Our Caribbean Adventure - continued: Issue # 64

. December 2012 .

Jake and the Under 12 Iguanas for 2012/13

Season's Greetings to you, faithful reader! .
We hope that you had a nice Christmas and that Santa was good to you.
Best wishes for 2013!
Another fairly busy month with the Christmas theme dominating most activities along with a bit of sport and even some travel.
Click here to see the previous issues (2007 - Oct 2012)

Havana Howlers Sevens - Cuba

Dave has been doing some coaching with the Women's Sevens teams at the Rugby Club. After the October Sevens were done, the club was invited to send a team to Havana, Cuba for their annual tournament.
Eventually a team was thrown together with consisted of Seven players (5 of which who were new to the game). Anyway, they did a little fundraising and some training and headed off to Havana on a Friday afternoon.
The accommodation wasn't exactly up there in the top ten Hotels of Cuba and some of the girls weren't all that happy. There were two rooms, one with two bunks, one with three, all crammed in. In addition there was a team of Rugby Rasta boys from Trinidad who were out for a good time and staying at the same place. It didn't bode well. They did however survive the night, just, but they decided to move to another venue anyway, which was a whole lot nicer.

A typical back street

The Rugby wasn't too bad for a team of beginners. They even scared the heavily favoured Canadian team and only narrowly lost.
They also managed a draw with the Cuban team who had been together for a while now, so that was promising. The Cuban rugby union arranged for two of their players to play for the Cayman side as they had no subs. Unfortunately one of the Cayman girls was injured early on and was pretty much out of the tournament from then, so they were pretty happy to have the Cuban girls there to help out. They both played well too and showed the Cayman girls a thing or two, despite the language barrier.

Taking a break between games

They played four games on the first day, and were pretty tired by the end of the day. But to their credit they headed out for the evening and checked out a few sights of Old Havana.

One of the Squares in Old Havana

Cayman select team, Cuba 2012

Injuries and fatigue set in on the Sunday morning. But another close loss and a draw were a reasonably positive way to finish the tournament. Four of the team had to then race back to the Hotel and then the airport for their massive one hour flight back to Cayman. The others remained to attend the 'Players Banquet" and to also have a wander about town on the Monday.

Bowl Champions!

The remainder of the team at the Banquet and prize giving

The next day was a relaxed one with a brief guided tour of Old Havana followed by 400 mojitos. Luckily the team was up for that and a fun afternoon was had!

A couple of Mojtos about to be demolished...and what? They serve Speight's in Cuba?

The trip back on the Tuesday was a quiet and (thankfully) short one. Another good tour and a great venue. Hopefully the trip can be repeated in 2013!

Click here to see more pics from the Cuba weekend!

Marathon

While Dave was roughing it in Cuba Michelle and 'the girls' entered a team in the Annual Cayman Marathon. They entered as a team so did a leg of approximately 10 km each. Michelle however wanted to attempt a half marathon on her own, so she ran the first leg as part of the team and then carried on for the second leg to complete her very first ever half!

She was pretty determined, especially after the minor disaster in the Triathlon a month earlier.

She ran a great first half, conscious of the team effort required, but a bit too fast as the second half then became a struggle. She wanted to complete the half in under two hours and since she did the first half in 52 mins she could afford to ease off in the second half. She plodded along, walked at the water stops to refuel and had a couple of toilet stops, struggled through the 11 mile mark then managed to pick it up a bit for the last mile or so, finishing in a decent time of 1 hour 54 mins, so she was pretty pleased with that.

The girls were the first girls team home for the 3rd year in a row - awesome for a bunch of old girls!

The boys also took part in the kids race which was an 800m sprint around town.

Hardly raised a sweat! Or is this before the race?

Sam was busy studying all weekend so did not part-take in the marathon this year - she had her first set of high school exams - she did quite a lot of studying with her best friend and ended up doing really well, topping off her term with mostly A grades, with the lowest being a B+ Well done Sam!

Christmas Hi Jinks
There are two properties here that put on a huge Christmas light display every year. This one is just down the road from us, opposite Sunset House (our local bar/restaurant). It seems to get bigger and brighter every year, although as the size of the property has not changed, it is starting to be a big crowed. A pretty amazing sight though.

Jake starred as a 'Day Dreaming Shepherd' in their Christmas concert. They put on a pretty good show and enjoyed doing it so that was pretty cool.

Day Dreaming Shepherds take it away!

Swimming

Sam and Michelle went to a swim meet in Jamaica, this time with about 20 other swimmers and supporters. They don't get to swim in a 50m pool very often so this was a great opportunity to swim well and give the Jamaicans a fright.

Despite a shaky start to the trip - the majority of the bags did not arrive until half way through the weekend (more of an issue for the supporters and Coach than the kids but who would have thought they'd lose their bags on a 45 minute direct flight?!), all the kids were pumped ready for a great swim meet - and they were all on fire - every single one of them swam amazingly well - it was so exciting to watch! The Jamaicans didn't know what hit them! Our kids were getting medals and top 10ing in just about all their races - they were brilliant! Sam swam especially well - 2 golds, 2 bronze and a 5th place, and every single swim a Personal Best and one a Meet record! Michelle was absolutely blown away - she was so proud of her! She had worked hard and really deserved to do well. Keep it up Sam! Another fantastic weekend!

Lining up for the start

This is what they do in Jamaica

Sam 'n Ella

More pics from the Jamaica swim meet

The swim training continues, and the club put on a fun Christmas swim meet on the Friday night before Christmas. The swimmers were split into two team - the Reds, and the Greens. Jake was in the Greens and Sam, the Reds. Swimmers were entered in a variety of races, with some being their worst strokes for a bit of fun. Santa was the starter and Coach Andy was an entertaining commentator as the races went by. Points were awarded in each race and it came down to the final relay race to decide the winning team - the Greens by one point!

They had prizes for the best dressed supporter, the loudest cheering, ugliest winter sweater and a few others to boot. Afterwards the kids enjoyed a good feast, filling up with loads of sugar as you do in the lead up to Xmas!

They had all age groups swimming against each other - Sam even did the bomb challenge and got 1st equal!

Guess who won the best dressed supporter?

Meanwhile Dave is out on a Christmas Jolly Roger boat trip

Christmas Day at Ours

Just like last year, Christmas day was at our place again. We are lucky enough to have a room that can seat 30 plus people at one time. We did have to borrow some tables and chairs however!

We started with a Christmas breakfast of Bubble and fruit salad with fresh hot croissants and ham and cheese. After that it was off to a friends house for Christmas drinks and nibbles. Then at about 2 - 3 ish, the party moved on to our place. We had 32 guests expected, and picked up a lonely sole on Christmas morning to make it 33. They all had prepared something in advance so it was fairly well organised. Some brought Turkey, others, Ham. Some provided vegetables, desserts and all the other bits and pieces that make Christmas so special.

We had a wonderful dinner, followed by present opening for the kids and a secret/greedy Santa game for the adults, where a lot of present stealing occurred making the game last a long time and getting the kids and adults very excited! It was all in good fun and everyone had a fantastic day!

The Dining Hall...

The bar area...

Dinner is served!

The girls model their new PJs

Santa's helper before her girls bookclub Xmas dinner (just an excuse to go out for dinner me thinks!)

There were a number of Xmas functions to attend as you do at this time of year - Michelle had a work function - they a lovely 3 course dinner at an Italian restaurant, loads of cocktails before, during and afterwards, as well as a few shots - it was a great night. Unfortunately, it clashed with a friend's party so Dave had to go out on his own to that one - another lot of good food, good company and good wine...

The boys headed out on the Saturday before Christmas for their Annual Christmas drinks. After a few quiets at the rugby club, they found themselves in Camana Bay sampling some of the ales. The standard dress code for this is Hawaiian shirts and Santa hats.

"Oops! Oi've lost me 'at"

Random sunset pic from Gov's beach, where we did visit a few times during December

Sam's Birthday

Boxing Day saw Sam's 12th birthday. Still feeling full from Christmas, it was only fitting that we go out for breakfast and eat even more food. The Marriott was the venue - mainly because we were too late to make anywhere else in time! So Sam and Sami and Sammie came along and had some fun, and plenty of food.

Sam's Angels?

In the afternoon it was around to a friends for their annual Boxing Day party and then to the Rugby Club for the Annual Boxing day game and Christmas dinner. After the game the club puts on a Christmas Turkey dinner (with bubbles) for all of the members. The crowd there even sang Happy Birthday to Sam, who was suitably embarrassed by the whole thing.

Visitors
Dave's brother Gordy, his Wife Lisa and also Podge and Siobhan Patterson from Waimate arrived on Sam's birthday after a fairly lengthy trip from NZ. They were due to arrive on Xmas day, but things didn't quite go to plan. But they made it, and I'm sure we'll hear their account of their travels and experiences in the January issue.

Waimos at Gov's beach

Enjoying a wee Mudslide at Sunset... Sunset House that is.

Click here for more photos from December and Christmas and other stuff!

Diving

Lisa managed to find her Diving card and brought it with her to Cayman. Michelle and Dave took her out for a shore dive the other day. Here's a couple of pics from that. We look forward to getting Lisa's account of diving in Cayman at the end of the month.

Anyway, here's a couple of pics to keep you entertained.