MANILVA OVER THE WEEKEND.

THURSDAY/SUNDAY 3RD/6TH MARCH 2011.


As the weather has got a little colder and cloudy down here on the Costa del Sol we are still very lucky as the rest of Spain is having severe rain and snow storms, yesterday in Algeciras and up the coast to Cadiz and Huelva they had very bad floods ! On Thursday we stayed in and caught up with things around the house and in the evening we had English Pork Sausages with Baked Beans, fried Egg and Chips for supper – comfort food!

Friday morning was our shopping day down at the supermarkets in Sabinillas and then back in the village we called in to the butchers for some steak for Saturday and then the local Friday market by the sports ground for our fresh vegetables; in the evening we had small Pan Fried Soles with Peas and my version of “ Patatas Bravas ” cubed cooked potatoes finished in a sharp, rich Tomato sauce. We then watched a film on TV with Denzil Washington and Clive Owen after we had followed the Spanish Film of the week on TVE, it was a very moving love story with an award winning actress in the main role - afterwards she was in the studio and was interviewed by a famous film presenter who each week introduces and discusses with the artist,director,writer the film of the week.

Mano called in on Saturday morning after dropping Anna at the hairdressers in Sabinillas,he came with the local IT expert Nikita ( Russian ) from the internet shop around the corner in Calle Mar who collected my Dell printer to up grade the ink cartridges.Mano has now firmed up his new job and the contracts are in the post which is very good news; at the same time he changed our phone and internet provider from Telefonica the national company like BT to a new company Jazztel with a better and more powerful system which is also a lot faster and cheaper, we will save over 50/60 euros a month and the calls to England are also a lot less and the internal calls in Spain cost nothing !The first two months are free and the new router is in the post so watch out for the calls as well as the Skype Video ! For dinner we had steak and chips with all the trimmings and then watched the European Athletics from Paris.

On Sunday morning we got the Sunday Roast on the way. Loin of Pork with Caramelized Apple slices, Cabbage with Alcelgas,Baby Sprouts with Smoked Bacon snippets, Crushed Carrots and Turnips,Cauiflower Mornay,Garden Peas, Roast Potatoes and a side dish of Patatas Bravas together with a thick finger licking gravy and Chestnut stuffing ! Brian and Lilli joined us for dinner and brought along a Magnum of Campo Viejo Rioja,Reserva 2006! For dessert we had local fresh Strawberris with Ogen Melon. We are really going to miss them, not just for the wine! As there is now only four weeks until they leave for Finland they are now planning to drive to a port in Northern Germany and then go on a ferry that takes 27 hours to Helsinki. In the afternoon I watched the Liverpool v Manchester Utd.match on the PC, the satellite connection at the time picked up on the Dutch TV coverage which as it happened was very good as the Dutchman Dirt Kuyt scored a hat- trick and the commentators went mad in double Dutch!! Next weekend it is the start of Carnival week in the village so watch out for the pictures,below is the picture of last nights dinner.


Thought for the Day;


Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.



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