A VERY WARM AND SUNNY MANILVA ON THURSDAY;

THURSDAY 11^th/ SEPTEMBER 2014.

Little Princess ‘Reina’ arrived this morning as usual early and so after settling her in I took ‘Scruffy’ out for his first walk of the day; we then all had our breakfast together before ‘Scruffy’ was picked up, next week ‘Reina’ is with us on Tuesday & Thursday and then here on Saturday for a sleep over as its ‘Lee’s’ birthday! We are waiting to her if and when ‘Scruffy’ is back as Rose is on holiday – we will miss him if he’s not with us for a little while! ‘Chispa’ has been in this morning playing with her girl friend.

The village is now back to normal except that the council have left the street canopies up for now due to the still very sunny weather, in other parts of Spain they have had severe flooding and early snow in the mountains, on the other hand the area around Alicante has now declared a drought, all the crops have been lost!

As I’m up in the office typing the Blog I’m watching on the smaller ‘PC’ the “ Oscar Pistorious ” verdict live from the courts in South Africa on the BBC TV News channel, its very gripping if a little slow as the lady Judge giving the verdict is going on a bit to say the least, but it’s the South African court system. The Judge has just taken an early lunch, what a moment to stop as it sounded like she was just about to announce the verdict!!

Meanwhile Brenda is in ‘ing! Mode around the house; tonight for supper we are having “Entrecote Minute Steak Poivrade” I will prepare and cook the sauce ‘a la carte’ style this evening, crushing the whole Black Peppercorns first then sweating off the finely chopped Onions, adding a dash of ‘Lea & Perrins’ and ‘Tabasco’- then the crushed Peppercorns  and a large glass of local Brandy – flamed! - before a good slug of Red Wine ( thanks Brenda!) with a strong Beef stock are added and then the cream and chopped Parsley. We are having finely sliced Green Beans and of course twice-cooked Frits!

Last night we caught a film after the news “ Trespass” from 2011 – a thriller about a fast-talking businessman and diamond dealer and his wife taken hostage with their daughter – Nicolas Cage & Nicole Kidman star – watch it to the end!

PS; Stage 18 of the ‘Vuelta’ is from ‘A Estrada’ to ‘Monte Castrove, Meis’ in the region of Galicia in North West Spain.

Thoughts for the Day; See above.