. October 2018 .
Hellooo!
Here we are, October been and gone in a flash.
Speaking of gone, Michelle was away for a good part of the month travelling for work, and also with the National Touch Team who went to the US Nationals in San Diego.
Meanwhile, the kids had a couple of swim-related happenings and we had a couple of social outings as well, just to provide some balance.
Dinner #1
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| The Annual GAALA Ball (Gaelic Football Dinner). This is most of Michelle's team, who came second in the League and also on finals day. |
A couple of weeks of Traveling
Michelle headed off to Hong Kong, and Singapore (for work) for a week or so earlier in the month. Dave and the kids were left to fend for themselves.
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| Michelle tries to tell us that she is slumming it.... |
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| We know better.... |
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| Catching up with ex-BVI friends Marianne, Simon and James in Hong Kong |
She also popped across to Singapore for a couple of days, and then back to Hong Kong before heading off to San Diego.
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| This could also work in Cayman. It's a bit like the kids all jumping off a boat. |
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| Can't go to Singapore without seeing this |
US Touch Nationals - San Diego
After Hong Kong, it was straight to San Diego to meet up with the Cayman Touch Teams who were competing in the US Nationals. They took a bunch of teams over (Men's, Mixed, Women & School's) Michelle was in the Women's Team.
They played pretty well and managed to show some real improvement against a couple of the top sides in the US. They had some wins and a couple of losses and finished just outside the medal placings but were pretty happy with their results overall.
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| The coach gives them a few things to think about |
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| Cayman Islands Squad photo |
The tournament finshed on Saturday, so they had Sunday to recover, and do a little bit of tourist stuff before flying back late Sunday night.
Tourist...
Swimming
While all that was going on, Sam & Jake were prepping for a local swim meet.
It was a Friday to Sunday meet, but only one session per day.
They both managed to come up with some wins and a PB or two, so that was a good indicator of progress at this early stage in their season.
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| Sam in one of her IM races |
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| Sam caught up with Meghan (now living in Calgary but back in Cayman for a Gap year) while entertaining a few of the younger swimmers. |
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| Jake, working hard in the 200 Fly |
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| Cheeky.... |
The following weekend was the CIASA (National Swimming Association) annual prizegiving and awards lunch. It was held at Grand Old House which is a nice restaurant situated right by the water just around the corner from us.
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| Sam and Jake both won the 'Swimmer of the Year' awards for their respective age groups. These awards are points-based gained from overseas meet results throughout the season. Both pulled a few medals at Carifta in Jamaica and also did well at other meets in Florida. |
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| The National (age group) Squad |
Dinner # 2 - Rugby Dinner
The annual Rugby Dinner was also held in October. As usual, the Cayman Rugby TV Crew hosted a table of selected guests and fans. They managed to bribe another seven people to make up their table of 10 on Friday night a Papagello. Michelle wasn't one of them. She sat at another table.
The guest speaker was NZ Rugby Sevens Legend, DJ Forbes. He came out from NZ with his wife for about a week, where he did a stack of coaching with the kids and the National team as well as doing a few tourist activities.
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| The Brad, and Dave in their "CRTV Number ones". |
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| DJ Wanted a pic with one of the CRTV Crew... |
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| ...or maybe it was Michelle |
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| Jake joins in with the U16/19s for some beach training with DJ Forbes. |
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| Team picture after training |
Later on saturday a few of us Kiwis and Aussies on island hosted DJ and his wife Lisa for a BBQ. It was great to spend some time with them in a more relaxed environment and share a few yarns. A nice couple.
Randoms
The weather has been a bit up and down of late. This also means that the seas can cut up rough as well. After one particular stormy night, the town woke up to find the local Pirate Ship (Jolly Roger) washed up on the rocks after breaking it's moorings in the rough seas. No-one was on board and the damages weren't too bad in the end. It'lll be back in business soon.
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| A beached Pirate Ship! |
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| The crew made the best of a bad situation and took this photo. |
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| Morning rainbow from our front door |
Jake headed out to Rum Point for one of his friend's birthdays.
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| Some of Jake's mates from School |
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Somebody decided to have a Sunday afternoon wedding on our usual spot at Governor's beach.
Not to worry, it's a big beach!
It was pretty warm for them as the sun was shining directly toward them!
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| But they were blessed with a nice sunset. |
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This is on our way to the BVI in 2007.
These two have grown a little!
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We thought we should share this again. Hopefully it works this time!
Jake and co do the Stingray Shuffle....
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