Tuesday, 8 October 2019

Issue # 145 - September Stories

.  September 2019  .
Hello!
Welcome to our contribution for September. Not much in the way of travel, but more about dodging the rain and keeping an eye on the weather radar for nasty storms and things. Thankfully, we haven't had to deal with anything too bad.  Fingers crossed!
Jake is back into school and also swim training.  It also seems a bit like end of season party time, so we've had a couple of 'evenings out'.  We also had a dinner with some 'Royalty' the other night. More on that in a bit.  We got a dive in - it's been a while!  Sam continues to get into student/swimming life at Ohio.  Oh, and we got Naturalised.... ('whatever that means', you say).

We got naturalised this month.  It's the next step towards citizenship. 
We had to go to our Naturalisation Ceremony (along with a few other folk) and pledge allegiance to Queen and Country.
Visitors
Catching up with the Carters is always good!

Michele and Nick were visiting Cayman (from the BVI) and made some time for us to catch up over dinner.  It was great getting the low-down on their happenings and hearing of their time in BVI and how things have changed since we were there (10 years ago!).
 Swimming
Jake is back into the swim scene now that his summer break is over.  Now that his Chauffeur (and sister) isn't here to drive him, he gets himself to and from swimming on his bike these days. He has about another six months before he's able to sit his licence. 
Getting some feedback after his race.
The coach was actually happy, as the entire Senior Group all had faster times this year in all events from this same meet last year.
Checking out the race schedule
And, they're off!
Working on the Breaststroke. 
 Next up was the Foster's 800m Sea Swim.  Michelle, Jake and Dave all took part. 
1st place overall for Jake!
2nd Place in her age group for Michelle (it may have been her last swim in that age group...)!
Dave also finished the race - before it got dark...
 Staycation
We had a free weekend in September and decided to head out to East End for a little Staycation weekend.
Enjoying a nice quiet dinner on the deck, overlooking the water.
Five minutes later the wind came up. The skies opened up and a storm blasted through.  We started to get a bit wet so moved to a 'reasonably' sheltered table further under cover.  It was still warm out, just windy with a bit of wetness, but it was still nice to be outside.
Saturday was going to be beach day (after a little exercise in the morning of course!)
We were joined for the day by our friends (Chris & Jacky, Pete & Janet and Lisa).  
It was a nice, relaxing afternoon watching the clouds drift past. After that, everyone came back to the apartment for a game of Cards Against Humanity which never fails to provide some hilarity.
The next day we'd arranged to go for dive.  It had been a while - June (ish). 

Heading out to find a decent spot for a dive.  
The chosen spot was "The Dragon's Lair" which we'd never dived before.
In the water and ready to drop.
The dive had a bunch of swim throughs which was pretty cool

The elusive Spotted Drum
 

A few of the Tarpon that hung around
A Lobster defending his little spot
And here it is - The Dragon!  Can you see it?
If you look close enough, you can see a fish!
The light was a bit better up on top
The second Moray of the dive.  The first one swam at Michelle, then under her legs before swimming off.  
It was a tense moment!



Nearing the end of the dive, Jake starts blowing bubble rings.
 Movie Night
The Touch Rugby End of Season Party was held last week.  The Theme this year was Movie Night.
Dave's Team went as M*A*S*H*
Michelle and her Minions!
 
The original cast....
 Hotlips gets a check-up
 Hotlips Twins!



A Minion joins us!

Radar and ….Frank!?

Not to be outdone in the dressing-up stakes, Jake heads to school in a kilt for International day.
Gaelic End Of Season Dinner 

Another Gaelic season has now passed and it was time for the annual end of year dinner which was held at Papagello's again - a lovely 3 course meal, with entertaining speeches and awards, and lots of laughs with Michelle's team, who had a great year, coming away as League Champions.

Michelle and some of the 'Green' Team at this years' GAA Ball (no one could find a green dress!).
Green team with their winners medals for taking out the League.
Breast Cancer Dinner
We were invited to the Cayman Breast Cancer Foundation Annual Gala Dinner on Saturday night at the Ritz. The guest speaker was the Duchess of York.  She was pretty funny!
It was a really nice night and lots of money was raised.  We'll try and get some pics for October's effort.
 The Bobcat Brief
Winter is coming!  Some single figure temperatures (Celsius!) in the mornings these days but still warming up to the mid-twenties. Another month or so and maybe there'll be some snow!
Sam climbs a hill - but not voluntarily!
That training is paying off Sam!  Massive Arm!
Hangin' with teammate Sienna and the Bobcat at the Volleyball
Here are some Promo pics from the Swim Team photo shoot

The 'Foreigners'
Looks like they had some fun taking these pics!
The 2019 Bobcat Freshmen
That's it for September.
In October Michelle and Dave pop up to Orlando for the weekend to catch up with Tonya & Russ. We will also do some other stuff, the details of which escape me just now...