. February 2019 .
Well, Helloooooo!
Welcome to February. It was a pretty full on, action packed month for us!
International Rugby. Massive International music festival, right here in Cayman, as well as some International travel for three quarters of the family. Also some swimming and running and even a touch tournament... I feel tired already!
Rugby - Americas Challenge
The Cayman National XV were playing Guyana in the Caribbean Rugby final. The game was at home and played at the Rugby Club instead of the usual venue which is larger, but unavailable due to a big athletics meet coming up.
Dave and the Crew from Cayman Rugby TV were on hand to provide the live feed to the world, which is what they do for almost all games on island. But this was a big one so some extra effort went in.
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| The Crew is set up in the media tower (on the roof of the club) |
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| Pre-game prep (it is hot up there!) |
Cayman came away convincing winners and now move up a level later in the year to take on Paraguay and Mexico (and maybe one other team) to claim the right to play with the big(ger) boys in the Americas competition. We'll see how that goes!
The Crew have a unique style of Rugby Commentary and get plenty of followers across the globe and one of them posted the following during the game:
Check out some of the game, and the expert commentary via the following link:
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| Dave takes advantage of a stoppage during the game |
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Russ and Tonya (our Vancouver friends) came down and arrived just in time for the game.
They weren't here just for the rugby.
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| Tonya, Gibbo and Dave after the match |
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| Tonya and Russ weren't just here for the beach either.... |
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| or the sunset.... |
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| Amanda came all the way back from NZ for a visit, but not just for the rugby. |
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| Marty came from NZ (with Amanda funnily enough) and he wasn't here just for the rugby either. |
Most people were in town because they had tickets to...…
KAABOO!!
Kaaboo is the biggest thing to hit Cayman in years. It's a two-day Music, Arts and Culinary Festival, although most of the folk we know were there solely for the music.
Some of the main acts included: Shaggy, Maxi Priest, Blondie, Sean Paul, Salt-n-Pepa, Counting Crows, Bryan Adams, Duran Duran, Flo Rida, The Chainsmokers, Live, Zedd and Jason Derulo.
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| We've arrived! |
They all have a decent time allotted to them and most played their big hits as well as some recent releases. Flo Rida put on a great show, as they all did really.
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| A short break between acts |
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| Tonya tracks us down |
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| Usual suspects.... |
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Sam and her mates had a great time there as well.
Not sure they spent much time listening to Blondie though...
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| Fun times! |
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| Blondie attracts a slightly older crowd. She's not doing too bad for 73! |
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| One of the two main stages |
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| More catch ups! |
Bryan Adams
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| Duran Duran |
The days basically started around 2 pm and went to midnight on the Friday and Saturday nights.
There were 10,000 tickets sold, which is pretty big for this place. It was a really well run event with lots of different artists, arts, food and drink choices. They even had well-run transport to and from the event - and it didn't rain.
Hopefully we can get tickets for next year!!!
Road Trip
After a late night at Kaaboo, Sam and Dave were up and off to the airport on the Sunday morning for a flight to Ohio (2 flights really). They were off to check out a couple of colleges that Sam could end up going to from August this year.
After a quick stop in Philadelphia, they headed to Columbus Ohio for the night. Then it was an early start on the road heading to Athens (Ohio) where Ohio University is. By the way, it was snowing....
We made it to Athens about 90 minutes later and drove around until we found the pool facility where Sam had arranged to meet the coaches and some of the swim team. There are about 20,000 students there. They didn't meet all of them.
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They got a tour of the Campus (sport facilities first!).
This is an indoor running track (300yards?) and field training area.
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| The home of the Bobcats! |
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| Said 'Bobcat'. |
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| The view from the Sports Students' study area. It doubles as a corporate function area on Bobcats game days. |
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Basketball arena (outside)
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| Original paths of desire |
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| Lots of bricks and history around here |
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| The pool! |
Sam got to hang out with the team for the day. She even went to a Stats class (not so excited about that!), stayed in the dorms, swam in the pool, which is pretty awesome. Sam and Dave also met with the coaches, some academic folk and also had lunch with the team in one of the cafeterias.
Overall, the visit was really positive and the coaches were keen for Sam to join the team in August.
Time to head to the next venue, Queens in Charlotte. A smaller school of about 2000 students. Another drive back to Columbus, followed by a flight to Charlotte arriving mid afternoon, where it was raining... heavily.
They picked up a rental and found their way to Queens where they met the Swim Coach.
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| Queens Pool |
Sam stayed with the team that night in the dorms (but didn't get to swim), while Dave was booked into some mystery location a few miles across town. He eventually managed to get the address and then gain entry to a very old house.
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| This sign greeted Dave upon entry. |
Anyway, the place was a dump, but he only needed a bed for the night so that was fine. The Police never arrived so he must have been quiet enough.
Dave met Sam the next morning at the school and they went on a quick orientation tour. The rain continued... |
| Pre-arranged parking! Bonus! |
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| Maybe it's just the weather. |
The tour was quite good and they got to check out some of the university facilities. Soon it was time to fly back to Cayman (direct) from Charlotte.
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| Time to leave. It was still raining.... |
Meanwhile, Michelle had left Cayman on the Monday for a work trip to San Francisco. Jake was left to fend for himself until Wednesday and he did that without any hassles. He even cooked and got himself to school and training etc.
Michelle also visited San Jose State University which was also a possibility for Sam, but she wasn't all that impressed.
The rest of her time was spent looking out of client's windows and working out when she could fit in some shopping.
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| Golden Gate Bridge (from Client's office) |
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| Some other building, from a client's office. |
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| Alcatraz |
Sea Swim
The following Saturday was the CIASA 5k Open Water sea swim. Jake was taking part in that with a few of the other distance swimmers. Sam and the remainder of the swim team had beach training at the same time.
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| Pre-race chat |
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| It wasn't a large field for this swim. |
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| Sam loves running |
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| Jake and Alex round the markers for the final lap |
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| Jake had a good swim. Alex and Jake stayed together for the entire race, but Alex had a little bit left at the finish to pull away. Jake still clocked a good second place time of about 1 hour, 2 mins. |
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| The top four swimmers |
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| Meanwhile Sam and the others get their next training instructions |
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Post-training photo with one of the coaches (Neil) who is heading back to the UK.
They have a new assistant coach starting this week.
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Not to be outdone, Michelle arrives home on the Saturday afternoon in time to take part in the Off the Beaten Track relay on Sunday morning. It involves an approximately 10 k run on a random leg with minimal road markings and a rough description of the course. Plenty of people get lost on these things. Dave and Michelle did a pre-race walk around of her leg (in the car on Saturday) to check out the critical turn points to make sure she didn't get lost.
And she didn't! The team came in third all-female team, which was a pretty good effort!
2/3rds of the team!
Touch
This last weekend was the Cayman Touch Cup of Nations Tournament.
Michelle, Dave and Jake all played for the NZ team. They played pretty well, coming away with three draws and two losses in the pool rounds. It wasn't enough to make the top four so they had to sit on the sidelines and have a beer while the finals were played. They were all pretty knackered by that stage so a beer was certainly the favoured option!
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| Group pic |
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| Team NZ! |
Breaking News
And in breaking news, Sam has decided that Ohio University will be where she swims and studies for the next four years. Details to follow once confirmed.
It was a close call between Colorado State and Ohio University, but Ohio won out in the end.
Cayman Nationals Swim Meet
Both Sam and Jake will be swimming in the Nationals here this weekend. The meet starts Thursday (Cayman time) and goes through until Sunday night - with morning heats and evening finals each night. The local TV station have said that they will do some live streaming of the swimming on Saturday night. If you want to check that out, check the following link for timings:
Phew!!!!
Busy month.
Not sure what's happening in March. Maybe time for a break. Although there is the Swim meet this weekend.
We'll see what else pops up.
Bye for now!
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