August 30th-September 7th

August 30th
The weather has become cooler which is perfect timing for the US Open which begins today. John and I both love watching tennis and this is the first time I've been here in September for the Open. We have tickets for next Monday! Once again I love being able to watch it live and at a civilised time! First up were defending champions Federer and Serena Williams who both won their matches comfortably. In the evening was an award ceremony where some sporting greats were recognised for their good works. Andre Agassi has set up a foundation to help disadvantaged Children improve their educational opportunities and has opened a school in Vegas with 100% of students graduating and being accepted for college. Later Venus Williams stuggled with 54 unforced errors during her match. I can't see her lasting the distance but Serena looks impressive.


September 1st It's the first day of `The Fall' and the crickets are even louder! I walked by the beach this morning and it is quieter now. Students return to school next week and Summer is ending. Obama is planning to give a pep talk to students next week to encourage them to stay in school but many Republicans are going to keep their children home that day as they worry that they will be brainwashed into believing a more liberal ideology! When John arrived home we hung out at the beach for a while enjoying the beautifful sunshine. Throught the day I was tuned to the tennis. The women are looking vulnerable apart from Serena Williams. Ana Ivanovitch was beaten by Bonderenko. Safina, the no. 1 seed only naroowly defeated Olivia Rogowska from Victoria, Australia. I don't see her making it to the finals either! John says I must feel at home as 2 of the commentators are Darren Cahill and Cliff Drysdale!
September 2nd Again a perfect Autumn day. I went down to the beach for a while but then hurried back for the tennis. The upsets are beginning! Bartolli is out, defeated by Kim Clijsters who is returing to the game after giving birth, and Mauresmo was also defeated.
There was an amazing story in the paper about a 56 year old chauffeur from Brooklyn, Joe Tiralosi, who suffered a cardiac arrest. He was taken to hospital where doctors tried resuscitation and then began shocking him with the defibrillator. Miraculously his heart began beating again after 45 minutes. After being in an induced coma he was released from hospital with no major damge!

September 3rd I'm still not feeling 100% so this is a great excuse to be lazy and watch the tennis! I've been disappointed by the performances of the women so far but today Melanie Oudin, an unseeded 17 year old from Georgia stunned everyone by beating Dementiava, the no. 4 seed. Lets just hope the pressure doesn't cause Oudin too many problems! Jankovic was also beaten.Later we watched Christina McHale, another young 17 year old American, who gave Sharapova a good match and shows future promise. The women's game is dominated by Russians and Europeans so it is good to see some emerging American talent! It was a beautiful evening so we walked over the bay to Randazzos and had some chowder and baked clams.

September 4th The disappointments continue in women's tennis at the US Open! 16 of the women's seeds are now out including top seed Safina and Ararenka.the no. 8 seed. Today was another perfect day in the 70's with a refreshing breeze. We headed down to Coney Island as tonight is the last Friday night fireworks display. It's the Labour day week-end so thousands of people were out. There's a rockabilly and burlesque festival running for the whole week-end and the rides are operating again but the future of Astroland is uncertain as the dispute between Thor Equities, the owners since 2006 and the operators of the park continues. Coney island is an historic part of New York. Families have been enjoying the park for decades.
But part of what made Astroland unique was its accessibility, said Charles Denson, a Coney Island historian and author of the book “Coney Island Lost and Found.” Rather than being an expensive, glossy and distant amusement park, Astroland was a place that was reachable by subway, a place where a visitor could shoot a water gun at a clown’s mouth and win a prize, or venture on kitschy rides with names like Dante’s Inferno and Break Dance that, while arguably seedy, were still loads of fun.
“It wasn’t Disneyland but thank God for that,” said Mr. Denson. “It’s open to people of small means, and it always has been This time New York government stepped in and made sure the park was open to the public for the Labour Day week-end.




There was plenty happening on the boardwalk too with kareoke and disco and some live bands performing. We met up with Joey and Ricky and enjoyed the atmosphere for a while. The fireworks were spectacular and drew big cheers from the crowd. John and I bought spumone ices and we all andered down the boardwalk and checked out a great band from LA who played free form Latin/urban fusion. They had an unusual line up including 2 accordions, trombones, trumpets and drums and there must have been about 18 of them! We decided not to go into Cha Chas where the rockabilly bands were playing as it was too crowded. I hope that Coney Island can continue
September 5th John was off work today but was tired after a busy week so we mainly relaxed and watched the tennis. Lleyton hewitt put up a good fight against Federer but ran out of steam eventually. Verdasco looked good against German Tommy Haas and the unseeded American teenager Melanie Oudin stunned everyone by beating Sharapova!



A biogger shock was 5th seed Roddick's defeat by the 6ft 9" American Isner. As he came so near to defeating Federer in the Wimbledon final I thought this might be Roddick's year to win the US again. In the afternoon we headed to the beach. It was very crowded again with all the BBQ tables taken. Just for fun we took a couple of hippy pics of yours truly!



September 6th We enjoyed our usual Sunday breakfast of pancakes and watched the tennis. There's no rest day in the US Open! We watched a thrilling match between former champion Kim Clijsters and no. 3 seed Venus Williams. To me Venus looked vulnerable from the start of the tournament and was easily defeated by Clijsters.

Later we went down to the Jazz Standard in East 27th St. Midtown, another area of New York I hadn't been to before. Dr Lonnie Smith was playing there with a different guitarist Dave Stryker, so I wanted to check him out. Stryker was featured on several numbers as played a Gibson 335, giving a different sound to the trio. Once again Bill Stewart was on drums. Dr Lonnie played some tunes from his latest album `Rise up' and they ended with a very up tempo version of `Blues 'n boogie'.







Afterwards we decided to have a late dinner and found an area with many Indian restaurants. Most were full with people queeing for tables but we found one with a spare table and enjoyed a delicious curry, the first I've had on this visit! We were home by midnight and noticed that it was much cooler. Autumn has definately arrived!
September 7th Today was Labour Day and we had tickets for the US Open night session Before we left we watched Melanie Oudin, the talented 17 year old from Georgia, defeat Petrova the 13th seed. Also Federer defeated Robredo, the 14th seed. We set off for Flushing Meadow about 4pm. it takes a long while to get there as Flushing Meadow is way uptown in Queens and we are way downtown in Brooklyn! We had to catch the subway to Times Square and then the no. 7 subway to Flushing Meadow. The weather was cooler and we wished we had booked for the day session but all tickets for the long week-end sold out sometime before so we had to make the most of the night session. We watched the end of the Verdasco v Isner game on the big screen, had some dinner and then went into the Arthur Ashe Stadium ready for the first match. Fisrt up were former champion Kuznetsova and Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, a young up and coming player.










Our seats were right up at the top but we still had a very good view. Kuznetsova dominated in the 1st set and we thought the match would be over quickly but then Wozniacki found some answers to Kuznetsova's shots and won the second set on a tie break. The 3rd set was a thriller as Wozniacki saved several match points and went on to win. Next up was no. 4 seed Djokovic v Stepanek, the no. 15 seed. This was an easy victory for Djokovic so perhaps to liven things up for the audience he did an imitation of John McEnroe, the main commentator for the US Open, and invited him on court for a hit! McEnroe obliged to the delight of the crowd! Everyone says the US Open is their favourite tournament because of the crowd and I do think the crowd is more involved here and noisier! During the breaks the TV cameras focus on members of the crowd so there's great amusement when people see themselves on the screen. Often the camera will pick out celebrities in the audience. Tony Bennett is a regular and was there on Monday as were Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban and many US sporting celebrities. They play loud music by mainly New York artists too! The other interesting thing about seeing the match live is that you have to keep score and realise when it's break point or match point! You can hire headphones and hear the commentary but we decided not to. I wish we could have gone back yesterday to see Kim Clijsters play and Nadal later but we had to postpone our shopping and we need food so I'll have to hope we can get back there next year. Now the French is the only Grand Slam I haven't been to!