New York - The Reservoir in Central Park: Anyone training for the New York Marathon or who is a regular jogger makes a beeline for the reservoir and its mile-long surrounding track. From an artist’s point of view, it is most spectacular in spring, when the park explodes in pink cherry blossom, reflecting in the water like Monet’s Water Lilies.
I once witnessed a hobo mugging an executive on his way to work for his breakfast and coffee on the opposite side of this “lake”, and was given hell by a local female runner with legs like tree trunks for not being fast enough to grab him. What she didn’t know was had I caught the thief, I would have dived into the bag myself, I’m so addicted to New York bagels…
Wholefoods (under the Time-Warner building):
On the west side of the park and when you descend the escalator, I feel like Willy Wonker waking up in Charlie’s Chocolate Factory: you are surrounded by wall-to-wall delicatessens and supermarket shelves stacked to the ceiling with every conceivable food you could ever dream of or up! If America is classified as the land of plenty, then here is what you’re looking for – you’ll get fat just looking at the ice cream counter. And if you pretend to be healthy, you can find 10 brands of coffee yoghurt and buy nuts you have never heard of. It is my ambition to get locked up in there for the night.
Metropolitan Museum of Art: This museum has exhibitions that are more entertaining and breathtaking than the shows on Broadway. My friend, ex Dutch No 1 Tom Okker, sparked my interest and I never missed a Summer exhibition at the Metropolitan when I played the US Nationals.
Jazz at The Carlyle: I used to stay with the saxophonist Stan Getz at his home (now a national monument) in Tarrytown, just outside New York, and all the great jazz musicians would gather after their respective gigs for evening jamming sessions. I didn’t get much sleep, but I sure developed a taste for jazz and blues music. The Carlyle Hotel is a venue on the Upper East side synonymous with jazz. I am not a fan of Woody Allen films with the exception of Midnight in Paris about encounters with great artists, but he is a good flautist and Woody Allen’s jazz quartet are regulars at The Carlyle. Moreover, if you’re staying in the hotel, the views from the upper floor apartments overlooking the park are some of the most spectacular in New York.
Yankee Stadium: Another character I befriended in NY was Hank Greenberg, one of baseball’s Hall of Famers, who played with the likes of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. lf one was in a car with Greenberg, it was like being in the president’s cavalcade – people would literally hang out of their windows and wave and yell and go berserk, he was such a popular local figure. He used to take me to Yankee Stadium and we would sit behind the catcher, so you could see the speed and flight of the balls delivered by the pitchers. The stadium oozes hotdogs and history and is noisier than a New York traffic jam.
Italian restaurants: Ever since I can remember, I have been fascinated by New York mobsters, probably because I came from a tough neighbourhood and Bugsy Segal was a name I could relate to. I hung out in tearoom bioscopes watching gangster movies. I later bumped into the Jewish godfather, Meyer Lansky, walking his miniature poodle in New York and it was a disappointment to see how frail and unimposing he and his dog looked in the flesh. Spaghetti bolognaise is a favourite and there is a good Italian restaurant on every corner in NY. Having watched so many episodes of The Sopranos, every time someone in a coat and hat walks through the door, I still think I may find myself face down in a plate.
Bloomingdales: It has slightly lost its lustre these days, given how many new stores open up in the Big Apple on a daily basis, but it was the ultimate department store in my tennis days and had the biggest range of gabardine trousers, which for me was standard wear, when I wasn’t sporting tennis gear. These days I would pop in in search of button-down cotton shirts. - Saturday Star