Living in Grand Cayman

Just as I was mentioning in my last post that hurricane season was pretty much over, looks like we may get some foul weather afterall.  🙁

Officially, its not even a tropical storm yet, but it could very well become one.  In any case, we may get some very heavy rain Sunday/Monday.  I am supposed to fly to Miami Monday AM ; looks like that may be put on hold.  Stay tuned.

Hi everyone,

Not much to report lately expect that all is well.  Hurricane season ends Nov. 30th, but according to everyone here, after mid-october its pretty much over. Many people have taken down their shutters (most, like us,  did not take them down after Dean in August) and we will probably do so quite soon.

 Tourist season is definately heating up ; many more tourists on the beach and more cruise ships in port.  As for the weather : Beautiful.  We must admit that July & August were quite tough.  It was very hot & humid.   However, now the evenings are great and the days are not as hot, although still very warm.  If November and December can be as nice as January-May as when we got here in early 2007, we are in for a nice few months.

 On the office front, still very busy and some travels to NY, Turks & Caicos and of course Miami coming up soon. I also got an office with a window now.

 Here is the view.  I am on the 2nd floor so no crazy views.  However, you can see the government house on the left.  You can also see some of the Georgetown buildings behind the trees.   The sea is just beyond them, less than a 10 minute walk.  On the second picture, from my window I can often see Caymans famous “bush chickens” that just roam around, eat and reproduce!

Still on the subject of animals … Niko, one of the neighborhood dogs.  He is almost all the time at our house now.  He just lies outside the door waiting for Julie to come and see him.  He even dug himself a small bed in the plants to stay cool.  See picture below.

Now when Julie goes for a walk to the supermarket, Niko follows!  He even goes thru the first set of doors (there are two sets of sliding doors) at the supermarket and waits there patiently for Julie to finish.  When she walks out, Niko follows her all the way back home.  Its quite a cute scene I must admit. He is a very gentle dog ; would be tough not to like him.  Here is a final picture.  Nothing in particular, but its a picture I took of Aipa recently.  I really like this picture.

I recently lauched a new offsite backup service.  Its something that already exists on the island to which we have given it a different spin.  Basically people make their data backups, we pick them up with our van, then store them securely and return the data tapes on a rotation basis.  Its simple, but something that many companies need.

Here is the pree release we had in the paper.  Just above the picture is the press release text ; click on the link to read the press release.

 backup_service_compass.pdf

Julie & I took a 3-week vacation to Quebec.   What better place to be in September.  Its still quite warm, the scenery changes daily as the leafs change color, the air is crisp in the morning, etc.

We stayed at a lakeside cabin about 1h15m drive from Montreal.  It was just close enough to be able to go to town 1-2 times a week and also to invite people for a BBQ on week-ends.  All in all, we had a great time.  We were able to see our families & friends. I even had lunch with my former co-workers.  I also had time to quench Big-Mac, Marathon Souvlaki & Tim Horton’ cravings.

Below are a few pictures of the vacation.

A picture with my niece and nephew!  We visited a few farms on a “farm open house day” that is organized each year where you can visit hundreds of farms province wide. Its great fun … seriously!

The view from our cabin at sunset.  Its not 7-mile beach but quite nice also 🙂

A flock of Geese stopped by for a rest during their southbound migration

The fishing did not go too well!  That was one very small Bass.

Typical Quebec countryside picture.  Gorgeous!

I just published another article.  This time it is about the importance of data backups.  I find it really great to be able to have the opportunity to write these articles; makes me do research for statistics/facts and definately improved my writing skills with all the proof reading, corrections, etc.  Julie helped me a lot also by being an excellent critique.

Below is what it looked like in the paper.   Also, click on the link below to be able to read my article.

micho_backupw.pdf

Note : we are on vacation in canada.  I will probably not make any posts for the next 2 weeks.  Lets hope no hurricane rolls thru cayman during that time (or anytime come to think of it …)