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It has been a while but I am back…………….

Greetings everyone!!!!

 

It has been some time since my last blog  – best part of a couple of years truth be told and quite a lot has happened during that time.

 

I am still in my job and have been away on trips to the USA, France, Trinidad and Ireland.

 

I have been using my camera over the last while but have always found some excuse or another that has prevented me to blog and/or upload my photographs to the extent that I had to buy additional memory cards – oh I am looking forward to clearing up that backlog!!!!

 

In the meantime, I give you the photo a visiting colleague from Head Office took of me a few months ago….the hard work and hectic lifestyle have clearly taken their toll. 

 

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to one and all!

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to one and all from me, yours truly. A friend of mine emailed me this a couple of weeks ago and I thought it was worthy of being posted up as a blog.

I think it is rather funny, actually.

 

Direct T.V. rules!!!

  

http://www.esnips.com//3rd/flvplayer/esnips_flvplayer12.swf

   

http://www.esnips.com//3rd/flvplayer/esnips_flvplayer12.swf

 

 

  http://www.esnips.com//3rd/flvplayer/esnips_flvplayer12.swf

Hurricane Dean has passed the Cayman Islands

 

 

Well that, as they say was that and thank goodness for it I must say.

 

Hurricane Dean passed a little over 100 miles south of the Cayman Islands on Monday August 20, 2007 around 9am (3pm BST) and the all clear was issued at 2pm (8pm BST) with much relief.

 

So how was it for me?

 

Well, I decided to stay in that Friday evening and I cooked some food and stored them in pots in the fridge for future use off my gas cooker. I also busied myself by cleaning up the apartment and ensured that I knew what to buy the next day whilst keeping an eager eye on the weather channel which provided regular updates on the hurricanes progress. My flat mate who works for Fortis was moved off the island to work in one of their offices in Brazil so I was left with the apartment to myself which was nice actually.

 

I walked into George Town early Saturday afternoon and found that very few of the shops in the town centre were boarded up which did surprise me somewhat. I met some people there and found that very few people had gone out the previous evening. The tourist shops were generally closed, the tourists themselves were told to leave earlier that week. I found the supermarkets busy-ish as most of the shopping had been done a couple of days before.

 

I was back in the aprtment by 4pm that afternoon and, once again, I spent the evening inside (I didn’t wish to spend any of my emergency cash and most of the ATM’s were now closed) to cook some more food and ready myself for the hurricane. I found that sitting in front of the television and doing very little was actually very tiring and I was in bed before 10pm that evening.

 

On Sunday, after mass, I found myself ringing around to check up on some of my friends and to call home to update them on the situation. By now, nearly everything was closed so I found myself in front of the television once more. My landlady got the downstairs windows boarded up that evening and with that, the apartment became very dark indeed as no natural light was available at all.

 

I was able to fill both the baths with water and with a few days worth of food cooked and stored in the fridge, I felt fairly confident that I was better off staying in the apartment by myself than moving to one of the local shelters and staying there with over 150 – 200 strangers. The apartment is part of a block about 2 – 3 miles off the coast, sheltered by other newly buily accomodation so my landlady was very confident that the hurricane would do very little harm indeed.

 

Sunday night came with news that the hurricane was now due about 9am (3pm BST) on Monday morning which meant that I could look forward to a proper nights sleep which was most welcome.

 

I awoke on Monday morning to find that the electricity had not been turned off in my area although other areas had and that the water had been turned off throughout the island which was fine as I had plenty of water to suffice. I found that it was mildly stormy outside and I was able to leave the front door open for most of the day to let some natural light in. I tuned into Radio Cayman for local weather updates and I was able to call home to tell them how things were. The news reports indicated around mid-day that the worst was over with some flooding in Savannah which was unfortunate although Savannah is on the coast so some flooding along there was generally thought to be inevitable.

 

The curfew (introduced at 10pm on Sunday night) was lifted at 2pm that afternoon although it was openly flouted all morning – indeed I could not remember seeing so many vehicles going past my apartment over such a period of time previously. I decided that I would remain in doors that afternoon and evening and to take a reasonalby early night, the water being restored that evening.

 

Yesterday (Tuesday), walking into town, I noticed that the surf of the swa was quite rough – the last reminants of the hurricane had yet to pass – with the sea spray quite intense at times. The tourist shops continued to be closed because there were little/no tourists on the island that morning and there was little chance of the cruise ships returning before the end of the week as sea conditions were quite rough. I felt sorry for those employed in the tourist industry as they now face a few days with little/no trade.

 

Today (Wednesday), the seas appear to have calmed somewhat although I do not expect to see any cruise ships at port until next week at the earliest which means that there will have been no cruise ships and tourists on the island for at least a week before things return to normality once more.

 

We should all be grateful though as it could have been so easily much worse. The last hurricane to ‘hit’ the Cayman Islands was Hurricane Ivan (September 11, 2004) which past some 20 miles south of Grand Cayman but stayed there for more than 36 hours so the damage done was extensive with repairs to many of the buildings only completed over the last few months and a lot of people are still awaiting their insurance payments. If another damaging hurricane arrives, may people may be forced to leave the island as those with mortgages whose property was damaged (some extensively) had to continue to pay the mortgage, find alternative accomodation and pay for repairs/renovations whilst awaiting there insurance payments which meant that their savings and therefore ‘cushion’ was very much depleted after Hurricane Ivan and they may not have had time to replenish sufficient savings yet.

 

Yes, a lot of people live and work in Grand Cayman and earn good money which is fine but they do experience some costs a lot higher than that in the British Isles (property insurance being very high indeed) which is a point most people who do not live and work in the Cayman Islands are not aware of.

 

So yes, that, as they say was that and thank goodness for it I must say.

 

Now for the next one…………

 

Hurricane Dean in coming!!

Hurricane Dean is coming!!

 

It is due to ‘clip’ the Cayman Islands sometime on Monday morning 2am (8am BST) so I am currently experiencing a mixture of excitement and trepidation whilst the so-called countdown begins.

 

Up until now many of us did not take the storm very seriously as we thought it might do what ‘Ernesto’ did last year and veer harmlessly off leaving Grand Cayman alone but, sadly, this is not to be the case.

 

I do not wish to raise any unnecesaryt alarm however as I understand that the island has learned the various lessons from Hurricane Ivan which struck the island on September 11, 2004 and my accomodation is not on the coast (although some flooding is possible) but I think the next week or so is going to be a little uncomfortable as the electricity will be cut together with the water supply which is going to be a real stinker, if you pardon the pun.

 

We had a staff meeting this morning and it was confirmed that ‘Dean’ was coming. I was allowed to take some time off to buy some supplies as leaving it to Saturday (tomorrow) was not considered to be a good idea and I have to admit that leaving same to tomorrow morning would not have been a good idea at all. 

 

If you are interested in following the path of Hurricane Ernesto, please log on to the Cayman Islands government website and/or wunderground from which I copied the above picture which illustrates the projected path of the storm.

 

I expect to be able to go to work on Tuesday so hopefully things will be okay but in the meantime, pleaese spare a thought ofr us down here in the Caribbean whilst we await Mr. ‘Dean’ and ‘pray’ that his visit is more sociable than anticipated.

 

I hope to be in a position to post some sort of blog of my experiences of the hurricane and the aftermath in the next few days, subject to an adequate power supply.

 

And so another season begins……………

 

 

And so another season begins with Liverpool F.C. getting off to a rather impressive start on the 11th against Aston Villa and their win against Toulouse in the Champions League this afternoon. 

 

I am painfully aware that one swallow does not make a summer and all that but I think the Kop are in a stronger position this season than they have been for some time and I gather that is the general consensus.

 

I look forward to Sunday’s clash with Chelsea with a mixture of dread and anticipation although some feel that the clash will be a little more evenly spread in the Kop’s favout this time. It’s just a pity that it is so early in the season this time around.

 

C’est la vie I suppose.

 

Watch this space though as I think the EPL is going to be a bit more interesting this season than it has been for a while what with Roy Keane continuing to impress Sunderland and a certain ex-England manager keen to regain some of his tarnished reputation with Manchester City.