NEW YORK, NY, USA - Multiple Grand Slam champion and former No.1 Liezel Huber began her blog the week before the US Open and now continues to write to us from the last Grand Slam of the year. Read on!

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Hey everyone or shall I say bye?!

No, it's not goodbye yet. I promise to drop you a line and a picture (or two) after our finals tomorrow. I always have these good intentions of packing ahead of time... like tonight... but it doesn't happen. I am just enjoying watching the tennis on TV, so why disturb this 'peacefulness' by packing?! Tomorrow night (or any night that I HAVE to pack) I somehow am just SO sleepy and then I regret not packing the night before. I bet that will be the case tomorrow. My friends say, 'At least you are going home,' and that is true, but sometimes I am so busy at home that I don't get to unpack my suitcase until it is time to repack for another trip. I am embarrassed to admit that, but it's true. That's more the reason to pack my suitcase extra nice, so I don't have to worry about it if I don't get to unpack it right away... :-) When I put my suitcase and racket bag in my closet (my closet is very big), then my Jack Russell, Sam, sniffs madly in and around the luggage. He is searching for a tennis ball! I will make sure that I grab him one ball from the match tomorrow!!!

Today was another early day. Lisa and I hit before everyone else, because we figured that way we could take the rest of the day easy. We ended up doing our Russian visa... that was fun... NOT! I mean really... how many questions do you have to answer to complete the form. Who cares what my parents' names are. How can I possibly list ALL the countries I visited in the last 10 years?! Plus they needed two passport pictures each. All and all the total costs, including the pictures, Fed Ex, visa service and Russian visa fee, let's just say I could buy a Burberry handbag! I wouldn't because I don't need one, but if I did have to have one, I can't now :-( Fortunately this is the only time of the year we need visas and that I am grateful for. It seems like other players are consistently juggling multiple passports at consulates. We are not even sure if we are going to Russia for sure. It's better to be prepared and have the visa if we decide to play it. Someone once told me: prepare, prepare, prepare... and that's the motto I live by. Pros and cons to it, trust me!

I forgot to tell you, last night my parents took us out for Indian food. It was delicious of course. Tonight we went out for Thai food. We don't want to buy anymore food for the house, so we are going at it "New York style" and eating out! I am going to miss the city for sure. We live on a ranch in the country and not quite used to all this action. On the other hand I am looking forward to hearing my dogs barking! I am posting a couple of pictures of my puppies for you. We have two cats too, but good luck taking a picture of them. They are wild barn cats and when I say wild, I mean wild! We rescued them and named them, but that's about it. They get fed daily, they catch mice and we see them now and again if we are lucky.

We broke the puzzle up and put it back in the box. Yes, it defeated us. We are going to leave them here for the next guests :-) I ordered a 2000 piece puzzle online tonight. I will take it with me to Australia and we will do it during the Australian Open. It looks awesome, I can't wait! Remember I was telling you yesterday about my hectic Tuesday, it just got more hectic... I now have four appointments... 9am, 11am, 2pm and 4:30pm. Good luck to my suitcase getting unpacked...

It's 11pm and I am off to sleep... Big day tomorrow... I told Lisa to dream winners... I will do the same :-) Fingers crossed.

Night night,

xoxoxo
Liezel

Liezel's Open Blog: Friday
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Liezel's Open Blog: Tuesday
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Liezel's Open Blog: Saturday
Liezel's Open Blog: Friday
Liezel's Open Blog: Thursday
Liezel's Open Blog: Wednesday
Liezel's Open Blog: Tuesday
Liezel's Open Blog: Monday
Liezel's Pre-Open Blog