A CRISP & SUNNY MANILVA ON SATURDAY;

SATURDAY 16^th / JANUARY 2016.

We finally had a nice long lie in this morning after a busy week, the sun was out early and the sky is blue, the wind has dropped overnight to a light breeze and by lunchtime it will reach the heady heights of 16/17 degs – during the night it dropped to 6 degs – our coldest night since we arrived here all those years ago, please note ‘ Mr Ian Duncan Smith’ the ‘Pensions’ minister who stopped our ‘Winter Fuel Allowance’ this year” Our electricity bill is raising steadily at the moment, we only have one small Oil heater in the lounge with all the doors closed to keep us warm during the evening! The forecast for the rest of the weekend and for the start of next week is for more of the same.

NB; The ‘Euro’has dropped again to its lowest point in over 18 months and at the moment stands at 1.30! – not good news for our ‘Pension’s’ transfers over the next two weeks – we will be down over 100 ‘Euros’ on the month at least!!

Brenda produced her famous ‘Campo’ Poached Eggs on Toast with a mug of steaming tea to start the day off in the right direction, I then watched ‘Saturday Kitchen Live’ on BBC 1 as one of the chef’s made a large grilled ‘ Pork Cutlet’ cut & trimmed ‘French’ style with his version of  ‘Charcutiere’ sauce and a very creamy Mashed Potato; for this evenings supper we are having a grilled ‘ Entrecote’ steak cooked on a very hot griddle plate ‘ Med-Rare’ with some sautéed Baby Mushrooms, finely sliced Green Beans and of course some twice-cooked ‘ Frits’

This weekend over in the ‘Premiere League’ in England Manchester City welcome Crystal Palace and Everton go in the opposite direction to play Chelsea, tomorrow Liverpool are at home to Manchester Utd, here in ‘La Liga’ tomorrow Real Madrid are at home to Sporting de Gijon and Barcelona welcome Atl.Bilbao. This afternoon I will be watching the horse racing on Channel 4 from Warwick & Wetherby.

Some news on ‘ Castle Radio FM 89.2 & the WWW’ after speaking to Andrew Charles yesterday, it sounds like he has found some backers to secure the future of the station and for his plans for all the new shows/ schedule’s – good news for my radio show, I now need some good earphones/mike along with a ‘Mixing Deck’ ( Andrew has one for me hopefully !) so as to be able to set up the studio in my office, watch this space.

I have also suggested that I would like to produce a ‘Food & Drink’ programme, it could possibly join onto a ‘Woman’s Hour’ show that is in the pipe line. It would feature a ‘Dish of the Day’ a ‘Recipe of the Week’ ‘ Light Bite’ suggestions, ‘Chef’s Helpful Secrets’ ‘Best Local Buys’ and also a restaurant review on local establishments?! The drink side would be about the right wine for the dishes and recipes, local best buys, cocktail suggestions together with a basic wine tasting/history and introducing new wines & aperitif’s. Watch this space.

PS; What is ‘ Mageirocophobia ‘ the fear of?  - ‘ Cooking’ !!

Last night after supper we found a film to watch on Spanish TV “ The Prince’ from 2014, a American gangster thriller with Jason Patrick, Bruce Willis, John Cusack & ‘Rain’ and ’50 cent’! We lost count of the shootings and killings!!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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