Two Weddings and a Baby!

19 Weeks to go, 21 Weeks gone. For those of you who don’t already know, Jill & I will hopefully be the proud parents of a baby boy by October 1st. Our excitement cant be put into words but we have four and a half long months ahead of us, so we are nervously waiting for our lives to change forever more! Four will become five (or two will become three, depending on your love for and recognition of canine family!) this autumn by which time we will be back in Ireland with our family and friends. Jill is doing great; her morning sickness has been minimal and whilst I cant quite say she is taking pregnancy in her stride, she is definitely the proud yummy mummy to be!
The last four and a half months have seen a big change in our Cayman lifestyle. No alcohol or cigarettes for Jill, lots of early nights and quiet weekends and many anxious weeks between scans! The first 12 weeks were the hardest, emotionally and no doubt physically for Jill, but it was also so difficult trying to keep it a secret. To be honest, it was pretty obvious. Jill pulled out of playing GAA with a continuing mystery “urine infection” and we just stopped going out altogether. Our friends were polite and considerate, not pointing out the obvious until we officially told them, which helped, but it is impossible to keep such a secret in a small community like Cayman. Now its out, I can resume our lifestyle whilst Jill sips soft drinks and either stays at home or goes home early! All back to normal! ;(
I’m currently on a plane back from Ireland (seems I only make time for the blog when I’m stuck on a flight these days!) after spending 5 days at home with Jill for Dave & Karen’s wedding, which was last Friday.
We flew in Thursday (on separate flights of course!) and stayed in Graham & Ais’s on Thursday and Saturday night. My mum and dad, my older sister and her two kids, and Jill’s mum and brother all came up to Graham’s on Thursday night, which was fantastic. I haven’t seen any of them, apart from my mum, since the wedding last year. The boys have grown, especially Gavin who is now nearly as tall as his brother!
On Friday morning we hit the road for Brook Lodge in Wicklow, a beautiful setting for a wedding, where we got to meet up with all of our friends. The service was at 2pm; Dave and his brother PJ, Simon, Barry and Jay all looked the part in their tin of fruits and Karen’s bridesmaids Glenda and Sandra looked fantastic. The church was beautiful, surrounded by trees, over a wooden bridge down the end of a path leading from the hotel. Karen looked fabulous, of course, and the service was refreshing, led by a “Celtic priest” who gave them the blessing. There was a brilliant trio of Filipino guys playing back in the hotel, hammering away on their Spanish guitars and acoustic bass, playing classic cheesy hits with beaming smiles and gusto. They continued on through the early part of the meal, encouraging every table to sing a solo before finishing with the bride and groom. At our table was Niall & Alex, Hubb & Louise (who is also pregnant, due only 4 weeks after Jill!!), Gary & Daragh, Aisling and Noreen. We had great craic which continued on into the night with a band and DJ and Dave Ralph singing two tunes with the band (see the You Tube video of “All Night Long” here).



We left after breakfast the next morning, not feeling as sad knowing that we would see everyone in a short few months time.
I forgot to mention that it was my brother’s birthday the day we flew home. We weren’t quite up to celebrating that day considering the long flights (I in particular had come via Miami, Tampa and New York on four planes!) so we went out for dinner with him and his friends on Saturday night. That day though we packed in a day of “house” shopping for carpet, floors, paint and a couch for our house in Ballycullen which will be done up (modestly) when our current tenant moves out next month). Dinner was in Bang Café and we were joined by Gav Cooney, who I also haven’t seen since the wedding last year. We did our best to stay out late but were home by 2:30am, wrecked!
On Sunday we headed over to Nicola Kidd’s house where the girls had prepared brunch for Jill. Jill had me convinced that all the lads would be there, but alas it was all the girls and yours truly! Although I felt like a spanner, the food and company were too good to walk away from! I dropped by our old house to check it out, only to find a jungle of a back garden; another challenge for the summer!
After that we headed over to my parents for Sunday dinner and to spend some time with my nephews and family. After that, we said our goodbyes and hit the road for Athy so that we could spend a little time with Jill’s mum and brother. We chilled out on Sunday evening and Monday afternoon in the continuing sunshine and warm weather, with a little Monday morning trip for me to meet Vince in Kilkenny for a couple of hours.
By Monday evening our time was running so we hit the road, dropping in to Garry and Daragh to see their kids Jack and Megan. We spent the night at the airport hotel last night and were up at 4:30 this morning to catch our (separate) flights home. Jill is heading direct via London whereas I head to New York, Washington and Miami before finally boarding a plane (hopefully) later today, for Cayman.
The trip made us both feel much happier at moving home this summer. Lets hope that the weather holds!
Back to Cayman, and speaking of weddings, we had a big celebration the week after I got back from Vegas in March when Brian & Maggie tied the knot. Not to make too little a deal of such an occasion, it was a weekend event rather than just a wedding day! The guys had about 20 guests over from home so we started with a boat trip on Good Friday which ended with a BBQ on the beach by their house. Saturday involved a booze cruise on the Jolly Roger with another late night in Hammerheads, although we bailed early as Jill was exhausted and I wasn’t far behind her! Sunday we took it easy, but we were back out on Easter Monday, the day of the wedding, with all the lads playing 9 holes of golf before sending Brian home to get suited up for the main event! Despite fabulous weather all weekend, it all went South about an hour after golf, just before the planned beach ceremony was due to begin. The heavens opened and the rain just kept pouring down. We all met in the Ritz for drinks, awaiting a decision on the then delayed ceremony. Eventually the decision was made to abandon the beach and head straight to Grand Old House, the waterfront restaurant on South Sound that had been booked for the meal and reception. Although the rain didn’t let up, the move to Grand Old House turned out to be a great one, with Maggie arriving under a tunnel of umbrellas to be greeted by her proud husband to be, dressed in white, to make her forget all about the dark weather. As the priest confirmed their vows, the rain stopped and the sky broke in front of us on the horizon for a spectacular sunset surrounded by striking grey clouds. With the photos out of the way we partied into the night with yours truly as MC for the speeches (i.e. in charge of the sound rather than the witticisms) as the free drink flowed into a 2am finish before we had to rise for work the next day. A fantastic start to what will no doubt be a marriage made in heaven….
A quick aside and update, I’m now on a direct flight from La Guardia to Miami after landing in Newark many hours ago only to find out that my flight to Washington was going to be delayed by at least two hours. Considering I only had one hour in Washington and then one hour in Miami to change planes, a two to three hour delay had me pretty much screwed! Ably assisted by a brilliant Continental rep, I was re-booked on a direct flight to Miami from La Guardia and sent off in a cab to catch my flight. Despite requests to locate my hold luggage, I had to give up after 45 minutes in fear of missing the flight. God only knows when or if I will see my luggage again. All I know is that they were on their way to a baggage carousel when I had to give up hope, so hopefully they will make their way back on to a play eventually destined to Cayman, although I am not holding out too much hope. Meanwhile, I received a text from Jill to say that she missed her London connection to Grand Cayman so was also waiting for a flight to Miami and a much later connection back to Grand Cayman (about 6 hours after she was meant to arrive), so hopefully she will arrive safely a couple of hours after I land. The trip aint over yet! Neither of us have slept properly in the last week and last night was one of the worst, so I cant wait for this day to be over, and no doubt Jill and “bump” or even more tired!
Anyway, back to the story….. A few days after the wedding, Jill and her friend Meredith headed off to Miami on a mid-week shopping trip to buy Jill some maternity clothes on their Easter holidays from school. Time has proven that the shopping decisions may not have been the best! Ah well. Its only four more months or so!
Our next big event to look forward to was the arrival of my little sister Fiona and her partner Joe. Fiona had announced the trip only a few weeks earlier, much to our excitement as we had pretty much written off after having any more visitors before we moved home. They flew in on the first Monday in April from New York, where they both work and live, looking pale and in desperate need of some R&R! For our first night we lit a barbecue on the beach at sunset and lit torches around a wooden bench on the beach where we ate burgers, drunk some beers and caught up. We left the guys to their own devices on Tuesday, heading out for a bite to eat and a couple of beers that evening. I took the Wednesday off work (sorry Jill!) and drove the three of us over to Morritz, a hotel resort in East End where we sipped cocktails at the pool bar before heading on to Rum Point where we snorkeled, lazed about on hammocks and got some lunch. We headed home in time for sunset to cook the fresh tuna that we had purchased that morning from the guys on the beach near town who literally take the fish out of the boat and carve it into steaks for you on tables lapping by the water. Fiona and Jill wrapped the fish in spices and coconut oil and we wheeled our little barbecue back on the beach for another chilled out evening of beers, food and chat on the sand outside our house on Seven Mile.
Thursday was back to work for me but we decided to head out on Thursday evening to Aqua Beach for open mic, with Joe bringing his bongo drum with him. The place began to fill up after 10 and we coincidentally met up with a friend of ours, Martin O’Regan, who had left Cayman nearly 2 years ago, joined by his former work colleagues (aka many of our mates) from UBS, who he was visiting for the week on a work jolly! The band were joined by numerous solo singers, guitar players and couples, none as good as the showcase of the night, Joe on drums at just after midnight. Luckily, their were two other drummers with bongos and they were well up for it. They performed a 10 minute drumming spectacle which had the whole bar on their feet! Joe was buzzing coming off stage, and even Jill had stayed up late to see it! Jill sensibly headed home at 1am, and we, not so sensibly, headed to the nightclub with O’Regan, Gavin, Micheail and Cormac! We left just before closing at 2:30am, detouring to walk home along the beach.
Sure enough, Friday was a bit of a write off for me in work and we didn’t quite have the energy we had hoped for when we headed out for dinner that evening to Calypso Grill. After dinner we headed to the Ritz where myself and Jill really started to fade (more me than her!) but then Joe bumped into his first cousin who he hasn’t seen in 14 years, just like that! He was over in Cayman for the week for a friend’s wedding. Joe only really recognized him from recent family photos. We took our cue and left Fiona and Joe to it!
Saturday was a big day. We got up early for breakfast down in Icoa and the packed our beach bags for a boat trip, joining all our mates for our usual Catamaran charter out to stingray city and Kaibo. We swam with the sting rays, even Fiona, albeit it briefly, nearly got attached by a moody moray eel, and played volleyball and cricket out in Kaibo. We arrived back in for sunset and headed down the beach to Brian & Maggie’s for another big barbecue. Joe banged his drum, the security yard called the police, and through a combination of excess drinking and confusion after the cops arrived (by the way they told us to ignore the security guard and keep on partying, but most people missed that and thought they were being told to go home), myself, Jill, Kenzo, Caoire, Fiona and Joe headed back to ours shortly after 1am. Jill hit the hay but sure enough, we knew no better, and kept going til after 5am. The noise of the dogs barking, the music blasting and us laughing must have surely annoyed anyone living on the beach near us that night!
All plans for Sunday therefore went out the window so we got up and late and eventually wandered up to the Turtle Farm for a snorkel with the turtles and tropical fish, a goo at the aviary and a walk around before heading home for takeout and a video! Fiona and Joe’s last night was a quiet one but we were fairly confident that the had a great time, got plenty of much needed sleep and sun yet still managed to party Cayman style.
With that descended a quiet few weeks that allowed us to recharge the batteries and get ready for coming home. Jill’s last scan in April confirmed we were having a boy; we entered Toby into one of the sections of the annual Cayman dog show and we enjoyed a weekend of unusual international sport with the “Legends” tennis event at the Ritz Carlton which included a Jim Courier Vs John McEnroe match and the same weekend Cayman played host to the opening games of the Rugby World Cup 2011 Qualifiers with Cayman Vs Trinidad kicking off the Caribbean games (unfortunately Cayman were thrashed, but it was great to see decent rugby in the local stadium!). That same weekend kicked off Earth Week which saw myself and most of the rest of the staff who work at Baraud venturing out to the streets of Cayman at 7am on a Saturday morning to pick up litter! It was certainly a different way to spend a Saturday morning!
The following week I ran a 5k on South Sound in support of the closing of Earth Week, coming in 7th place with a time of 21 minutes. Not bad but still no better than my normal time. The run was on Sunday morning but I was still reeling from a heavy night out on the Friday night at the Wharf for Boogie Nights. The last time I had been there was a year previous when Noreen and Simon were over and after spending so many quiet weekends in, I just had an overwhelming urge to go out. Jill was feeling pretty ropey that night so she stayed in and watched TV whilst I went out with the gang to Hammerheads, Aqua Beach and Boogie Nights, falling in sometime after 3am. Saturday was a write off, but it was worth it! After the run on Sunday I had to play two GAA matches and ended up tearing a ligament in my right hand trying to charge down a kick out. Sure enough my right hand was strapped up and completely useless for the first week, not impressing my boss of course! Its still strapped up but getting there, although Jill is convinced that I made it all up to try and divert some of the sympathy from her! Women, dont they know that a sore hand is worse than any pregnancy could ever be? I just dont understand them sometimes!
Last weekend we chilled out, babysitting for our friends Kurt and Meredith on Saturday night and heading to the cinema on Sunday to see Iron Man (class film by the way).
So what else....poker has been good to me since Vegas with two big wins. A few Saturdays ago we all played in a 20 man tournament in some guys house over near Newlands, and I ended up third, losing out to Jimmy H and Steve from CML. The last Cayman Poker Tour night I played I ended up winning the first prize, effectively wiping out my Vegas losses! The run of luck will surely end on Thursday when we next play poker although I have become strangely addicted to Facebook Texas Hold 'Em since trying it out last week at the airport on the way home. As long as I never turn to Paddy Power.....
The GAA has been hit and miss; I finally scored my first goal a few weeks ago but the team's performance has been very hit and miss as we struggled to get players for each match. Only two more Sundays before the finals, so fingers crossed (although not literally in my case with my sore hand!).
This coming weekend is public holiday in Cayman so we will be looking forward to chilling out. Until then, I bid you farewell. Rafter

Mitch, in action...