. November 2012 .
Well hello and welcome to our new page.
We had to start a new one as the other was full. You can still view the old Blog, and all of the previous editions by clicking on this link:
http://baileybviadventure.blogspot.com/2012/11/issue-62-october-breeze.html
Anyway! November. It's just gone, and man was it a busy one. Probably the buisest month for a while! Plenty going on for us. Some traveling, some parties, Pirates Week and lots of sports. It's all right here!
We don't want to hold you up any longer, so read away!
Swimming
Sam and Jake have been doing a lot of training over the last wee while. And it's paying off with some great swim times being posted by both of them. Sam is on her quest to qualify for the CARIFTA champs next year. This time in Jamaica. She made the team that went to Bahamas last April.
There was a big swim meet at the Lions pool during Pirates week.
The meet started on the Wednesday night with some of the longer races being scheduled then. They also had a couple of Masters events, and Michelle entered the 200m Free and also the 50m Free. She won them both (she was the only woman entry)!
Sam blew away the field in a couple of her races and posted some AA qualifying times for Carifta. If she can keep the training up she may even get to AAA!
Jake powers away in the Butterfly.
Sam on the blocks for the 200 Free Relay
Jake prepares while the Eagle Eyed Stroke and Turn Judge watches on, just itching to use that clipboard.
The relay team doing Push-ups as a punishment for breathing during their turns
Washington
Michelle and a bunch of friends headed to Washington DC for a girls weekend of shopping, sightseeing and a few drinks in between. The girls included some girls that used to live in Cayman but now live in the US, UK and Canada, so it was great to catch up with and meet all the girls. The object of the first day was to get as much shopping in as possible, but it was a slow start to the day for Michelle as she had one too many glasses of wine for dinner and she wasn't in a shopping mood. At least, that was the case initially - once she got going there was no turning back - loads of clothes and Xmas shopping was accomplished so ultimately a successful day! Then it was off out for dinner and then Michelle and Tonya braved the night scene...which was quite an experience - first they went to a club opposite their hotel and discovered it was full of 12 year olds (well they looked about that old anyway!), then they were taken to another club that would be more their age and they stood out like sore toes being so pale, then they decided to go to a regular Irish bar which was much more their style!
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| Tonya came from Canada for the weekend (via Cayman) |
The best way to see the sights of Washington - it was a fantastic day - even if a bit fresh
Tonya, Michelle and Lisa making the most of the good weather
The second day the group split up to do various sightseeing - Michelle and Tonya went to 3 museums - the Smithsonian museums are free and really good - you could spend days there - it was a bit hard trying to do three in one day so needless to say, they were pretty tired by the third one and didn't finish going through it. They went back to the hotel for a rest, then Michelle got a second wind and decided to get in a bit of shopping at the nearest sports shop. Later that night the girls met for dinner again and Michelle and Tonya decided to have one more go at a night out on the town - this time they got advice from some more "in" people and they ended up at a really neat bar/club that was once a house and each room had a bar in it and different music - they had a great time dancing and eventually rolled home about 3am! The next day was a slower start and then they had quite a job of packing all the purchases in the suitcases and that kept them busy for a few hours! After breakfast, they did some last minute sightseeing then headed to the airport to say their goodbyes. It was a fantastic weekend with a great bunch of girls!
There are lots more cool photos from this trip. Click HERE to see them!
Sam enjoying her special bread - all the way from Canada!
School Sports
The High School Athletics were held a week or two ago.
Sam was there, all decked out in their Redpath house colours.
About 6 weeks ago, Sam said that she hates running. This was when their swim coach had started them doing running as part of their dry-land training.
Now, we hear that Sam has entered herself in the 800 & 200m races!
The 800 didn't quite go to plan with Sam finishing just outside the medal spots.
The 200m however was a different story. Off she went, starting back in Lane 5 and slowly overhauled the rest of the field. With 50m to go she hit the front. And stayed there. In fact she won by about 20 metres!
2nd Gold of the meet. Sam also won the High Jump!
Sam later got selected to represent the School in the Inter School Athletics last week. She was entered in the High Jump and also the 200m. Against some tougher opposition this time she ran a good race but ended in 4th place in the 200.
In the high jump she cruised through to win the event without too much trouble.
Sailing
Sam's friend Skyler was down from Canada for the week. On the Friday, after the School athletics, they headed out to the sailing club for a liesurely sail together. This is something that Sam and Jake used to do every Friday after school. With Sam's swim schedule a little more congested it's usually just Jake out on the sea. Dave usually goes down to pick them up after work on a Friday. Great spot for a beer at the end of the week!
Then it was off to the Pirates Week festivities.
Sammie, Sam and Skyer wait for the Fireworks to begin.
The Fireworks on the Friday night mark the official start of Pirates week here in Cayman.
It's a pretty big event with Tourist Pirates coming from afar every year to join in the fun.
The fireworks is pretty spectacular, especially for a small country like Cayman. They had some new pyrotechnics that blasted out of the water! Pretty cool!
You can see all of the Fireworks pics in the Pirates Week album.
Click here to see.
Saturday was the official Pirates Landing where a couple of Pirate ships come in and invade George Town looking to pillage a few lusty wenches and to guzzle some rum.
Before the main event, there were a few other displays. The latest craze in Jet Packs was on display.
They also had some nutters diving out of a Helicopter from 100 feet. Straight into the Harbour.
Speaking of wenches...
Time for the procession of floats.
This float got plenty of cheers.Funny that...
The town was packed with onlookers, pirates and whoever else that doesn't fit in those categories.
Cardboard Boat Race
Another part of Pirates week is the Carboard Boat race. Michelle's work team entered what could be loosely called a boat. It was in the form of a Swiss Army Knife. They had spent hours making this thing at night during the week. Some suspect that they spent hours drinking while one or two put this thing together. Anyway, that's them in the white shirts with the various Swiss Army Knife Gadgets protruding from their heads.
And they're off!
And now they're really really off.
Maybe it's a Swiss Submarine...
OK, maybe accountants shouldn't build boats. But they had a ball anyway!
Some other marginally more successful entries.
To the Bat Cave!
Goober I and Goober II out on the town after the Boat race.
Freaks...
Nice hair!
Needed that!
See the many many more great Pirates Week photos by clicking here!
Michelle's Girls Night
Michelle celebrated her birthday in November, several times in fact!
Dave and the kids took her out to Grand Old House on her birthday, and then on the Friday, the girls all got their best wigs out and spent a night having fun - a bite or two of food, a few cocktails and a lot of dancing made for a very fun night!
BVI Folk may recognise this one...
Triathlon
This year Michelle decided to do the Olympic distance triathlon again and see if she could go faster than last year - she had done the training and was feeling relatively confident, although still a bit worried about the run. It was a perfect day for it - a bit overcast and not much wind.
The swim went well and she was the second girl out of the water, then it was off on the bike. The bike went ok, apart from nearly coming off at the second turn around right in front of the spectators - she wobbled a bit but was thankfully able to stay upright and carry on as if nothing had happened! As usual in the bike, quite a few people passed her, including two of the women individual triathletes, so now she was in third place coming into the run.
She was starting to feel a bit fatigued by the run so it took a little while to get into her stride. She was doing ok although wasn't too pleased with having to do the same loop four times - finally she was on the last loop - really starting to feel it but just trying to hang in that third spot, then she noticed that she had been gaining on the second place female so after the last turn around she decided to try and catch her up, thinking that she didn't have very far to go - unfortunately, it turns out that she was a bit dillusional by this time and was still about 700m from the finish, when she was sprinting as if she was about to finish...suddenly everything goes black and she passes out! She comes too and finds herself lying on grass surrounded by people - she is too exhausted to open her eyes or speak but hears all that is happening. The ambulance arrives and takes her off to the hospital where she is diagnosed to be severely dehydrated and spends the next fours hours being rehydrated. She was very upset that she didn't finish the race, especially when she was in 3rd position and with less than half a mile to go but she learnt a very big lesson - she has got to learn to run while taking water, and make sure she takes on water before as well as during endurance races! Maybe next year???
Random pic of the house. The lawn mower guy isn't really the best in town.
Beach!
No month is a real month without a day at the beach. We made it a few times in November.
One day we were treated by seeing our good friend Tonya and Russ emerge from the water after swiming all the way down from Canada to see us!
Luckily we had a beer waiting for them as they were mightily parched!
Beautiful...
That's better!
More beach pics, click here!
MOvember Touch Tournament
A Corporate Touch tournament was held to raise funds for MOvember - you were encouraged to have new people on your team and got points for each new person, as well as points for the amount of beer the team drank. You could play a Mo-Jo card and challenge another team to a boat race and if the team winning the boat race also won the touch game then they got double points - so you didn't have to be the best team to get in the quarter and semi finals (although it did help!). We had 3 wins and a loss in the morning and made it to the quarter finals - unfortunately, we came up against the best team and got knocked out at that point. Luckily most of us had had a few beers by then and were not at all perturbed to not make it any further! It was a very fun day for all!
It was a Social tournament...
Michelle even had to participate in the boat races - it's not that easy to play while burping bubbles form cider!
Proud in pink!
See more photos from November by clicking here!
MOvember
Yep, MOvember. Everybody loves it. Don't they?
Check out Daves progress through the month.
Ain't that cute!!
Go on. Get closer!
Final result!
Like?
Dave is off to Cuba when the MOvember party is on but Michelle is on the case this year for the first time.
When she arrives at the new venue she is surprised to find it quite empty (even though she thought she was late) and with loads of women dressed up with MO's - there were a few men but not as many as she thought there'd be but eventually the place filled up with more men in their MOs and the show began...
There was an interesting group of guys that got everyone's attention, especially with their introductory semi strip-tease dance - was very entertaining, and then they had the competitions including Magnum, Barely there, and MoSister (which Michelle actually entered in but did not win!). Michelle actually had a little difficulty watching the competition as she was wearing Sam's new sun-glasses (with Mo attached) and couldn't see a lot through them so has absolutely no idea who won the ultimate Man of MOvember!! So much for sending a replacement journalist! Here are a few of the choice outfits that she did see...
More MOvember pics... click here!
NEXT MONTH:
Dave heads to Cuba - coaching a Seven's Rugby Side.
The Cayman Islands Marathon is on next week.
Michelle and Sam travel to Jamaica for a Swim Meet
Santa might visit?
Someone else might visit - who's it going to be?
