Doctor Appointment and then Wimbledon Fun!

Today I got to experience England's National Health Service (NHS). As most of you know, I have been sick for a little bit. I thought I was getting better, but when my ear infection started to come back full force, Bridget insisted that I make an appointment at the health center across the street. So I made one. However, since anyone in London has access to free healthcare, appointments are hard to come by. Today was the first one I could get, and I was already beginning to feel better so I really didn’t see a point in going. Bridget and my parents however were hearing NONE of this and said I had to go anyway. After all, it was a free appointment, blah blah blah. So I went, begrudgingly. The center is in the basement of the church across the street and was actually really nice. I felt comfortable there and everyone was nice and it wasn’t that big of a deal. The GP (general practitioner as they call them here) told me that I had “torturous ear canals” and questioned if anyone had ever told me how narrow my ear canals were. “Ummmm, no.” Anyway, I got a prescription for an antibiotic ear drop and was on my way in 10 minutes. All in all, it was not a terrible experience lol.

My prescription

With that said, I guess I should tell you about my dream before I tell you about the rest of my day so that it makes more sense. Okay anyway, so one night a few weeks ago I dreamed that I was playing tennis at the courts in Regent's park right next to the school (they are SUCH gorgeous courts!) and Andy Roddick was in London and happened to be playing there too. He came up to me, introduced himself and we began talking. He offered to give me lessons and I said “of course!” so we played tennis! And then the dream accelerated a few months and we were (and I guess had been) dating for those months and he was preparing for the Wimbledon Tournament. As a surprise to me, he decided to give me 5 tickets to his first match and told me I could bring whoever I wanted. Then the dream ended. But DAMN was it a good dream while it lasted and if only it would come true, *sigh* I totally knew all five people who I would have taken too lol!! So anyway I had pretty much been talking about going to see Wimbledon since I had that dream and since it was SUCH a beautiful day out, Bridget and I decided to go today!!

The All England Lawn Tennis Club has a Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum and also gives tours of various places on the grounds (such as number 1 court). We knew that we were going to miss the only tour of the day, but we decided to go anyway and just walk around and see what we could on our own.

So into Wimbledon Park we went! We saw tennis courts and soccer fields and just got REALLY silly! We ran onto the courts and just messed around and it was SOO much fun. I hadn’t been on a tennis court in FOREVER and was just so excited to be on one again (I know, I’m a dork lol).

I was so excited that I threw myself onto the court and said "I'm on a tennis court again!" Bridget decided to document this rather emotional moment for me! lol

Bridget being a dork with the "English tennis balls" we found on the court

After being silly on the tennis courts and soccer fields in the park we decided to really go and try and find the museum and the grounds. We got there and it was so exciting! Obviously we couldn’t explore too much or go to far inside since we had missed the tour and there was security everywhere, but we saw the boards where they post who is playing in the matches and we could see the construction they were doing on Centre Court (they are doing redevelopment work and adding a retractable roof so that the finals match doesn’t take 7 hours to finish due to poor weather again) and we went into the Wimbledon shop which had some really cute stuff!

Me in the Wimbledon Shop with a "Wimbledon Tennis Racket!" The racket was expensive, £50!

It was just really neat and totally exciting to be there and we are most definitely going to head back so that we can go through the museum and take a tour of the grounds! I am SOOOO excited!!!!!