Movember

Last week we put up our Christmas tree. It seems like only weeks ago that we got married, but since then we have been to Panama, nearly been hit by Hurricane, and had visits from my Mum and Anne, Joyce and Sandra, and most recently Gail and Ross.
I have grown a moustache, shaved it off, and now dont recognise myself!
Jill will be home in two days, and I wont be far behind her! Where has the last year and a half gone?


Before I get into that discussion, let me tell you about Movember!
Last time I wrote, we were nursing a hangover from a late night party after Calico Jacks. No sooner was that over then we got stuck into "Murph's last week in Cayman" TM. Tuesday night was Murph's last poker league, which we thankfully won! Wednesday was his last ever Poker night, which of course he lost, and Thursday was his official work going away in the Hard Rock. By Friday we were wrecked, but the real fun and excitement had yet to kick off!
Gail and Ross arrived on the 7:20pm flight from Miami on Friday evening, surprisingly with their bags in tow! As their plane landed, the George Town skyline was lit up by fireworks signaling the launch of Pirates Week, a festival that Ross struggled to understand until I laid it out for him, plain and simple: "it's a made up event for the tourists to make money!".
After a quick breather, we headed out to meet the gang who had started drinking several hours earlier on the "Jolly Roger" booze cruise, and were now fairly tanked up down in Hammerheads. Caoire and Kenzo had family and friends over (7 of them to be precise), so we had laid out a schedule of events for the coming week. We went on from Hammerheads to Aqua Beach, but headed home before it got too messy, in preparation for an early start the next morning. Sure to her word, Gail dragged myself and Ross out onto the beach for a 7am run (on a Saturday!!!), with stories of how she runs 10k a day. Not on sand you dont! Sure enough, her legs began to give way after less than a mile! A quick few lengths in the pool afterwards, and we were off for breakfast, picking up Foxton on the way to watch a Leinster match that we subsequently discovered wasnt being televised here!


By the time we got back to the house, the hangovers had kicked in, and we were all secretly envious of Jill who had stayed in bed throughout the morning's events!
After a couple of hours R&R, we officially kicked off Pirates Week by dressing up in the costumes that Jill had thoughtfully (or cruelly, depending on your perspective) picked up the previous week. In full Pirates Costume, we headed into George Town, stopping only to buy a few cans of beer from a street vendor, and to scream "Aahrrr" at unsuspecting children as we walked by! Digicel were hosting a corporate event at Breezes, a bar/ restaurant overlooking the Bay where the main hub of activities were taking place. We met up with everyone else, most of whom were also in costume, and got stuck into the free bar as we watched the parade. I will tell you one thing, it sure as hell beats the Paddy's Day Parade back in Dublin, watching a mock pirate ship storm the shore, with fireworks and cannons, and sunshine!!!!



As the night wore on, we gradually lost pieces of our costumes, and even more of our minds, eventually ending up on the dancefloor of the second floor of Breezes, struggling to keep the flame going 'til midnight!


On Sunday morning we dragged ourselves out of bed, threw on some decent clothes, and headed down to the Ritz for brunch, where we had booked a table for 20 people. To set the scene, the Ritz Brunch is something of legend. Three and a half hours of pure indulgence and gluttony, with a never ending supply of champagne and five star food: breakfast, meats, fish, cheeses, deserts, you name it, it was there, and in abundance. We lorded it up, ate like fools, and rolled ourselves into the bar four hours later to wind down. We eventually dragged our near asleep bodies on to Coconut Joes, where we hit the Beergaritas (a bottle of beer, upside down in a jug of Margarita, I kid you not!) and Buddies (Budweiser Extra: beer with red bull). Our gang were "sensible" and headed home around 11pm. The rest were not so fortunate!
Monday was a public holiday, and we had all booked a boat to take us out on the North Sound, but the sea was too rough, and the boat trip was cancelled, so we headed out to Rum Point, where we were joined by Tim and Leonie. There was a "party" on over at Kaibo Yacht Club, down the road, which we joined around 4pm, finding a poor party, but an empty volleyball court where we challenged a few people that Jill knew to a game, playing until sunset when we hit the road to go home and change before heading back out for dinner for "Murph's last supper" TM.
Copper Fall was the venue of choice for Murph's last meal on his last day on the island, and sure enough he was well fed. We were all fairly exhausted after nearly a week on the go, and so after a few drinks in Aqua Beach, we bid our farewell to Murpadurp! It was a sad day, but in fairness, we had three months to get used to it! Murph, I'll be seeing you soon buddy!
Tuesday was our night off. We chilled out, Jill cooked some top notch dinner, and we watched some DVDs. Perfect!


Wednesday, and we were back in action, this time back over the other side of the island at Kaibo for a night time kayak into the bioluminescense bay in the lagoon, one of only a handful of places in the world where there is natural bioluminescence all year around. Basically there were 14 of us in 7 kayaks, kayaking in the dark (and rain!) for about half an hour up the coast until we reached the Bio Bay. In they bay, you can see fish darting past as they are lit up in silver from the algae that live there. If you put your hand or foot through the water, you get the same effect, like silver stars on your skin. Its class! After a lengthy and tough paddle back to shore, we chilled out over some food and made the trek back home to South Sound, wet and thoroughly exhausted!


On Thursday night, we headed to Casanova's for a nice Italian meal, and then on to Coconut Joe's for the mid-month Movember party, where hairy men compared moustaches and drunk beer! After a few bevvies, we headed home, but on a relative high of giddiness. Once we got back, we opened up some wine and beers, and slapped on the music. Jill was sensible and went to bed around 1am, but myself Gail and Ross stayed up until 4am. OK for them on their holidays, not so good for me who had to get up at 6:30am, walk the dogs, and then go to work! To say that the next day was unproductive would be a gross understatement! Sure enough, our big night out on Friday night was curtailed to dinner in Calypso Grill. We were joined by Kurt, Meredith, Chanelle and Jen, but myself and Ross were struggling to stay awake at the table from tiredness, and we soon headed home to bed!


Saturday morning and we were up early to prepare for our day of footballing! The GAA Mixed 9's Blitz was being held in the Rugby Club, and myself and Jill had been signed up for the Digicel team. Ross and Gail were signed up for another team (the yellow's), but sadly we were not destined to play them. The day was hot but we got stuck in, Ross taking someone out with his elbow in the first 60 seconds of his game. A nice start! After putting him on in the back initially, his team eventually realised his potential and by the last game he was scoring goals left, right and centre! Meanwhile, the Digicel team were motoring away, stopped only by the referee, Foxton, who took exception to a bit of slagging, and decided to call us up on every single questionable decision, even going so far as to disallow a goal that would have seen us win the only match we loss. Alas, we pulled it together and stormed away to a semi final place, against Foxton's team!! Sweet revenge!
Being the sportsman that he is, he elbowed Jimmy H in the face as he went in for a goal, causing the now infamous "Foxgate" scandal. Tempers ran high, digs were threatened, but in the end, we won! Winning the final was just the icing on the cake! We held the trophy high, and got stuck into a boat race with the runners up (drinking game), which we sadly lost, but only narrowly!


Gail and I had signed up to run a 10K the next morning at 7am, but with the taste of victory on our lips, we all headed to the Triple Crown for some post match celebrations, leaving the idea of a quiet night firmly behind us! Sure enough, yours truly was soon up doing Karaoke in the pub, and then back up again for a duet with Olive MacDonagh. Not ones to break tradition, Jill soon announced a party back in ours, and off we trooped, stopping off in A La Kebab on the way for some needed refreshment. Tina Turner was Rolling, Jimmy and Lisa were dancing, and the dogs were barking until 4am. Our neighbours downstairs joined us, as did a taxi full of people that had been at a barbecue down the road, and pretty soon the house was full. It was a tough call getting rid of them all at 4am, but it was soon done!


Sunday morning and we were nursing hangovers, as usual. We had booked ourselves in for a boat trip at 9am, but that was quickly canceled, and we opted for a 12 noon trip instead. Out we went to Stingray City in unusually choppy waters, snorkeling, sobering up, and swimming with the stingrays. Gail cried when she first got in the water, but next thing you know she's chasing the stingrays, kissing them, trying to grab their tails; madness! After a few hours out on the water, we sailed back in, heading home for some Pizza and chill-out time on the couch.
With only one full day to go, Gail and Ross went on a shopping spree (I say in jest), and we went back to work! For our last night, we all headed to Grand Old House for a slap up meal, plenty of wine, chilling out on the water overlooking South Sound.
By the time they left, most of our friends here thought Gail and Ross were living here. We were all sad to see them off, bringing to an end our near two months of guests! The house was quiet, the dogs whining, and normality returned to 282 South Sound Road.
As for the last 3 weeks, I'll have to tell you again.....

BTW, Congrats to Jim and Lisa who finally got engaged at the weekend! It was about bloody time, but fair play.

Moctober

2007 has been a bad year for Blog entries. Not sure when I'll get back to August and September, but if I dont catch up now, chances are I never will.
Lets get back to October. It was a great month.
We kicked off the tenth month of this year with a weekend in Little Cayman, the smallest sister Island of Grand Cayman which is 90 miles East of Grand. Originally booked as surprise 30th birthday present but rescheduled due to Hurricane Dean, 16 of us finally flew off on the first Friday of the month, departing on a plane that held around 20 people, with our coolers stuffed full of beers, rum, burgers and bread rolls!
To set the scene, Little Cayman has a population of 125 in peak season, and around 80 people when we arrived there. The airport is a strip of tarmac beside the main road, the only road on the island. The airport is also the gas station, off licence, video store, gift store and supermarket. Its class!



Basically we spent the weekend chilling by the pool, drinking beer in the hot-tub, barbecuing burgers when we got hungry and generally chilling out. After a heavy night in the only bar on the island on the Friday night, 10 of us went out on a dive on Saturday morning, heading to Bloody Bay Marine Park, one of the top 10 dive spots in the world. Our first dive was off the Wall, but the second one was even better, off the shallow wall, where we saw turtles, sharks, stingray, lobster and seahorses. Not a bad morning!



On Saturday, most of the bar & hotel industry staff on the island came down to our pool where after a rumour had spread amongst the handful of islanders that the "Irish" were having a party.



On Sunday we all swam to Owen Island, a deserted bird sanctuary about half a mile off shore from where we were staying, where we played cricket, drank beer and generally arsed around. By the time we got back on Sunday night we were wrecked from two days of doing nothing.
Monday afternoon saw the arrival of my mum and my aunt, Ann. It was great to see my mum, who had just spent two long days in New York with my sister Fiona and my cousin Gillian. Sure enough, one of Ann's bags was missing, but we made do until its arrival later that night. Unfortunately my mum and Ann arrived to one of the wettest, stormiest weeks that we have ever seen in Cayman with driving rain every night for the first 4 days, accompanied by heavy thunder and lightning. I dont know how they did it, but they managed to find dry spells on every day, chilling out on the beach between coffees and cakes! We ate out half the week, and chilled out watching videos the rest of the week. On Friday, a gang of us went to Grand Old House, a beautiful old restaurant up the road from us, on the water, on South Sound. Dec's parents were also visiting that week, and came out with us. After a gorgeous meal (the best I have had in Cayman), we brought the mothers up to the Ritz for Mojitos and dancing. I think they were suitable impressed!
Saturday was due to be a big day. We had rented a 12 man speedboat to take out on the North Sound for the day. At 9am we picked it up, with yours truly at the helm, continuing to bluff about my prior boating experience. 10 minutes out on the open water at full throttle and the engine started banging like crazy, with smoke spewing out from under the luxury leather seats at the back of the boat. Sure enough, there were a few unhappy faces! To make matters worse, Murph, who along with Jimmy H had accompanied the 8 of us, was still pissed from the night before, and so thought it was great craic to keep revving the throttle on the way back in when we were trying to bring the boat slowly back to shore without blowing up! We got back in at around 10am, and were met by the boat rental guys who were trying to arrange a replacement boat. Before they arrived, I had to "park" the boat, a damn sight more difficult to do when its three times the size of the only other boat you have ever driven!
Anyway, after 45 mins of waiting, the new boat arrived. Would it start? Of course not! Half an hour later and the boat trip was cancelled, with everyone packed back into the cars on our way to Rum Point where Murph was told that he wouldnt be allowed drive a jet ski until he had sobered up. This we were told before we even asked about renting them bloody things!
After lunch we headed over to East End to Morritts, a big resort hotel with an infinity pool overlooking a windswept beach, with two whirlpools, one heated, and with a pool bar in the middle of the pool. Cocktails and chilling were the order of the day.
No sooner were we back home than we were out again, this time being picked up by a bus that brought 24 of us back over to East End to Rolands Garden, a "restaurant" that is really some guy's lush, green back garden with a barbecue and candlelights. Roland, the chef, cooks you 6 or 7 courses as you drink your own beer and wine. At the end, you decide how much you want to pay! Its class. On the way home, with everyone fairly tanked up, the bus driver suggested that we stop in a "local" (read: black) bar in Bodden Town where my mother and Ann were chatted up by two Cuban men. We were the only white people in the place, which didnt stop us from bringing our own lack of style to the dancefloor. Sure enough, it was then back to ours for a party which went until around 4:30 with several people taking turns on the hammock before re-stocking with rum. How my mum and Ann slept, I do not know.
Sunday's plans were pretty much scrapped, and instead I brought Ann and my mum up to the Turtle Farm, and then home for some chill out couch time.
We chilled out on Monday in Casanovas, a lovely Italian restaurant on the water near town, and then finished the girls' holiday on Wednesday with a meal in Calypso Grill.
We were sad to see my mum and Ann off on Thursday morning, the craic had been great, with my mum and Ann telling stories and winding each other up.
Thursday night we had to ourselves, before the arrival of Jill's mum, Joyce and her friend Sandra on Friday night. This time both of their bags went missing!
Saturday was the Rugby World Cup final, which yours truly won 25 bucks on. Wost game of rugby I have seen in a long time, but sweet to see England lose.
Saturday night was Oktober fest in Coconut Joes, where we ate and had a few drinks.
Sunday, 12 of us headed back out to Morritts in East End where we spent the day chilling and playing volleyball with bunch of Russians (we lost!).
On Monday night, Joyce and Sandra treated us to a beautiful meal in Grand Old House, and then they headed off to Cuba on Wednesday morning with Jill and her friend Meredith, where they had booked into a hotel in Havana for two nights.



On Friday morning, 12 of us lads flew to Montego Bay for Murph's official going away golfing and drinking weekend. I only found out on Thursday night that we were all booked to return Monday, and not Sunday as I and my employer had previously thought! Ah well!
We arrived in Mobay just in time for breakfast, checked into our private villa, dropping off our 12 bottles of liquor and the cocktail shaker, before heading out for our first round of golf in Cinnamon Hills. The course was beautiful, and I think we pretty much had it to ourselves. The caddies were of crucial importance in me finishing second place overall for the day, finally winning some golf money!
We came back, changed, ate dinner in the villa, cooked by our personal chef (not great, more of a landlady who cooked on demand) and then hopped onto the bus that we had rented for the weekend, along with a driver, for US$300. We drove around countless bars and clubs, gradually leaving a growing trail of carnage, before finally heading home at around 5am. The next day, Kenzo and Jimmy H couldnt get up until dinner time, both returning straight to bed afterwards, not resurfacing until Sunday. The rest of us dragged ourselves out of bed, into the pool, and off to White Witch, the Ritz Carlton's golf course, definitely the most beautiful course I have ever seen. The level of service was unbelievable, and the course was amazing with even better views of the ocean from higher up the mountain. My golfing prowess was not quite as good, and so begun my current slump!
We headed back to the villa for steaks, spuds, and veg, and ended up not going out; instead just making cocktails until the early hours.
On Sunday morning we all headed down to the Jamaica Bobsleigh bar to watch Liverpool V Arsenal (the bar had the original bobsleigh used in the Olympics aka Cool Runnings), sipping bloody marys to sort our heads out before heading out of town to another top course, Tryall. One of the lads from Digicel Jamaica had advised us that it was the best course in the Caribbean, a claim that it couldnt live up to. Still a great course, but after playing White Witch the previous day, nothing was going to match up! That night we went out for dinner on a boathouse, a floating restaurant on the lake just outside Mobay. Monday morning was painful, getting up to fly back to Cayman, drive home to throw a suit on, and then back to work. I was a shadow of my former self on Monday evening!
Joyce and Sandra flew home on Tuesday morning, after apparently having a good time in Havana, but general consensus was that it is a dishevelled city not for the faint hearted!
Sure enough, last week was quiet! The plan was to take it very easy at the weekend as Gail and Ross arrive on Friday 9th to spend nearly two weeks with us. In true Johnny and Jill tradition, we went to a fancy dress Halloween party next door on Friday night, with Jill inviting some people "back to ours" for drinks afterwards. I dragged myself up for golf on Saturday morning, which was tough, but not as bad as the shameful round that I had! I had read during the week that there was a ladies exhibition volleyball game on at Public Beach at 4pm on Saturday, with DJs and party games, in aid of charity. It wasnt that difficult to persuade the lads to join us!
What started as a few afternoon drinks matured into drinking games and as the flies dropped off, it ended with Jill and I, Jimmy Mac and Lisa agreeing that a night spent dancing on the sand listening to old school dance classics being pumped out of the speakers was sure to beat sitting on the couch. The music ended at 12; we turned the iPod and speakers on for another hour and a half, not wanting the party to end, and then all headed "back to ours" for more singing, YouTubing, Christopher Walken impressions, and general BS!
So here we are, just recovering again, with Gail and Ross arriving in four days for an action packed bank holiday weekend. Life in Cayman is a lot of responsibility, not for everyone, and requires a lot of stamina! Beats rain, wind, and cold back home!

BTW, in the midst of Saturday night's madness, myself and Jimmy Mac signed up for Movember (www.movember.ky), agreeing to grow a handlebar moustache during the month of November to raise money for Cancer research. Let the hair gro mo in Movember!

Never mind the iPod ad, check out the full video

The Wedding...part 1 (The Lead Up)

Well, here we are, nearly two months later, and the honeymoon is well and truly over! No seriously, I cant believe how quickly the last two months have flown, and we still havent finished the thank you cards!
So to pick up from where I last left off......I arrived home the Friday before the wedding, went for a bite to eat with the folks in the Step, then back to my brothers where myself and Ais stayed up having a few glasses of wine, joined by Graham after he got back from a work do. It wasnt too late, so we made it up in OK time the next morning to travel down to Waterford for the stag. Jill had come up to Dublin to pick me up from the airport, and then headed back to Nicola's where she was staying the night with the girls. Her hen night had been organised months in advance, a day at the races in Kildare, but somebody forgot to tell the Irish weather, so at the last minute Gail and Nicola pulled it out of the bag and had organised for all the girls to go into a casino in South Anne Street, followed by dinner and cocktails, and then off to Club 92. Needless to say, the casino went down a storm, and several gambling habits were born!
Meanwhile, myself and Graham took a few wrong turns but made it to Waterford just in the nick of time for the golf. One four ball had teed off in front of us, but we squeezed in, beating Dawood, Shane, and Scats! Ahead of us were Barry, Simon, Johnny Weir and Hubb, and myself and Graham and Gavin hacked our way around the 18 holes on what turned out to be the first sunny day in Ireland in 2 months (apparently!). We were joined by Robbie and Brian in the clubhouse afterwards, and by Jay, Dave, Gary and Niall in the hotel.
After a quick shower we all met up in the bar and hit the road in search of the local lap dancing club! (sorry to offend any readers, but it was a stag after all!!).



We then continued on on our pub crawl around town, ending up in one of the nightclubs until closing time wherein we proceeded back to the hotel residents bar, finding not one but three separate hen nights in progress. I thought I snuck off to bed after a few hours but discovered a photo of myself and Scats drinking Buddies (Bud Extra for the uninitiated!) back in my hotel room, and I assume it was Baz on the camera!). Meanwhile the boys were running around the corridors having the craic and driving the hotel staff a little but mad.
The next morning none of us were too fit to drive, so a breakfast and walk around town were in order before the return home!
Back in Dublin, myself and Gav dropped in to Nicola's to get the low down on the hen night, just missing out on walking in on 5 of the girls walking around Nicola's front room half naked (or so the story goes). Needless to say my bride to be was still quite giddy from the night before, and wasnt alone in her semi-drunk state!
Off we trecked back down to Athy after some Sunday dinner, and up the next morning to sign the official documents in Kilkenny Cathedral and pop into the hotel to make sure that everything was OK for the weekend. The countdown had well and truly begun!
Tensions were high in the Chambers household so yours truly skipped out that night, back to Dublin, to "organise my end of the wedding", otherwise known as meeting up with people all week and going out!
I re-insured the Vespa for the week, happy out on my two wheels buzzing around town! A few meetings on Tuesday, and some shopping followed by dinner with Gail and Graham, and then off to Harry Potter with Gail, rounded off the day! Wednesday involved some more shopping, a visit to Black Tie to get the suits fitted, some lunch with Fiona and Joe, and a night in Drogheda in Gav's new house with Col, Halpo, and the Griswalds.
Thursday and I was back on the train to Dublin, some more shopping in the avo, then up to my bro's to get my stuff, back to my mum's to drop the Vespa off, and then off for the night to Simon and Noreen's, where to my pleasant surprise, Simon had invited all the lads over for the night. With sore heads the next morning, softened by Noreen's fry, we set off down to Athy for the rehearsal!
Myself and Si were an hour early. The girls were running late in the hairdressers, Graham and Ais were stuck in traffic, Gav was late and lost, but it all came together eventually, but not without a stressed Jill having to shout at everyone to shut up in the church to allow the priest to be heard! At last I got to see my sis and my two nephews, but my poor Nephew Gavin wasnt so much in the mood for running around a church!
With the run through over and done with, myself and Graham, Si and Gavin headed back to the Heritage, followed closely behind by the rest of the wedding party who were coming down for some last minute deliveries and checks. After a few drinks in the bar, the girls all headed off, and the enormity of the day ahead begun to sink in!
We went over to the Italian for a bite to eat, then back to the Thatch bar until closing, and then back to our 4 bed golf house where Gavin whipped out the guitar for a sing song. At 2:30am, the night before my wedding day, we finally called it a night and headed to bed.
By the way, I think Jill was busy enough that week, organising something, cant remember what she was doing but she definitely seemed busy! To be honest, between all the meeting up, lunches, dinners, drinks and craic, I just didnt have the time to keep up with her! ;)

Medellin

For those of you out there who are huge Entourage fans, like us, check out this trailer:
http://www.medellinthefilm.com/

Pure class! The best movie that was never made!

if only we'd seen this sooner......

Dean Update

It's 8am, and the eye of the storm has just passed south of us. The winds are relatively high, but nothing serious at all, just a couple of trees down, not an ounce of rain. The winds were slightly worse earlier, seem to be dying down. Looks like we have gotten away with murder!

Hurricane Update

Hurricane Dean is on course to be a direct hit Category 5 Hurricane (the most severe on the scale) early Monday morning GMT.
It is highly likely that electricity and telecoms will be knocked out for a few weeks, but in the event of emergency, please try the following contact numbers:

Johnny: +1 345 322 9887
Jill: +1 345 323 2861
Johnny's work: +1 345 945 1781

We will be staying in the offices of Baraud International, which are located in Cricket Square, Elgin Avenue, in George Town. Our office building is KPMG's office block.
It looks like we will be staying with the following people:
Declan Cassidy (+1 345 327 6060), Regina O'Connor, Jimmy Herlihy (+1 345 327 6041), James Kennedy (+1 345 526 2743), Caoire Kennedy, Claire Cawley (+1 345 525 5537).

Our house is on South Sound Road, about a mile from the Walkers Road turn, heading East. It is beside the water, so we dont expect it to fair too well, but afterwards, we hope to be able to return here, should it be structurally sounds. The address is No 4 Winter Haven, South Sound Road, and it is next door to Caribbean Paradise.

The dogs will be with us in Cricket Square, and we have have sedatives to send them to sleep during the storm.

Aside from all that, I think its important to note how bloody hungover I am! We went out to Mango Tree, a Caymanian bar near the airport, last night, where there was a DJ competition, fairly cool. Then on to Triple Crown and O Bar. Headed back to Murphs next door until 5:30 this morning. A good way to kick start the hurricane weekend! May be the last time we can drink in a proper bar for a few months, so you gotta do what you gotta do!

Hopefully, by Monday evening I will be deleting all this nonsense, embaressed for having gone to such lengths to make sure all our contact details were stored somewhere. If a Cat 5 hits the island, the place will be destroyed, but we are in a hurricane proofed building, and will be safe and sound. The island learnt its lesson with Ivan 3 years ago, and is as prepared as it can be. No contact from us does not mean anything bad, in fact, it can be expected, so dont worry.
I will update this blog as soon as we have internet access, rather than emailing anyone.

Meantime, lets have you Dean, come and have a go if you think youre hard enough!

Johnny and Jill

Hurricane Dean

I promise to write a really long (overly long no doubt) report on the wedding and honeymoon etc (wedding was the best weekend of our lives by the way, thanks to everyone who made it such a great time), but we are currently tracking a Hurricane across the Caribbean that is due to hit Cayman on Sunday night as a Category 4, so its all hands on deck (Cat 4's are pretty damn serious!) Will update on this blog as soon as it has passed, or as soon as it misses us (hopefully).
We are well prepared, and will be taking shelter with the dogs in my company's offices, which are Hurricane proofed.
Talk soon!

You can see satelite images of the hurricane here

FRIDAY MORNING'S SATELITE IMAGE:



You can track the hurricane here

FRIDAY'S FORECASTED HURRICANE ROUTE (Note: you cant see Grand Cayman as it is under the Hurricane line!)

Friday 13th...

Friday 13th, an ominous day to return home to Ireland to get married! I’m sitting in Heathrow awaiting the last of my three flights, and will soon be back in Dublin. The wedding is tomorrow week. I cant believe how fast the time has gone. Jill arrived home last Sunday and has been running around all week making some last minute arrangements, which will continue well into next week. I cant wait until next Saturday. What was started five and a half years ago will take a big step, one I think we both knew would come from the moment we met (well, in all seriously maybe two days later when we were both a lot more sober and we actually got to chat properly!).
Anyway, to recap on the last month or so first…..
Johnny and Andrea arrived in Cayman in mid June to some of the worst weather we have had since last Autumn! It had rained nearly every day since Simon and Noreen’s departure, not the Irish kind of rain, but short, heavy showers at least once a day. The week Johnny and Andrea arrived though was dull and rainy, and unusual combination in Cayman. To make matters much worse, their baggage did not arrive with them, and in fact would not turn up for ten more days!
By Friday of that week there were fierce thunderstorms that shook the restaurant that we were eating in that night! On their first night we went out to Coconut Joes and met up with Cara and Justin who’s friends Michael and Claire had also arrived on the same flight to stay for a few weeks. We went out a couple of times that week, saving ourselves for Friday night when we went for a meal, and then out to the Ritz for cocktails. Jill had a work dinner but joined us afterwards, around the same time as the rest of the gang joined us after having to leave Hammerheads, a primarily outdoors bar that had been washed out of it with the heavy rain! It certainly was a gloomy start for the guys, with not an ounce of sunshine since their arrival, and no clothes or any sign of them arriving! So, in true supportive fashion, Jill and I left “the rock” the next day and flew to Orlando with Dec, Jimmy, Murph, Mairead and her daughter Caoimhlionn!
The rest of the guys had arrived on the Friday, so we were playing catch up. We flew into Tampa, which is on the West Coast of Florida, about an hour’s drive to Orlando in the East. Jill was pushing me to upgrade our car rental to a convertible, and disappeared off to the bathroom while I negotiated with the car rental lady. By the time she came back we had the keys to a shiny, black Hummer with Sat Nav and all the bells and whistles. When in Rome…
Disneyworld is hard to explain. It is vast, bigger and better than I could ever have imagined. The actual acreage of Disneyworld (not including the rest of Orlando where the other parks are) is twice the size of Manhattan. They employ 80,000 staff to run the place!! We had booked into the cheapest Disney hotel, “World of Movies” or something like that. I didn’t expect much, but it was still class. The check in building has a little cinema where kids can watch cartoons whilst the parents check in. They really think of everything! We got on the road and agreed to meet with Dec and Jimmy who were on their way to the Magic Kingdom after having visited three parks already that day (it was 6:30 at night by the time we got in). I wasn’t that pushed, thinking it was all for kids and not as good as some of the other adventure parks, but I was very wrong. The Magic Kingdom is what Disneyworld is all about. Yes, its great for kids, but equally brilliant for adults. The sheer look of the place is amazing, like being in a fairytale story, but full of Americans! It is also the most efficient place in the world, where everything works smoothly, is controlled fantastically, and with a huge amount of thought, such as people employed to skip ropes for passing children, or to hand out hula hoops!! Apparently the repair crew work tirelessly to ensure that every bulb is working, and no screw is loose in the park, and it shows!
The rides are great fun (especially Space Mountain which is well worth waiting for, an indoor roller coaster in the dark!), plenty of which soaked us, but the really great parts were the parade and the fireworks that follow. The parade passes through the whole park and is a feast of colour. Lights, music, and dancing. The photos didn’t come out well, but its probably for the best as you really have to see this thing to appreciate it. The fireworks afterwards were equally spectacular. Is unbelievable to think that this happens every night of the week, all year round! By the time it was all over, it was 12:30 and we wee shattered! We took a steamboat back across lake Buena Vista to the car park (the boat trip is cool enough in its own right), and headed home for the night, with not a drop of alcohol in our systems, an unusual Saturday night for us all!
The next day I had to drop the Hummer back to the airport. We met up with Murph and Mairead for breakfast, and then begun the disaster that was the return of the car. The less said about it better, but we wasted nearly two hours of our morning!
Our plan for the day was to visit Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, adjoining theme parks on the other side of Orlando. I had been advised that Islands was the best in Orlando, and it lived up to expectations! It isn’t as well run or clean and efficient as Magic Kingdom, but I’m nit picking now!
The Spiderman 3-D ride is great, as is the Hulk roller coaster, both Dueling Dragon rollercoasters, the water rides, and everything else we went on. There is just so much to do! We thankfully bought the Express passes, which saved us hours. The normal queue for Spiderman was 90 minutes. It took us 5!
Jill nearly braved the Dueling Dragons rollercoaster, and was even strapped in, ready to go at one stage, but she saw red and asked to be left off before it got going. She was probably right, as we were three seconds short of getting sick by the end of it!
After going on all the main rides, we headed next door to Universal Studios, the original theme park on the site, to get as much in as we could in the remaining two hours (it closes at 10pm). Universal’s rides aren’t quite as good, but Shrek 4D is good fun (basically a cinema where you watch a 20 minute Shrek min-film with wind, heat, and water spraying you at key moments), as is Twister and Jaws to a lesser degree. The Mummy was great, similar to Spiderman in some ways, but a mini roller coaster also. Definitely recommended.
After the park closed, the original plan was to walk back through the bars/ clubs area in Universal, and stay out, but we were all wrecked so we jus got some food in Bubba Shrimp restaurant and hit the hay!
The next morning was meant to spent in a Water Park, but we all kind of slept in, and as our flight was at 2pm from Tampa, we just had time to spend an hour in the malls before heading home.
By the time we got back to Cayman, the weather had much improved, and thankfully Johnny and Andrea had seen the sun for a few days. They had gone out on the Sunday night (it was a bank holiday weekend) with all of our normal gang, and had a great night by all accounts.
The rest of the week was spent chilling out, with a few dinners and drinks thrown in, building up to a weekend of Hens and Stags! It all kicked off on the Friday night, with Jill’s hen. 30-40 women got dressed up to the nines, met up for cocktails and then were escorted in Limos to the Ritz for more drinks, before finally arriving in the Wharf restaurant where the monthly Boogie Nights was taking place. Jill arrived back at 1:30 in the morning, completely hammered but surprisingly awake and still standing. I think adrenaline kept her going, but she had a great night! We on the other hand all bailed over to Murph’s, where we played cards, drank beer, and basically lost money (well at least I did…). Saturday morning, myself and Johnny headed up to the golf course to get nine holes in before the stag kicked off at 1pm. Myself and a mate of mine, Micheail, and another guy we know, Paul Fitz, had agred to a shared stag, as there are only so many weekends to organize these things, and our mates are broadly similar, what with us all being Paddys and all that! It kicked off around 1pm in the Triple Crown, with breakfast and Guinness for 30-40 lads. Just before the bus arrived at 3pm, the “Committee” who had organized the stag (represented for me by Gav Tobin) handed out our costumes for the day. First up was Micheail, who donned a full dress, wig (he is bald as a coot) and handbag. Next was Paul who claimed his sore back prohibited him from wearing his skirt and handbag (I still haven’t figured out how sore back equals no dress, but nevermind). The last handed out was to me. There I was thinking: “a dress, no problem, wore them in college singing in drag in front of 400 people, this is no hassle”. I was handed an adult sized nappy, a pin to keep it on, and a soother! Ah well, you have to be a sport in these type of things!
The day’s plan was to take a bus tour of all the local Caymanian bars around George Town. We started in a place called “Country & Western”, but myself and Micheail decided to go in together, ahead of the lads, to see what reaction we would get. We strolled in, me in a nappy, Micheail in a dress and wig, took a seat at the bar, and ordered two beers, not a smile or grin on our faces. To say you could hear a pin drop is an understatement! The silence was soon shattered by the two bus loads of ex-pats storming in behind us, everyone wearing the required Hawaiian shirts! The photos of me playing pool wearing a nappy are genuine. I beat one of the locals who kind of fancied himself as a Paul Newman type. Pretty embarrassing for me to beat someone, more embarrassing when I’m wearing a nappy and nursing my Miller Light like it’s mother’s milk! We marched on after a couple of beers, and made our way around countless bars, as I downed countless more shots and slowly but surely became more and more intoxicated. One of the last bars I can really remember was at around 8pm, where we were all dancing to cheesy 90s dance tunes, and I was up on the bar boogying with Micheail and Dave, one of my clients from work. Needless to say, crowd surfing soon followed, as the locals and staff all joined in with us. A few days later, one of the lads was telling me that the only thing that kept him going were the “Bud E’s” (a canned drink of Budweiser and Red Bull). I commented that I should have had a few to keep me going aswell. He “reminded” me that I had many! Ah well, small details. Anyway, the stag ended up in Fidels Irish Bar, a bad idea from the start. The crowd of lads dispersed, after arriving to a cold reception from various Brits and Irish who were enjoying a quiet Saturday night pint whilst watching the boxing. I bailed with Johnny at around 10:30pm, apparently changing out of my nappy in the middle of the street before Johnny put me wide! I fell out of the cab, stumbled to the pool where Jill and a few of the girls had been drinking the hair of the dog for around 6 hours, and was promptly thrown into the pool. I apparently went straight to bed afterwards, although Jill partied on until 2am!! I admit, she is a much better drinker than me when it comes to the crunch!
At around 6am I woke with a blinding headache, proceeded to go downstairs to get some Aspirin, and decided to let the dogs out. Toby ran off, so I had to chase after him, realizing minutes later that I was only wearing my boxers, before going back to get a towel to wrap around me so that I could continue my search! I sobered up much later after another little sleep!
After a weekend of madness, we wound down Johnny & Andrea’s holiday, sorry to see them go, but sorrier that we hadn’t been able to spend more time with them. The rest of the week was spent working, sleeping, and recovering, and then out for a quiet dinner with Cara and Justin and their friends Michael and Claire, who were going home the next day. We all went for an early meal up in Pappagallos, where plenty of wine was consumed, before heading to the Ritz for some champagne Mojitos, and then on to the nightclub (O Bar) for good measure. The heads were hanging again the next day, so we took it easy, and then went on a boat trip on the Sunday with some friends, wisely not going out afterwards! It was another bank holiday weekend, so we still had the Monday off. Rather than waste it, we went out on a one tank boat dive with our new deep diving underwater camera case. After descending we had the lucky opportunity to follow a turtle for a while, which was great. The photos may bore the rest of you, but unless you’ve ever dived, it’s just hard to appreciate!
Over all this time we had to start the wedding table plans, begin tying up loose ends for the wedding, and start confirming missing RSVPs. Jill had finished work the day of her hen, and spent the next two weeks lying in the sun, working on her tan! Her flight home was last Saturday, and the previous night she went out on Sarah’s Hen night, the fiancée of Micheail, whom I had a joint stag with. I went out with the boys to play pool, and Jill promised to be home early to be fresh for her flight. Sure enough, her mates all made sure she enjoyed her last night in Cayman as a single woman, and she came home in a “merry” fashion. My heart went out for her the next morning when she got up with me, and headed over to the pool for a last few hours in the sun, still quiet drunk! I had arranged to fly to Miami that same afternoon, to meet with Niall and Alex who were in Florida for two weeks. Jill headed home to dull Ireland, I headed off to stay in one of the best hotels on Miami Beach with great friends, to relax and enjoy myself! Miami was great. We stayed in Loews on Miami Beach, which I cannot recommend enough. It is literally on the beach, and full of fabulous people (note: fake boobs and face lifts all over the place!). We went out for dinner on Espagnolla Way, dining in an Italian restaurant right beside where they were having a free outdoor street concert with authentic Cuban musicians. They danced beside our table, and the music was great. We hit the hay early, with wake up calls the next morning at 8am to get us up for our Everglades Trip.
The Everglades is great, but not as good as I expected. We had booked an airboat ride, but it is very touristy (as one can expect being a tourist), but we go to see 5/6 alligators, and the animal show afterwards was great, allowing us to hold an alligator (cue photo opp!). After some shopping in the avo, and dinner, I headed home to Cayman, leaving the guys to enjoy the rest of their week.
This week has been madness, with me having to work late every night to get things done before I leave, with loads of errands to run for the wedding etc. Our lease on our condo is up at the end of this month, so whilst Johnny and Andrea were over, we viewed a beautiful 3 bed house on the beach in South Sound (the other side of town), with rap around balcony where the dogs can lie out, and decided to move in next month, the day after we arrive back from our Honeymoon!! Our house is now packed up and ready to go for when we arrive back at 10pm on the 31st. We cant wait, as we have always wanted to live on the beach, and this place is perfect. For anyone left who is thinking of visiting this year, we now have 2 spare rooms, but note that my mum and her aunt are coming in early October for 2 weeks, followed straight away by Joyce and her friend Sandra, for their second visit!
It will be great moving into a beautiful house on the beach straight off our honeymoon, as a newly married couple!
The next week will be madness, I am sure, but were really looking forward to it. I cant wait to catch up with everyone, beginning tomorrow with my “proper” stag in Waterford. Looking forward to next Saturday more than I can put into words. I will be a married man in 8 days, and I cant wait!
Esta la vista!

Vince & Claire's Barbecue

Vince is one of the first (of many) Irish lads that I met in Cayman, at last year's GAA finals, to be precise. Vince arrived into my office a month later with his new salesman, Dec, and was promptly followed by their Engineer, Murph. From their came Jimmy Mc & Lisa, Jimmy H, Tim & Leonie, Sarah, Kenzo & Caoire....and so on!
Vince is married to Claire (Thursday was their 2nd wedding anniversay) and they both hail from Waterford where they were childhood sweethearts (although the story is fraught with ups and downs and is far from sweet and rosy!). Claire announced last month that she is expecting their first baby, and Vince announced a month previous that after 2 years, they are both leaving the island. This is how it came to be that we found ourselves at the beach yesterday having a massive going way barbecue, singing and having the craic in front of a bonfire as the rains fell. Yesterday was a good day.
It all kicked off around 1pm down on public beach, where we had held a Cabana and decorated it with ballons, bunting, and coolers full of ice and beer. We were well on our way when Tim and Leonie showed up with Vince and Claire, who thought they were going to grab a bit of lunch in Calico Jacks (the bar on Public Beach). Poppers were popped, there were cheers, and then we got under way with the barbecue. There were around 40 or 50 of us, plenty of food, and (we thought) plenty of drink. Murph's girlfriend Mairead is over at the moment, with her daughter Caoimhlionn, one of the cutuest kids you'll ever see (except for my nephews of course!). Caoimhlionn was truly entertained by a croud of increasingly intoxicated Irish eejits, fascinated with the giggles of a 2 year old child. Basically it was a day of chat, eating, drinking, football, cricket, swimming, sitting around and having the craic. A wedding took place in the cabana beside us at around 5pm, which we all had a good gawk at, before the sun fell around 7pm. With the light fading, myself and Tim went hunting for dry wood and sticks (thinking we were on the island in Lost), and finally lit a bonfire (apparently illegal in Cayman) on the sand beside us. With a lightning storm brewing in the distance, flashing the sky over our roaring fire, we drank beer, played Trivial Pursuit (odd, I know) and listened to music whilst Vince paraded around as proud as much at his first ever surprise party, and first ever beach fire, whilst his wife Claire left to indulge her crippling mourning sickness (nasty stuff).
When the rain finally fell, it was pouring down in the car park beside us, whilst only barely drizzling on the beach 20 metres away. The rain in Cayan tends to be very isolated when it falls, but to actually see a storm pass 20 metres in front of you yet miss you, is bizarre! Either that, or it was the 15 or so beers. Hmmmm...
Days like this will make it even harder to ever go home.....
Anyway, just felt like sharing that highlight of the week before we forget to blog it. Johnny Weir and Andrea arrive on Wednesday. We go to Orlando for two days on Saturday. The following weekend is my stag (combined with 2 other Irish lads, organising a total of 60 lads who will be driving across the island for a day of guaranteed debauchery!), the weekend after that is a bank holiday, the weekend after that Jill goes home, and I go to Miami to meet Niall and Alex for a night, and then the next weekend I fly home for my stags. The weekend after that is the wedding!
Its all go from here....

Long overdue....

OK, ok, so I've been a bit lazy recently with the blog. Time to catch up on the last three months, as if I dont do it now, it will never be done considering the big one is only 7 weeks away!
Today is actually an appropriately apt day to write this as it's the day of the Cayman Islands GAA finals, which was the first Saturday night I ever had out here, last June. More on that later!
March, now what I can tell you about March? I've had to go back through the photos to create a timeline in my head, so I'm sure to leave loads out, but it started with us finishing our PADI course, finally becoming certified. After two final dives on our fourth day, we went down to the Rugby Club where the week early Paddy's Day celebrations were taking place.

We arrived in time for the welly throwing and puc fada, and then got stuck in to the serious drinking, eating, and (karaoke) singing. Great night, no one missed out and yours truly was caught singing duets with various other vocally challenged drunks!
The following Friday begun the real highlight of the month with the arrival of Graham and Aisling. It started on a bit of a downer as their bags had been delayed by a day, but clothes were borrowed and we kept them awake just long enough to get a few drinks in their first night.

The timeline of what we did during the day time gets a bit fuzzy, but on Saturday, which was Paddy's Day, we headed down to the local Irish bar where there was a U2 tribute band called Rattle & Hum playing. Most of our friends on island were away that weekend for the cricket in Jamaica, but the place was still packed, and the band were brilliant. As close to the real thing as you can get, especially with a few rums in you! Good craic had by all, including a detour on the way home through the Wendy's drive through where we were instructed to form an orderly queue behind a line of cars! Quite bizarre.

During the week we ate out most nights, basically just chilling out and enjoying good food and company. On the Thursday we were invited out on a friend of a friend's catamaran for a sunset sail on the North Sound which turned out to be on of the highlight's of the guy's trip. It was very chilled out, sailing out as the sun went down having a few beers with about 10 other people, eventually coming back in after dark where we stayed on the boat until after 11. Not the type of Thursday evening thing you can do back home after work!

On Friday we went to the Ritz but we were knackered and didnt make the club. Saturday afternoon myself and Graham went golfing with a few of the lads, ending up playing pool afterwards and coming home sozzled at 8pm after a day spent drinking and having the craic. The girls had been chilling out so no one was really up for much else. On Sunday we headed to the turtle farm for some snorkeling etc before the GAA and then out for dinner. All in all a very chilled affair, especially as Graham and Ais have been here before so were able to explore on their own and just relax.
We were very disappointed to see them go home the following week. The house was that little bit more empty without them!
Over the following couple of weekends we went out on our first unassisted dives, firstly to Cracked Conch where we did a shore dive to the first of the walls, diving down to see a huge school of tarpons and two turtles whom we followed for a while. The next weekend was Easter and Murph had a friend over from Jamaica, an Irish lad called Gavin. Justin and Cara organised a barbecue around our pool on the Friday night, and we booked in for a dive boat on the Saturday morning but had to come back in as the waves were too high. We then found another dive company who had a boat going out to the other side of the island later that day, so we booked in and explored cool caves off the South shore.

Sunday, myself and five of the lads rented a fishing boat and went out on the North shore for 5/6 hours with a few crates of beer. In typical fashion I was the only one not to catch a bloody fish! We came back in before dark, nicely chilled with beer in our bellies, and then met up with the girls in a local Italian restaurant where we promptly polished off many bottles of wine and a couple of bottles of brandy (after my suggestion that it could help digest the food, not expecting the brandies to flow for the next three hours!). A stumble to the pool hall followed by a "shortcut" through a construction site home after which I jumped into a car with a complete stranger who had pulled over for Jill, not seeing me, promptly asking him to drop us home for 20 quid. There were sore heads the next day!
The following weekend, or there or thereabouts we all went to the Ritz for a night out, cant remember much else though! Myself, Jimmy, Murph, and Vince also took a boat trip out for a two tank dive where we dove off the North wall, a massive and sudden cliff into an abyss, just a mile off shore, which was amazing.
Mid April saw the arrival of Simon and his "bird" Noreen (I'm sure she will love being referred to like this!). Simon had only announce that he was coming 2/3 weeks previously, which was a great surprise. Myself and Jill had never met Noreen, so were slightly apprehensive, which sounds ridiculous now looking back. Sure enough we all got on like a house on fire (unless Noreen is just a brilliant actress....food for thought), and I think Simon was under pressure not to go home at the end of their two weeks! Their first night (a Thursday) was quiet as they arrived late after missing their connecting flight in Miami, but Friday was busier! I had been dragged into helping my boss, Betty, with her efforts as Chairwoman for the Cayman Islands Olympics Fundraising Committee (her eldest son has two Olympic medals for swimming) and had appeared on a local radio talk show for half an hour on the preceding Monday, and on national TV on the Tuesday morning, on the equivalent of TVAM, to promote a fundraising dinner and auction that she had put together to happen on the Friday of that week. As a result, I had to drag Jill, Simon, and Noreen to this fancy do in the Ritz, which sounded grand on paper, but in fact was a bit of a pile of poo! Anyway, it ended at around 11, and so we said we would hook up with a few friends who were out for a quiet drink in a bar down the road.

Sure enough, they all left our house at 4 in the morning after several hours of singing and drinking!.
To make matters worse, I had organise a boat trip for the following morning, which was sailing at 12 noon! We dragged ourselves out of bed and met up with the other 20 or so people who were going out with us, and slowly we pulled out of the dock heading out to the North Sound. Polite introductions were made for Si and Noreen, and the beers were opened.

After some snorkeling, and swimming with the Stingrays (note Simon squealing like a girl!) we headed out to Kaibo where Tim had the inspired idea to take out his mini cricket set, splitting us up into two teams.


Who knew cricket could be such good craic? After an hour of this we had to board the boat and head back to Seven Mile, before the sun went down. Has to be said, you cant beat a boat trip on a Saturday afternoon in Cayman!
Afterwards we all headed to Aqua Beach for some food, and then quickly on to Fidel Murphy's (note: Irish bar) for the weekly karaoke and a game of darts. (Sounds bizarre and it would have been if you were sober, but after a day drinking on the boat it just seems like a perfectly normal thing to do!). We all had great craic singing and watching Noreen beat all the lads at darts, and Jimmy and Lisa having a dance off following their rendition of Summer Nights!



Sunday we were in dire need of some R&R so we drove out to East End, to a resort called Morritz where we chilled out in the Infinity pool, sipping cocktails and watching the kite surfers before moseying over to Rum Point where we swam about and just lounged before grabbing a bite to eat and heading home.
During the week there were more meals and a visit to Coconut Joe's on the Wednesday night for the Open Mic night (Gav Cooney and Dave Ralph, you would be in your element!).
Before all this though, after a couple of sensible days spent lathering himself with sun factor, Simon thought he had become immune to the sun's rays, and went about burning the skin off himself. The most fun was when he would sweat, and the water would get caught under the burnt skin in blisters. Some craic for us, not so much fun for Simon!

On Friday we headed out on the Jolly Roger sunset pirate cruise (see: Booze Cruise!) before heading down to the Wharf restaurant for Boogie Nights, the highlight of the month in Cayman! Tim, who's wife was away that weekend, was the first to meet us, very much cut after spending the day golfing and drinking with clients.

Not long later, everyone was down, the place was packed, and Simon was doing jazz hands to Jungle Boogie in the middle of the place. It is not often that the man gets really hammered, but the night of Boogie Nights was one of those great nights!
On Saturday we had arranged to take a helicopter tour of the island (courtesy of Joyce and Sandra who bought myself and Jill a voucher for it before they left in February). I was quite excited about the idea as I'd never been in a helicopter and it looked great.

The 10 hours drinking the previous evening probably wasnt a good idea. My stomach just wouldnt listen to my head, and despite the fact that I dont mind heights and actually loved the trip which took us over the lagoon and down the beach where we shaw turtles, sharks, and everything in the water, my stomach just wanted to heave and my entire body poured sweat, draining the colour out of my face.
I'll know in future!
That night we had arranged for around 20 of us to go for dinner in Papagalloes, after a game of golf that myself and Si played with the lads. It was a quieter night than usual though, with many still suffering from Boogie Nights!

On Sunday we went to the Rugby Club where myself and Jill both had GAA matches. Simon ws quite excited about the prospect of playing, and was initially asked to go in goals for one of the girls' teams, whilst I went in for the opposition. Si did well, I let 4 goals in and took two of the female players out of the game! Ah well!
When it came for Murph's team to play, whom Si had agreed to play for, he was back in goals, and not too happy about it, but in fairness he did well so they werent going to move him, that is until the next game when he let in 10 goals! The less said the better.
We all headed to Sunset Bar for dinner afterwards, making our way home at bed time ending the last of our two weekends with Si and Noreen. On their last night we brought a bottle of champagne to the beach and then cooked some burgers on the barbecue by the pool, chilling out over a few beers and wine.
A great two weeks had, and fortunately coinciding with everyone being on island and loads of things happening. Again, the house was that little bit emptier again with the departure of good guests!
Si's last weekend coincided with the arrival of Dec's girlfriend, Reg, who had spent a month here back in November/ December, for a 10 day holiday, so we all arranged another boat trip the following Saturday, again heading out to the North Sound, playing cricket, but this time ending up back in town where there was a big festival on.

We made our way to the Hard Rock cafe where there was an air guitar competition being held on a stage erected outside, followed by a decent rock band from the US.
Despite Jil's concerted efforts to organise a party back in our house, I had to send Kenzo and Caoire home from ours, after another detour to Wendy's where we demanded that our cab driver go through the drive through on the way home to buy us burgers. He was a very patient man!
The month of May has been altogether quieter. We had a bank holiday a few weeks ago, but both of us were down with colds for a few weeks, so not much happened. Also, the weather has been poor most of the month, with rain most days, leaving only a few days here and there to do anything. We went out for dinner with Dec & Reg, had a barbecue in Dec's, the lads has a Friday night card game where I finally won some money (before losing it all again). We played golf 2/3 weekends. Vince and Claire announced that they were pregnant, which is great news, although we'll be sad to see them go when they move home to Ireland at the end of June. A lot of people were off island during the month, which suited us fine as we had more respectable nights out for drinks and food with Tim & Leonie, Kurt & Meredith, and Kenzo & Caoire. We were meant to go to Orlando two weeks ago, but have postponed it to today two weeks, for the next bank holiday!
This week was the beginning of what I expect will continue to be the big wedding countdown! The invites were sent out earlier in the week, and everything has really swung into motion. We're both really looking forward to it now!
Johnny Weir and his girlfriend Andrea arrive on Wednesday week, and we're really looking forward to having them out, although unfortunately our two days in Orlando falls on their first weekend here in Cayman.
The following weekend both myself and Jill will be having our Cayman stag/hens, and then the following weekend Jill flies home to Ireland, and I fly to Miami to meet up with Niall and Alex for a night, as they will be in Florida that week.
My cousin Paula is getting married next week in Italy, which I will unfortunately miss, and today is Hubb and Louise's first wedding anniversary, so our love goes out to them. Also, Sarah O'Toole, who I used to work with got married last week, so congratulations to them, and last but certainly not least, Dawood and Jean were married a month ago, a wedding I was gutted that I had to miss. Hope you guys are enjoying married life!
Regarding the wedding next month, here's the low down:
Jill arrives back in Ireland on Sunday 8th July, I arrive back on Friday 13th. Our stags/ hens will be on Saturday 14th. I believe Jill's is in Dublin, and mine in Waterford. The wedding is on Saturday 21st July in the Heritage Killenard (not the the Heritage in Portlaoise!), and I believe that good value rooms are in short supply. The wedding itself is in Ballintubbert Church, just outside Athy, at 1:30pm, so I doubt many people will be coming from the hotel, but rather checking in after the service. There are more people coming to the service than there are seats for, so arrive early (although I am confident that Jill will be late!).
We're asking friends and family, if they can, to stay down on the Sunday night so that we can all properly chill out and catch up, as we fly out to Panama on the Tuesday morning, for a week, and then we pretty much wont be back until Christmas, although I should be back for 3 days in September for Mick's wedding and Jay's stag.
I will post directions and maps to the church and the hotel on this blog over the coming weeks, so until then, enjoy the bank holiday bank in Ireland, and wish us luck in the GAA finals today!

Johnny and Jill!

The Killers, Live, Acoustic, from Abbey Road.

Pure class. I know that a proper Blog entry is long overdue, and I swear I will do it thia weekend, but in the meantime, have to share these two class tracks.

The Life...

P5050055.JPG
Originally uploaded by Johnny Campbell.

Just another typical Saturday afternoon on the boat....

New Photos

New photos are up on Flickr of the following:
Graham and Ais's Holiday,
Hubb & Louise's Holiday,
Lynda & Stuart's Day Trip to Cayman,

These three are all under the collection: "Cayman Visitors". Just click on it to see the individual sets (new fancy layout thingy).

Thats enough for one night, blog to follow tomorrow!

J&J

Karaoke Night

Divemasters!

We're now 2/3 'rds of the way towards being PADI Certified! Three dives on Saturday coming, and we're done. It was brilliant, but we are both wrecked, feels like we had no weekend at all!
Last week we had planned to read the book that we were given to study (over 210 pages!), but by Friday we'd both only covered about 60 pages, so Friday night was spent in, studying. We missed out on a boat trip and a heavy night out, but what can you do?
Saturday morning we were up just after 7 to get the dogs walked and pick up breakfast so that we could make our first dive class at 8:30am. Of the 8 people that were meant to be there, 7 turned up, including Vince, one of our mates from Digicel. We spent the morning in the classroom before finally getting out to the pool where we begun to get to grips with our gear.
After lunch, we were into the pool where we started to get used to all the equipment, and experienced our first underwater breathing of the day. By 4pm we were all set for our first dive, a quick enough 30 ft dive out onto Sunset Reef. Only 30 minutes, but very cool all the same.
We finished off just before 6, back to walk the dogs, have dinner, and start studying our last two chapters. We werent done until ten, so we treated ourselves to a few beers at the full moon party. There was a good crew out, so we brought our own beers (Jill even had limes for her Sol!) and chilled out, getting home just before one.
Sunday morning we were up just as early, with only very miled hangovers after the relatively quiet night before. There was no time for tea and coffee as we were straight into the pool to practice more, including flooding our masks, practising our buoyancy, and what to do if we ran out of air. In general all good, if not a slight bit tedious at times, especially one session where we spent 45 minutes at the bottom of the pool watching each other take turns in our lessons, one by one!
After that, it was back in the classroom for our last lessons, and then our final test! We all passed (dont actually know if you can really fail...) and took a break for lunch. Then back in the pool (bad idea with a full belly!) for our last few lessons. Then we were back in the water to practice some of our lessons at the bottom of the sea, which was slightly daunting. No problems, so we descended to around 40 ft, swimming through a beautiful reef on our way to the Mermaid (a large statue that someone placed on the Sunset reef years ago. All went well until one of our party decided that they were having some trouble equalising, so we all descended. By the time we got up, the sea was very choppy as a small storm approached, signalling an end to our second day.
We then made a mad dash own to the rugby club where I had a match (Jill had missed both of hers at this stage). My team had won their first game, but our second game was a disaster and we were creamed 22-3! I didnt get my game, the first time in 8 games. Also our first loss. A coincidence? You decide! ;)
Anyway, just before our match, two lads cracked skulls going in for a tackle. One walked away with a gusher requiring 4/5 stitches, the other was stretchered off to an ambulance with a massive gash across his eye and eyebrow. Reckon he'll need a hell of a lot more stitches! Good game!
Taking it easy this week as we need to finish off the diving on Saturday morning, hopefully in time for the Ireland Scotland game (doubtful) which will be followed by a week-early day of Paddy's Day activities down in the rugby club (read: big drinking session).
It is a very very hard life indeed!

Oscar Predictions

The Oscars have just started, so before they hand out any awards, here goes our humble predictions:

Actor: Forest Whitaker
Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin or Eddie Murphy. Alan Arkin has the edge, only cos we havent seen Dreamgirls!
Actress: Helen Mirren
Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson
Animated: Happy Feet
Directing: The Departed
Best Picture: Little Miss Sunshine

Joyce & Sandra's Holiday, Jill's Birthday..

2 weeks later and Jill is another year older, her mum is a darker shade of brown, and our livers are just that little bit closer to being put out of service!
Jill's mum Joyce, and Joyce's cousin Sandra arrived last Tuesday week for an eleven day holiday. Their first night was quiet, as they were exhausted from the flight, with Joyce falling asleep as she talked, in front of the TV as we ate our take-out! The next morning, the girls joined me on the beach for my morning walk with the dogs, their first of many mornings appreciating a Cayman sunrise. It was Valentine's night, so two chances of getting a dinner reservation, so we all ate out in Sunset Bar, on South Sound. After staying in on Thursday night to start writing the wedding invitations, we went out in style on Friday night, starting in Morgans Harbour bar, and then into Calypso Grill for a fantastic meal on the edge of the water on the North Sound, up in West Bay. With our bellies full, we made it to the Ritz where everyone started to fade, but not before we sunk a couple of Mojitos overlooking the pool!
Saturday morning, I played nine holes with the lads, before heading to Cracked Conch for lunch with Jill, Joyce, and Sandra, and then on to the Turtle Farm. Joyce and I then joined the lads again for another game of golf in Safe Haven. Despite the four beers had over nine holes, Joyce still finished with an excellent round. Say nothing about my own score! We sunk a few more beers in the club house, before heading home around 7:30pm to shower, change, and head out with Jill and Sandra in toe, on to Aqua Beach, where we met up with the gang. Despite Joyce's jet-lagged attempts to sleep in the middle of the bar at 9pm, she managed to make it through to midnight, when we dragged ourselves home!
On Sunday we all headed over to the Rugby club where myself and Jill had two games of GAA each to play. Needless to say, my team won our two games, making it 6 out of 6. It was the first bit of exercise I had done since cracking my rib two weeks previous, but the oul rib held fast! Jill's team won one, and lost one, despite another "passionate" game from Jill! Anyone who has ever seen Jill play hockey will be able to understand how much she gets into her game! Thankfully no-one was hurt, although I'm sure plenty of insults were thrown!
We brought Toby and Daisy down with us for the day, and they were surely wrecked by the end of it, as were we! Quiet night spent in, finishing off the invites and narrowing down our guest list for July!
On Monday I was back to work, but Jill was off for her third day of six days off for mid-term, so she brought the girls out across the island to the Northside. It was surprisingly cold for Cayman (22 degrees), so not really a day for lying on the beach! Thankfully Tuesday was back to normal (28/30 degrees) so the girls went out on a boat trip to Stingray City, getting a puncture on the way home! (note the photo with strangers helping to fix the tyre, yet Jill is standing away with her arms folded, getting away with doing nothing! A true princess!)
Shrove Tuesday wouldnt be complete without pancakes, and despite sharing a house with three women, their were no pancakes forthcoming from our house! Thankfully our friends and neighbours Justin & Cara had invited a bunch of us over for sweet and savoury pancakes, a feast of ice cream, strawberries, peaches, chocolate sauce, stewed vegetables, chicken, and good old fashioned lemon and sugar on top notch home made pancakes, washed down with plenty of wine and beer! By 10:30pm, we were on our way to Calico Jacks on the beach for the "Bacardi Gras" party, a pre-Mardi Gras event on the sand, with DJ's, fire-eaters, free shots, dancers, etc. We met up with some more people and partied until around 2.
The next day, despite convincing talk about taking it easy, we headed over on the boat to the Mardi Gras party in Kaibo, near Rum Point on the Northside, the largest party of the year in Cayman.
The dock was littered with yachts and boats, the beach was packed, their were live bands playing, DJ's, beer tents, food tents, entertainment, and plenty of sun! The day flew along. Now what the hell would you be doing back in Ireland on Ash Wednesday? I've said it before, and I'll say it again, you cant beat this.....
Thursday was Jill's birthday. We had thankfully headed home on a boat at sundown from Kaibo the day before, unlike some of our friends who got hammered, hot stranded, and ended up having to hitch or get cabs home at 3 in the morning. For Jill's birthday, we went out for dinner in Papagallos, arguably the nicest restaurant in Cayman. We ordered champagne to wash down the food, and then headed home to finish off a bottle of wine or two.
Friday night was the big birthday night. We started early, at 6:15 in a restaurant called Bed, up the road, where the waiting staff where pyjamas, and the tables are designed like four posters.
After dinner we moved into the bar, where a gang of about 40 people met up with us before heading down to the Wharf for the Boogie Nights party. The 40 dwindled to about 12 who came back to our house after the Wharf, where Jimmy and Sarah had a dance off, and the rest of us drank until 5 in the morning.
Joyce and Sandra had done the wise thing and had gone home around midnight, allowing them to get up not long after we went to bed, to walk the dogs before heading off on a helicopter ride around the island. The pictures and stories look and sounded great! Definitely something we'll be doing when Graham and Ais arrive in three weeks!
Myself and Jill dragged ourselves out of bed to get down to the Rugby Club for the Ireland game. The place was absolutely rammed, and you could cut the tension with a knife! I'd have killed to have been in Croke Park, but the Cayman Islands Rugby Club wasnt a bad second place! There's nothing I can say about the thrashing that hasnt been said already, but my god, what a game! A good day of 6 nations rugby all round, a pity that Wales couldnt hold out against France, but c'est la vie, as the French would say!
Last night was all about chilling out and relaxing, after we dropped Joyce and Sandra to the airport. We hope they had a great holiday; we certainly enjoyed having them, and they were great craic when we were all out.
Today I played the full 18 in Safehaven, after the front 9 opened this week for the first time in nearly 3 years. Needless to say, I'll be going for lessons soon!
The next 2 weeks should be quiet, need to be quiet, as we've booked ourselves in to get our PADI Open Water Diver Certification, which is all day Saturday and Sunday, and then all day the following Saturday (for only 200 euros!). Dont think it would be wise to go out on the rip the night before each dive day, but then again.........

Highs and Lows

77 Minutes in and we were on Cloud 9, Ireland were 4 points clear, having led through most of the second half of the match. A Grand Slam looked probable, Croke Park had fulfilled all expectations, and even us Irish over in Cayman felt like we were in North Dublin, singing the Fields of Athenry...... 60 seconds later, and the dream was over. Grand Slam and Six nations hopes were dashed. Plans to continue celebrating into the afternoon were cancelled, and we were on our way home 5 minutes later. It could have gone either way. You cant blame the ref, you cant blame anyone. France were strong, Ireland got better, both teams made mistakes, neither would have beaten an even average performing All Blacks side, but it will probably end up being the game of the six nations. 'Nuff said!
The weekend started on Thursday night when I finally brought Jill for dinner in Papagallos, the nicest restaurant on the island. She was suitably impressed! I had been in a miserable enough mood all week, complaining of the pain of my rib, and the lack of sleep it was causing, so Jill more than deserved a nice meal out.
One of our friends, Dec, had visitors over for the week, two girls from home, so a few of us went out straight after work on the Jolly Roger booze cruise, a 3 hour, all you can drink for 25 bucks, cruise up and down the beach, on a faux pirate ship. We then bailed down to Aqua Beach where another of the lads, Paul Foxton, whom myself and Gav Tobin had gone to college with, was having birthday drinks (part 1). There was a "dishco" in the Irish bar next door, being organised by Sunset FC, whom a few of the lads play for, so we headed in after a few more drinks. By this stage, most of the lads and the girls were hammered, and when the bar closed we all fell in to the Next Level nightclub next door. Unfortunately this was the one weekend that we didn't bring our camera out, missing some classic scenes of all the lads with their tops off, dancing around Jill, rubbing their sweat in her face as she squealed. Very classy indeed!
Saturday morning was a slow start. I walked the dogs on the beach before waking Jill up to help me bring the two mutts for their visit to the vets. We chilled out for the early afternoon, Jill going back to bed, as I waited for the carpenter to arrive to fix the spare bedroom door that I busted the first week I moved into Southampton, back in July when Graham and Ais were here! Only took me 7 months to get it fixed!
Myself, Murph, and Jimmy played golf in the late afternoon, after a bit of practice on the driving range, which I badly needed to find a comfortable swing for my cracked rib (not that I don't need the practice anyway). We played nine, ending up 3 skins each, a fair outcome considering how badly we played: three of the nine holes saw all of us hit three off the tee, and the 18th hole, a par 5, was won with a score of 8! My ribs were killing me by the end of it, but at least I had lost no money! A game of golf in Safe Haven is class. There is a girl who follows you around in a buggy with iced cold beers, soft drinks, and food, whenever you need it. You cant beat it!
Anyway, couple of pints in the club house, quick shower and change, before 20 of us met up in Copper Falls, the Steak House beside our house, for Paul Foxton and Sarah Sweetnam's joint birthday dinner. We unfortunately were split across two tables, but it was good craic all the same. By midnight we were all standing in a circle between the two tables watching two of the lads play a game of "Gay Chicken", the brainchild of Jimmy where the first guy to pull away from the snog is the chicken. As the last people in the restaurant at 12:30, shouting in a circle at two guys nearly kissing, you can understand why the restaurant threw us out!
We all bailed back to our pool were some of our neighbours were hosting a Toga party. Most of the toga crew (men and women, yes women, dressed in just togas!) had already gone home, not surprising considered they arrived half locked when I was setting up the music at 9pm, just before we headed out to dinner, but we kicked the party back into gear, continuing our drunken quest to get the girls to start playing gay chicken. It was, alas, not to be ...
By 3am all the beer was gone, and all we were left with was a bottle of Rum, and no mixers, so I cut the music and we all went home!
This morning we dragged ourselves out of bed to watch a famous Irish victory in the making....but as I said before.....'nuff said about that!
Joyce arrives on Tuesday afternoon, Jill gets her mid term next Friday, and our livers will have another ten days of torture....Graham and Ais come two weeks later, and then my sis is moving to Cayman in early April. And then it really gets messy....