A WARM & SUNNY MANILVA ON TUESDAY.

TUESDAY 4^th/ JULY 2017.

                                                                     “ NEWSFLASH “

Well, we are back online after a major technical difficulty that happened on Saturday morning as I was just going to post the Blog, my system crashed, after trying the usual fixes, I called Lee for help but he could not sort the problem out until Monday evening, I re-set the router etc but because I could not get back online Lee could not log in into my system to help, the ‘Amazon Fire TV Stick’ was also not working and would not re-set, this meant that we could not watch the English TV, so no, football, racing, tennis, cycling, films, ‘ Poldark’ etc! Back to Spanish TV over the weekend for all the news, weather, sport etc!

Saturday 1^st July 2017.

When it went offline I lost Saturdays Blog, so just a quick catch up, over in Canada Sandra & Bill, our long-lost, newly found, dear family friends were celebrating 150 th Anniversary of Canada with their family & friends, the weather over there has been rather mixed with hot sun, rain and even the threat of a tornado! They live in Southern Ontario, about 1/2 hours North of Toronto in a small town called Everett, over the weekend they were helping to move Sandra’s son, Neil, into a new ‘ Condo’

See below the view from it across to downtown Toronto and the famous ‘ CN Tower ‘

This coming weekend they are going away to ' Long Island ' New York - it's a ten hour drive across the border. Enjoy! 

Sunday 2^ND July 2017.

In ‘ Doggy World Heaven ‘ ‘ Scooby’ was joined by ‘Chico’ for a sleep over on Saturday night, he was a little different, as he arrived, as he has been clipped for the summer, he’s a ‘ Bichon Frise’ with normally lots of white hair! He’s a bit of a character, has a very good appetite, sleeps all night and gets on with all the other dogs, Chispa’ came calling to check him out, he was collected on Sunday lunchtime and is back with us for six days the weekend after next.

See the picture below of him sleeping in his bed.

On Saturday & Sunday lunchtime we went along to ‘Bar Castillo’ with the dogs, for a cool drink & Tapas, we bumped into Mano & Anna on both days.

Monday 3^rd July 2017.  Not a good day !

I  had arranged to meet Mano first thing in the morning, he was going to help me with the paperwork to reserve a spot in the underground car park as well as sort out the ‘Road Fund Tax’ on the car, overnight in work, he’s the night Manager of the ‘ Manilva Green Aparthotel’ he was not very well, so had to go to bed when he got home, I carried on down to the ‘Council Planning Office’ and collected the necessary document, the office was already packed out with over 30 locals all trying to reserve their spaces, it was pandimodium! I then went down to the Tax Office and discovered the transfer documents sent in a year ago had not been acted on, this meant that I had to pay two years tax on the car! I then came back along ‘Calle Mar’ to the local Bank to pay the bills to discover that you could only pay it on a Tuesday or Thursday ( Spanish Bureaucracy ! ) I then called into the Town Hall and the secretary of the Councils Solicitor, who we are friends with, helped me fill in the form, so it was back to ‘Plan B’ on Tuesday morning!

Tuesday 4^TH July 2017. A very good day!!

After ‘ Reina’ was dropped off I shot along to the local Bank in Calle Mar, I was the first customer, paid the two Road Fund Tax Bills and then shot back down to the Council Planning Office where I was third in the queue! Both the clerks are friends, so they looked after me, I choose a spot on the floor plan ( No 100!) and all the paperwork was processed and the confirmation document was stamped! We now have to wait for the bureaucratic process to happen, when the licence will be issued after payment of 180 Euros for the year and they issue the remote control! “ RESULT “  Watch this space.

See the floor plan below;

Menu update;

On Saturday evening we had the ‘Grilled Fillet Steaks’ with all the usual trimmings, on Sunday we had our last ‘Roast’ for a while, ‘ Roast Shoulder of New Zealand, South Island Lamb ‘ with ‘ Boulangere Potatoes and a selection of vegetables, On Monday evening we had a cold-cut of the rest of the Lamb with the leftover vegetables and potatoes. This morning after I came back from my travels we had ‘ Crispy Smoked Back Bacon ( English)  Butties’ with mugs of tea, I then made for this evenings supper a ‘ Calves Liver & Smoked Back Bacon Onion & Mushroom Casserole ‘ which we are having with mixed vegetables  and the rest of the ‘ Boulangere’ potatoes, tomorrow night it’s going to be Cold Smoked Ham with twice-cooked ‘ Chips’ – on Thursday we are out for supper at Bar Castillo, as we are then going down, later, to the ‘ Casa del Torres ‘Cultural Centre for the ‘ Trombone concert.

At lunchtime we went for a walk with the dogs and called into ' Bar Castillo' for a cool drink and a Tapas, we had the " Lamb, Herb & Saffron Potato Light Potage ' with local, fresh bread, delicious. 

Weather update;

Over the weekend the ‘ Lavente’ wind kept thing very pleasant, the sun was out and the sky was bright blue, the ‘ Costa Del Sol’ was the coolest area in Spain hovering on the 26 degs mark,  the rest of Spain is in the mid 30s – high 30s, the start of the week is starting the same, overnight a little cooler also,17 degs, we have turned the fan in the bedroom down to low, then by Friday it’s going up again in the 30s+ Watch this space.

Sports update;

The   “ The Tour de France “ started on Saturday with a crash on the final bend, in the wet, a short 14km Time Trial, in Dusseldorf, as Alejandro Valverde from Spain, abandoned, with a broken leg as he crashed into the barriers, Garaint Thomas powered to victory ,he’s in the same team as Chris Froome , he’s in the famous ‘ Yellow Jersey ‘ going into today’s Stage 4, with Mark Cavendish chasing a sprint win. Yesterday we caught up with all the highlights of the first day of Wimbledon after watching Sunday’s episode of ‘Poldark’ on the BBC I Pad.

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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