And I love it. I was brought
up on it as a kid – my mum was tennis mad. And Wimbledon was always an occasion
when we would feel particularly close together through my tricky teen years.
She even knocked off work early to watch with me after school! I’m a bit gutted
that we never actually went along to the holy home of tennis but anyway we
watched it on the TV pretty much every day solid for two weeks. I would get
home from school and join her on the sofa to avidly watch the Greats of my
childhood - Jimmy Connors, Bjon Borg, John McEnroe, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova,
Boris Becker, Steffi Graf… the list is long and holds such exciting memories of
my childhood.
And now I am in Switzerland
and get to cheer on Roger Federer too! What a tennis great. And a true
gentleman. And then there’s Andy Murray (a Brit!) and Nadal – (ooo those
muscles…) The Swiss love to watch their tennis champs compete in the pub so I’m
also enjoying the very unusual experience of watching in a tennis fan community
– see last post.
So today I am made up to see Brits
Andy Murray and Jo Konta go through to the quarter finals. This is a huge
accomplishment as she is the first British woman to go through to the quarter
finals since 1984. I loved 1984 – one of my very favourite childhood years. Martina
Navratilova beat Chris Evert at Wimbledon, I was 12, I felt I was coming of age
– went to ‘big school’ and had lots of friends. It felt like a golden time at
the movies – Ghostbusters, Karate Kid, The Terminator…so yes I will be reliving
this golden year tonight in celebration of Jo Konta’s success today. I’ll be
cracking open the popcorn, drinking ginger beer – can’t find Dandelion and
Burdock here – and watching Karate Kid.
I would love to hear about favourite
movies, tunes, moments from 1984 from any fellow 40 somethings out there – let’s
celebrate together!
