Blog-'What samantha did next...' and not 'what samantha did next?'

What’s that noise in the background, demands my financial adviser, Tory. It sounds like...birds. Didn’t know they had birds in Hackney.

We are on the telephone discussing plans for mounting a second assault on the tennis. The first attempt failed miserably as we were unable to get out of bed early enough. We are bloodied but unbowed, this time we are determined. Wimbledon is not going to be our own personal Waterloo.

I’m only half an hour late which counts, in our book, as a resounding success. The cab drops us at the queue. Like everything else at Wimbledon, it is benignly supervised by an army of honorary stewards - Rotarians who volunteer at the tennis in exchange for charitable donations to their causes.

The stewards are very charming and polite; hellairlovelydayfirsttimeatthetennis? they all chirrup whilst handing out forty page booklets on how to queue. Hellairhellair, we chirrup back, thinking that the rest of London and surrounding Home Counties must today be suffering a severe shortage of jolly grandpas.

After only two hours were in and have secured tickets for no. 1 court or, as Tory proclaims, the second poshest court. We watch the ladies doubles semi-finals. It is a good day. On the way out we take photographs in front of the statue of Fred Perry, the last Englishman to win the championship in 1936.

Wimbledon is quintessentially English even beyond the Pimms, strawberries and cream, I say to Tory. How so? he asks. Well, it’s all about queuing, the weather, the social pecking order, and us consistently losing at sport!

What Samantha did next? Samantha was born to Cruella in 1971. She won a school prize for English when she was twelve and has a Masters Degree in Art History. Currently she labours in the health industry so that worked out well. Samantha used to be married to a man of Scottish descent. As she is of Jewish descent it was a very cheap wedding. Samantha now lives in London and loves its nooks and crannies and fabulous people. This blog is her way of sharing the city behind the big tourist attractions with you. Samantha has never climbed Mount Everest or swum with dolphins but when she grows up she wants to have a cat.