Month: November 2016

We were out celebrating last night at The Wharf. Victoria has officially been awarded her Masters! She is now Victoria Read (MA). We are all so proud of her fantastic achievement.

The Wharf is very posh, we had a table on the waterside overlooking the sea. The night included live music from a really great band and tarpon feeding.  It was a bit special. I had lobster and turtle! They are so tasty!

November has been a mad busy fun month, and here are just a few highlights.

At school we indulged in a spot of time travel looking back at the history and heritage of the Cayman Islands. A slightly surreal experience as students and staff came to school in traditional Cayman clothes, harking back to a simpler more isolated time.

To help add to the fun parents sent in the most amazing array of traditional cakes so by the end of day it was more like Woodstock, what the collective sugar rush, than a primary school. There was, to name a few, pineapple upside down cake, banana bread, coconut biscuits and thick, dense, cassava cake. The latter more like a set syrup than a cake, dripping with sugar and capable of inducing diabetes with just a glance. I am convinced the island tilted slightly under the weight of the food but fortunately thanks to the eating efforts of the staff and pupils balance was restored, phew.

The students looked amazing in their Cayman threads!

Thinking about it there has been quite a bit of dressing up this month…

Pirates week started with a bang, literally, what with the steel band competition, fireworks night and a street party. Then it just got louder!

Saturday brought the spectacle of The Pirate Landing. The local Red Coats valiantly tried to defend George Town but were soon overwhelmed and taken captive by the cut throats!

With the pirates in charge the party really got started and a carnival ensued. It was a real riot of colour and music. There must have been 30 floats. What with the sun and the sea as a backdrop it made Notting Hill seem bit drab…

The poor Red Coats suffered the ignominy of being paraded through town in chains as part of the Carnival.  I have it on good authority that it is going to be alright and that this weekend they will escape and the pirate leader will be brought to justice.  I will keep you posted on developments. (Just in case you are worried).

To blend in with the rapscallions who were infesting the island we all thought it was best if dressed as salty sea dogs and just threw ourselves in with the ruffians. It seemed to work and I can report so far we have passed unnoticed. A motley crew are The Castaways.

Exhausted by all the pirate themed activity we retreated to a hidden haven and the relative quiet of Clive and Carol’s house and a sunset Pot Luck Supper around the Baker’s Pool on Bank Holiday Monday.

What with Pirates’ Week and Heritage celebrations, night swimming, beach picnics, street parties, Poppy in the Netball Team, James joining the Marine Conservation Club, me revising for my PADI exam and test, snorkelling with wild turtles, steel bands, time with the gang, a bank holiday, a carnival, fireworks and Victoria off to the Brac November has been really busy… and it is not quite finished yet, tonight it is the turning on of the Christmas Lights, Thanksgiving is coming and next week I am heading over to the Brac for a football match.

So while we work hard during the week I guess the expat lifestyle is not all bad!

Pirates Week Fireworks. It doesn’t need much commentary,  but sufficed to say I soon had a bar full of  people shouting, ‘Oooh’, ‘Arrrr’… it may not be Kempton Park but it has its charms.

After the fire works we wondered down into George Town to join the street party, with three stages of live music and thousands of people dancing the night away. The atmosphere was really friendly with families out and about and half the crowd dressed as pirates!

Saturday promises a parade, an invasion by the pirates and more partying!

11.00 p.m. and I am stood on a near deserted harbor side  with just a music teacher and a pile of steel drums for company.

Nearby can be heard the drunken ramblings of a grounded sailor and across the water drifts the sounds of a container ship being unloaded.

I turn to my silent companion.

‘Come here often?‘, I try as an ice breaker and we both start laughing at the ridiculous image.

Two white guys on a dark dockside late at night minding a large pile of Caribbean drums, surrounded by the detritus of a street party while we wait for a truck to turn up. .

That’s right in life you do have these moments.

Tonight has been ‘Pan in de City’ the first official event of Pirates Week. Earlier in the evening our respective school bands had been part of the 100 or so musicians performing in the Annual Cayman Schools’ Steel Band Competition. The Main Street through George Town closed off so our students could perform on the sea front.

It was a great fun evening and the bands were brilliant Prospect came a very credible 2nd beaten only by a private secondary school. (Admittedly James and Poppy’s school so no mixed loyalties there).

But they were brilliant, the average age of the band is 10 and they held their own against the local university band! So proud, go Prospect!

As I watched them play I figured it was probably the most authenticity Caribbean event of our adventure so far! If you don’t count the food, the beach, working in a local school, the life style… well you know what I mean.

(Sorry its sideways!)

11:15 and back on the dockside we now sit on upturned drums listening to the waves and  watch the drunken sailor fall over again. Shouting obscenities at some invisible protagonist he jumps up and staggers unsteadily off down the street moving like a marionette in the hands of a careless child. His ravings fading into the dark.

Through the night we hear the low rattle and clash of an approaching truck and a beaten up old van comes at last to our rescue.

 

For my birthday we went to the Westin for Sunday brunch. A genuine smaugasboard of lush grub and free flowing champagne it was lovely.

After brunch we spent a few hours relaxing on the beach, the sea was a bit rough but we had a swim anyway.

On Thursday we saw Roger and Sally off, it was a lovely couple of weeks and I think they enjoyed themselves.

All in all it has been a busy week and a half since half term, work has been hectic so come the weekend it was nice to unwind. The Castaways gathered on the beach under the stars with a few candles and loads of booze and laughed Bonfire Night away. 

A few of us arrived early for some snorkelling. Just off Spotts is a large area of sea grass and where there is sea grass there is a good chance of swimming with sea turtles. We were in luck and spotted two each about three to four feet long, as calm as you like. We got really close to them, absolutely beautiful and a great start to the evening.

We also spotted a couple of lobsters, I kid you not they were huge as big as my flipper easily two foot long!

Just lovely a really low key event we had the beach to ourselves and the sky provided the fireworks in the form of shooting stars!

We ordered pizza and the delivery driver turned up on the beach with the boxes, he did not question the address when we said we wanted 8 pizzas delivered to Spots Beach he just said ok and 20 minutes later he arrived on his moped! 

In my spare time I have been furiously studying the online theory for my PADI Certification  I am determined to complete the course and assessment and qualify by Christmas so that when Caz and Pete come out we can have a dive. (Chloe your dive will be all booked up for when you visit, you will love it!).

This weekend is a bank holiday weekend and the start of Pirates Week! Click here for more.