A VERY WARM AND SUNNY MANILVA ON FRIDAY AT THE START OF THE WEEKEND.

FRIDAY 6^th/ JULY 2017.

I was up early this morning and after a quick freshen up I shot off on my travels down to Sabinillas, on the local bus, for the weekly shopping, before I left a caught on ‘TVE 1’ the first run of the bulls at the ‘San Fermin Festival’ in Pamplona, 6 bulls & 4 oxen set off at 8-00 am and take over 2 minutes to run through the streets to the bull ring, 3 people ( all Americans!) were taken to hospital with serious injuries, from being gored and crashing to the cobbled streets.

I collected the local English newspapers from the ‘ English Bookshop’ before going along to ‘ Mercadona’ for our main shop, at the check-out they called a taxi for me, on the way back we stopped at ‘ Super Sol’ for the ‘English’ essentials before coming back up to ‘ chocker-block ‘ sunny Manilva, after unloading we had a quick cup of tea & toast before sorting the day ahead out.

We are in for another hot one today, the sky is bright blue and the sun was out early, by lunchtime it will be in the low 30s, over the weekend it's getting hotter and next week is going to be another scorcher, watch this space.

Brenda is catching up with the chores and after typing and posting the Blog I’m going to make my famous ‘ Fish & Seafood Pie ‘ – I first poach the fish and use the fish water to make the stock for the ‘Bechamel’ Cream sauce, I start by sweating off a ‘ Mirepoix ‘ of finely diced vegetables in butter and White Wine, Carrots, Onions, Leeks, Celery & Mushrooms, after seasoning to taste I add the cooked Hake, Cod and Salmon along with the Mussels and the Prawns & Gambas, check the consistency and place in the buttered dish ready for the ‘ Second Chef’ to top off the dish with her famous ‘ Mashed Potato’- it will go in the oven this evening and will be served with Garden Peas.


See below as it came out of the oven!

Last night we went along to ‘ Bar Castillo’ for our supper, we sat outside under the umbrellas taking in the sites, sounds & aromas of the village, with a nice cool drink in our hands, we ordered ‘Rosada Frito ‘ with ‘ Frits’ – as we were finishing our new friend Dean came along and joined us for a drink, we told him about the concert in the ‘ Casa de los Torres’ Cultural Centre, so he shot back and collected Donna, we went down to the centre and reserved 4 seats and left two tickets at the door for them to join us.

The concert started at 10-30 pm to a packed open-air arena, under a full moon sky, on a balmy night, the “ Alejandro Antiñolo Quintet “ – they were excellent, Alejandro on the Trombone, a very good Flautist, barefooted and very exaggerated, a lady singer, with a ‘ Helluva’ voice, on the Electric Piano, a laid-back Bass player and the drummer with attitude, they had a excellent sound system, they played a selection of Modern Jazz, Bossa Nova, Cole Porter and Thelonious Monk tunes & songs ( in English) along with at the end a unique improvisational set with them all taking part, the locals went wild, Alejandro also gave us a mention, in English, as I had spoken to him before the concert, at the end as I was congratulating him we talked about one of my favourites from the past, the ‘ Ramsey Lewis Trio’ and his classic track ‘ Wade in the Water ‘

See the pictures above. 

  

A very enjoyable concert with great company, Dean & Donna came back with us for a ‘ night-cap ‘ and a good old chat. Dean is a motivational Golf coach & Donna is into the ‘IT’- they have lived and worked all over the World and are on a short sabbatical down here until the end of September or longer, we have asked then to join us for supper on Sunday for my special ‘Smoked Chicken and Three green Bean Risotto ‘ Watch this space.

While I’ve been typing the Blog Jack & Lyn came online, from Melbourne, on the ‘ Skype’ video for a news catch up, it’s their winter over in Australia with minus temperatures, they are both fine but next week Jack is going into hospital for the day to have a nasty ‘ lump’ removed from the top of his arm, we have arranged to catch up with them again at the end of next week, watch this space.

Finally in yesterdays stage of the ‘ Tour De France ’ there was no change at the top, today they are going from Troyes to Nuits-Saint-Georges ‘ over 236 kms with another sprint finish, then the next two stages are in the mountains.

See the route map below;

The last time we were in Nuits-Saint-Georges’ was back in the 1980s when were taken for lunch by a famous wine shipper to a ‘Michelin’ starred restaurant in the center of the town, we had Poached ‘Troncon of Turbot ‘ in a ‘ Red Wine ‘ sauce! It was served with, youv’e gussed a ‘ chilled vintage ‘ Nuits-Saint-Georges ‘ – the first time that we had a fine French wine served as they prefer! The same dish appeared on the specials menu back at the ‘ Hotel Seventy Degrees’ in the ‘ Horizon Suite Restaurant’ – Happy days and happy memories!

PS; We have just received in the lunchtime post a post card from the ' Blue Mountain'  ski resort,in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada from Sandra & Bill, when they were out on their bikes for the day, we have been told to expect a further post card from ' Long Island ' after this weekends trip!  Many thanks and keep then coming !!

See the latest post card board below;

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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