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!