This is definitely long over due and I promise it will never be that long again.

So after Wimbedon I decided to be completely spontaneous and travel around France by train with Camilla and her mom, who were already in town for work. It was one of the coolest experiences of my traveling career...kind of reminded me of the junior days where you would travel from one European city to next on train. We spent a day in Paris from which we went to Bordeaux, then to Lourdes and back to Paris for Couture week...oh and back to London for the Stella event. When we would get to one city, we would plan the train and hotel for our next day, basically not knowing what anything would be like. We stayed in the city center of Bordeaux, and found out that it was their last day of a wine festival along the river... Everyone was walking around with this wine glass in a little red purse and a booklet of coupons for each wine tent. They had all these different food stations, each serving certain specialties such as cheese, different meats, freshly baked bread and homemade waffles (my idea of heaven).

Lourdes was one of the most touching experiences I think I will ever have in my life. We visited all the chapels, the grotto, and attended the procession in the evening which was stunning. I have never seen so much candle light in such a small amount of space. It's a great thing to be a part of for a day, no matter what religion you follow.

Then it was back to work where I spent many hours of each day working with Prince on different rackets and strings. Ever since Indian Wells and that backhand incident, I haven't been able to get my arm up and close to my head without some sort of impingement and grinding..so I've been trying different rackets with different weight balances that are a bit more flexible and the strings looser to get as much tension away from my arm as possible. So for the last week I have been playing with a new frame...I'm usually very sensitive to any minor changes and we usually do this in the off season, but we really had no choice this time.  Apart from that I spent a good ten or so days concentrating on my fitness and in the last week have been playing a few practices and matches etc.

On the weekends I have been going up to my friends lake house in Arrowhead where we barbeque, go on the boat, wake board, and chill out ( even managed to get a flat tire on the way there, which made for a good story). First time I have ever tried doing any sort of water sport...lets just say it was a challenge getting up the first time around (basically I couldn't get up and swallowed half the lake) but the second weekend I was a pro (on my level of course). Will provide pictures of the embarrassing evidence.

Went to my first Cold Play concert last week which was so great..and how good is20their new album! Viva La Vida, Strawberry Swing....

Will be in touch...

Maria