Wimbledon: Torturous Thursday

I arrived for my yearly sojourn to the home of British tennis at around 11am. I usually go on Monday and Tuesday during the first week but this year I'm going on Thursday and Friday to meet up with different friends.

I was due to meet R but he and his girlfriend decided to arrrive at 7am to queue for tickets. That's like hard work for me. By the time, I had joined the queue, I was told that I might get in at 4-5pm. I thought the stewards were trying to put me on. I texted R and he said he had to queue 3 hours and was now in a good seat.

The queue moved slowly and as predicted, instead of the usual 1-2 hour wait in the past, I did have to wait 5.5 hours and I didn't get in till 4:30pm.

I think the wait was a lot longer for lots of reasons:

• The South queue had been abolished. In theory that should have made no difference have the number of the ticket booths was unchanged but I think there was a difference
• Overnight queuers were now allowed to camp in the quiet and comfortable surroundings of Wimbledon Park rather than on the noisy and hard pavements of Southfields.
• It was sunny and warm
• It was getting to the end of the week and I'm sure people were starting long weekends with a spot of tennis watching
• The Brits were playing - Andy Murray & Chris Eaton were drawn today

I did manage to catch Jonas Bjorkman and Alicia Molik play in the mixed doubles, Sebastian Grosjean lose against Richard Gasquet and the Williams sisters triumph in the doubles. R saw Sharapova and Eaton lose.

I'm going to have to think about what to do next year if I don't score a ballot ticket - either an early start or maybe crash at J's place.

The Apprentice: She was robbed

It was a comedy of errors in the final tonight. Claire Young and Lee McQueen chose to associate their aftershave with the dangerous allure of gambling whereas Helene Speight & Alex Wotherspoon had an innovative but ruinously expensive two-stage bottle & constantly bickered.

I couldn't believe Lee won The Apprentice. He lies on his CV but gets caught out last week. He should have been fired immediately. He treated Lucinda Ledgerwood badly the week before and yet he still wins. Claire should have won it. She might have been tough but at least she kept her iron fist in a velvet glove. He is all iron. Yes, he needs rounding off but he is all straight edges and sharp corners. He is going to bruise people in Sugar's empire.

And what is a reverse-pterodactyl anyway?