Bermuda Day

May 24 is Bermuda Day and coincides with the first day of summer (it's now trendy to war Bermuda shorts again which is brilliant).

A half marathon is held, famous (well in Bermuda anyway) for runners having to handle the three 'H's - heat, humidity and hills. There was also a big parade which I sacrificed in order to spend some much-needed time at the beach. Typical of Bermuda though, I heard that there was up to half an hour between floats in the parade - "Bermuda time" at its worst.

Cricket in Bermuda

Summer is here which for me means the beginning of cricket season. I'm playing first grade here (one below premier grade) for an expat team called the Legtrappers. Like all cricket teams, is a fantastic group of guys and always keen to celebrate or comiserate appropriately afterwards.

Cricket is taken pretty seriously over here - we play two day games in whites and one day games in colours. One day games are played with full ODI rules (power plays, white ball, duck-worth lewis and strict wides), which is pretty ridiculous considering the level here but that's just how it is.

This does come with its advantages though - two umpires are provided, we're sponsore by gatorade and have unlimited drinks, we get a cooked lunch and tea, we get newspaper and radio coverage and we get decent crowds watching. Unfortunately with the crowds comes an unbelievable amount of abuse - we're the only white team on the Island so get a fair bit of stick every time we take the field.. For those used to the gentlemen's sport in New Zealand, you wouldn't believe some of the things you hear.

Our home ground is Sea Breeze Oval (pictured below). You can't really tell very wellf rom the photo but the Atlantic is to the left, a small Island straight ahead, the harbour to the right and the main islands of Bermuda behind you. An idyllic place to play cricket with the ocean on two sides (though not very idyllic when you get hit into that ocean).

We've got a pretty handy team but are yet to prove that on the field with two losses and a draw to date - we'll definitely improve though, especially with one of Bermuda's opening bowlers (Saleem) playing for us. Is great to play alongside and against people who actually played at the cricket world cup only a few months ago.

Makin' Time

Everyone who owns a boat in Bermuda says it's the best decision they ever made and that they wished they'd bought one earlier. After hearing this for several months, Dave and I got the hint and between us bought a nice little 18 foot Wellcraft centre console with a 115 hp mariner engine (basically a little speed boat).

We're fortunate to know lots of people with boats so have had practice mooring and docking (which can take a bit of practice in rough seas) so we're pretty set now. Unfortunately we don't have a punt yet, so every time we want to use our boat we have to swim about 200-250 metres just to get to it!

Haven't got any photos yet, but will post some soon of "Makin' Time" and some of the beautiful places in Bermuda you can only access by sea... also another drawcard for anyone thinking of visiting...