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....