It is hard to believe that it is now a full year since we first arrived here in the Cayman Islands. A year to the day yesterday, in fact. So we thought it would be a good opportunity to consider some of the good and the not so good things about living here, and some of the things we miss about the UK. So here goes.
Things we like about living in Cayman
The weather
It's small so the commute is nearly non-existent and nothing is more than 10 minutes away
The friendly people
It's very safe
Great food and drink
It's a very open society with great opportunities for entrepreneurs
The relaxed Caribbean lifestyle
Football takes a distinct back seat to athletics/sailing/swimming/squash/rugby/tennis
Things we don't like about living in Cayman
The politics
Sometime its a bit too small...
Even though it's small you still get traffic jams
Sometimes you can have too many churches...
The relaxed Caribbean attitude to getting things done.
Things we miss about the UK
Friends and family (obviously)
Pint of beer in front of a roaring fire in a country pub
Efficiency
Country walks
Percy Pigs
M&S
John Lewis
Big fluffy jumpers
Lamb
Lebanese food
Fish and chips
Cheap wine
Things we don't miss about the UK
Income tax
Commuting on the Tube (and having to wake up at 6.20 to do so)
Big bottomed bus barging Lewishamites
Chavs
London Mayoral candidates
The rain
The English winter
Daylight saving
Bus queues that are never a queue
Football talk
Middle lane motorway driving
Incessant idiotic football banter. And footballers. And football supporters. In fact football generally. And specifically.
Sunday, 14 April 2013
Sunday, 7 April 2013
Cayman Spring
It's been a while since we last posted on our blog, so we thought it was about time to catch up on the last few months.
Having had relatively few guests during our first six months, the weeks after Christmas were filled with lots of visitors.
First of all was one of Bonnie's old housemates from London who is embarking on a trip round the world snorkelling, so what better place to start than the crystal clear waters of the Cayman Islands. While Barn was at work, Bonnie was busy showing her around the Island. We even took her on a special trip to snorkel the Kittiwake, which is an ex US Navy submarine rescue vessel that was deliberately sunk off seven mile beach to form an artificial reef. It is a spectacular sight to behold. As you approach the site there is nothing but the sandy bottom, and then all of a sudden the vessel looms into sight. The wreck is a marine park, and it is surrounded by shoals of fish of all kinds. It is also a diving site, and the sight of tours of divers emerging through the funnel is pretty surreal.
Next came Barny's parents, who stayed with us for three weeks.
They have always wanted to go to Cuba, and so have we, so we arranged a 5 day trip to Havana with them. We let mummy and daddy Finnigan have a day to recover from their flight over from the UK, and then we were off!
We landed in Cuba on a Thursday afternoon and, having cleared customs and immigration (which was far less painful than flying through Miami) we headed in to Vieja Habana to find our hotel. We were staying in the Hotel Santa Isabel, a beautiful old palazzo right in the heart of the old town (http://www.hotelsantaisabel.com/) which had been built in the 1700s. Our expectations of standards in Cuba were pretty low, given what we had been told by friends who had been, but the hotel was very nice. We spent our first couple of days exploring the old town. Although Havana is a huge city the old town is actually fairly compact, and very quaint with its 17th and 18th century buildings and cobbled streets. From our rooms we had a view over the square, past the booksellers stalls to the La Giralda fort and out into the bay. The old town of Havana is beautiful, and the general state of delapidation of many of the buildings only adds to the atmosphere.
Although Cuba is not well known for its food, we did spend a significant amount of time exploring the bars and coffee houses of the old town, including some of Hemmingway's old haunts. On our first night we hit the Hotel Los Ambos Mundos (where Ernest shacked up when he was in town, and which has a great roof bar) for a coffee and a rum, which became a firm favourie. Bonnie and I also had a Mojito or three in La Bodegua del Medio (where the perfect Mojito was apparently invented), and although we didn't make it to La Floridita, where the Daquiri was perfected, we certainly tried a few rival attempts which were pretty good.
Of course, spending time in Cuba is not just about drinking rum and having a good time (although there is plenty of both - the Cubans certainly know how to party). On the Friday we decided to take the Big Red Bus tour to get a feel for the lie of the land. Once you get out of the old town, you quickly realise that much of Havana is suspended in a 1940's and 50's timewarp, and has been left to slowly decay. If it weren't for the dilapidated state of the buildings and the cars you could be back in the Florida or California of the 1940s. We drove past what had been beautiful villas that have been left to fall apart, but which would have been very impressive in their heyday, and some amazing 1920s and 1930s hotels and theatres. And every so often you would see a gap full of rubble where a building had recently collapsed, some of which gave further glimpses to the Havana of the past. We rounded the day off with a trip to the Museum of the Revolution, which is housed in the old presidential palace (complete with bullet holes from the student uprising that started the overthrow of Batista). It was interesting to hear the story of the revolution, the rise of Castro, the role of Che and the Bay of Pigs.
One thing that surprised us about Cuba was the emphasis which has been placed on the arts. There is a fantastic ballet company, and Cubans can go to the ballet for a few pence (although the rates for foreigners are much steeper, with tickets starting around US$20. Probably our favourite find of the trip was the Cuban National Art Gallery, which houses paintings from the top Cuban artists, as well as some internationally known pieces. Not only was the art good, but the buildings it was housed in were also very interesting, and we spent several hours exploring the collection.
After 5 days in Havana it was time to bring Mamma and Pappa Finnigan back to the Cayman Islands. We really enjoyed showing them the sights of the Island. There were trips to all the sights - the National Museum, Pedro St James, the National Gallery, the Botanical Gardens and drives round to East End. We weren't sure whether they would like the Island, but we were glad to find that they did! As being in the water is a big part of Island life, Bonnie took it upon herself to teach the in-laws how to snorkel. Never having tried it before, we weren't sure how they would take to it (particularly as my dad isn't a very strong swimmer). After a few false starts they got the hang of it, so we thought we'd take them out to Stingray City to see the stingrays. Unfortunately, unbeknown to us "stingray city" is not actually the sandbar, where you can wade into the water with the rays, it is actually another feeding spot that is about 20 feet deep, with a fairly strong current. With hindsight it was probably not the best place to take a couple of inexperienced snorklers in their mid 60s, but they were very game and seemed to enjoy the experience (at least that's what they told us), even if there was a 10 foot Moray eel called Psycho swimming amongst the stingrays!
The three weeks went very quickly, and on the Finnigan seniors' last day we were joined by another of Bonnie's friends who had come out to join us for a week of diving. We joined her for another trip to stingray city, and this time Barny went scuba diving with the rays, which was a brilliant experience, very different from handling them at the sandbar. Although it had been wonderful to spend time with all our visitors, we were finding that nearly 2 months of Christmas, dinners and cocktails out with our guests was taking its toll, and it was actually quite nice to have a bit of a detox, with few quiet nights in eating steamed vegetables and salad.
The start of March saw Barny leave the island to head to Miami for a weekend with the boys where they were competing in the Miami Tough Mudder adventure race. This is a 13 mile long obstacle course, with the objects ranging from the "Arctic Enema", a plunge into an ice filled pool, through to the "Electric Eel", a scramble over an electrified fence, with plenty of other equally challenging obstacles in between. Needless to say the boys had a great time, and returned from Miami on a wave of Mudder pride.
If Bonnie had been able to fly, she may have joined Barny in Miami, but as she is 9 months pregnant she has not been able to board an aircraft for several weeks. She did take the opportunity to head up to Miami for her own girls weekend while she could still fly, and enjoyed doing some baby shopping to kit out the nursery. There are now only a few weeks until we get to meet the latest addition to the Finnigan family, and Bonnie has been busy nesting. We have spent the last couple of months setting up the nursery, and making the most of our last few weeks of just being the two of us to enjoy some of the things we have not yet managed to do in Cayman.
As we couldn't leave the island over Easter, we seemed to spend most of our time eating and drinking instead. We tried several of the restaurants we had not visited to date. On Good Friday we headed out into West Bay to dine at Pappagallos restaurant, a fine Italian restaurant on the edge of a lake in the Barkers park. It was absolutely fantastic, and we can't believe we haven't found it sooner. On Easter Sunday we enjoyed a lovely brunch at the Westin, which certainly rivals the Ritz in terms of quality. Although the weather was not great, we spent the rest of the time relaxing like tourists, with trips to Rum Point and Kaibo to watch the kite festival on Easter Monday, and making the most of the time to enjoy each others company while there are just the two of us.
Having had relatively few guests during our first six months, the weeks after Christmas were filled with lots of visitors.
First of all was one of Bonnie's old housemates from London who is embarking on a trip round the world snorkelling, so what better place to start than the crystal clear waters of the Cayman Islands. While Barn was at work, Bonnie was busy showing her around the Island. We even took her on a special trip to snorkel the Kittiwake, which is an ex US Navy submarine rescue vessel that was deliberately sunk off seven mile beach to form an artificial reef. It is a spectacular sight to behold. As you approach the site there is nothing but the sandy bottom, and then all of a sudden the vessel looms into sight. The wreck is a marine park, and it is surrounded by shoals of fish of all kinds. It is also a diving site, and the sight of tours of divers emerging through the funnel is pretty surreal.
Next came Barny's parents, who stayed with us for three weeks.
They have always wanted to go to Cuba, and so have we, so we arranged a 5 day trip to Havana with them. We let mummy and daddy Finnigan have a day to recover from their flight over from the UK, and then we were off!
We landed in Cuba on a Thursday afternoon and, having cleared customs and immigration (which was far less painful than flying through Miami) we headed in to Vieja Habana to find our hotel. We were staying in the Hotel Santa Isabel, a beautiful old palazzo right in the heart of the old town (http://www.hotelsantaisabel.com/) which had been built in the 1700s. Our expectations of standards in Cuba were pretty low, given what we had been told by friends who had been, but the hotel was very nice. We spent our first couple of days exploring the old town. Although Havana is a huge city the old town is actually fairly compact, and very quaint with its 17th and 18th century buildings and cobbled streets. From our rooms we had a view over the square, past the booksellers stalls to the La Giralda fort and out into the bay. The old town of Havana is beautiful, and the general state of delapidation of many of the buildings only adds to the atmosphere.
Although Cuba is not well known for its food, we did spend a significant amount of time exploring the bars and coffee houses of the old town, including some of Hemmingway's old haunts. On our first night we hit the Hotel Los Ambos Mundos (where Ernest shacked up when he was in town, and which has a great roof bar) for a coffee and a rum, which became a firm favourie. Bonnie and I also had a Mojito or three in La Bodegua del Medio (where the perfect Mojito was apparently invented), and although we didn't make it to La Floridita, where the Daquiri was perfected, we certainly tried a few rival attempts which were pretty good.
Of course, spending time in Cuba is not just about drinking rum and having a good time (although there is plenty of both - the Cubans certainly know how to party). On the Friday we decided to take the Big Red Bus tour to get a feel for the lie of the land. Once you get out of the old town, you quickly realise that much of Havana is suspended in a 1940's and 50's timewarp, and has been left to slowly decay. If it weren't for the dilapidated state of the buildings and the cars you could be back in the Florida or California of the 1940s. We drove past what had been beautiful villas that have been left to fall apart, but which would have been very impressive in their heyday, and some amazing 1920s and 1930s hotels and theatres. And every so often you would see a gap full of rubble where a building had recently collapsed, some of which gave further glimpses to the Havana of the past. We rounded the day off with a trip to the Museum of the Revolution, which is housed in the old presidential palace (complete with bullet holes from the student uprising that started the overthrow of Batista). It was interesting to hear the story of the revolution, the rise of Castro, the role of Che and the Bay of Pigs.
One thing that surprised us about Cuba was the emphasis which has been placed on the arts. There is a fantastic ballet company, and Cubans can go to the ballet for a few pence (although the rates for foreigners are much steeper, with tickets starting around US$20. Probably our favourite find of the trip was the Cuban National Art Gallery, which houses paintings from the top Cuban artists, as well as some internationally known pieces. Not only was the art good, but the buildings it was housed in were also very interesting, and we spent several hours exploring the collection.
After 5 days in Havana it was time to bring Mamma and Pappa Finnigan back to the Cayman Islands. We really enjoyed showing them the sights of the Island. There were trips to all the sights - the National Museum, Pedro St James, the National Gallery, the Botanical Gardens and drives round to East End. We weren't sure whether they would like the Island, but we were glad to find that they did! As being in the water is a big part of Island life, Bonnie took it upon herself to teach the in-laws how to snorkel. Never having tried it before, we weren't sure how they would take to it (particularly as my dad isn't a very strong swimmer). After a few false starts they got the hang of it, so we thought we'd take them out to Stingray City to see the stingrays. Unfortunately, unbeknown to us "stingray city" is not actually the sandbar, where you can wade into the water with the rays, it is actually another feeding spot that is about 20 feet deep, with a fairly strong current. With hindsight it was probably not the best place to take a couple of inexperienced snorklers in their mid 60s, but they were very game and seemed to enjoy the experience (at least that's what they told us), even if there was a 10 foot Moray eel called Psycho swimming amongst the stingrays!
The three weeks went very quickly, and on the Finnigan seniors' last day we were joined by another of Bonnie's friends who had come out to join us for a week of diving. We joined her for another trip to stingray city, and this time Barny went scuba diving with the rays, which was a brilliant experience, very different from handling them at the sandbar. Although it had been wonderful to spend time with all our visitors, we were finding that nearly 2 months of Christmas, dinners and cocktails out with our guests was taking its toll, and it was actually quite nice to have a bit of a detox, with few quiet nights in eating steamed vegetables and salad.
The start of March saw Barny leave the island to head to Miami for a weekend with the boys where they were competing in the Miami Tough Mudder adventure race. This is a 13 mile long obstacle course, with the objects ranging from the "Arctic Enema", a plunge into an ice filled pool, through to the "Electric Eel", a scramble over an electrified fence, with plenty of other equally challenging obstacles in between. Needless to say the boys had a great time, and returned from Miami on a wave of Mudder pride.
If Bonnie had been able to fly, she may have joined Barny in Miami, but as she is 9 months pregnant she has not been able to board an aircraft for several weeks. She did take the opportunity to head up to Miami for her own girls weekend while she could still fly, and enjoyed doing some baby shopping to kit out the nursery. There are now only a few weeks until we get to meet the latest addition to the Finnigan family, and Bonnie has been busy nesting. We have spent the last couple of months setting up the nursery, and making the most of our last few weeks of just being the two of us to enjoy some of the things we have not yet managed to do in Cayman.
As we couldn't leave the island over Easter, we seemed to spend most of our time eating and drinking instead. We tried several of the restaurants we had not visited to date. On Good Friday we headed out into West Bay to dine at Pappagallos restaurant, a fine Italian restaurant on the edge of a lake in the Barkers park. It was absolutely fantastic, and we can't believe we haven't found it sooner. On Easter Sunday we enjoyed a lovely brunch at the Westin, which certainly rivals the Ritz in terms of quality. Although the weather was not great, we spent the rest of the time relaxing like tourists, with trips to Rum Point and Kaibo to watch the kite festival on Easter Monday, and making the most of the time to enjoy each others company while there are just the two of us.
Sunday, 24 March 2013
Christmas in the Caymans
Predictably, December in the Finnigan household was a manic affair.
Of course, there were the usual pre-Christmas work drinks and parties, but we have found other ways to occupy ourselves in the build up to the festive season too.
The month opened with a couple of thousand runners descending on the Island for the Cayman Islands Marathon. Barny had signed up to run the half marathon. Not quite the epic 26 miles, but 13 and a bit miles still sounded like a long way in the tropical heat. In order to avoid the worst of the Caribbean sun, the race started at the positively ungodly hour of 5am, and we were both up at the start line well before that, to give Barny sufficient time to fuel up, take on liquids and stretch before the gun went off. Just under 2 hours later, Barny lubmered back down Harbour Drive to finish the race in the respectable time of 1:58.47. The prospect of a cold Caybrew waiting at the finish line certainly helped keep him going.
Our "Christmas campaign" kicked off in earnest at the start of December with the Pink Ladies Christmas Bazaar, where we were gallantly manning the silent auction stand. The Pink Ladies are a local volunteer corps of women who give up their time to do lots of worthy things such as helping out in the hospital (where they also run a cafe for visitors) and the retirement home, and getting involved in community events. Despite their name, most of the ladies are not actually pink, they come from a variety of backgrounds, it's just that they have nice pink polo shirts...
Anyway, Bonnie had signed up with the Pink Ladies earlier in the year, but what with meeting former presidents, international entrepreneurs and world class tennis players, she hadn't managed to find the time to fit anything in. However, with the Cayman AI Conference and Tennis Legends over, Bonnie was able to find a bit more time to help out. And Barny came along to help out.
The Christmas Bazaar was a great event - it was like an English church summer fete. Except in the Caribbean. In December. And without any rain. There were tombolas, stalls selling homemade jam and cake, performances from local music groups. And the man in red even turned up to say hi to the children.
As we were in the festive mood after the Pink Ladies Bazaar, the next evening we decided to head down to our local church of god, which was putting on what it billed as a "Singing Christmas Tree Spectacular". Not ever having seen a singing Christmas tree before, we were both intrigued as to what it was and how it worked (and also looking forward to hearing some Christmas carols being sung). The tree itself was spectacular. It was a multi-tiered structure festooned with lights in the shape of a Christmas tree which was able to accommodate a reasonably sized choir on its many platforms. The effect was stunning. We were rather disappointed with the choice of songs, mainly because we didn't recognise them, but the whole event was definitely very Caribbean, and being able to watch a nativity play in shorts and t-shirts under the stars (and not catching hypothermia) is certainly a first for both of us.
Unfortunately, as always seems to be the way, work got in the way of Christmas planning for both of us. For Barny it was the usual year end antics, but Bonnie was engaged in something much more exciting. The Cayman Islands had been selected to host the 2012 Women's World Squash Open, and Bonnie was suddenly very busy helping the Cayman Islands National Squash Association to put on a world class event that would bring the worlds best female squash players to the island to compete in an international championship.
Although the qualifying rounds were played at South Sound Squash Club, our local squash club, the final rounds were to be played in a court in the middle of the bay at Camana Bay that was to be purpose built for the event, with glass walls on every side so that play could be observed from 360 degrees. As the court was being shipped down from the US there were a nervous few days as Bonnie checked the container's progress, and then checked that all the pieces had arrived safe and sound, but once it was all here it was time for it to be built. Over the next three days the helipad at Camana Bay was converted into an arena for the sport of squash, with the light filled glass box that was the court at its center. (There is a great time lapse of the build for anyone who is interested on youtube, which can be accessed here http://youtu.be/TtDFyvLpth4). And then it was time for the contest to start...
The question on everyone's lips was whether anyone would be able to beat Nicole David (who has held the title and been unbeaten for most of the past decade). Over a week of furious games, many tried, but despite their best efforts, none of the girls were able to topple Nicole. Still, it made for some great games. Who would have thought that squash (and women's squash at that) would be such a great spectator sport?
The Squash Open was due to finish on the Friday before Christmas, which did not leave us much time to plan for the big day, our first Christmas in the Cayman Islands, and this was compounded by both of us having worked 16 or 18 hour days for the last couple of weeks running up to then. We did manage to get a real Christmas tree (which we had ordered in November), which was duly erected in the corner of our living room. And we also managed to find some time to pick up Barny's brother and (as they had just announced their engagement, we were happy to say) future sister-in-law from the airport, as they were arriving to spend Christmas with us, just in time for the squash semi-finals!
While Bonnie (accompanied by her handy mini motor scooter) oversaw the last day of play and the winding down of the Squash, Barny took the visitors off sightseeing. The three of them went off jet-skiing to explore the mangroves, visit the stingrays at Stingray City and meet the starfish at Starfish Point (followed by a well earned drink at Kaibo on the way home). They had just enough time to go home, shower and change before heading back over to Camana Bay to watch the finale of the Squash open.
Predictably, Nicole David had made it through to the final, where she met the British player Laura Massaro. Although it was a hard fought game, Massaro was outclassed by David, who went on to win her tenth Cayman open title, and secure her world No.1 ranking for another year.
Over the weekend, Bonnie had to supervise the squash being packed away, and Barny entertained the visitors with trips to the beach. Bonnie even managed to get away to join us at Rum Point for a few hours. Like the little kids at heart that they are, Barny and his brother followed up a game of beach badminton by building a sand castle. Predictably, almost as soon as it was finished a big wave came in and washed most of it away. But it kept them out of trouble for an hour or so...
We were also lucky enough to get tickets for the Turtle Farm and the Dolphin Discovery adventure. After spending Sunday morning on the waterslides at the Turtle Farm, we moved over the road and were introduced to the dolphins, and then invited to join them in the water. We were not entirely sure what to expect, as there is something a bit distasteful about having captive animals trained for our amusement, but we have to say that there is something captivating about spending time with these friendly and highly intelligent creatures. Aside from performing the usual backflips and acrobatics, shaking our hands and dancing with us, we were then directed to swim out into the middle of the pool with a float, to find a dolphin swimming up behind our feet and propelling us forwards at great speed, which was a unique experience.
And then, before we knew it, Christmas Day was upon us.
Father Christmas had found his way to the Cayman Islands and made a delivery for everyone in the house. And he had been very generous in his gifts. Even an attempt by the Christmas tree to topple over onto us during the afternoon didn't dampen spirits.
After a full Christmas roast dinner of Turkey, Ham and all the
trimmings, we were all ready to slump on the sofa (or in Barny's case
the floor) and play board games for the rest of the afternoon. All in
all a great Christmas day.
Barn had to work for the rest of the week, but before our visitors left us we decided to use the proceeds of some of the christmas money we were all very generously given treat ourselves to a nice meal out at Calypso Grill, which we have been wanting to try for ages.
Calypso Grill is at Morgan's Harbour, and is next door to the Morgans Harbour restaurant we love. Calypso Grill specialises in fish, and you know it is fresh because you can see it being landed from the boats on the pier outside. We have heard great things about the restaurant, which seemed to be borne out by the throngs of people inside waiting for a table. Luckily we had taken the precaution of booking, and once we had eventually caught the attention of a waiter were shown to our table. We feasted on a selection which included cracked conch, fresh tuna and wahoo. And a solitary steak. All of which was fantastic. Full from a week of indulging in good food and wine we rolled home, and the next day our visitors rolled onto the plane to take them back to Manchester.
All that was left to do in December was to see in the new year. As usual we were faced with the dilemma of what to do, and whether to have a big night out, have a house party or take up one of the invitations we had recieved. Eventually we opted for a relatively quiet one, joining friends for dinner at Ragazzi, the little Italian "trattoria" style restaurant we love, followed by Champagne and fireworks on the beach. It was a perfect compromise, and we headed home on New Year's day, having completed what has been a fantastic year full of exciting news, intrepid moves and the promise of future adventures! Let's hope 2013 can live up to the standards which have been set by 2012!
A Happy New Year to all our readers!
Barny and Bonnie
Of course, there were the usual pre-Christmas work drinks and parties, but we have found other ways to occupy ourselves in the build up to the festive season too.
The month opened with a couple of thousand runners descending on the Island for the Cayman Islands Marathon. Barny had signed up to run the half marathon. Not quite the epic 26 miles, but 13 and a bit miles still sounded like a long way in the tropical heat. In order to avoid the worst of the Caribbean sun, the race started at the positively ungodly hour of 5am, and we were both up at the start line well before that, to give Barny sufficient time to fuel up, take on liquids and stretch before the gun went off. Just under 2 hours later, Barny lubmered back down Harbour Drive to finish the race in the respectable time of 1:58.47. The prospect of a cold Caybrew waiting at the finish line certainly helped keep him going.
Our "Christmas campaign" kicked off in earnest at the start of December with the Pink Ladies Christmas Bazaar, where we were gallantly manning the silent auction stand. The Pink Ladies are a local volunteer corps of women who give up their time to do lots of worthy things such as helping out in the hospital (where they also run a cafe for visitors) and the retirement home, and getting involved in community events. Despite their name, most of the ladies are not actually pink, they come from a variety of backgrounds, it's just that they have nice pink polo shirts...
Anyway, Bonnie had signed up with the Pink Ladies earlier in the year, but what with meeting former presidents, international entrepreneurs and world class tennis players, she hadn't managed to find the time to fit anything in. However, with the Cayman AI Conference and Tennis Legends over, Bonnie was able to find a bit more time to help out. And Barny came along to help out.
The Christmas Bazaar was a great event - it was like an English church summer fete. Except in the Caribbean. In December. And without any rain. There were tombolas, stalls selling homemade jam and cake, performances from local music groups. And the man in red even turned up to say hi to the children.
As we were in the festive mood after the Pink Ladies Bazaar, the next evening we decided to head down to our local church of god, which was putting on what it billed as a "Singing Christmas Tree Spectacular". Not ever having seen a singing Christmas tree before, we were both intrigued as to what it was and how it worked (and also looking forward to hearing some Christmas carols being sung). The tree itself was spectacular. It was a multi-tiered structure festooned with lights in the shape of a Christmas tree which was able to accommodate a reasonably sized choir on its many platforms. The effect was stunning. We were rather disappointed with the choice of songs, mainly because we didn't recognise them, but the whole event was definitely very Caribbean, and being able to watch a nativity play in shorts and t-shirts under the stars (and not catching hypothermia) is certainly a first for both of us.
Unfortunately, as always seems to be the way, work got in the way of Christmas planning for both of us. For Barny it was the usual year end antics, but Bonnie was engaged in something much more exciting. The Cayman Islands had been selected to host the 2012 Women's World Squash Open, and Bonnie was suddenly very busy helping the Cayman Islands National Squash Association to put on a world class event that would bring the worlds best female squash players to the island to compete in an international championship.
Although the qualifying rounds were played at South Sound Squash Club, our local squash club, the final rounds were to be played in a court in the middle of the bay at Camana Bay that was to be purpose built for the event, with glass walls on every side so that play could be observed from 360 degrees. As the court was being shipped down from the US there were a nervous few days as Bonnie checked the container's progress, and then checked that all the pieces had arrived safe and sound, but once it was all here it was time for it to be built. Over the next three days the helipad at Camana Bay was converted into an arena for the sport of squash, with the light filled glass box that was the court at its center. (There is a great time lapse of the build for anyone who is interested on youtube, which can be accessed here http://youtu.be/TtDFyvLpth4). And then it was time for the contest to start...
The Squash Open was due to finish on the Friday before Christmas, which did not leave us much time to plan for the big day, our first Christmas in the Cayman Islands, and this was compounded by both of us having worked 16 or 18 hour days for the last couple of weeks running up to then. We did manage to get a real Christmas tree (which we had ordered in November), which was duly erected in the corner of our living room. And we also managed to find some time to pick up Barny's brother and (as they had just announced their engagement, we were happy to say) future sister-in-law from the airport, as they were arriving to spend Christmas with us, just in time for the squash semi-finals!
While Bonnie (accompanied by her handy mini motor scooter) oversaw the last day of play and the winding down of the Squash, Barny took the visitors off sightseeing. The three of them went off jet-skiing to explore the mangroves, visit the stingrays at Stingray City and meet the starfish at Starfish Point (followed by a well earned drink at Kaibo on the way home). They had just enough time to go home, shower and change before heading back over to Camana Bay to watch the finale of the Squash open.
Predictably, Nicole David had made it through to the final, where she met the British player Laura Massaro. Although it was a hard fought game, Massaro was outclassed by David, who went on to win her tenth Cayman open title, and secure her world No.1 ranking for another year.
Over the weekend, Bonnie had to supervise the squash being packed away, and Barny entertained the visitors with trips to the beach. Bonnie even managed to get away to join us at Rum Point for a few hours. Like the little kids at heart that they are, Barny and his brother followed up a game of beach badminton by building a sand castle. Predictably, almost as soon as it was finished a big wave came in and washed most of it away. But it kept them out of trouble for an hour or so...
We were also lucky enough to get tickets for the Turtle Farm and the Dolphin Discovery adventure. After spending Sunday morning on the waterslides at the Turtle Farm, we moved over the road and were introduced to the dolphins, and then invited to join them in the water. We were not entirely sure what to expect, as there is something a bit distasteful about having captive animals trained for our amusement, but we have to say that there is something captivating about spending time with these friendly and highly intelligent creatures. Aside from performing the usual backflips and acrobatics, shaking our hands and dancing with us, we were then directed to swim out into the middle of the pool with a float, to find a dolphin swimming up behind our feet and propelling us forwards at great speed, which was a unique experience.
Barn had to work for the rest of the week, but before our visitors left us we decided to use the proceeds of some of the christmas money we were all very generously given treat ourselves to a nice meal out at Calypso Grill, which we have been wanting to try for ages.
Calypso Grill is at Morgan's Harbour, and is next door to the Morgans Harbour restaurant we love. Calypso Grill specialises in fish, and you know it is fresh because you can see it being landed from the boats on the pier outside. We have heard great things about the restaurant, which seemed to be borne out by the throngs of people inside waiting for a table. Luckily we had taken the precaution of booking, and once we had eventually caught the attention of a waiter were shown to our table. We feasted on a selection which included cracked conch, fresh tuna and wahoo. And a solitary steak. All of which was fantastic. Full from a week of indulging in good food and wine we rolled home, and the next day our visitors rolled onto the plane to take them back to Manchester.
All that was left to do in December was to see in the new year. As usual we were faced with the dilemma of what to do, and whether to have a big night out, have a house party or take up one of the invitations we had recieved. Eventually we opted for a relatively quiet one, joining friends for dinner at Ragazzi, the little Italian "trattoria" style restaurant we love, followed by Champagne and fireworks on the beach. It was a perfect compromise, and we headed home on New Year's day, having completed what has been a fantastic year full of exciting news, intrepid moves and the promise of future adventures! Let's hope 2013 can live up to the standards which have been set by 2012!
A Happy New Year to all our readers!
Barny and Bonnie
Tuesday, 1 January 2013
The twelve days of Cayman Christmas - day 3
On the third day of Christmas the Cayman Islands gave to me...
Three Dodgy Christmas jumpers,
Two bikes a racing,
And some presents under the Christmas Tree.
Three Dodgy Christmas jumpers,
Two bikes a racing,
And some presents under the Christmas Tree.
The twelve days of Cayman Chrismas - Day 2
On the second day of Christmas the Cayman Islands gave to me...
Two bikes a racing (well, kind of),
And some presents under the Christmas Tree
Two bikes a racing (well, kind of),
And some presents under the Christmas Tree
The twelve days of Cayman Christmas
On the first day of Christmas the Cayman Islands gave to me...
Presents under the Christmas tree!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)