A VERY WET & OVERCAST SUNNY MANILVA ON SATURDAY;

SATURDAY 11^th/ FEBRUARY 2017.

We managed a nice long lie in this morning, after freshening up we had a late breakfast of Grilled ‘Gammon Steaks’ ( small)  topped with Fried Eggs ( not ‘ Campo’) with buttered toast & mugs of strong ‘ PG Tips ‘ – not forgetting the ‘HP’ Brown sauce!

Yesterday evening the rain started and it has not stopped since, it looks like it’s here for the next 2/3 days, at least, the temperature has dropped a little, we are down to 17/18degs, by the middle of next week the forecast is cloudy/dry, with a little sun breaking through, watch this space.

This evening ‘Reina’ is joining us for a sleep over, next week she’s back for four days as we are out at the hospital on Wednesday afternoon for Brenda’s two appointments, the ‘ Heart ‘ Consultant first and then ‘ Kidney’ Consultant!

Tonight I’m going to cook for our supper my version ( the original!) of the classic ‘ Steak Diane ‘ – I will ‘ French’ trim the ‘Entrecote ( Sirloin) Steaks’ – then season them and smear with ‘ Dijon’ Mustard, they are seared in butter and then taken out of the pan to rest, the diced Onions & Garlic with sliced Mushrooms are then sautéed off in the pan, a dash of ‘Lea & Perrins’ & ‘Tabasco’ sauce is added before deglazing the pan with a good slug of Red Wine, then a rich Beef stock is added with a tablespoon of Dijon Mustard, the sauce is left to reduce before flaming it with a good slug of Brandy, the steaks are then placed back in the sauce to finish cooking( Med-Rare) before adding at the end the Double Cream & chopped Parsley! - accompanied with finely sliced Green Beans & twice-cooked ' Frits'

As shown to me over 53 years ago by the Restaurant Manager, Mr Oliver, at the ‘ Stork Hotel ‘ in Queens square in Liverpool!

This weekend is another big sports watching extravaganza; In the ‘ Premiere League’ Liverpool are at home to Tottenham Hotspur and Everton travel across to Middlesbrough, on Monday Manchester City are down in Bournemouth, over here in ‘ La Liga’ Barcelona go to Alves and Real Madrid are on the road to Osasuna; the ‘ National Hunt Racing’ this afternoon is from Newbury & Warwick, then it’s the ‘ Big One’ in the ‘ Six Nations Rugby Union ‘ England are down in Cardiff at the ‘ Millennium Stadium’( with hopefully the roof closed!) to play Wales.

RESULT;  Wales 16 - ENGLAND 21 !

Which brings back more nostalgia and happy memories; back in 1970, before we were married, we went down to watch, with friends, the same game at the Old Stadium, we travelled down on the Friday and stayed at the ‘ Three Salmons’ in Usk, on the Saturday we drove in Cardiff and started at the old ‘Park Hotel’ in the city centre before walking down to the ground, sadly England lost, which made our ‘ Welsh ‘ friends rather happy! On the Sunday on the way back through the ‘Cotswolds’ we stopped at ‘Stow-on-the- Wold’ for a traditional Sunday ‘Roast Beef’ lunch, happy days & memories!

Yesterday afternoon/evening we had a ‘Quiz’ show ‘ extravaganza’ – ‘ Countdown, Pointless, Eggheads ( 38 thousand pound kitty!) Mastermind and then Only Connect’ – next it was ‘8 Out of 10 Cats does Countdown’ before ‘QI’!!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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