghdatis win in 4 against Darcis, then Kuznetsova v Johansson where she won after a tough match won. Watched a bit of Ferrer match with Stakhovsky & then onto Centre court in the evening to watch the Polish seed Radwanska win over Benesova and then Bartoli (07 finalist) win against Lisicki.

It was a fantastic day! Here's hoping that I win some tickets to next yr's Wimbledon!!
Again some photos published...

Summer in Windsor!

Yes we are really having a glorious summer at the moment, with lots of sunshine & oddly in the northern hemisphere, still quite bright till 9pm! No complaining here! We are getting out as much as possible, but that means shopping, eating, drinking... all things we are trying to cut down on, but no joy yet!

Windsor has been a buzz for summer, with lots of tourists over, flowers everywhere, sales on etc.. We just had Ascot racing, with amazing dresses & hats! Windsor just held a major triatholon & we had Jensen Button (F1) take part in the race. Now its Wimbledon weeks as well as F1 coming up in Silverstone. There is also the airshow in July, which we hope to get to, if we take 5mins to slow down & book some tickets!

Its great being in Europe especially for watching the F1. We generally go to a pub in Windsor, for "sunday roast" & watch the F1 on a nice big screen, drink some wine & beer & cheer on Ferrari (oh ok also Lewis, Weber, Button etc). Much better, than staying up till 2am on Mon back in Oz!


Check out photos at different times of the evening...

Also, added a couple of more photos of the Audi.

Ireland

Landed in Dublin on Sat 24/5 in the morning & picked up our hire car (a Honda Accord) & headed south east to Glendalough (valley of the 2 lakes) in County Wicklow. We spent most of the day exploring the area & bushwalking up the mountains to get an amazing view of the upper & lower lakes. AD498 a monk named Kevin arrived to live a solitary life but he soon attracted disciples who wanted to hang with him. There are still monastic ruins here from 8th century, so extremely amazing!!

Well with my right foot/ankle still a bit dodgy (after the Ireland trip found out I had a fracture & torn ligaments on my foot) & with a long standing issue with my right knee, the walk down the mountain was challenging!! By the evening I had bruises all over the knee cap & foot!! :( Headed to Waterford for a very nice relaxing evening.

Sun 25/5 saw us checking out the Waterford Crystal factory & picking up some very nice wine goblets(they're huge! the more wine a glass can hold the better I say!!). Went inside Reginald's Tower(C12th), the oldest complete medieval defence building in Ireland & the 1st to use mortar, the city's main fortifications.
Waterford is Ireland's oldest city, a port where the Vikings landed & ruled till the Normans invaded & then the English. We then checked out the Museum, a little disappointing.
We then took a drive to the Hook peninsula & saw Europe's oldest working lighthouse & a late dinner in a charming pub, which served one of the best seafood chowders I have eaten!

Mon 26/5 we headed to Cork & Blarney castle. The castle (C15th) is quite large & very impressive, with dungeons & caves for a quick exit (truly!) Some really good photos in the caves, & the new Canon camera was impressive as the caves & dungeons were pitch black!. Climbed up fairly steep spiral stairs to get to the Blarney stone, lay down, held on & kissed the stone! Not sure if I now have the gift of the gab...Story goes Elizabeth I invented the term "talk blarney" out of exasperation of the chatty Lord Blarney. The grounds were incredible. Checked into a very nice hotel Montenotte overlooking Cork & had a well deserved soak in the spa/sauna. Then ate & drank way too much that night!

Tues 27/5 drove up to Killarney & drove the Ring of Kerry (178km circuit of Iveragh Peninsula). Australia's equivalent to the Great Ocean drive. The coast/peninsula's are very rugged, but not as esthetically pleasing like New Zealands south coast, or driving across Switzerland. Weather was fantastic, so had some great views. Stayed in Killarney for a couple of days. It was fantastic! A great town! Ok did way too much shopping here. Lots of wool purchases & ate really good seafood here. Also managed to squeeze in a movie (Indiana Jones - I was ready to be disappointed, but was surprisingly Not!!). Went to Ross castle (C15th), which is an amazing testament to restoration Then headed into Killarney National Park to see the Muckross estate - simply amazing. Built for Henry & Mary Herbert, who is quite an amazing painter (Mary that is). Lots of her watercolour paintings are throughout the house. Its straight out of a Jane Austin novel - I was like Elizabeth checking out Pemberly!! :) Had loads of fun here.

Thurs 29/5 a pretty nice drive back to Dublin & headed straight to the Guinness storehouse. The beer was really good (even I drank it - I'm not much of a beer drinker!) David of course had to try all the types they had available!! Gravity bar at the top, had a pretty good view of Dublin, though unfortunately anyone who has been to Dublin can testify, its not a very attractive plc. After Guinness storehouse, wandered around Dublin, checked out Temple bar, drinking more & eating more!!

Fri 30/5 drove north Bru Na Boinne, county Meath to see the Neolithic Necropolis (huge round structures, probably a burial tomb, remains were found in the chamber) . We checked out the site at Newgrange, with the round structure built with white stone walls and topped off by a grass dome. The roof was built up with stones (vaulted) and amazing solid, as earth/grass was placed onto it. It also has an amazing drainage system, which has not allowed a single drop of rain to penetrate the roof. It looks like its dug into the hill, but its not. The size is huge 80m in diameter & 13m high. It dates from 3200BC, making it older than the pyramids by some 6 centuries. Now thats impressive. We walked inside it, which had plenty of headroom (unlike the pyramids) but a very narrow passageway led to a central chamber. It contained 3 recesses which had shallow wide basins. This is where the remains were found. It is theorised, that this was the burial chamber for kings or a place of ritual. Above the entrance is a "roof box" an opening & when you go to the centre of the chamber, at winter solstice the sun shines through directly into the path & to the centre chamber. Given that builders were farmers, they would have been very familiar with the seasons. One of the amazing archeological finds!

Later that evening, went to a concert! Well I have been wanting to see Celine Dion in Las Vegas for a long time & when I heard she started her European tour, I managed to get tickets to her concert in Dublin. Bonus was that Il Divo was opening for her, & I love their voices!(ok they are also very easy on the eye!) The concert was taking place in Croke park (4th largest stadium in Europe), very impressive. We had incredible pitch seats, very close to the centre of the stage & could see her perfectly. She truly has an incredible voice! The stadium was packed & the atmosphere pretty special.

Sat 31/5 strolled down to Dublin Castle & then to Trinity College. Had a very quick witted 3rd yr language trinian be our tour guide (gave us lots of history about the college, so we had to help him buy a couple of beers!!). Went to the library which was incredible (couldnt take any photos tho, if we ever have a library, would love to base it on this one - took our breath away!). Saw a couple of pages from the Book of Kells - illuminated & hand written 4 gospels of the new testament. Dates back to AD800 & thus one of the oldest books in the world & produced by the monks of St Colmcille's monastery on the remote island of Iona, off the western coast of Scotland. Repeated looting by the Vikings the monks brought it to Kells, county Meath. We could have gotten a handwritten reproduction copy for £22k, but Rockefeller was out that day, so got a DVD with all the 800 scanned pgs for £30. Lunch & some more Guinness (a black velvet for me - Guinness & champagne), strolling Dublin & then headed off for the airport in the evening.

A fabulous holiday! North Ireland next time....