CRISP AND DRY IN SUNNY MANILVA ON SUNDAY;

SUNDAY 16^th/ FEBRUARY 2014.

Yet another little lie in this morning as the village is very quiet on Sunday; the sun is just breaking through and the temperature today is going up to 20 degs! After our morning ‘Cuppa’ we sorted ourselves out for tonight’s supper – Day Three of the ‘Gourmet Food Festival’ here in sunny Manilva; I marinated the Spanish Lamb Cutlets in Tarragon, seasonings and Virgin Olive Oil then with Brenda’s help from the vegetable section prepared the large dish of ‘Boulangere Potatoes’ – hand sliced the potatoes and then layered them with sliced Onions, seasoning each level before adding the rich Chicken & Vegetable stock and dots of Butter – sealed in tin-foil and baked in the oven tonight, Brenda has got ready ‘Peas a la Flamande’ and Cabbage with Acelgas.

Last nights ‘ Steak Diane’ was a big hit, I got it just right and it brought back many memories of the good old days; I first learnt how to make ‘Steak Diane, Steak au Poirve and Scampi Provencale’ back at the “ Stork Hotel” in Queen square in Liverpool in late 60s! The old head-waiter Vic Oliver showed me in the grill-room how to make them classically – later at the “Hotel 70* in Colwyn Bay we brought back the old art of “ Gueridon Trolley” French service, on the ‘Double Flambé Trolley’ that we had made in London – our Italian ‘Flambé King’ Joe Zanni was in charge, one night as we had over 120 covers in the ‘A La Carte Restaurant’( Normal!) he cooked 72 flambé dishes!! The good old days!

We are now going to freshen our self’s up before going for a lunchtime walk around the village with the dog;as you can see above the sun is nearly out but it's warm already. Brenda’s washing her hair and then its my turn for a shave and shower ,I then do my ‘Pilates’  exercises that I was shown by the German lady massager when I damaged my back coming off the scooter, laying flat on the bed – I start with my toes,feet,ankles,legs,knees,thighs and hips – then its my fingers,hands.wrists ,arms,elbowes and shoulders before the final back and pelvic movements – left side first then right! Brenda does her exercises on the floor first thing in the morning when she gets up – I often find her flat on her back and am tempted to give her the kiss of life – but she gives me a look ! No chance!!

Later I will update the football results  over here and in the UK after watching the sports news highlights.Everton beat Swansea 3-1 and play Arsenal or Liverpool in the next round,City have drawn Wigan! Oh dear - Arsenal 2 - Liverpool 1 !! Real Madrid won 0-3 so go second in 'La Liga'

Last night after our supper we found an all-action vigilante tale starring Vin Diesel and Larenz Tate to watch “ A Man Apart ” from 2003 – all action ,no acting in typical Vin Diesel style!