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.........