Issue # 46 - June's Jaunts

. June 2011.

Hello again, and welcome to our June edition. Yes it has been a month for jaunts - Jake and Dave headed to the Bahamas for the Under 10 and Under 12 Rugby tour (Dave didn't make either team), and Michelle headed off to Charlotte to play in a Gaelic Football tournament.

In amongst all that was the Annual Rugby Club Dinner, the Annual Gaelic Gaala Ball, a lengthy swim meet, a Mile sea swim, some Soccer (or Football if you prefer that), a spot of Diving and that should about cover it. If there's anything else, it'll be included below so without any further waffling from me grab your tea/coffee/beer/wine and enjoy our attempt at keeping you entertained, even for a few short moments.

Charlotte Turns Green

Michelle donned her 'I Love Guinness' Tee shirt (just t' be sure t' be sure!) and headed off to Charlotte, along with a large proportion of Cayman's Irish folk, to play in a Gaelic Football tournament. The Gaelic season ended here a few weeks back and this was the end of season tour.

There were teams from Washington, Cayman, Charlotte, and an Irish club from somewhere else...The standard was very good and while the girls got thrashed, the guys team put up a great fight. The guys won their first two games and narrowly lost the third, coming second in the tournament. The girls tried hard but could not compete with the superb kicking skills of the other teams - their skills were such that they would not have looked out of place in the men's league. The Cayman girls were forced to play a defensive game and spent most to the time in their half but did manage to get some points on the board. They were quite relieved when a minor tornado/storm came through forcing the last game to be cancelled.

Being a team of consummate professionals, pre-match drinking was kept to a minimum.

The cup that got away - Captain Michelle & Coach Garry managed to get their hands on it long enough for a photo

The highlight of the weekend was the party bus. A bus had been organised to take them from the airport to their hotel and to/from the pitch. They got quite a surprise to see the bus lined up for them - a big old black one, complete with dance pole, disco lights, fridge and very loud music (and not a lot of room for suitcases!). The girls took over the back and used the music as a good vocal warm up before (and after) the games.

A quiet night was had by the more serious players on the Friday night, heading to bed about 12.30am after enjoying a good Irish meal at one of the local Irish pubs and a few quiet drinks at another. Sat night the girls had a nice team dinner before heading out to the after party back at one of the Irish pubs, including an Irish band. All the teams went and they partied until they were kicked out at 2.30am, then it was back to Michelle & her room-mate's room for a couple of nightcaps before getting to bed at 4am. Luckily, the girls had agreed to meet at midday so they were able to get a decent sleep in, before heading off to a mall for a bit of shopping. Surprisingly, the shopping was a bit slow to start with, until after a feed - then Michelle managed to do a bit of damage to the credit card! After re-packing the suitcase, the girls went up to the rooftop pool and had a few drinks and a swim, before heading out to join the boys at yet another Irish pub. What they thought would be a quiet night, ending up being another late one, getting to bed about 5am - man, those Irish can party! Shame they had to be at the airport by 9am - it was a very long day and Michelle even had to play a game of touch that evening!

Despite the lack of sleep, it was a fantastic weekend with a great bunch of people - Michelle had still not fully recovered her voice!

This is the pre-match tradition of locating the ball. If you find it, you get to start with it.

Triathlon

Michelle during the running leg of a recent triathlon

After the November sprint triathlon last year, Michelle has been trying to keep up the running and cycling with a view to doing the full one this year. She has participated in a couple of tris recently, another sprint one (800m swim in the pool, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run) where she came 6th, and a social one last weekend (approx 400m swim, 10mile bike, 3 mile run) where she came 3rd. She is always strong on the swim and one of the early ones out of the pool/sea but despite still using a friends road bike, quite a few manage to catch her on the cycle and the run which can be a bit depressing counting the numbers passing her, but she's doing pretty well for an old girl!

Diving
Now that we have some of our weekends back (Rugby & Gaelic have finished for the year) we headed across the road with Sam in tow for dive last weekend. It was a relatively simple dive (although Dave left his weights in his dive back and wondered why he couldn't descend very well...) to a depth of around 50 feet. Sam isn't supposed to go deeper than that as there has been no research into the effects of Nitrogen on growing bones. So, as a safety precaution, we'll stick with that until she gets a bit older. Although having said that, you wouldn't think she'd have that much growing left in her!

Mr Lobster comes out to say hello
There is plenty of sea life around at that depth and we weren't disappointed. Plenty of Grouper loitering around, as well as a couple of Lionfish, a Lobster, Queen Angel Fish, some cool shrimps and other bits n pieces. Even a big old turtle came out to see who was in his garden.

Shrimps, having a little get together

More Dive Pics

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150188681788602.306621.766998601&l=dcd16f19d8


RUGBY

Bahamas Tour

The Cayman Islands Under 10 and the Under 12 Rugby teams headed for Bahamas in June. Jake has been training with the Under 10's all season and after the disappointment of having their annual fixture against Bermuda cancelled,the club arranged for a tour to the Bahamas.

Dave has been helping out with the Coaching of this group and went along as well.

There were about 35 kids going, so it was always going to be full on for the adults who travelled, and for one reason or another, many of them didn't get a whole lot of sleep over the weekend.

They headed off from Cayman on the Friday night on the Regular BA flight enroute to London, which stops at Nassau. There were a few looks of horror on some of the faces of the other passengers when 35 loud kids raced onto the plane and started chanting "We're off to London!"
Fortunately for those people staying on the flight, the rowdy bunch deplaned after only two hours of the trip, never to be seen again of that flight.
They overnighted in a seedy Hotel in dodgy part of Nassau. But maybe all of Nassau is dodgy, it was hard to tell.
After very little sleep the group boarded an early morning plane to Freeport, where the games would be played. It was a short flight and they were soon sorting out rooms and breakfast in the new digs.
After that it was off to the rugby ground, which was just around the corner. Unfortunately for Jake, his room mate and Dave, they took the wrong corner and walked halfway across the island before a lady stopped and asked them if they were looking for the Rugby Club. "Why yes!" they replied, "How could you know that?"
"Probably by the Rugby kit the boys are wearing", she replied dryly "Hop in, that's were we are headed."
So, they finally made it to the ground and the rest of the team soon arrived (on foot). There were enough kids in the U10 to form a Cayman side, and a Bahamas side, with the remainder forming 'The Barbarians' and they played a round robin tournament.

The Cayman team took that out with Jake scoring his first 'International' points.
This was followed by a BBQ and a couple of shandies back at the hotel by the pool. Kids off to bed. Silence ensued. Well it was pretty quiet apart from the low murmuring of the coaches and the occasional clink of glass as they enjoyed a beer or two while keeping one eye fixed on the rooms where the kids were. None escaped and all were accounted for in the morning.
The next day was Test day. The boys all got issued with their new Test strip and had team photos taken before heading down to the ground for a 10:30 start. True to form, the game kicked off on (island) time at 11:45.

The 2011 Cayman Islands Under 10 Test Rugby Team

The Under 10's were first up. They accounted for the relatively inexperienced Bahamas side quite easily, coming away 50 - Nil victors. Jake used his pace on the wing to score two tries in the big game. He was pretty happy about that, especially as he was the youngest on the team.

The Under 12's drew their test in a very entertaining game.

Sorry, no time for autographs!

A post match celebratory beer - at least we think it was post-match...

After the games everyone was ferried to a local resort beach and they spent the afternoon there either playing on the beach or in the pool (OK, there was a bar there too).

Then it was back to the hotel for an early night, which no-one got and then an even earlier wake up (4am) to catch the flight to Miami and then back to Cayman.
There were some pretty tired bodies that dragged themselves off the plane in Cayman. But they were pretty happy tired bodies all the same.
A great trip!

More Pics from the Bahamas trip:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150203641618602.311571.766998601&l=0e32468f38

The Iguana Loose Forward Trio

Annual Rugby Dinner
While Michelle was away in Charlotte, the Rugby Club Dinner was taking place at Camana Bay. The guest speaker was to be Phil Vickery, but he had to withdraw at the last minute. But fortunately Harry Ellis (Google Him if you need to) was sitting somewhere close to Heathrow airport and was able to fly over with less than 12 hours notice. He was an entertaining after-dinner speaker and seemed to enjoy the dinner, as well as the rest of the weekend the club put on for him. He enjoyed a beer or two while he was here and wants to come back!

Dave sat at his team the Iguana's (League Champions... again) table, which was there for a good time, and not a long time as it turned out. Dave managed to survive and left the do on two feet, which is more than can be said for several others.

MORE Pics from the dinner:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150207812928602.313008.766998601&l=e8f7ed08d9

Touch Rugby

The Summer Touch League is up and running now. 24 teams, in three divisions. This year Michelle's work has a team in it (3rd Div). The majority got their first taste of Touch last season and have come back for more. Last year was a season of continual improvement with the team winning most of their games toward the end of the season. This year, they have won their first two games and just last week suffered their first loss. Dave also plays for the team as well as one or two other notable local Touch Exponents (just so the side has a little bit of direction). Michelle scored three tries in the first game and two in the second and is currently the highest scorer in ladies table. Dave has dotted down a couple of times, but who hasn't!

Dave also plays for another team in the third Div. Their aim is to lose all of their games, but sometimes this doesn't work. Some opposition teams are that average that you can't give the game away. Although they actually did that last week. After beating a side (without really trying) 5 - 2, they decided to default the game, otherwise the team management would have fined them a serious amount of Buckets of Heineken. The team manager sent an e-mail out the following day, it read: "If we are going to lose this competition, we are going to lose it properly!"

Swim Meet
It was a busy weekend while Michelle was in Charlotte. The kids had the last swim meet before the summer break. It was held on the Friday night and the Sunday morning (groan!) of that weekend.

Both Sam and Jake had been training well leading up to the weekend and they both did really well.

Same came away with either a First or Second in all of her races (as well as PB's in all) and Jake placed in all but two and had PB's in all but one.

Sam took out the high points award for her age group. Jake missed out by a whisker.

Sea Swim

Sam and some other little fishies before the swim

Been there, done that (again) and got the tee shirt

On the Saturday of the same weekend, the Mile Sea swim was on. Dave, Sam and Jake were entered (Michelle was disappointed to miss it this time round). This also happened to be the day after the Rugby club dinner so one of the aforementioned three wasn't actually feeling in peak form.

But away they went and arrived at the beach to get ready for the race. Dave sat in the sand for a while wondering why he had entered, knowing full well that the night before was going to be an issue. But he was boosted by the sight of several other Dinner attendees from the previous night who didn't look that much better.

The kids were raring to go, and so they did and they had dried off and eaten about three pieces of pizza each and had a coke before Dave dragged himself up the beach at the finish.

Sam started near the front and finished in 33:57 and 256th overall. Jake was 40:25 (432nd) and Dave floated in in 46:35 (595th). There were 800 entrants to the race. The number is limited for safety reasons. It is a huge event that has been going for 19 years now and it's popularity is growing each year. We look forward to next year's swim on June 9 2012!

Inter Primary School Football Champions

Sam has been playing in the school fotball team for the last two seasons. This season started off with a 1 -1 nail biter, but since then they haven't lost a game. Dave managed to catch a couple of games and thought they were a really good team with some talented players.

They were crowned league champions for 2011.

Gaelic GAAla Ball

The Gaelic season finished a week or so back. Michelle's team beat the top team to make the final, but unfortunately they were beaten on the day by a team that they had previously beaten twice in the league but on finals day was able to shut down Michelle's team's main points scorer. They also nearly took out Michelle in a big clash over a high ball - she came off worst with a bruised thigh but managed to finish the game - it didn't look like much but took her a week to get over it! It was a good game though.

Dave's team got their arse kicked all year, and finals day was no different. They do however have the dubious record of having won every second half of every game they played all year. If only they could play a first half properly!

A quick stop at the Triple Crown on the way to the ball

Anyway, the Friday following the Rugby Dinner was the night for the Gaelic ball. Buses were put on from one of the pubs in town which took everyone out to the Cracked Conch, and back later.

They had a dinner and prizegiving followed by plenty of dancing and imbibing. Another great night out...and some people even got a sleep-in the next day!

More Gaelic Ball pics:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150219946008602.315143.766998601&l=9dbf2887a0

Sam shows off the latest 'do' on the Caribbean

Next Month:

Hmmmmm.... not too sure what is on the horizon for July. The kids started their Summer Holidays today and will be off school until September...

I'm sure we'll find something to fill in your coffee break, so don't fret!

Issue # 45 - May Daze

. May 2011 .

Art Lovers....


Hello again,

Here we are back for another month of exciting news and current events.
A relatively quiet month by all accounts (not really).
Michelle does Jamaica. Sam goes to Sarasota. Jake and Dave have a boys weekend (all three the same weekend!). Sam does her Open Water Scuba course. A few other bits n bobs.


But before we start, we just wanted to send our best wishes to Dave's Brother Gordy, and Lisa, his Wife to be. Getting married this weekend. Big party in Waimate on 4 June, and probably on 5 June as well if we know any of the people that are going.

Beach Day

We usually get at least one beach day in a month, usually on a Sunday. May was no different.

A bunch of us headed to governor's beach with the usual supplies and enjoyed a nice day out. It's always nice just to sit on the beach, have a cool drink (or two) and have a laugh and watch the world go by.
Jake wanted to take a picture of the sunset at the beach so here it is.


Sam's Diving

Sam did her Open Water Dive course the week after we got back from Las Vegas. She is now PADI Open Water Qualified, which is pretty cool, and she thinks it's pretty awesome as well. She did four dives on the course and then last weekend went out for a shore dive with Michelle, Dave and their mate Mick.

Checking out the guages

Sam spotted the Flamingo Tongue

And a little Shrimp!

First Swim through


Christmas Tree worms

Sam is really relaxed in the water (apart from when a large Tarpon came to say hello) and we hope to take her on dives as regularly as we can. Because of her age she is restricted to 40 feet in depth, but that is fine as there are plenty of sites here that are more than suitable, and the majority of the sea life tend to hang around at that depth anyway.

Last weekend's dive site was handy, straight across the road!

Click: Sam's Dive Pics for more pics

Touch Seeding Day

Last weekend was the opening day for the Summer Touch League. Michelle's work team is putting in another team which both Michelle and Dave are playing in. They managed to win all three of their games on the day despite the weather (which was very hot and humid) and trying not to win as they didn't want to go up a Division (they were clearly not very good at throwing the games)! Luckily they found out they will remain in the social 3rd division.

Dave also plays for another side - Grizz's Old Fellas, which is a slightly more social team who gets fined if they win a game. The team is actually quite good and can play well when they want to. The enjoy making the other teams work for their win!

The league itself starts in the next week so we'll bring you udates, and maybe even the odd pic from that.

ome games are being broadcast on the Free to Air http://www.caymanrugbytv.com/

Check it out!

SWIMMING

Cayman Swim Team to Sarasota

Sam continues to develop as a swimmer and during May had the opportunity to travel to Sarasota (Florida) to compete in a swim meet there. It was a huge event and the first time Sam, and a few others, had ever swam in a 50 metre pool. Neither Michelle or Dave could travel that weekend so Sam bravely travelled with some other friends for the weekend. They were up against some pretty classy competition and Sam did well, but didn't quite make the podium. She did all PBs and was comfortably within the top 10 in each event so a good start to her swimming career.

Recieving her award after the 1/2 Mile Sea swim last month

Swim Meet

Yep, there was yet another swim meet last weekend. Both Sam and Jake entered a number of races and came away with some good results and another stash of medals and PBs before they headed off to birthday parties and sleepovers!

Gaelic Football
After a few weeks off the final round of the Gaelic league came up - neither Michelle or Dave's teams had been going that well - a few wins and losses all season and the league winners had already been determined from the previous rounds so no pressure for these games. Michelle's team pulled off a pretty good win but Dave's team could not get out of their losing streak. One more set of games with finals day coming up next month - what happened during the league counts for nothing on finals day, except for who plays who in the first round so watch this space...

Girls Weekend in Jamaica

It was Michelle's good friend Lisa's 40th and what better way to celebrate than a girls trip to Jamaica. Michelle had never been to Jamaica before and wasn't sure what to expect, especially after Dave's rugby trip to Kingston, where it's a bit dodgy. They knew they wouldn't be able to get cider or good wine there so stocked up before they went and at Duty free. Laden with plenty of booze and a few clothes (some more than others) they arrived at Kingston airport on Friday evening, and were met by John Wayne, who was their bus driver to their destination. His bus came complete with chilli bin of ice and a crate of beer (they knew they didn't need to take that with them - Red Stripe is made there), which prepared them well for the 3 hour hair raising bus trip over the hills to Port Antonio. They stayed in a quaint house that came with two cooks and a personal guard/guide. The guide went with them when they went walkabout and took them out in the boat that also came with the house, and the ladies cooked breakfast and dinner for them the whole time.

One of the girls had organised a few outings and the first one was to Reach Falls. They arrived at a beautiful National Park after an hour's bus trip (no beer this time though!) and were guided down to the falls. It wasn't massive but was very spectatcular. The guide took them through the falls into a cave behind, then proceeded to take them on a trek up the stream/river. They climbed through rocks, swam through water, and ended up being taken down into a cave under neath the water - it was pretty cool. They had to be pulled out one by one, out of a small opening, under water to get out.

Ok, how do we get out of this one?

They worked up quite an appetite with the waterfall excursion and went in search of food on the way back. The driver took them to the local Jerk place where the interesting looking locals were very happy to see the tourists. They ordered jerk pork, chicken and lobster which was served wrapped up in paper (like fish and chips) and washed it down with a few Red Stripes (and BYO cider). Wasn't quite as good as expected but was very edible and the beer was great!

Would anyone like another beer?

The late afternoon included a boat trip, captained by their guide Marcus, to Monkey Island (which no longer has any monkeys) where the girls relaxed in the water with a few drinks.

The next excursion was river rafting - not quite the river rafting that first comes to mind but was the sort that was very relaxing, where a guide punted them down the river for 2 1/2 hours while they relaxed, and enjoyed the view, water and beer/cider (again!). It was very nice.

They went to quite a nice restaurant for lunch (more pork or chicken) then had a quiet afternoon reading, sleeping and swimming.

On the morning of the last day they went on a 30 minute walk to a nearby beach (Winifred Beach) - it was very beautiful - lovely blue sea, lots of trees and grass, a small pond, quite a few little bars set up, a small restaurant where they had a fantastic lunch (much to their surprise), and a few locals selling their wares. It was very pleasant and very difficult to bring themselves to leave to get ready to go home.

The Famous Blue Lagoon

The house was on the hill above the Blue Lagoon (yes, from the movie with Brooke Shields in the old days). The girls made sure they swam in it every day - it was quite amazing - very blue (funnily enough), very deep (180 feet), and very cold in places - it's mostly sea water but is also fed by a fresh water stream making the top couple of inches of water across the lagoon very cold, making for interesting swimming (hot, cold, with quite a few squeals!). The girls found a rope hanging from a tree that was over the water and had to have a go at being Tarzan - wasn't that successful as the rope was in the wrong place so they made do with jumping out of the tree into the water - was great fun! Michelle even tried climbing up the rope a few times after an Italian guy decided to show off in front of the girls and demonstrate how strong he thought he was!

The girls had an absolute ball - as well as all of the above day time activities, evenings included cocktails, wine, beer, cider, rum, food, dancing (the cooks and guide even joined them for a while!), pedicures and massages. As they packed up to leave, they thought they still had quite a lot of booze left over but they managed to clean it all up on the 3 hour bus trip back! What troopers and what an amazing weekend!
More pictures from the Jamaica trip can be seen here:

Jam Pics

Boys weekend in Cayman

So, while Sam was jetsetting over to Florida and Michelle was rarking it up in Jamaica, Jake and Dave were at home looking after the cats and keeping the house tidy.

They had a pretty good weekend really. Friday night was Jake's sailing, then off to the Rugby club for happy hour. Jake was feeling hungry so he took Dave out for dinner at Sunset house where they had a nice meal, a few drinks, and sold some raffle tickets for the rugby club raffle.

The next day was the usual saturday. Rugby in the morning and sailing (for Jake) in the afternoon. Following that, they had arranged for a few other deserted and neglected males of the island to come around and talk about how much they missed their wives, mums & girlfriends who just happened to be in Jamaica partying it up.

The BBQ was fired up. The kids were in the pool. The fridge was stocked. And no-one to nag at them! Bliss! They ate when they got hungy. The kids stayed up a little later than usual, and the older boys sat round and talked rubbish while demolishing the beer stocks. The majority of them stayed over, even Bruno the Boxer had a sleep over, much to the disgust of the two resident felines.

Sunday was up and at 'em for a midday gathering at another neglected sole's place. There they watched the Cayman v Mexico rugby game live from Mexico City. Unfortunately the Cayman boys lost it in the last 20, so it was outside to the pool and BBQ, as well as some cards. An afternoon of poker and beer ensued which was a lot of fun. Jake drove home.

Monday was a holiday, and a quiet day for Jake and Dave. They met some friends at Sunset house for lunch and then chilled for the rest of the day until Sam arrived back from her travels, and then Michelle staggered in a bit later on.

So, a pretty good weekend for the boys. They are looking forward to next weekend when Jake and Dave head off to Bahamas with the Cayman Under 10 Rugby Team for a weekend of rugby over there. Watch this space!

Sailing

Jake continues to do his sailing on a Saturday afternoon in the Optimists. They have a regatta coming up this weekend but the forcast is for 20 knot winds so they minf have to postpone that.

He's having fun being in control of his own little boat.

On fridays after school, both Sam and Jake sail in the Picos and have a lot of fun then. Dave goes out to collect them after and sometimes enjoys a nice cold friday afternoon beer at the same time.
Weather

Hurricane season is officially open again, and as per usual the informed weather forcasters are covering their bases be prediciting up to half a million tropical storms, 342 Hurricanes and widespread rain and win until November. Not really, but we'll all get out Hurricane supplies in and make sure we are best prepared for whatever weather systems come along.

NEXT MONTH:

Next month looks pretty full on by all accounts.

We have the Gaelic Footy Finals Day, a Gaelic tour to Charlotte and end of year ball.

There is also the Rugby dinner (with Phil Vickery), the start of the touch league, and a rugby tour to Bahamas.

There is also the 1 Mile Sea Swim, the end of season Swim Banquet and a swim meet as well!