The Monday afternoon session happened to run long that day so there was a delay before the start of the night session. That allowed me to take in part of a doubles match on Court 11: Nadia Petrova & Jonas Bjorkman vs Rennae Stubbs & Robert Lindstedt. Petrova & Bjorkman would go on to win 6-3 6-2.

Serena Williams vs Severine Bremond was the first match on Arthur Ashe. Serena beat up the French girl pretty easily and won 6-2 6-2. During the interlude, some of the cast of Entourage came out and to hit balls into the crowd. Adrian Grenier (Vinny Chase on the show) looked like such a pansy trying to swing a racquet!

Then the main match got underway: Andy Murray vs Stanislas Wawrinka. I was hoping for a classic five-setter that went on into the night but Murray was always just that little bit too good and won 6-1 6-3 6-3.

More photos in the gallery.

First up in the Armstrong Stadium was Nikolay Davydenko vs Dudi Sela. Davydenko won it 6-3 6-3 6-3.

Following that match was Elena Dementieva vs Pauline Parmentier. The beautiful Elena coasted to an easy 6-2 6-1 win.

Then out on Court 4 I saw Marin Cilic vs Julien Benneteau. It was a tough battle that went the distance with Cilic eventually prevailing 4-6 7-5 6-3 6-7 6-2.

Right beside the Court 4 area is where some of the practice courts are located. It’s difficult to see into them at ground level but you can get a view from up in the top corner of the stands. So when Roger Federer himself came out to practice, almost everyone shot across to catch a glimpse of the great man. I took a quick photo but then got back to watching the Cilic – Benneteau match. However, most of the crowd remained looking over the wall to the practice courts which I thought was bad form and slightly distracting to the players.

Finally, I headed to the Grandstand Court to watch another of my favourite females: Caroline Wozniacki vs Maria Elena Camerin. The lovely Caroline won pretty easily, 6-1 6-2.

More photos in the gallery.

First up in the Armstrong Stadium – Dinara Safina vs Kristie Ahn, which Safina won 6-3 6-4.

Then out to Court 11 to see one of my faves – Agnieszka Radwanska vs Yaroslava Shvedova. A-Rad won 6-4 6-2.

Next it was back to the Armstrong Stadium to see Tommy Haas vs Richard Gasquet play out an excellent five-setter. With two of the best backhands in the game on show, there were plenty of entertaining rallies. In the end, Haas won the deciding set 6-2.

On Court 9, I got as close as possible to see Nicole Vaidisova vs Petra Cetkovska. The lovely but psychotic Nicole won 6-1 6-2.

Then a short walk to Court 7 where Jill Craybas vs Dominika Cibulkova had already started. Cibulkova, the diminutive minx, won out 6-3 7-6.

Following that, I went to the Grandstand Stadium just in time for Marta Domachowska vs Bethanie Mattek. To the joy of most of the US crowd, the close match went to Mattek, 6-7 7-5 6-4. I was secretly cheering for the lovely Polish girl.

As dusk was setting in, Court 13 still had one match to go – the all French affair of Camille Pin vs Alize Cornet. It was won 7-5 6-0 by Cornet.

More photos in the gallery.

First I went to the Grandstand Court and watched the start of Gael Monfils vs Pablo Cuevas. Monfils would go on to win in straight sets.

Then I moved along to the Armstrong Stadium to watch a set and a bit of David Ferrer vs Martin Vassallo Arguello. Ferrer took the first set on a tiebreak but then won the next two easily.

I was really just biding my time until a particular match that I wanted to see. My favourite female player is 19 year old Belarusian, Victoria Azarenka, and she was playing in the second match on one of the outside courts so I made my way there. However the first match was still in play on that court – Robin Soderling vs Evgeny Korolev. One line judge gave quite a few bad line calls and had Soderling majorly pissed off.

After Korolev won that match in straight sets, I waited for Victoria Azarenka vs Klara Zakopalova. Vika looked very well in an all blue outfit and had it pretty easy in the match, wrapping up a 6-2 6-1 win in under an hour. Something I hadn’t noticed before when watching her on television was that when she’s receiving serve and starts moving her feet, she does this little hop that she probably doesn’t even realise she’s doing. It’s so cute and adorable!

Next I went back to the Armstrong Stadium and got there for the start of Andy Murray vs Sergio Roitman. Roitman played well and gave him a good game but the Muzza was always too strong and ran away with it in the end. His winning shot on match point was pretty special.

Now I had a choice to make between another two of my favourite women players. Caroline Wozniacki, the young Dane, was starting her match and I knew that Lucie Safarova would be starting soon too. I decided to just catch a couple of games from Caroline Wozniacki vs Ahsha Rolle before moving on to see Lucie. I knew Wozniacki would win and that I could get to see her in full in the next round. With Lucie I wasn’t so sure.

And that’s the way it turned out. Wozniacki won easily while the Lucie Safarova vs Sorana Cirstea match was a very close one which went to three sets but ultimately Sorana was a worthy winner.

As we moved into the evening I was feeling pretty tired and sunburned so decided to grab one more match before leaving, Tamira Paszek vs Maria Kirilenko. Neither played too well but it was a tight match that in the end went to Paszek, 6-4 in the third.

And that was that. A very enjoyable day all around and I’m looking forward to heading back tomorrow. A few not so good things: 1) mediocre overpriced food, 2) sunburn, 3) me forgetting to charge my camera battery the night before so I only had it working for half the day.

More photos in the gallery.

The best part was when I pretended to trip on the bridge, flung the doll over the side and screamed like a distraught parent. Oh the hilarity!

To cut a long story short, I’m not allowed back there anymore.

• Official site
• Wikipedia article

More photos in the gallery.

The 30 minute display was accompanied by some well-chosen orchestral pieces which synchonised with the fireworks. I recorded the following 4 minute segment which uses a track by the great Bernard Herrmann.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I also took a few photographs…

More photos are available in the gallery.

More photos are available in the gallery.

(2) The upper part of North America is called Canada. It differs from its southern neighbour in that its inhabitants generally aren’t grossly obese and don’t go around shooting each other.

(3) On the west coast of Canada is the province of British Columbia (with Alberta to its right). The city of Vancouver is located in the south-west of BC and is pretty close to the US border.

(4)  The area of Metro Vancouver has a population of over 2 million.

(5) Downtown Vancouver is located on the peninsula sticking out into the Burrard Inlet with Stanley Park on the north end of it.

(6) The northwestern part of the downtown area is known as the West End. It’s a fantastic place to live. It has the feel of a suburban community but it’s a bustling, lively area where you’re only a few minutes walk from almost everything you need.

(7) My apartment is somewhere here.

Poker was certainly the main attraction for me. I wanted to sink my teeth into all those fishy tourists I hear so much about. Overall I played three long sessions of $1/$2 NL and had a great time! I played pretty well for most of it but I can clearly remember a few mistakes I made that cost me a few shillings. I won’t bore you all with the hand details.

Our flight to Vegas from Vancouver was last Sunday. Superbowl Sunday!! I’ve been watching some NFL this season for the first time and was really getting into it. I had totally forgotten about the Superbowl when booking the flights. I managed to catch the first half at home and then the last quarter at the airport. There was a crowd of people around a TV set watching it and there was a great atmosphere as the NY Giants held on to beat the not quite perfect Patriots.

Las Vegas is a unique city. So very, very decadent! Every single thing there is to do with money or sex. Naturally I loved every second and can’t wait to go back!

Some snowy pics:

Some miserable pics:

Some sunny pics:

All in the space of two or three weeks!

More photos are available in the gallery.