Issue # 114 - Flickers of February

. February 2017 .

Hello!

February has been a month of activity.  A bit of swimming and also some running about the island.

The kids had the National Swim Champs and there was also the Cross Island Relay and the "Off the Beaten Track" event.  Apart from that, things have been relatively quiet.

Tourist Pics

 We went for a drive around the East end of the island one Sunday afternoon.  Its not somewhere we frequent that often, usually because we don't have the time, but it was nice just to cruise about and check out a few spots we hadn't seen in a while.

Bodden Town boat ramp

 Over on the North Side, there is a guy who makes sculptures of Cayman creatures out of cement.

  

This one may not be a Cayman creature, although there is such a thing as the 'Cayman Crocodile'.!

At Starfish Point

 We ended up at Starfish point later in the afternoon. It's a good spot to watch the sunset, and also see the Starfish that tend to loiter in that area.

The sun sets over George Town

The Jandal tree

(Locally called the shoe tree)

Swim Nationals

 The swim nationals were held at Camana Bay in February.  Both kids were down to compete in a bunch of events.  This event would be the swimmers' last chance to get qualifying times for the National Team to compete in Nassau, Bahamas for CARIFTA (Caribbean Champs) at Easter. Jake had a qualifying time from the 5km sea swim before Christmas, and one pool time. He wanted at least one more pool time to make the team.  Sam already had her times from the Coconut cup before Christmas so there wasn't the same pressure on her.

There were heats in the mornings with finals at night from Thursday through to Sunday night.

They both spent some time on the medals dais each with a few firsts, seconds and thirds.

Check out some fast swiming... click here to view

Jake wasn't allowed to wear his Highlanders hat on the dais.

Jake ended up getting another two qualifying times which would put him in contention for the Team.  In the end they both made the team so are now back into training with a focus on Easter.  Another 'Swim Holiday' to look forward to!

Some pics from the Nationals - click here

 Waitangi Day

A few of the Kiwis got together on the 5th (Sunday) for a couple of quiets and a get together at Public Beach.  It was a pretty relaxed and laid-back affair. We met a few other Kiwis on the island that we didnt know, so that was cool.

Cross-Island Relay

 Both Michelle and Dave did the Cross-island relay this year.  Michelle with her all-woman team that seems to enter in everything, and Dave got a call up for a scratch team of first-timers who just wanted to take part.

The relay has six legs of about 4 miles (6km) each starting from East End and ending at Smith's Cove near town.  Michelle did the 4th leg for her team and Dave the 5th leg for his.

Michelle's team came 4th women's team which was about the same as previous years - the girls all ran really well and had thought they'd come third so were a bit disappointed, until the bubbles came out!

Team "Are we there yet?" placed about midway in the field, which was pretty good result really.

Post-race celebrations... Bubbles of course!

  And then last weekend was the Off The Beaten Track race, which, as the name suggests, is a race that covers some ground (5-6 miles) that you wouldn't normally run across, including bush, farm land, Cows, Dogs, Iron-shore and sand.

Michelle's team was back at it again.  Michelle had the third leg which involved some bush tracks, cows and an awkward stretch along some rough iron-shore. The iron shore was really tough - it was impossible to actually run - it was more of a walk/skip/jump and seemed to be never ending! The good thing was that once that part was finished the end was just around the corner.

2nd Place in the Womens' group.

Randoms

Meanwhile, in Dave's orchard.... a Pineapple is taking shape

Check out the expiry date...

So, that's about it for February.  Not sure what March will bring us.  Michelle might be away for a work trip off island.  Dave probably wont be...

See you soon!

Issue #113 - The January Jumble

. January 2017 .

A Jolly Rogering...

Hello and welcome to 2017!

This issue shouldn't keep you awake for too long. We have decided to ease in the year nice and slowly. Probably a good thing after the Christmas and New Year festivities.  The travelers returned for one last Hurrah (or should be one last"Aaaarrrrggghh!" ).  We also had a little bit of sport going on and a couple of other random activities.

Enjoy our first for 2017!

The Travelers Return

Gordy, Lisa and Victoria had spent a few weeks exploring Cuba, Panama and finally Jamaica, before making one last stop over in Cayman.  They arrived back around lunchtime friday. About an hour later they were on the beach at Smith's Cove...as you do.

Then at around 5ish, Dave picked them up and took them into town for a sunset cruise on the Jolly Roger Pirate Ship.

Boarding

Looks ominous!

 Soon they were underway sailing off into the sunset, with Rum(s) in hand. It was an all-inclusive ticket, so no holding back!

The Jolly Roger takes you along the coast, firstly towards Smith's Cove area and then back down towards Seven Mile Beach while the sun slips slowly behind the low lying clouds.  If you are interested, the Jolly Roger is actually up for sale. I think they are asking about a half a million for it. Or failing that, you could just commandeer and plunder it for a bit less!

A couple of other scurvy dogs were out on the high seas as well.
Shame we couldn't catch them!

Their last sunset for this trip... not as flash as some.

 As you might imagine, the rum stocks took a direct hit and the mutinous landlubbers started talking of pillaging and plundering the town.

A good time was had by all

Luckily the plank wasn't required and everyone made it off the ship in relatively good shape.  Some took a while to find their land legs...

After that it was back home to catch up with Michelle and the kids, and the barbeque....  

Following that, the blender was calling, and Mud Slides were the order of the day.

After popping over to the swim meet (more about that below) Gordy and Lisa left for Miami late morning. Victoria wasn't leaving until later in the afternoon, so Dave took her for a quick snorkel just up the road a bit where there was an old wreck that was reasonably close to shore.

Small Lobster in a Conch shell

The Wreck

Some of the inhabitants of the wreck

Mr. Barry Cuda was lurking.  This guy was pretty big too!

Flamingo Tongue

 After the snorkel, it was off to Sunset House (the local) for a quiet lunch

Sam and Victoria enjoy some shade

Victoria left a couple of hours later, flying via Houston.

The Travelers seemed to have a pretty good trip. It was great to see them and enjoy their company on the occasional social outing, as well as at home!

Swim Meet

Yes, another swim meet!  This was a Friday (night), Saturday and Sunday (mornings) affair.  The kids had been doing the hard yards in their training cycle so this would be a challenging one for all.

Jake holds his own in the Fly

Chillin...
(Southern folk: Note the hat)

One of the locals looks on

"The Dab"

That Dabbing sure takes it out of you

Jake is off again!

 As we said, the swimmers weren't expected to do real great. However Jake managed a couple of PBs and Sam was close to a few times, so on the whole, the Coach was reasonably happy with progress to date. The last day of the meet was Jake's birthday!

The Nationals are coming up in late Feb, so we'll see how they go then!

 Gaelic

The annual Gaelic Nines tournament was held just after New year.  It's a mixed tournament where corporate teams take part.  Michelle's work entered a team.  Dave didn't take part. His views on contact are slightly at odds with the average Irishman.

Michelle in possession, with Mick (Ref) looking on

Michelle employs some unnecessary roughness 

 They played over Friday night and most of Saturday and Michelle's team won 3 of 4 their prelim games and managed to squeek into the seni-final.The semi-final was a close fought affair with Michelle's playing the  only team they had lost against in the prelims - both teams kept the scoreboard ticking over, but Maples took the lead and managed to hang on to it. This was the first time Maples had made the final so they were pretty happy to get that far.

On the hoof

With ony one game between the semi and the final, Mapels took to the field again. The first half didn't go to plan and they were down 10-1 at half time. They came out fighting in the second half knowing they had nothing to lose and got some early scores to be back in the game. They kept creeping closer then the other team would get a score - it was within reach but time was running out. With about a minute to go Michelle got the ball in front of the goal and decided to have a go - it went towards the goal on an odd angle, amazingly hitting the inside of the post before bouncing out but it was good enough - it was the winning goal! The team was ecstatic!!

Champions with their trophy!

Randoms

Swimathon

The kids had a fundraiser for the club. They had to find sponsors and the kids would swim for two hours doing as many laps (25m pool) as they could.  Jake did 257 and Sam did about 252 (her coach did pull her over for some instructional advice during the swim though) - that's over 6kms each!

Jake's Birthday cake

Jake turned 14 in January!  As he had a swim meet the weekend of his actual birthday (he did get to go out for a special dinner with the family on his actual birthday at least!), he had to wait a couple of weeks to celebrate with his friends. He wanted to do the 'usual', which was a movie in town with his mates and then a sleepover (do they still call it that at 14?).  Anyway, about seven of his mates invaded our place for the night (Sam was off like a robbers dog. She stayed at her friend's house for the night.).

The boys seemed to have a pretty good time.  Pizza's, killing/shooting/tactical gunfight games, cake....  all sorted! They made plenty of noise and only kept Michelle awake until about 1:30 am (she was doing a half marathon the next day).  Dave was OK, he stayed up late watching the Sevens from Wellington.

Mercuryman and Half Marathon

Also on Jake's birthday was the annual Mercuryman Half Ironman. This year they had a number of different individual options as well as the Half ironman, including a duathlon (run-swim-run), aquabike (swim and run) and an International distance triathlon (which is similar to Olympic distance but shorter swim and longer bike). Michelle had been trying to train for the half but didn't feel like she'd done the distances she needed so decided to do the triathlon. Starting half an hour after the main group she was done by 10.30 and home by midday - she was glad she did that as it was really hot at that time of the day and wouldn't have been much fun running a half marathon then! Not only that, she would not have had any energy to do anything else that day, which woudn't have been great on Jake's birthday!

As we mentioned, Michelle took part in a half Marathon last weekend. It was a social fundraising event for the Cancer Society.  Times were only recorded officially for the half - everyone else was able to start whenever they felt like it which made for an interesting run, with people on the course all over the place!

Michelle's time was about 1 hour 52, which she was very happy with and in this place is a pretty good time!

Sam's art for exams

Even the Rugby Club has the occasional sunset

More pics from January (Click Here!)

So that's it for January. A little quieter, but I'm sure things will pick up!

In February we have a couple of things lined up... Probably will involve a bit of running about, some swimming no doubt, and maybe some shaking it all about...

Hokey Cokey!

Catch ya next time!