Thursday, August 30, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
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!
Saturday, August 18, 2007
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
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
Friday, August 17, 2007
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!)
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!)
Saturday, July 14, 2007
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!
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!
Sunday, June 10, 2007
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....
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....
Saturday, June 02, 2007
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!
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!
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