Sporting Success for the Crawfords

The last few months have been very football focused for us here in the Crawford house.

Toby’s Robin Hood football team train hard and they train regularly. The team have been getting better, fitter and stronger….and from a fourth place position at Christmas they started climbing up and found themselves in second place. All very exciting! On Friday it was their final game of the season and they lay 3 points behind the leading team, and 1 behind on goal difference.

Their last game was against top placed Flanagans Onions. Therefore a win would be good enough to win the league, and on goal difference at that!

Before Friday though, was Thursday, which was Toby’s birthday. Do I have something to report? Well, with a big match the next day, this was a very quiet night and I wouldn’t even let him have birthday steak as it would take too long to digest! 🙂

So back to the football! It was an 8:30pm KO so me and fellow WAG Katie went for dinner beforehand. By 8pm though we were getting too nervous ourselves so the remaining pizza was boxed up and we set off to soak up the spirit. The Premier league side were out in force to support and had been getting into the spirit for quite a while before we got there! Needless to say it was a lively and noisy crowd with lots of ingenious and not so ingenious chants!

We were worried it might be a cagey game as the opposition only needed a draw to win the league but we were not disappointed. It was a great game and the Robin Hood ‘Hoodlums’ were definitely the ’12th man’ that cheered the team to a 3-2 victory.

Toby and fellow centre back Martin look rather proud!

After this the boys jumped into a rather noisy motorcade round town. Apologies for the swearing but here’s a little outtake

🙂

Needless to say, the celebrating continued into the early hours and Saturday was a bit of a write-off! Not for me though, this is where I came into my own….

So the knee is nearly 6 weeks post-op now. The previous weekend I’d done 50 minutes of walk 2 mins/jog 30sec/repeat. Impressed?! Having got approval from the physio, it was time to step it up….with Toby’s weary legs a perfect match for my unfit and recuperating legs, we set off to ‘Zoom around the Sound’ on our bikes. For those outside Bermuda, ‘Zoom around the Sound’ is a yearly race by foot or bike. And a visual is always good! Here it is on the map;

Admittedly we didn’t ‘Zoom’ – it was more of a sight-seeing pace….but I was extremely pleased with my 11.5km ride! So much so, today while Toby’s helping out with security for one of the football matches followed by cheering on the Premier side, I did it again. It might not compare to the Robin Hood team efforts, but I feel like a superstar!

On my ride I saw people getting in the water for a swim. And they weren’t tourists! And others were cleaning up their boats. I think we’re getting ready for summer! I better progress quickly with the exercise to get ready myself!

It’s a small island

So, yet again we’ve left it weeks between posts.  I think we’re going to have to accept we can’t be weekly/bi-weekly bloggers with us both working and I won’t apologise again.  Looks like we’re not made to be professional bloggers 😦

So, lots to catch up on, I’ll try to keep things brief or this will be epic.  Essentially we’ve spent the last few weeks doing different things, meeting the same people…

First things first, shortly after the last post we attended the Adult Education School’s Silent Art Auction.  This is an event I’d been helping out with the planning for and was to support a local charity who provides subsidised education to those who’ve fallen out of the traditional education system or are returning to education.  It’s an incredible charity doing some incredible things for the community.  Unfortunately I couldn’t do half as much as I’d hoped having started my new job so when I turned up to the event I was HUGELY impressed.  It had come together so well, looked like a really high class event and the local community were out in force to support – it was packed!  And then, there was the artwork.  Wow!  Such talent on the island.  Toby came along too (in fact he beat me there!) and truly got into the swing of things as we dashed from table to table, placing bids, being outbid and running onto the next!  We bumped into the president of Argus (one of our customers), people Toby plays football with, I play badminton with and someone who came to badminton once, got injured and hasn’t yet returned.  What can I say – it’s a small island!  And then we were introduced to a whole load more so I’ll be expecting to bump into them soon!  Toby got talking to one of the artists Tracy Osborne and in the end we walked away proud owner of one of her donated pieces.

That weekend while I was out at badminton, Toby headed off camera in hand to try and emulate some of the shots we’d seen at the Art Auction.  He’s got quite an eye for it but unfortunately with the crazy winds that were developing it was a bit of a challenge and after he took this first shot he didn’t notice the sea spray all over the lens so the rest of the shots are a bit blurred!  More to follow!

The following week was an event I’d been helping arrange for work.  It was all about Database Management – oooh, ahhh!  I’m sure you’ll all want to know more about the content :-).  It was a bit of a challenge to get up to speed and plan the event so quickly after starting but I’m pleased to say this event…also went well!  It was great to speak to potential customers to get a feel for their challenges – I certainly learnt a lot and I hope they did too!  One of the attendees was of course from badminton (small island), I’d interviewed with another (small island) and although I didn’t know her before, I’m going to meet up with one of the attendees I met there because we got on well and of course it’s always good to make the island feel a little smaller!  (I’d add I photo but I too didn’t notice there was still sea spray on the lens!)

That weekend we were planning on having ‘date night’ on the Friday as Toby ‘had been signed’ 🙂 for a local football team and was going to be having his first match on the Saturday night.  We went for a couple of drinks after work first with friends and colleagues which was a stupid thing to do.  We’ve made this mistake before, it’s never just two drinks!  By 9pm there were four of us left, all of us hungry; so Liz and Deon joined us for date night!  We set off to the Pickled Onion where over the course of the evening we realised we know half the people in there – small island!

Before Toby went to football on the Sunday we headed off to Fort Scaur for an explore.  The fort is in the ‘west end’ of the island set on the highest hilltop there.  It was built in the 1870’s when relations between the UK and US weren’t so good and it was designed so it was barely visable by sea – very smart!  The plan was it would protect the Royal Naval Dockyard (see earlier blogs!) from land attacks.  Interestingly, although built to defend against the American’s, they were stationed there during WW2 – how things change.

The day started with some humour;

And then me trying to get Toby to smile nicely in front of the moat!

Spotting pirates…

And then we came across the entrance to the underground element of the fort…it was after all hardly visible from sea.

We’d seen a similar entrance around the otherside of the fort so figured they must link up and off we went.  What a miserable life it must have been down there.  Tiny slits to fire your gun/musket/riffle (whatever they would have had at the time – Toby or Dad could probably help me here) but otherwise narrow, cramped and very dark.  And so we continued…now there are no slits…it’s pitch black…I’m now using the camera flash to guide us and taking such wonderful photos as this one;

But we continue, assuming we’re not far from the other entrance.  Only we met a dead end!  How Toby-scared-of-spiders and Michelle-super-sensible-to-the-point-of-being-boring managed this I don’t know.  So we turned around and I took a whole load of pictures on the way back!  I’m going to recommend a light switch!

Last night Toby was picked again for the Robin Hood football team and I was allowed to watch!  I was very excited because it took YEARS to be authorised to watch him play 5-a-side in London and I do love football!  I turned up and of course the first thing that happens is I bump into Liz and Deon…and then Graham….and then I got introduced to some more people.  Mmmmm, small island?!  As Toby noticed from the pitch, I didn’t really get to see the first half!  Part of the reason there were so many people around was because the St Baldrick’s charity event was being held in the gym – people were shaving their heads to raise money to find cures for childhood cancer.  Over $200,000 has been raise already.  Take a look at the pic’s in the link because my camera phone didn’t do such a good job!

I went to grab a drink and return to the football when I spied someone else I knew walking away from me…I felt bad but I turned on my heal and got back to the footie with the second half getting underway – there were bound to be more people in there and I’d never leave!

It was a lot of fun with banter on the sidelines and the team playing well.  My fave was the ‘e-or’ donkey sounds from the Robin Hood Fans when Robin Hood goal attempts missed.  That and ‘it’s Scot-tish Messi’!  It was a 9-0 win with Toby and Jamie both scoring – whoops from the sidelines from me at this point.  Check out where they play with the lovely power station backdrop!

Today we’re off to the beach to celebrate St Patrick Day, watch the rugby and generally have some fun.  We’re starting at 1:30pm so I’m planning a filling breakfast to line the stomach.  Our new Bermuda fave is cinamon buns…yup we eat the whole pack between us!

Moon Jelly

It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post.  This was mainly due to having spent the last week or so studying for an exam.  Being nearly 30, I was hoping to have left exam taking behind me the best part of a decade ago.  The company I work for wanted to apply for a Microsoft scheme, but needed a certain number of the engineers to be Microsoft certified in order to be eligible.  Losing a couple of guys last year who were certified and then employing me, who was not, had swung the balance just under the required number.  So with study guide in hand and practice exam papers loaded up I embarked on attempting to become MCTS, or a Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist, for those of you not familiar with our IT acronyms.  Now, it wouldn’t be true to say I had to teach myself to learn again, because I generally keep fairly up to date with new technologies and take strange pleasure in reading text books; but the thought of having to spend three hours proving I could do the job I have been paid for the last 8 years or so to do, was a little daunting.  I went into the exam genuinely feeling it would be touch and go; with a 70% pass mark, the percentage of people who pass is not that high and  the practice papers I had been taking were all coming out around 70%.  Luckily for me, when push came to shove, I got through fine and am now happily certified! More importantly though.. I can relax again and write a blog!

The last couple of weeks haven’t purely entailed fourteen days of study. For example, I spent two evenings in the company of Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris! Yep, the Chelsea legend was on island doing some charity events.  First up was the football quiz at the Swizzle Inn.  Teams of four, lots of footie questions, a bit of booze and a sprinkling of banter. Lovely old job.

A few days later was a ‘Night with Chopper’ in the Robin Hood pub.  Chopper was with his mate, a stand up comedian called Mike Pugh. Mike did some stand-up before Chopper told some anecdotes.  Here’s a picture of me holding Chopper… He looks as chuffed about the quality of photo my new phone takes as I am:

I’ve always love a quiz, so when Michelle mentioned that the International Women’s Club were holding their annual quiz, it was obvious we would have to put a team together.  Held at the Dinghy Club, a private club on the other side of harbor, we grouped together some friends and booked in a team of five.  Sadly we didn’t win, but third out of about 16 teams was not bad.  It was a decent night and I’m on the lookout for a pub quiz now to scratch my general knowledge itch on a regular basis.  Team Supanova:

On the basis we’d not done much over the last week due to the studying and Chelle having started her new job we decided to get out a do a few things this weekend.  Firstly a bike ride, along Middle Road to Flatts Village, down the side of Harrington Sound to Tuckers before coming back along the South Shore road.

We stopped off at a jetty on the sound to check out the fish.  Under the jetty was a little group of jelly fish! Google makes me think they were ‘Moon Jelly’ – although the ones we saw were tiny, maybe just 5cm.  I was fascinated though…

The bike ride passed through one of the many golf courses here; and as is standard here, there were chicken on the greens:

Today Chelle and I headed out to the south shore for a walk on the beach.  We headed down to Warwick long bay.  This was really cool.  Firstly, because, contrary to popular belief it seems Bermudian’s do go in the water in the winter:

And secondly because further down the beach (it is a large beach by Bermudian standards), it was just Chelle and I on it.  Lovely.

Chelle was obviously in a good mood about this; she even went it the sea to sit on a rock when I asked her to 😀

Fish and chips and a couple pints in the Swizzle on the way home topped off a great weekend that was much needed after all the study for me and work for Chelle of the past couple of weeks!

The logistics fascinate me!

One of the first things we did when Toby was offered a job in Bermuda, was work out EXACTLY where it is!  We could roughly place it, but it was still a surprise to see just how far away from any other land it is.

You have too zoom out a long way from a map of the island before you come in contact with any land!

Now, as a Brit I’m used to living on an island.  But an island of 60 million people.  Quite a different draw for companies wanting to ship their goods to that island!  Fancy going to all that effort to get your food, clothes or general ‘stuff’ to Bermuda, only to have a population of 65,000 to sell to.  No wonder shopping is expensive! 🙂

Being the principle shopper I’ve worked out which shops to go to for different things.  Our nearest tiny convienience store for example does well for cheap wines and Toby’s favourite BBQ ribs, not so good on bread.  Bread; I found a different shop for that.  In a shop I’d visited for the first time a few weeks back I spied Warburtons!!!  Warburtons?!  How did THAT get there?!  And sat next to Roberts…that gets baked down the road from my parents…  I went to grab a loaf, only to find it was a little damp.  Trying another, I found that too was damp.  A ha!  Genious!  The bread was being frozen, brought over, defrosted and sold to us ‘remote people’!  A lot of food is shipped in in that way.  Very clever!

I chuckle to myself while touring the shops.  I’d never seen Ribena before and it popped up in our local.  Result!  I then visited two other shops that week to see they too had Ribena..there must have been a shipment! 🙂

 

Following our discovery last week of cockroaches living in the cupboard, I had a big clean out this week.  Taking no prisoners I set to work removing crumbs of food which would make the ‘roaches feel welcome.  The kitchen got a super clean, emptying all the cupboards and cleaning round.  At the back of the cutlery draw I found cockroach poo.  Lovely!  While I was at it, mould was targeted too!  Once I got my eye in, the mould was subtly everywhere….the TV cabinet was slowly ‘fading’ under a downy mildew…the ceiling in the the bathroom was looking a little grey…round windows (standard!)…round the seal on the fridge (yuck!)…  It was a bigger job than I expected even though I’ve been onto this invader for some time and clean the ‘hot spots’ monthly!  It’s starting to look like we’ll need to take the advice we’re being given to get a dehumidifier.

 

Onto a nicer topic, sport!  Toby started training with the Robin Hood Football club shortly after we got here.  Here are the likely lads from last year, including Toby’s colleague Jamie….

What with Christmas and work he’s been a little distracted but is now back training.

At the same time the lovely husband and wife team of Ro and Mark have been badgering me to join the badminton training rather than just going to club night and playing games.  Sunday was my first session.

We’re now starting to understand quite how passionate Bermuda makes people about sport!  Neither of us had done a ‘drill’ or practiced a technique since leaving school.  As an adult, we just play for fun…we’ll try hard, but within our capabilities..right?  Wrong!  We’re both being put through our paces, working on skills and fitness and if a little bit of sick doesn’t come up…well, you’re not trying hard enough!

Toby’s response?  New boots!

 

A sporty day for the Crawfords

So now we can relax that we have somewhere to live, we can start engaging in some extra-curricular activities!

Toby’s playing football at lunch which is a more relaxed 4/5-a-side format so he can suss out the standard and what it’s like to play in this heat and humidity.  We were walking past a ‘Corona League’ game on Friday which is the 11-a-side league Shaun Goater plays in.  We watched for a while and Toby said the standard was ‘annoyingly good’!  He’s expecting after today to be looking for a team in a different league but we’ll wait and see!

This evening I’m off to badminton and hoping I’ll be able to borrow a racquet or I’ll not be much use!  Toby’s friend Jamie used to play there and won the men’s singles league last year.  He very modestly pointed out there are only 20 men who play singles on the island!  So much to get used to….I used to play for a CLUB that had twice as many members!  Such a cute little island.

Having put all our games in the boxes that are being shipped over, we only have ‘Uno’ (thanks to Chelsie and Kent!) and some Canasta playing cards (thanks to Mr and Mrs Eb-Mod!).  These two are firm favorites now.  We loose hours playing Canasta and have started ‘the-worlds-longest-game-of-Uno’ where the score rolls of from one night to the next.  We’re not sure what score we’re aiming for!

Gosh, reading all this we really are living the high life aren’t we?!