Author: The Reads

 

For the last three nights we have made a habit of going down to the beach around 6pm, just as the heat of the day dissipates, for a swim. The sea is still warm but it is really refreshing soaking away the day and leaving you cool. There are more fish to see than during the rest of the day and each evening we have seen ‘Pete’ the resident stingray swim buy. Tonight we saw pufferfish, Angel fish and a shoal of foot long chub and trumpet fish.

But the real show starts at around six thirty as the sun goes down. The sea changes colour and becomes the most incredible mirror of the sky, it looks like liquid metal with powder pinks, pastel blues, silvers and golds and it just shimmers. The sea is mill pond flat with barely a wave just the gentle ripples over the polished surface. It is mesmerising to watch.

And if that’s not enough each evening a pirate ship sails past… Slowly the sky darkens and the sun goes down and one by one the stars come out, crisp and sparkling in the sky and oh so many! No constellations I recognise it is an alien sky.

At full dark looking west you can see lightening flashing, the most vivid and intense flashes far off in the distance lighting up the sea and for a second turning night to day.

It great watching this from the beach, but it is even better watching it while swimming.

We are really here!

The flight was long and then it took a while to get through immigration but we are now officially Cayman Island Residents!

Customs was interesting, we caused something of a panic, turns out taped up rubble bags full of Lego look just like contraband on the X-ray… Turns out it was the Islands biggest Lego bust but they let us go with a laugh, just.

We were met at the airport by Tara and Chiara from the Ministry they brought a minibus! Which was lucky given all the bags we had.

All settled into the hotel dinner by the pool and Poppy went for a dip!

Huge storm last night, we woke up to rainbows and sunshine. I snuck out and hit the sea at 6:15am just stunning. Came back and got everyone else up for a pre-breakfast dip.

We are going for an explore today and a tour of the island! More later.

Later…

Jo took us around the island today and showed us all sorts of sights, we saw the outside of our new home and met our neighbour Damian ‘Damo’ an Ausie paddle board coach he seemed very nice. He has already offered to take us out. He has lived in the block for 6 years and loves it.

Jo said our house is in a nice area, a mix of expat and Caymanian homes in a quiet street. I liked it. It is going to be really convenient for James and Poppy getting to school.

We saw a few cars, I have my eye on a battered old jeep.

We went to Smith’s Cove. it is right by our house and it is lovely.

So much info my head is spinning!

Oh and James bought a water melon, he says it was very nice. Thanks James. Well Victoria said he had to have a piece of fruit…

Today was very busy. We had a long journey round the island as we were on a tour with a lady called Jo. My favourite place that we went to was Smith’s Cove. We only put our feet in the water but it was lovely and refreshing after being in that hot stuffy car for a while. I liked when we went to the house, i peeked through the window and i could see almost the same image that was on the website; the sofas and kitchen. The beach was amazing, the water was really warm and we even saw some fish and a hermit crab! We saw various other animals roaming free like massive iguanas and chickens.

Another day of adventure awaits… P.

OK compared to moving house packing up ready to live abroad for a while is much more complicated!

First you have to work out what you are taking. Now this may sounds easy but it is not, especially when, like me, you can be a bit literal at times.

This leads me to a confession.

When Jo, our really supportive contact from the department, said we have a shipping allowance I went off and began investigating shipping. I have learnt a lot about shipping, like it takes about 6 weeks, it is really expensive and it is a real hassle.

I mentioned this to Jo and she said ‘most people take a lot of excess baggage‘,. And here’s the confession.  Jo said this to me about three times and each time it passed me by without me registering what she meant. I completely failed to clock what she was telling me.

It wasn’t until a few weeks ago the penny dropped!

I was looking at the BA website and there on the page was a link to ‘extra baggage‘. Something went click in my head. A connection was made and I finally got it.

In my defence we did have a lot happening leaving our jobs after a decade, finding schools on the island for the children, sorting out moving the cats, selling our cars, renting our home packing, packing and more packing. The list goes on… but I did feel like a wally.

Anyway a light came on, ‘Oh’, says I as I worked out we can take a huge amount on the plane with us for a fraction of the cost of shipping! So I booked stacks of excess baggage and went out and bought loads of suitcases. I mean loads, we have 16 of them.

I then rang BA to ask a few questions about what I could pack.

The Pound Land Conversation started.

“So can I put a DVD player in my bag?” I asked.

“Yes sir, that is fine” says the lady.

“How about my son’s X-box”

“Yes sir, that is fine” says the lady.

“How about my Sonos?”

“Yes sir, thats fine,” says the lady, “if you look at our website you can see a list of prohibited items pretty much anything else is fine”.

“Oh ok, how about an Apple TV box?”

Laughter.”Yes sir, that is fine” says the lady still giggling, “you’ve got a list haven’t you?”

“Yep. How about…”.

Anyway this went on for a while. The lady was a star patiently putting up with my nonsense but eventually the list was done and I was reassured.

Finally she asked laughing,”are you like this when you go to Pound Land? Do you ask how much everything costs just to be sure?”

I replied, also laughing, “Funnily enough yes. But only because I know it will drive them mad. I never buy anything I normally just say ‘oh, I’ll leave it then‘ like they might give me  discount!”

Back to packing, even though we have a few bags we have been whittling down what we are taking to the essentials. Pineapple peeler, tea pot, no not the tea pot, a few books to read, a few less, a few more, a completely different selection. Photos but not the frames hundreds of decisions and changes.

But the lesson I have learnt, is that it is amazing what you actually need and how much stuff we accumulate and store!

Going through this process you start letting go, giving things away, storing things and packing things in the attic. Oh and bartering.

My brother rings,”what are you doing with your big TV?”.

“If you take the guinea pigs it is yours to look after”.

“Deal!” So ensues a quick drive to Cornwall and back, the TV and guinea pigs safely re-homed.

And today the saddest farewell so far. Well for me any way. I sold my car. I have had her since she was new! I could not watch as she drove away! I remained stoic and stiff lipped but it was a real wrench. She looked gorgeous shiny and glorious.

This shouldn’t be important, but it is, the guy that has bought her was really nice and has two young children. He came with his dad, he was also the first person that saw her and he gave me pretty much the asking price without too much haggling. He was really pleased with deal and seemed chuffed! I think she will be happy too. (The car… ever since seeing Herby as a child I have been convinced all VW’s are all alive).

Oh and we have rented a house in the Cayman.

This probably should have featured higher in this blog… never mind.

We spotted a 3 bed, 2 bathroom and a den property on Ecay Trade (more about this wonder later). It is within a short walk of James and Poppy’s school and takes cats!

The pictures looks lovely, a lot like a Spanish holiday villa, it may be smaller than our house (actually it may even be bigger, dunno, all part of the fun). Air conditioning throughout. Fully furnished. Good grief I have definitely lived in worse looking places.

The picture above is actually a ‘fourplex’, it is comprised of four separate apartments. Ours is the very end on the left as you look at the picture (I think).

Its also about 400 feet from a swimming cove and the sea and there are swimming pools near by.

So after some reflection we went for it. It may or may not be our dream property but we made a really pragmatic decision, properties move really fast on the island  and over the next two weeks all the new teachers will be arriving and looking for properties, the market will be even busier than usual.

We are teachers, we plan and we like to get all of our ducks in a row. We are control freaks.

For my part I guess that is why I am headteacher…

Anyway we are travelling with two children who will be settling into a new school, having a home somewhere we can settle in while we learn the pulse of the island is a real weight off all of our minds. Its well within our budget so while we find our feet it is one less pressure.

In time, once James and Poppy are settled and Victoria and I know our jobs and have a sense of island life, we may move to something more ideal beach front pool etc but we will do it in our time. The most important thing it is close enough to the kids’ school that we can feel safe with them walking home from school together.

Like I said pragmatic.

The kids like the look of it and have agreed on rooms already!