8th Sept We woke up late as we didn't get to bed until 2am. It was much cooler today so we walked by the beach and almost had it to ourselves. There are still some older people working on their suntans but everything is closed now and there are no lifeguards. Students return to school tomorrow. President Obama's speech to students was broadcast today and to me it sounded very motivational but of course some republicans are still criticising it. Here is part of the speech:
"Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide."
"What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future."
"No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future."
"No one’s born being good at things; you become good at things through hard work."
"I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down — don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it."
The tennis dramas continue! We watched Cilic, the 16th seed from Croatia easily defeat Murray, who will move down from the number 2 position he held briefly after Nadal was unable to defend his Wimbledon title. One custom that is unique to the Open is the signing of 3 tennis balls by the winner of each match. The balls are then hit into the audience! Later we did our shopping and admired the Autumn displays in the supermarket.
September 9th Today was again cooler. Again I spent many hours watching the tennis. Melanie Oudin played Caroline Wozniacki, the no. 9 seed in the quarter finals. When we saw Wozniacki play on Monday we soon realised that although she has no big shots she has good court coverage and anticipation. Although still only 19 she is much more experienced than Oudin and beat her in straight sets. I'm sure we'll be hearing more of Oudin though and she did well to get this far. Later we watched Federer against Soderling, the 12 seed, who caused a big upset in the French by beating defending champion Nadal in the 4th round. He eventually lost to Federer in the final. Like the Wozniacki v Kuznetsova match was saw on Monday it looked at first like a walkover for Federer but suddenly in the 3rd set Soderling found his form and won the set and from then on it became a thriller with Federer lucky to win in 4 sets!
Obama gave his much anticipated speech on health care reform today to a joint session of Congress. He pointed out that for a country that spends a 6th of its income on health outcomes should be much better than they are. He promised affordable coverage for all but is easing away from the so called `public option' which has been vehemently opposed by the Republicans. His plan would cost 9 billion over 10 years, less than the cost of the two wars that the country is currently engaged in. As Obama rightly said no one should go broke because they get sick and insurance companies should not be allowed to deny coverage to those who have health problems. Coming from 2 countries where health care is available to all this made absolute sense to me but not it seems, to many Republicans who have used scare tactics to try to jeopardise the plan. Certain Republicans have spread rumours of so called `death panels' and coverage to illegal immigrants. When Obama denied the latter, Joe Wilson, a Congressman from South Carolina yelled `You lie!'
September 10th It was cool and cloudy again so i was happy to stay home and watch tennis while John was working. The quarter final between Bonderenko and the unseeded Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium was a thriller with Wickmayer prevailing. The men's quarter final between Del Potro and Cilic, conqueror of the number 2 seed Andy Murray was also exciting with De Potro winning in 4 sets.
We needed to go to the local plaza and just happened to arrive in time to see the Macy's fashion show. Apparently it's fashion week in New York but since I don't follow fashion I was unaware of this. There were some tempting outfits but I'm not interested in spending money on overpriced clothes. We got back in time to see Serena Williams thrash Flavia Benetta of Italy and then we watched Nadal v Gonzales until it was rained off with Natal leading! This may have been a blessing for Natal who has been suffering with an abdominal strain.
September 11th Today was a sombre day in New York and it began with a memorial service for the victims of 9/11. Families who lost loved ones gave moving tributes and the names of those killed were read out. It rained the whole day so for the first time I wasn't able to go out at all. Play was cancelled at the US Open. Baseball rarely gets cancelled though even in heavy rain and John is a big baseball fan. Tonight was a big night for the New York Yankees when Captain Derek Jeter broke Lou Gehrig's all time Yankee record of 2721 hits! This record had held for nearly 70 years!
September 12th. There were intermittent showers today so some tennis matches were able to proceed. The Nadal v Gonzales match was completed with Nadal winning in straight sets. Later the two women's semifinals were held. Caroline Wozniacki defeated Wickmayer but the big surprise was Kim Clijsters who defeated Serena Williams, the favourite in straight sets. The match ended controversially though as Serena was penalised for abuse of an official and was deducted a point on match point.
September 13th We watched Del Potro defeat Nadal in the men's semi final but didn't stay to watch Federer v Djokovic in the other semi as we wanted to go down to Little Italy for the feast of San Genaro, a popular annual event. On Sundays they carry out maintenance on the rail tracks and there is a reduced service so we had to backtrack on the subway to avoid delays. The festival was packed and we enjoyed sampling some of the delicious treats on offer! We decided to try and be back by 9pm to watch the women's final.
We arrived home just after nine and really enjoyed watching Kim Clijsters, former US champion but unseeded this year play Caroline Wozniacki. We saw Wozniacki play Kutnetsova when we went to the Open last Monday and knew she was a real fighter but the experience and power of Kim Clijsters won through! Clijsters was the first `Mom' to win the title since 1980 and her young daughter Jada joined her on court for the presentation.
September 14th It was another warm Summer like day. As usual we had lunch with Louise and then did our shopping. The US Open finals were held today due to rain delays. The Williams sisters won the ladies doubles, their third doubles title of the year. We got home in time to watch defending champion Federer v De Potro, the 6th seeded Argentinian. At first it looked like an easy victory for Federer who was aiming for his sixth consecutive US title but gradually Del Potro improved and took the second set. Federer came back and took the third and we had to leave it in the fourth as we had arranged to have dinner with John's sister Rosemarie and her husband Anthony. It was great catching up with them. John will be a Godfather to their granddaughter Isabella next month!
We went to Prima Pasta where we enjoyed an Italian buffet.Later we had a look at the oldest house in New York, Wyckoff House, dating from 1652, which happens to be not too far away in Brooklyn. The house originally was a `bowerie' or farm belong to the Dutch West India Company. Peter Claesen Wyckoff emigrated from the Netherlands as an indentured servant in 1637 and acquired the land through his connections with Peter Stuyvesant beginning in 1652. Successive generations of Wyckoffs farmed here until 1901.
Later we watched Jay Leno's new talk show, now in the 10pm timeslot. His guests were Jerry Seinfeld and rapper Kanye West. West has been in the news for the wrong reasons after Sunday night's MTV Vdeo Awards. When young country singer Taylor Swift won an award West grabbed the mike and said that Beyonce's video should have won. He apologised on the Jay Leno show and has now also apologised to Taylor Swift. We also learned of Federer's shock defeat in the final of the US Open. Flushing Meadow will become a quiet place again although today it has been in the news because an appartment was searched by the FBI with suspicions of terrorist activity.This was the day when Obama was in the city so no chances were taken. Most of the tennis players love coming to New York and I was reading today that it has been voted the best US city for entertainment. It's true that there is more of everything here. 46 million tourists visit the city each year!
September 15th It was another perfect day but we had things to do in the morning. Later we took a walk by the beach and then met Ricky at Randazzos where we enjoyed some clam chowder and baked clams, my last for this year!
We called in at the new gourmet store and restaurnat Cherry Hill and sampled some mouth watering cake. We brought a piece home and ate it while watching Jay Leno. Tonight's guest was documentary filmmaker Michael Moore. I used to love his TV show `the Awful Truth' where he would confront the rich, powerful and corrupt. We saw a clip from his latest movie `Capitalism: a love story' in which Moore was attempting to make citizen's arrests of some of the Wall Street executives who received huge amounts of bail out money form the government. Surely most of us agree that capitaliusm is out of control and as Moore said, socialsim has its problems too but we need a return to real democracy. Most ordinary people did not support the bail outs of AIG and other large companies. These companies needed to go under and let other smaller more ethical companies take their place.
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