Living in Grand Cayman

Hi everyone,

 Many thanks for all the post & emails I received.  Its great to get news from back in Canada & elsewhere. I posted quite a few pics below.

 So I have my first full week of work & am already swamped with work. I was expecting this since Jan-Feb-Mar is always the busy season in accounting firms. I am already going to Miami in the week of the 5th (for one day) and plan to return soon. 

 Last wednesday, our container was finally inspected. It was delivered to our place but had to stay sealed until customs inspected it.  There is no duty to import personal effects.  So 3 customs agents (?) showed up and inspected a total of 3 boxes before being satisfied that we were not importing contraband.

 In the house, there are a few repairs to do. Most of them are being done by the landlord Miss Marlene; she is nice and doing all as promised. She usually brings her grand children with her to the house.  Aipa really loves them.

Here is Aipa with Louis, Jade & Jay Dan

 One funny thing. The hot water heater was not working.  However, tap water is warm enough to take a shower, so we did not really miss not having hot water.

Now we have stared looking for a car.  We have pretty much settled for a 2003-04 Honda CRV.  There is one problem though ; altough there are loads of them on the island, there are none for sale.  And when one is for sale, its usually sold within the hour.  So we will be buying it via the Internet from Japan.  Its actually an online auction via a site called IBC (http://www.ibcjapan.co.jp) Many people here have bought a car via IBC and have been very happy.  The reason it will come from Japan is that pollution laws in Japan are very strict and any car over 4-5 years is very expensive to keep, so there is a surplus of used (and relatively recent) cars over there.  We should do this in the upcoming week and will keep you posted.

 Also, we need to buy a TV.  We will probably get a 32 inch flat screen TV.  Julie has fallen in love with a Sony Bravia LCD.  I have to admit, its really nice 🙂 I may get a better deal bringing it back from Miami instead of buying it here even with the 20% duty.  I have to check if there are other fees like transportation on the plane.

Below are pics of recent events.  Today we went to Rum Point to take pictures with the pets. Yeah .. we’re nuts!  We wanted some “family pictures” to put here and to send to the Vets who helped us with all the vaccinations & paper work to get here.  We also wanted to send a picture of Aipa to the SPCA where we got her exactly 12 months ago.

They put the container on the ground in front of our place.

 These guys are all over the place near our house. (outside) 🙂

 Visit to Rum Point with Bijou & Aipa.

 We had some problems getting everyone in place for the family picture.

 The family 🙂

A few pics of Aipa.

(please note that we made 2 posts today ; this one and the one below)

As mentionned in our previous post, we arrived on January 22nd in the late afternoon.

At the airport in Cayman, our preparation paid off.  It went really smoothly importing the animals.  We will definately write emails to all the vets & Inspections Canada people who helped us with the formalities.  Once cleared customs, we immediately made our way to our hotel, the Sunshine Suites ; a nice hotel with bedroom, livingroom, bathroom & kitchenette.

On the 23rd, we already had two homes to visit. We revisited the house in Mahogany Estates (see a post we did on Dec 27th for the pictures.  Its house No.1) and a second house that was new on the market. Both had good potential.  The owner of house No.1 did not seem very negociable on their price (too expensive), so the chances of renting it were slim. The new house on the market was a good size, but further from my work place & needed quite a few repairs.

Also on that day, we had to buy a new cage for Bijou.  His old cage (see previous post) was too big to take in the luggage and was old anyway, so we abandonned it at our last hotel. 

On the 24th, we looked at the local papers from the last two weeks that a buddy at work (Thanks Rory) had kept for us. In the papers, there were many private listings ; we called about 10 different owners to enquire about the properties, get the adresses and take a drive to see what they looked like.   We visited one nice property (The Green house. Pics are further) in Savannah estates.  3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, an office space, a double garage & in a nice area.  Good potential.

 On the 24th I also started to work; I got my new office, phone number & laptop.  I missed not having a computer since our desktop is still in the container. 🙂

On the 25th, we revisited the Green house in Savannah for the second time & started discussions with the owner, a very nice lady. We made an offer to rent it for one year and asked for an answer by the 26th (friday) at noon.

On the 26th, we have a deal! 🙂  We are really happy with our deal.  The house is a very good size & in a great area.  Its 10 minutes walk to the grocery store & other stores, a 15 minute drive for me to work, has a really nice kitchen and large rooms, a fenced yard for Aipa and a big garage for me. The driveway is in a U shape and there are palm trees in front of the house.  We have no neighbors behind us ; its a meadow.

 Today, the 27th, we got our house.  We went today twice to do some minor cleaning, bring part of our stuff.  I went to CUC, the power company to get registered as a client, got our highspeed internet setup and scheduled our container from Canada to be delivered to our driveway monday morning. Meanwhile, Julie was at the house while the plumber was doing two minor repairs we had asked for in our contract.

Here are some pics of our new house for the next few years.

Garage

The kitchen with a gas stove & stainless appliances.

Other side of the kitchen with a fridge with integrated ice maker & water dispenser.

The front door & entrance. You can see that the house is all ceramics, this is pretty much standard in Cayman. Only the master bedroom is wood.

The dining room

The family room. We brought our TV cabinet and it will go here. The owner was nice enough to accept to remove some of the furniture we did not want. 

This is my office/second living room.  Some of the furniture here will be removed. My desk is still in the container.

The master bedroom. Good thing we brought our own bedding 🙂  Again, some of the furniture here will soon be removed.

The garage.  The door almost looks “fortified”.

The grocery store, “Fosters” 10 minutes walk away (yes, we timed ourselves)

We felt it was worth going back in time and make a post about our drive to Miami from Montreal.  Seriously, we really enjoyed it, even though the 1st day was quite complicated.

 We left Brossard around 7am on the 18th and headed to the Lacolle border crossing into NY State.  My dad was driving us that morning & my mom came with him for final goodbye’s and to pick up her car.  She had lent us her Civic for 2 weeks since our Car was sold. We felt like teenagers borrowing our parents car. 🙂 Thanks so much Mom. On the road :  1st stop : US Fish & Wildlife department.  He needed to give us a form for our bird.  It was a rubberstamping ; he did not even ask to see the bird!  Doh.  Now, we had to go BACK to Canada since the US Vet who had to inspect the bird was not at Lacolle, but in Highgate Springs Vermont. They would not let us travel via the USA ; we had to go back to Canada and then to Vermont.  Once at Highgate Springs, we waited a good 45 mins to see the vet.  Then it was our turn.  It took at least 30-35 mins to get the paper work.  During this time, our 40 grams Lovebird was holding up 4 big trucks filled with Cattle.  We thought it was funny ; the drivers of the trucks were not really amused that a Peach faced Lovebird was holding them up.

 Once customs cleared, back to Interstate 87 in NY State.  My dad  (thanks SOOOO much PA; we really appreciated it)  drove us to Albany where we had reserved a rental minivan. It was way cheaper to rent from Albany than to rent in Montreal.  We were really pleased with the Minivan we got ; it was a Saturn Relay (same as Pontiac Montana) with all the bells & whistels such as leather seats, DVD, dual climate, heated seats, etc.  We also took the optional GPS unit.  GREAT Move.  We did not look at a map the whole time.  I highly recommend this option if you ever do a long drive.

The 1st night we slept about 45 minutes outside NY City.  The second day we passed all the major cities ; NY, Baltimore, Philly & Washington.  The second night we slept in Virginia, just before the state of N. Carolina. The 3rd day was really easy sailing ; the Carolina’s & Georgia.  Nice highway & light traffic.  We slept in southern Georgia, 10 minutes from Florida.  The last day we basically had to get to Miami and cross the wholeof Florida ; our hotel was right next to the airport. Total KM : 2371km + the 300 or so KM from Montreal to Albany. The next afternoon (the 22nd), we flew to Grand Cayman on Cayman Airways.  It was only a 55 minute flight.

Bijou was in the plane with us. Birds are really meant to fly… he seamed as confortable as he is inside our house. Aipa had taken 2 sleeping pills, she was not asleep but a litte bit drowsy. Anyway, she didn’t break the cage and was fine when she came out of the carrousel. It was funny to see her come out with the other luggage.

Our last family supper at Brossard with Julie’s parents & sister. Note that we are all at the kitchen island ; there were no more tables in the house. Julie’s parents took care of many things in the house once we were gone and spent at least 2 days on site cleaning the house, calling Hydro-Quebec, etc. MANY thanks to Julie’s parents for all their help.

Here are some pictures of our road trip.

Aipa comfortably seated in her leather captains chair.

Bijou also ; with the seatbelt. 🙂

Julie in front of one of the hotels.  With all our luggage & pets, we always asked for a room at ground level and with easy access. We would park right in front of our door.

The Garmin GPS unit. Amazing! “In 200 yards, turn right”

The Saturn Relay Minivan.  We had flawless performance and it was a big part of why our roadtrip was enjoyable and comfortable.

Everyone made it to the island.  We are currently at the hotel but actively looking for a house.  The drive to Miami was actually great fun.  We will post pictures very soon.  Please dont hesitate to give me news about what is happening to you.  Just click on the “my email” link on the right.

I will post pictures & more details when I have more time.  I just started my new job this morning.

 Micho

We are leaving very early thrusday (the 18th) for Grand Cayman.  We will arrive the 22nd.  Until then, my desktop computer is on the atlantic and my sister will get her laptop back, so dont expect any updates until the 23rd-24th.  We will be taking pictures on the way to Miami & I look forward to giving you news about what happens to us down there. Please feel free to send me emails (see the link on the right hand side of the window) & leave comments.