MANILVA.

Sunday/Wednesday 18th/21st. January.

Sunday 18th.

In the morning after a late start we went for a walk around the village and ended up at the sports stadium,Las Vinas, were we bumped into Mano and Anna with their grandson Fabio who was playing in the childrens play park next to the football stadium.We dropped him for his lunch at his Spanish grandparents house and went for a drink in Bar Rojas and when we picked him up later we went down to Mano and Anna’s house for a spot of lunch,Anna’s Steak and Ale Pie with crusty pastry went down a treat as did the accompanying Frits with fried Eggs! We had met one of our friendly locals in the village earlier,Antonio,who was passing the bar with a bucket of freshly laid eggs which he had just collected,so eggs are on the menu for a next couple of days! Fabio had his afternoon nap and later after work Carlos called in to collect him.

Monday 19th.

The forecast for the week is cold but sunny so we stayed in and caught up with some reading which lately we have not had time for.Brenda put the washing out to dry on the roof terrace,last week when the owner happened to call in the clothes were on the stand in the lounge drying,she has now told us that she has a spin dryer which will fit in next to washing machine so we are arranging to pick it up this week.Tim phoned from Colwyn Bay and brought up to date with all his news,mainly about the kids,Jo is auditioning for drama courses at university’s around the country and Ben is going to take his GSE exams a year early! Well done Ben and fingers crossed.

Tuesday 20th. Barack Obama Inauguration. 2009.

Our morning walk was brisk to say the least as the wind was blowing and out of the sun it was cold,In the late afternoon we settled down to watch the inauguration on the TV,in Spanish.We could hear the speech’s over the Spanish announcers translation and later we caught up with it again on the BBC news video on line on the PC.It was very moving and the Spanish TVE 2 coverage was excellent,we thought that the two Pastors got it just right,the first one when he said the Lords Prayer,which was a surprise and the second one was a typical Bible basher! When they got out of “ The Beast” on Pennsylvania Avenue and walked towards the White House it just took our breathes away.Later on after I had seen all the coverage from Sky News,ITN,MSN news and the morning editions of the newspapers ,online,I gave a live report on Citytalk at 1-00am on the Pete Price show and talked about the historic day and the local reaction down here in southern Spain.

Wednesday 21st.

We called into the bank in Estepona on our way to see Vidal and Gissy who also had been watching the CNN coverage on TV on Tuesday and they said how moving the whole day was for them also.On the way back at lunchtime the views along the coast road were terrific,you could see the Atlas mountains in Africa and Gibraltar was shimmering in the sun with the Mediterranean a deep green colour. Later this afternoon we are going down to the solicitors office in Sabinillas to sign the contract on the house for another eleven months,it’s a Spanish law that contracts are just for that period only.