Issue # 85 - The September Steal

 . September 2014 .

Hi there,

Again, we must apologise for the late release of this month's issue. And also for the limited content.

We do have a valid excuse this time.  We was robbed!

No, I'm not talking about the All Blacks losing to South Africa on the weekend (well played SA!).

We were actually burgled last week. Some dirty low-down scoundrels forced their way into our home while we were at work/school and ransacked the place. They took all of the electronics that were there, including our laptop - hence the delay in publishing.  We are actually using a borrowed one for this issue. Hopefully we will get a replacement in the next week or so.

The kids were pretty upset and shaken over the whole affair, as it was them who came home from school and discovered the chaos. Jake lost his xbox and his ipod (he'd saved up and paid for both) so he wasn't happy.  Michelle lost a lot of her jewelry. So, all in all, not a fun time!

But on the upside, Dave got called down to the Police station on Sunday morning and was given the iPad that was taken. We'd had the serial number recorded and it showed up in one of the local pawn shops.  Hopefully the Police can follow that lead further and get some results.

Here's a pic of the lounge as we found it. All of that stuff is out of
drawers and cupboards etc - they even searched through the couch!

They also took the kid's sponsorship money that they had raised for their swim club Swim-a-thon.

Just on that, if anyone feels like sponsoring the kids, just let us know via email and we will tell you how to go about it.

The deal with the sponsoring is that the kids have to swim 5000 meters in under two hours (this coming Friday night). That's 100 laps. People can sponsor them per lap, or simply donate a flat rate. The money goes to help paying for their swim coach and other swimming equipment for the club.  

Be warned, Sam swam her 100 laps last year in about 1 1/2 hours. Jake got to 98.

Swimming

Just while we are on swimming.  Michelle and the kids did the 800m sea swim a week or so back. In choppy conditions, Sam won her age group and was 10th over-all in about 11 minutes (out about 150 swimmers) and was also the 2nd female. A pretty good race! 

Michelle came second in her age group in about 13 mins. Jake put in a decent time as well, 4th in his age group in about 16 mins. Dave was down filming at the rugby club so couldn't make it, but if he had he would have done about 22 mins...on a good day with a current and three sharks behind him.

Random

Most of our report this month is just random stuff. We only have access to a few photos. But having said that, we didn't actually have too many major activities going on (for a change!).

Here is our mate Robbo, talking with 'Wilson' from the TV show "Tool Time".

A nice Gov's beach sunset...

 The school had a WWII day last week. Both kids got dressed up in 'costume'. Jake went as a soldier and Sam went as a German/Bavarian girl in the Liederhosen get up. She wouldn't provide a photo for general distribution. Teenagers....

At a mate's birthday party - traveling the world!

At the same party - Mojitos were popular!

Michelle and Dave went to the Premier of this short film which was produced and filmed here by local folk.
It was quite cool to see a bunch people that we know starring on the big screen! 

Touch Dinner

The annual Summer Touch Dinner and prize

giving was held the other night. It's always a themed event.  This year it was "Around the House".

This is what we found around our house!

 Michelle's team dressed up as garden Gnomes, which was pretty impressive. They came second in the best team outfit competition, although many thought that they should have won.

Hot dang!

 Dave plays for a different team. If you can't work it out, they went as Trailer Trash.  They didn't win a prize, but they got plenty of comments and laughs.

People struggled to recognise Dave with his hot teeth!

 Below are a selection of the outfits on display.

The fridge was pretty cool!
(Ha ha ha ha !!!!)
He won the best individual costume.

Ummm... all sorts here!

Ummm... Pet Wolf?

Bubble bath anyone?

Brekky? You can't be cereal!

Toy Story (and perve in PJ's)

These two were attached by the curtain rail.

Some other versions of Trash from Dave's team.
These two could be "Trash Bags?"

When they finally got sorted, they climbed up and made pyramids
and called themselves a house of cards.

Gnomes on the gnape juice.

See what happens when you get a pack of cards and some half-cut gnomes together?

Sheckshee...

This Gnome has been Trolled! - or is that Trowled?

 Sunday Touch Tournament

So, what do you do after a Summer of Touch? Have some more touch!

A one day tournament was held on the weekend as a fundraiser for the Cayman National Touch Teams to travel to Orlando next week for the US Nationals.  Michelle is traveling up with the B team in the hope of cleaning up the A team and anyone else in the vicinity.

Taking a break between games

 Dave's team won their first two games, which (surprisingly!) put them in to the top group for the play-offs. Jake played for them as well as another team. They then got cleaned up by a team of ringers in the semi final before moving on to the play-off for third and fourth and winning that. Not a bad effort really!

Jake played for a couple of teams and acquitted himself well. There were a few kids there and it's
good to get them involved. They did make a few of the adults look pretty average at times!

Michelle reffed for most of the day. Not sure how many games she did ref, but it was plenty!

OK, that's our whack for September.

Again, apologies for the brevity and the tardiness. Hopefully by the end of October we'll be back in business.  We can't even load out FB pics right now, so they'll be a little behind as well.

Christmas

We have booked our tickets for a trip back to NZ at Xmas. It's a relatively short one but hope to catch up with whoever is around at the time.
The plan is:
Arrive Auckland Thurs 18 Dec, and fly on to Wellington for a few days.
Depart Wellington for Christchurch on Sun 21st, then head on down to Waimate.
Depart Waimate Xmas eve to Queenstown.
Depart Queenstown 30th Dec, back to Waimate, for one night enroute to ChCh. 
Stay New Years Eve in ChCh, then depart for Auckland and Tahiti on Jan 1st. We get to stop in Tahiti for a couple of days on the way home!
Sorry its such a fleeting visit but it was the best we could do. 
So looking forward to catching up with everyone who is about!

Next month's issue 'should' include a report from the US Nationals Touch Tournament.

Hopefully a report on how the kids did in their Swim-a-thon (Remember, just email us if you'd like to make a small contribution).

There's also another 800m sea swim coming up.  Sam wants to break 10 minutes, but that might just be a little ambitious.  Although, you never know!

Not sure what else is going on, but whatever it is, it'll be on here!