Ladies Final Day - Wimbledon 2012

Shannon luckily got tickets to watch the Ladies Final at Wimbledon.

 Sean in front of the draw

 Shannon enjoying strawberries and cream in front of Centre Court

 We attempted to see Mansour Barhami and Henri Leconte vs Patrick McEnroe and Joakim Nystrom on an outside court before hte Ladies final stared, but most of our time on Court 3 was spent in the rain.

 Finally the rain stopped and they took the covers off

 Got the court set up,

 and the players came back to a warm welcome. I think Mansour Bahrami saw me taking pictures of him and smiled directly at me for this one! ;)

 Bahrami is such an entertainer, here he is looking for a lost ball.

 We moved over to Centre Court for the main event and this time were sitting undercover.

 Camera envy.

 Serena Williams and Agnieszka Radwanska walking on to the court.

 Spotted 'Sir Charles' Barkley sittting in Serena's players box.

 Initially it seemed like Serena was going to win very easily, but Radwanska fought back, tkaing it to three sets. Serena, in the end, won her 5th Wimbledon title (6-1, 5-7, 6-2 ), equalling sister Venus.

 Serena showing off her trophy.

 Radwanska with her trophy.

 After the ladies singles match we got to see the mens doubles final. The Brisith player Jonathan Marray and his Danish partner Frederik Nielsen eventually won in five sets, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 6-3. An amazing result, the crowd was so loud, everytime Marray and Nielsen won a point you'd think they had won the entire event. Marray became the first British player to win the Wimbledon men's doubles final since 1936, Marray and Nielsen became the first players to get to the final and to win the Men's Doubles on a wildcard at Wimbledon and Nielsen became the first Dane ever to win a Wimbledon Championship title, his grandfather, having won the Wimbledon Junior Championship Boys' Singles title in 1947.

 Serena then returned to Centre Court to play in the Ladies Doubles final with sister Serena against the sixth seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka.

 The William's sisters were too strong in the end, winning 7-5, 6-4.

Rock Werchter - Belgium

A group of us caught the Eurostar over to Belgium for a long weekend of music and Belgian beer.

After arriving in Werchter, finding James and Julie at the campsite and setting up camp we headed down to get our festival passes and enjoy the tunes There was quite a line up initially and it was very hot!

 No wonder us Londoners were feeling the heat!

 We hadn't seen much sun in London of late, so this was a great change.

 One of Shannon's first stops was to check out the Pearl Jam merchandise.

 The Pearl Jam Rock Werchter edition poster.

 Blink 182 were amongst the highlights on Day 1.

 Day 2 some more lovely sunshine. This appears to be sunbathing 'Belgian style'.

 One of the bike parks outside the festival site. A bike would have come in very handy to save on the walking between the camp sites and the festival site.

 The Pyramid Marquee

 A definite highlight, of course, Pearl Jam. This was the fifth time Shannon had seen them. They still didnt play Indifference though, so will have to wait until next time.

 Deadmouse closed out Day 2.

 The Barn Stage.

Other highlights of the weekend included, Elbow, (Justice, one of Madonna's highlights), Kasabian, The Editors, Chase and Status, Noel Gallagher and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, just to name a few.

 The official napkin or 'wapkin' was it was named, has 32 Rock Werchter 2012 band references included on it, can you find them all?

A great weekend was had by all. The festival was very well organised and the toilets were lush, compared to other large festivals we have been to in the UK. It only took us 1.5hrs from leaving our campsite to get back to Brussels, amazing, barely any queueing!

 We checked out some street art once back in Brussels, on our way to check out the tourist attractions, have some 'mussels in brussels' and hit up a beer garden.

 Manneken Pis.

 Sean with a giant Manneken Pis and a Belgian waffle.

 The Grand Place

 Janneken Pis

 Belgium, the home of The Smurfs

 Sean, enjoying a Belgian Beer sampling session...

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee

A long weekend of festivities to celebrate the Queens 60 year reign.

Sailing Croatia, Mostar Bosnia and Plitvice Lakes.

Our 'summer' holiday for the year.

Alex and Sarah's Wedding

Had an epic bus ride up to Liverpool for Alex and Sarah's wedding. Won't be catching the bus up there again, even though it was cheap!

Geneva and the French Alps

Had our first trip to Switzerland on our way to the French Alps for a long weekend of snowboarding in Flaine with Evan.

British Swimming 2012 Olympic Trials

We went to the British Swimming qualification trials, held at the London 2012 Aquatics Centre in March. Managed to get front row seats, so had a great view!

 Sean outside the Aquatic Centre

 The Orbit and Main Stadium

 The diving boards and pool

 The fantastic view we had from the front row. The top two swimmers in each final qualified for hte British Olympic swim team.

 There are ten lanes here, which is apparently two more than usual. During the Olympics only the eight lanes in the middle will be used in order to decrease water movement and increase swim times.