Federer’s Balls

Big thanks to Maree and Mike Tollenaar from Auckland for organising a fantastic visit to New York City. Maree and Mike caught up with Louise and The Wine Tipster in the Cotswolds and then travelled to New York from Southampton on the QE2

We stayed on East 53^rd Street, opposite the cosy and busy Cello Wine Bar,  where we toasted on our first night with Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling, Columbia Valley, Washington State and Deep Sea Chardonnay, Santa Barbara, California, which reminded me that London needs to return to having more of this style of wine bar.

The following evening we headed to the US Open and the Arthur Ashe Stadium where Roger Federer smoothly swept aside Bjorn Phau in straight sets. At the end of the match Federer hit four autographed Wilson balls into the stands and The Wine Tipster donned his cricket whites, calmly taking a double handed catch off the final ball. Before I left, I casually turned down an offer of $100 for this ball.

The next day we headed to Soho and Greenwich Village, which is a great place to hang out in and where if you have a Apple Mac you can look like you are  writing a book even you are aren’t! We’d headed to Soho in search of fashion and in my case deleted CDS. Bleecker Street Records is overloaded with loads of retro vinyl, particularly for punk and new wave collectors , whilst out in the back room were  three deleted CDS by the wonderful Sleater-Kinney: Call the Doctor, Dig Me Out and All Hands on the Bad One.  Sleater-Kinney spilt up a few years back, with two of the three members of the group now in the similar sounding Wild Flag.

After all this shopping it was time to retire to the highly recommended Pegu Club in Soho for high quality cocktails and relaxation  This club with a serious back bar and non touristy feel didn’t disappoint.

More to come from NYC.