Tonight, Jeremy organised for a few of the lads from work to play an informal game of indoor soccer. Being mad keen on team sports, I was… well, mad keen to play! So we all headed down to 49th in the pouring rain and did our thing.

It was fantastic fun! We got a good turn out of eight people, and since the court was a bit smaller than I had thought it would be, four people aside was just about the right number.

Well, everything was going great until about 10 minutes from the end, I took a sharp turn, and rolled my right-ankle. I swear I heard a cracking sound, but I know it’s not broken because I can still put weight on it… though just barely!

Now my ankle is a bit bigger than a golf ball, and I suspect there’ll be some bruising to follow. Looks like it’s off to the physio for me tomorrow! (But of course, because of the crazy medical system over here, I can’t actually go to a physio; instead, I have to go to the doctor’s first so I can get a referral for a physio. I can imagine how that will go – “Hmm… well Mr Thomas, it seems you have a swollen ankle and will need some physiotherapy”. Well, duh!!)

Kristy and I played hookey on Monday (well not really, our leave was pre-approved) and headed out to Flushing Queens to watch The Nanny the first day of the US Open! As you may recall, Kristy went last year as well but this was the first time I had gone. In fact, it’s the first time I’ve seen professional tennis played live, ever! (Excluding of course all the times I’ve played professionally against the Durham Train.)

We were lucky enough to see not one, but two Aussies play on Monday – Alicia Molik first, then Samantha Stosur a few hours later. Unfortunately for us (and for them, I guess), they both lost! And Kristy and I were being such dilligent little flag wavers! (Thanks to Stacey for providing us with an Australian flag all those years ago!)

Apart from watching the two Aussie girls, we also checked out some random matches as we walked past courts with lots of cheering. Oh, and we also caught up with Simon who was working the service line – he’s quite the linesman! A few of the crowd members were unhappy with one of his calls, but I was sitting right on the line, and I’d be happy to back him up – the ball was clearly out.

Anyway, the thing that I noticed, match after match, was that the loudest player always won. Perhaps not on every point, but in each match, there was definitely a grunter, and the grunter inevitably went on to win. Certainly explains why Monica Seles was so successful!

Overall I had a fantastic day, but at slightly over 40 bucks a pop, I probably wouldn’t hurry back unless there was a player that I really wanted to see. Still, if a free ticket was on offer (they occasionally have specials at work) then I’d certainly consider it!

So here’s something different; yesterday we went White Water Rafting through the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania!

Our day started very early; Kristy and I were on a subway by 6 AM, headed out to New Jersey to meet up with fellow rafters Damien and Lisa, plus the other two members of our contingent, Simon (Damien’s brother) and Lauren (Simon’s girlfriend). After a very rushed morning journey, including a struggle to find the car hire place, a bitter encounter with a security guard who may or may not have ironically been named Gloria, and the dodgiest convoy that I’ve ever seen, we managed to make it to the rafting place with about 20 minutes to spare.

Soon we were life-jacketed up and heading down to the river. Conditions were “ideal” for rafting – overcast, drizzily and cold. But our spirits were high, and rafting is quite the work out, so we stayed warm and laughed our way down the river, all the while looking forward to lunch, and the afternoon run when the water fights were sure to begin.

Some snide remarks which came early in the day from other rafters ensured that our “hit-list” was quite healthy by the time we set off again after lunch, and it wasn’t long before the water fights were on. Initially we were unarmed – somehow our boat wasn’t equipped with a bailer – but after a stellar undercover heist by Simon, and an offer for an additional bailer (in exchange for protection) from another boat, and we were the raft to be reckoned with. And suddenly, with united goals such as “payback on boat 217″, Team TOAV (as we geekily called ourselves) became a well oiled rafting machine.

The combination of negotiating our way through the rapids, trying to avoid rocks (and then working out how to get ourselves off the rocks), plus of course the water fights, made it an absolutely awesome day. And though our rapids were quite mild, it certainly gave us a taste for what rafting through more hard-core rapids must be like – and we would certainly be up for that challenge.

After a more successful convoy home, Lisa put on a feast of “leftovers plus some other stuff”, including chicken and eggplant parmigiana, steak, meatballs, mashed potato, roasted carrots, mushrooms and onion, salad, and then vanilla cake a-la-monde for dessert. It was possibly the biggest feast I had ever seen, and everything was divine! It was the perfect end to an awesome day; we will definitely be signing up for the next white water rafting trip on offer.

To be honest, time has kind-of blurred past since Sunday, which I’m putting down to a big lack of sleep. Despite all our best intentions, we didn’t seem to get to bed until at least midnight each night. But you know what – it was all worth it!

After a very late start on Sunday, we all headed down to Union Square to eat noodles at Republic. We shopped the afternoon away, and then went to our favourite local Italian restaurant for Louisa’s birthday dinner.

Unfortunately, wifey and I had to work Monday and Tuesday, but we still managed to dine with Team Dahl at some of our favourite places, including our favourite sandwich bar Cosi, and the highlight – Wollensky Grill, where Steve enjoyed the “best steak he has ever eaten”.

We also managed to make it out to see the Yankee’s whip the LA Angels on Monday night. That’s only the second baseball game that I’ve seen while I’ve been here; and you know what – I quite enjoy it! While we were there, we also dined on some (overpriced) hotdogs, caught some (overpriced) peanuts, and froze our tongues on some (overpriced) dippin’ dots. But hey, it’s all part of the experience – and, we even got to cram into the subway on the way home! A perfect night!

We were very sad to see Team Dahl leave New York tonight, but of course we wish them all the best for the rest of their holiday (they’re now off to London to visit with Team BaM).

Feel free to wander over to the Photo Albums section and check out the Team Dahl album.

Louise scored 4 high-class tickets to see the New York Knicks play against the Utah Jazz last night, so we jumped at the chance to go with them. I’ve been very keen to see some basketball during our time here, and I can’t see myself shelling out $74 for a ticket, so Louise’s offer was very appreciated!

A quick cab ride had us at Madison Square Garden just after tip-off. It certainly wasn’t a sellout game – there were a bunch of empty seats around the joint. I’m not sure if that’s a side-effect of the recent transit strike (which is over now, by the way), or if this just wasn’t to be a particularly high profile game.

But I for one had a great time! Both teams played very well – it was anyone’s game right up until the last 5 minutes or so. In the end, the Knicks were too strong for the Jazz, bringing it home 98 – 90.

I would definitely go back to see some more basketball, but I don’t know that I’d pay $74 to do so. I wouldn’t even pay that to see some bands! So again, a super thanks to Louise and Jason for taking us along with them.

Ice hockey has always been the American sport that I felt I could most get addicted to. On Monday night I got to go to my first game with the usual suspects, sports-mad Jason and Louise. The game saw the New York Rangers facing off against Minnesota Wild at the world’s most famous arena – Madison Square Garden.

Since we got our tickets virtually at the last minute, we had to basically take what was left. Though they were unsympathetically branded “Limited View – No refund or exchange”, we were optimistic that we’d be able to upgrade to better seats once the game had started. And sure enough, the entire row that we were sitting in was empty, as was the first part of the next section. So simply moving over about 10 seats ensured we had a birds eye view of the entire rink.

After the overly patriotic singing of the national anthem, the game was underway, and it wasn’t long before I noticed some striking trends. Firstly, the players (and even the refs) are amazingly good at ice skating. Having recently been skating ourselves I had an extra appreciation for just how difficult what they were doing really is, and yet the players make it look easier than walking. Secondly, though the game is very rough, the players bounce off those perspex guards like rag-dolls. Watching them slam each other into the guards is definitely a highlight of the game. Finally – the game is fast. Real fast. On many occasions I had to do a scan of the rink just to find where the puck had been hit. Watching the throng of 10 skaters speeding in the same direction is usually a give-away, though.

The only letdown in the action comes during the 17 minutes (or so) that it takes to clean and resurface the ice between each of the three periods. Given that each period is only 20 minutes, the delay is very noticable. But besides that, its pure adrenaline pumping action from go-to-woah. And since Kristy is on night shift this week, and hence had to miss the game, I have a perfect excuse to go back for a second helping.

Hard to believe, but I haven’t been to a live sporting event since we’ve been here. Admittedly I’m not much into American Football – way too many time-outs – but I’d always thought I could get into Baseball. (I could definitely get into Ice Hockey, but due to strikes there was no season last year.)

So lucky for us (especially lucky for me), Jason & Louise (fellow Aussies living in NY) scored some free tickets to last night’s game of the New York Mets vs the Atlanta Braves. I was off to my first game of baseball!

Our night didn’t start well though. When we tried to board the 7 train at Grand Central, it wasn’t moving. Announcements were being made over the PA – too quiet to hear and too muffled to understand – so it wasn’t until we tracked down an MTA employee that we found out there was service disruptions to the line, and got an alternative mode of transport.

We took a different train to another station, with the intent of changing back onto the 7 line from there. Of course, we weren’t the only ones, and trying to cram thousands of angry people into a subway carriage just doesn’t work. Things only got worse when announcements (clear and understandable for the first time ever!) started coming over the PA, somewhere in this order:

• Please stand clear of the door, the train is about to leave.
• Please leave the train, there is a mechanical failure.
• Please step right into the train and stand clear of the doors.
• There are four more 7 trains inbound to this station, but due to a medical emergency we cannot move this train.

Clearly it was useless. We abandoned the train station and jumped in a cab – “Shea Stadium, please” we said. And finally, after the cabbie had asked for directions, we arrived at the stadium about 15 minutes later.

The seats that we had were awesome, right down the front between home and 1st base! Unfortunately due to our travel inturruptions, the game was already half done, but the home team was up by 2 runs. It was great being there with Jason and Louise, who knew much more about the game than we did and were kind enough to impart some knowledge to us. Generally though, the game is pretty easy to follow – and was very enjoyable to watch.

Of course, a lot of the fun comes from the crowd, and we had it all – kids screaming when they didn’t agree with the umpires, fans fighting to catch a high-ball, and even a marriage proposal around the 7th inning (she said “yes”).

It was a good night for the home team, coming home 4 to nothing. It was also a very quick game; we probably got to see only an hour of baseball at most. But it was enough to give me an idea of what it’s all about; I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would definitely go back for more. Thanks again Jason and Louise for the tickets, for a great introduction to baseball, and for a fantastic night out!

Sports fan that I am, (cough, cough) it seemed appropriate that I spend at least one day at the US Open.

So with Carrie, the resident tennis expert, I took the subway out to Flushing Meadows for an awesome day of entertainment. With games being played simultaneously on sixteen courts, there was always something to see and we watched eight hours of continuous tennis! It was just like a music festival, but with a lot more stages.

We saw:

• Roger Federer wipe the floor with Ivo Minar (6-1, 6-1, 6-1)
• Gustavo Kuerten (Gu-ga to his fans) beat Paul Goldstein in a 4 set, 3-hour marathon
• Anastasia Myskina overpower Tamarine Tanasugarn (6-3, 6-1)
• and Aussie Samantha Stosur go down in two sets, unable to match the strength of Tiantian Sun.

But the best game of the day pitted Andy Murray of Great Britain against Andrei Pavel of Romania. Several hours into the game, Murray did the unthinkable and was physically ill on the court. After a 21 minute delay, many bottles of Evian, a lot of head scratching about what to do, and an icky clean-up operation, play resumed. Murray recovered and hit back with serves of up to 212 kilometres per hour. The crowd went wild, cheering every point he won. But when a bad line call was made against his opponent Pavel, who then received a one point penalty for backchat, the crowd didn’t quite know who to cheer for. So… we just cheered for everybody! The players started doing little victory dances to hype the crowd up and we loved it. Best game ever.

I’ll close with two quick funnies: 1) During one game, a ball from a nearby court strayed onto our court. The brainiac ball girl recovered the ball and pegged it over the crowd back into its own court. Right in the middle of a rally. Not quite sure how the players or ref handled that one. 2) Believe it or not, there’s a player whose surname is Smashnova.

Since I was at the Gomez concert on Wednesday night, I had Bender tape the State of Origin for me. Even though Monkey had spoiled it somewhat (I knew the Blues won), I was still keen to watch the game – so last night, I was in front of the couch, with a beer in hand.

Now, I’ve never thought much of Anthony Minichiello. Sure, I’ll admit he is a strong player, but I’ve always thought he plays dirty. And when he held back Matt Sing from scoring a certain try, that just tipped the scales for me. The ref didn’t even put him into the sin bin! What a joke! Down with Minichiello!

But to be fair, the game was owned by the Blues. *curses NSW*. Clearly Queensland needs to get more clubs up here, because currently there’s a huge lack of players from which they can pull talent. Also, given that half of the Queensland team is made up of Broncos players, our local team suffers greatly for the weeks surrounding origin matches by not having their representative players. Hopefully they’ll be back on board for tonight’s game against St George!

It was a long time coming, but Leanne has finally broken her three game losing streak. The past three times that she has seen the Broncos playing live, they have gone down against their opponents. But yesterday was the day for her comeback, with the Broncos winning 48-28 against the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

“I was proud of the extra effort she put in at training this week” said beaming husband Anthony. “She really pushed through the pain barrier in an effort to break her losing streak”.

Unfortunately, Leanne was unavailable for comment this morning, as no-one is sure where she is. It is more than likely she is still out celebrating her hard-earned victory. You go girl!