. July 2014 .
Hello and welcome to the July edition. A fairly busy month it seems. The school holidays start. July and August off school! Plenty of sport, with some social events to boot!
You need to have a bit of balance in life after all!
So, without any further waffling from me, read on!
Annual Rugby Club Player's Dinner
It's that time of year again. Time to dig out the old black tie and jacket and head off to the Players Dinner. Michelle was away in St Pete's with Jake on a swim trip (more to follow on that) so Dave went to the dinner on his own and teamed up with the CRTV table - a bunch of guys in a like situation... This year the dinner was held at the Marriott.
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| Pre-dinner drinks. Clearly, abs are the topic of conversation. |
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| A little aperitif for the CRTV table.... |
As you may have guessed, Dougie Howlett (of All Black & Munster fame) was the guest speaker this year. The club flew him and his wife and kids down from Ireland for about 10 days of Cayman sightseeing and hospitality. By all accounts he had a great time and was well received by the club members as well.
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| A request was put out for all of the Kiwis present to join with Doug in a Haka. Just doing the pre-haka brief. |
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| Yes, the rest of the kiwis did join in. |
As is customary, he gave his speech and then the floor was open to questions. A few people asked if their Mercedes was safe in the carpark, or would the speaker be venturing out later to do some panel work (cast your mind back to a previous world-cup result that didn't end well...).
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| More kiwis (and below) |
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| Not Kiwis - but the photo-bomber over Dave's shoulder is Married to one! |
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| Note the Dougie Howlett wig on the left at the rear. |
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| Marty (Kiwi) and Amanda are heading back to NZ after living here for about 20years. Here they are pictured with Mr. and Mrs. Howlett. |
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| Couldn't not get a pic! |
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| The Scottish reps. |
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| Thief! |
The dinner was another huge success. When isn't it? There were plenty of stories of penguin-like critters roaming the streets of George Town at all hours. Obviously Dave wasn't one of those. He had a rugby game the next day.
Off to the club on a very hot Saturday afternoon for Marty's Testimonial match. It was to be the Oldies versus the Club. And the club has a few handy players as well. Fortunately a bunch of them were in Cuba for the weekend, so we were in with a chance!
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| Keeping cool(er) in the shade pre-match. |
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| Doug is having a laugh! |
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| The fitness and skill of the oldies team was something to behold... |
As it turned out, the oldies managed to come away with the win. A little bit of skill, a lot of cunning, and having an All Black score three tries seemed to help!
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| Well, he did ask. |
Diving
With Michelle and Jake away swanning around Florida for the weekend, Sam and Dave decided to go for a dive. So they popped over to Sunset House and went for nice easy shore dive.
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| The Mermaid is always popular! |
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| There's always one... |
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| This is an old landing craft |
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| Christmas Tree worms! |
We haven't been out as a family for a while. Maybe we can do that sometime soon.
Swim News
Just when we thought the swim season was drawing to a close, it gets busier!
Jake headed off to St Pete's (Florida) for a swim meet. Michelle went along as Manager.
This trip was generally for the younger swimmers, so there was a little bit more 'mothering' required at times. Michelle was kept fairly busy ferrying the kids about and keeping them entertained between sessions.
Jake has some good swims too, so he came back fairly happy!
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| Nose-Bag time. |
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| Apparently these are Locusts. They happened to park themselves outside the window of the restaurant. |
Jake even got in the local news.
Sam also went to Sarasota for a swim meet. That was mainly as a build-up to the Zones swim meet coming up and also to qualify for additional races at the Zones meet. She was a little unlucky with the weather as a few sessions were canceled because of the weather (Electrical storms) and she didn't get the opportunity to put in some additional times for the events she wanted. But she had already qualified for some races at the the Zones meet anyway, so all wasn't lost.
Click here to see the latest Swimming news
Michelle is off to Montreal to compete in the World Masters Swim Meet. We'll have more about that in our August issue.
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| Here's the team on the way to Zones. More about the results in next month's issue! |
Random Stuff
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| Dave gets his arse chewed by a dog while out running one morning. After some emergency surgery, a blood transfusion, some counseling and a rabies shot, the dog survived. |
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| Sam and Jake join forces to earn some money. It's been a while since that car was cleaned! |
It looks like our fruit trees are finally about to provide us with some offerings.
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| Avocado |
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| Banana |
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| Mango - although the Mango season looks a bit lean this year for some reason. |
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| We had a visit from our good mate Russ (all the way from Vancouver). He comes down once in a while to work. |
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| Michelle cools off in the water - well, it's not actually that cool, but not as hot and sweaty as it is on the beach! |
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| Michelle sits with all of her friends... (Photo - courtesy of Sam Bailey Photography Ltd) |
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| Russ and Dave enjoy a beer at the Gov's Beach. |
Next Month:
- In August we have Sam in Fort Myers for the Zones meet.
- Michelle goes to Montreal for the World Masters.
- Dave and Jake go to the movies...'cos that's as far as they got...
- Jake plays some touch against the big folk.
- We all go to Quebec City in Canada for a short holiday.
- Sam goes to Vancouver & Whistler for another holiday - 'cos that what Sam does.
