Issue # 75 - MOvember Knights

. November 2013 .

Hello there!

Well, that's another month down. A very busy month at that! We had the Triathlon, Pirates Week, Swimming, Visitors,  a wedding anniversary, a birthday, MOvember and a few other things thrown in. No wonder we feel tired!

Enjoy the read!

We missed some Halloween photos from last month. This is from the kid's night out running around the streets and collecting buckets of goodies.

Sam, Morgan and Mya

Don't ask what she pulled out of her hat...

Triathlon

Michelle was up early on the first Sunday in November. Triathlon time!  Her training had been disrupted slightly in the early stages but over the last month or so she had been putting in the miles. It was a slightly cooler and overcast day (at least at the start) so conditions were good.

Michelle was one of the first people out of the water after the 1500m swim.

The rain came and went a couple of times which meant the road conditions could be dodgy. But thankfully nothing went wrong and Michelle came through the bike leg in a reasonably strong position.

Vvvvrrrroooooommm!

Transition to the run.

Although it was still overcast at the start of the run, the sun soon burned through and things became very hot. Not really ideal when you are about to embark on a 10km run after having just finished a big swim and a bike!

Michelle stuck to her plan and had a pretty solid race finishing in a very respectable time of 2:36.08 which placed her 2nd overall in the women's race.  Well done!

Still manages a smile!

Spelling Bee

Jake was recently selected for his school team to contest the National Spelling Bee. This meant some additional study and training for the big event.  There were certainly some interesting words in there.  We had to look up a few to see what they meant! 

The boys did pretty well with Jake coming top in his team, 4th overall in the regionals, and 13th in the country, just missing out on the finals by one place, as only 12 go into the finals. A pretty good effort though!

Pirate's Week

Pirate's week kicked off in style again with the usual Fireworks display down at the waterfront.

We had our good friends from the BVI Marianne, Simon and James come and stay with us. The Caribbean Rugby Sevens were also on in town, and Simon was the Manager for the BVI team. Marianne was here for work, and James, well, James was just here for the fun!

A quiet drink on the waterfront

Michelle has two heads!

James and Jake were Ball Boys for quite a bit of the tournament.
Here they are...on a break!

Dave catches up with Chappy from the BVI.

Vic, Simon, Dave & Solo

A couple of quicks with Vic!

Swim Meet
Pirates week also means swim meet time. The Stingray club always hold a major swim meet at this time each year. It starts on Thursday night and covers Friday Night, Saturday Morning and Sunday morning. So, for those kids entered in a number of events, it can be a long one!

Michelle entered in the Masters races on the opening night but pulled out as there were no other entrants this time, instead she entered in the 15 and over 50m Free and won that! They combined her race with the 13-14 year old girls and she came second in the race - not bad for an old girl! She will have to work a bit harder in training though as next year she'd be racing Sam!!!

Michelle lines up...

Then Sam steps up for her 50m Free and breaks the National record!  Woohoo!

(By the way, her time might have been a second or two quicker than her Mum...)

Start of the Back for Sam

Jake chills with the gang between events

Sam's 100m Free.  And guess what?  Another record!
(Note Michelle now officiating in the background - everybody loves a clip board!)

Michelle and some other accomplished swimmers join forces for the Medley relay.
The guy next to Michelle won Bronze for UK in the Olympics not so long ago.

Jake powers to another PB in the Breast

Sam in action during the butterfly

In the end both Sam and Jake did pretty well in the pool.  Jake PB'd in most of his races. He also got plenty of placings, including a couple of firsts. Looks like his efforts at training have picked up and are paying off! 

Sam broke a couple of CIASA records (50 and 100 Free) which is pretty cool and came 1st overall in her age group.

Click here to see the write-up in the paper

Beach

We couldn't go to print without including a few pics from a day at the beach. November was no different, except we had a brunch first on this particular Sunday. Marianne, Simon and James came along as well and enjoyed a nice day out. By the time we got to the beach (a little later than usual), everyone had a big full tummy, and a little glow on from the endless supply of bubbles.

Three Aussies and Kiwi...

Must be time to head home...

Anniversary Weekend

Twenty years ago this month, we got married in Rangiora, near Christchurch, NZ. If we had a picture with us we'd show you but it was so long ago there are no digital photos!  Anyway, we decided to ditch the kids for the weekend and head out to the Reef Resort

 at East End. It was also Michelle's birthday earlier in the week, so a festive week we have had!
Friday night was a quiet dinner at the Italian restaurant and then chilling on the beach.

Saturday was up (earlyish) and down to the Dive shop to catch the boat for a two tank dive. We'd never dived out that way before and were looking forward to it, even though the seas were a little bumpy.  That didn't really matter, as it was only bumpy on the top. Once under water, it was fine, although getting back into the boat was a bit bouncy!

We had two good dives, the first down to 100 feet, and the second to about 50/60 feet. 

Both dives were popular spots to see sharks, but unfortunately they were elsewhere this day, although someone said they saw a Nurse Shark in the distance and they were completing their safety stop.

We saw plenty of other cool things though.

This guy was really just seen by chance

You can hardly notice him here!

This is a tiny fish called a Blenny that ducks into his hole to hide

Elkhorn coral

A Fireworm

On the way back in the dive boat a young Manta Ray was spotted cruising along the surface. We'd seen a big one once before while diving but it was still pretty cool to see this one cruising along. Unfortunately we didn't have the camera handy and didn't get any pics.  Maybe next time!

See the other dive pics here!

After the dives we popped into the gym for a short session, then some lunch and relaxing on the beach.

That night we went out to the Aussie restaurant down the road, which was very nice.

 Sunday was more relaxing in the morning (although Michelle decided to go for a bike ride around half the island) - and watching the All Blacks last gasp effort to beat Ireland - before setting up on the beach for a few friends (and the kids) who were coming up for the afternoon. On their arrival a few bottles of bubbly were cracked open and the celebrating continued in earnest!

Michelle is ready!

MOvember

As you might well imagine, Michelle just loves MOvember.  Both her and Sam love the feel of a bristly face - not to mention the sexy look!

This year was no exception.

After a month of grooming the big day was finally here.  Dave donned his chain mail, fake boots and Jake's sword. But he needed something else.  A Horse!

Horses aren't that easy to come by but Dave managed to get his hands on one that he could take to the party. See the video at the bottom to see Dave riding his horse!

Here's just a few of the Characters from the MOvember party.

Media icon, Ron Burgundy

It was a good night and the collective group raised a little over $50,000 over the month, which is a pretty good effort for such a small place.

Dave made the finals of the Costume Mo section and ended up in second place.

Cayman Marathon

Very early the next morning, the Marathon started. At about 5 am to be exact. So, while Dave was snoozing, Michelle was out pounding the streets as part of their Marathon Relay team. This was the third year the girls had run it, and had been the first women's relay team each time, so the pressure was on! They ran just over 6 miles each, but this year Michelle wasn't happy with her run - she was feeling ok to begin but had a bit of a dodgy tummy and had to stop for a loo break during her leg - rather embarassing but thankfully there were plenty of portaloos along the way! Luckily the others did pretty well and although they thought they had been passed by female runners it turned out they were in mixed teams, and the girls took the women's relay title yet again! Whooop!

Sun is coming up!

They win again!

A familiar sight

Jake also did the kids fun run, straight after a game of soccer. So he was warmed up and raring to go!

Jake sprints to the lead from the start. But can he hold it?

Apparently not.  But good effort anyway Jake!

Jake Moves Out...

After 10 years of putting up with us, Jake has decided to go it alone.

So, he packed his teddy and XBox and headed out for his new life.

Bye, Jakey. We'll miss you....

OK, he didn't really move out. We were having a bit of a clean out at home and Jake was helping by taking some of the junk out to the road for the rubbish collection later in the week. We just thought it looked like a great photo opportunity that made it look like he was running away.

We couldn't do without Jake! x

Click on the video to see the horse that 

Dave rode to the MOvember party.

Click here for more fun pics from November 2013


Nearly at the end of another year. December is upon us, and Christmas not too far away.
The kids are looking forward to seeing the special visitor we have coming over (as well as Santa!)
So, if we aren't in touch with you beforehand, have a safe and wonderful Christmas wherever you may be.


Next Month:
Jamaica Swim Meet
Christmas - and all of the craziness that comes with it.
Special visitor
and other bits and pieces of interest

Issue # 74 - October Times

. October 2013 .

This is a time-lapsed photo taken on Saturday night during a very busy electrical storm here in Cayman.
No, we didn't take it....

Hi there,

Welcome to our October edition. Again, we are a little behind schedule and we apologise for that.

Compared to recent months, October appears to have been a relatively quiet month. A bit of swimming, some beach time and Halloween pretty much make up the high points.

We hope you enjoy the read! 

Swimming

Sam and Jake continue to train.  Sam's training has changed a little where they now have two Cross-fit sessions each week along with the other six pool sessions. They seem to be working pretty hard so hopefully all the hard work pays off.

The Club had a swim meet earlier in the month. Both kids took part. Jake was particularly happy with one of his swims were he managed to come first and beat one of the other boys who has been dominating in the pool for a while. Jake had 2 of 5 PBs that day.

Sam also had a good few races with 3 out of 4 PBs and her times are pretty much on track for another showing at next year's Carifta champs. Although having said that, she has moved up a year group so the competition will be even harder this time around.

Jake also swam in the Camana Bay swim club's Club's Spooky Splash Swim meet. He PB'd in two events, but he is starting to realise that he needs to put the extra effort in at training to get the results these days.

The kids also had a fundraising Swim-a-thon for the Stingray Swim Club during October. Each child was asked to raise a minimum of $400.  This is a small place and fundraising is an ongoing activity for all of the many sports on the island. If it isn't swimming, it's Rugby fundraising, or Football, or Hockey, or Baseball or Netball and on and on it goes so it can be a challenge. Although the kids found it difficult to ask people for money they realised that people are very generous, especially when it's for a good cause and the kids are being challenged to achieve something - they both managed to get a fair amount of sponsorship, raising $1000 between them. Jake even managed to get someone to sign up to sponsoring him $1 per 50m lap.  They would have two hours to do as many laps as they could.

Jake managed 95 laps (a little under 5km) in his allotted time.

Sam's group were told to stop once they had completed 100 laps.
She did that with time to spare.

Clocking up the miles!

 The aim was to raise $20,000 for the club. The final total was over $24,000 so that was a fantastic effort by the entire club.

Jakey Baker

Jake was a bit bored one Saturday morning after Rugby so he decided to make a Gingerbread house (as you do...)

The Happy Baker

He wanted to eat it all the same day! But was told that it needed time to set etc so he left it for a few days. We did notice however that some of the jubes/lollies that were used to decorate it seemed to be mysteriously disappearing... And the fact that Jake was not complaining about someone stealing his decorations confirmed our suspicions.

Surfing

Surfing has crept back into our lives of late.  Cayman isn't exactly the surf capital of the world, but there is a little spot just down the road from us that produces the occasional wave.  It's mostly small stuff, but that pretty much suits our styles and abilities!  We grabbed a couple of 7 foot foam boards to play around with. It's pretty easy for the kids to catch a wave on them.  Even Dave managed to to get up the other week!

Our friends Tonya and Russ popped down for a week in Cayman.  Before they left, they managed to pop down to the little surf beach for a play.

Tonya comes in for a break.

Jake just comes in!

Dave working the massive surf!

Click here for more pics from October!

Halloween
October always seems to bring out the crazies, and this year was no different. It was a busy time on the Halloween front with two Halloween parties to attend on the one weekend.  One was with Michelle's work function on the Friday night, and the other was the Rugby Club's annual Halloween party on the Saturday night.  Big weekend!

Michelle finally puts her face on...

Dave, looking pretty!

We decided to catch a taxi home after the party. There were none lined up outside so we started to walk down the road a bit and flag one down.  Several went by and none of them stopped, which was a little annoying. So we popped into a bar and had them call one for us. It wasn't until then that we realised what we looked like and our chances of flagging a taxi down at that time of night while looking like we did were rather slim!

Anyway, a taxi did arrive and we made it home OK.

As we said, Saturday night was the Rugby Club Halloween party. We couldn't go out wearing the same get-up as the previous night so we made the effort to do something completely different. Michelle had a black ballet outfit and thought she could go as the Black Swan, from the movie of the same name.  Dave thought he could scrounge up some gear to do something similar, although he probably looked more like a Gay Goose.

All kitted up and ready to go!

Lisa and Mick

A small group gathered at our house prior to the party. As it wasn't too far away, we all walked into town wearing our costumes. There was plenty of it about!

Us kiwis seem to really get into the costume thing! Fellow kiwis, Vicki (above) and Gemma (below)

And another kiwi - Jo the mermaid (below)

They had some prizes for various categories. We managed to get the prize for the best couple (we think!). Oh well, can't complain!

Another good night, and this time we could walk home!

Click here for more Halloween pics!

Weather

Yes, we have had our fair share of weather this month. The rain continues!  The official Hurricane season ends at the end of November. We have to say we've been pretty lucky again this year with no major storms coming anywhere close.

This photo was taken minutes before the picture at the top with all of the lightning. Jake and Dave were about to come home from the Rugby club on Saturday night when the skies opened. Soon after that the lightning started up. It was very close, and very loud. So close in fact that Dave's car got showered in sparks as the power pole next to his car took a hit. Luckily the car was undamaged and they managed to get home safely! The Rugby club was without power though!

Well, that's our whack for October.

Enjoy November and we'll see you at the other end!

Next Month:

Michelle attempts the Olympic distance triathlon.

MOvember 2013! :{)

The NACRA Sevens

Visitors....

And other stuff we haven't thought of yet.