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

FRIDAY 8^th/ JUNE 2018.

We were up early this morning after a quick freshen up we joined Jason & Donna for breakfast, sat outside ‘ Bar Castillo ‘ in the warm sunshine, on another perfect day here in sunny Manilva, with freshly squeezed Orange Juice, local ‘ Tostada’s’ with Olive Oil & Tomato Pulp and Coffee – a perfect start to the day, the folks then set off along the coast road to ‘ La Cala’ where they are in for three days of partying with their friend on his 50^th birthday!  

We are already looking forward to the next time Jason & Donna can joins us un Sunny Manilva, lots of love and many thanks, for all the very happy memories, send our thoughts back to all the family & old friends back in the UK.  

See below in the ‘Plaza de la Vendimia’ this morning.

NB, The Council and the Mayor, Mario, have just shown a pre-view of the new mosaic tiled mural that is due to back up on the large wall in the ‘ Plaza de la Vendima’ in time for the Festival at the start of September!! 

See below;

THURSDAY 7^th/ JUNE 2018.

We shot down to Sabinillas at lunchtime and met Jason & Donna at the ‘Repsol Garage’ as we had arranged, with our ‘ Flags ‘ waving ( Union Jack & Welsh Standard !) – Jason is a ‘ Lloyd Jones ‘ ( an old welsh family)  after all !  After a very nice ‘ Greeting’ session, they followed us back up the hill, through the Vine Fields, to sunny Manilva! I took them into the ‘Council Private Garage’ and they parked in a spare spot just behind where I park – perfect.

We then walked up through ‘ Calle Mar’ to ‘Hostal Ocaña ‘ where they dropped their things off in the large suite that we has reserved for them, back at our house we opened a nice bottle of a chilled ‘Cava Rosado’ and started catching up with all their news and ours, lots of very happy memories from over 50 years ago!

It was then time to go along the coast, past a sparkling ‘ Mediterranean’ to the exclusive ‘ Sotogrande Marina’ to the famous ‘ K ‘ Bar for some nice cool drinks and their special ‘Tapas’ - on the best day of the year, so far, the sun was out, the sky was blue and there was a light breeze, making it very pleasant to be back, out & about, on the ‘ Costa Del Sol’

See below;

When we returned in the late afternoon we called into ‘ Bar Rojas’ for a couple of cool drinks, sat under the umbrellas in the hot sunshine. After a quick freshen up & change we met back up with the folks at our house for a rather special ‘ Welcome’ bottle of a chilled Vintage ‘ Taittinger Brut Reserve Rose’ – with some of our house ‘ Tapas’  We caught a Taxi down to the ‘ Puerto De La Duquesa’ Marina’ to go to our favourite ‘ Celebration’ restaurant “ Restaurante Macues “ where we were greeted by the owner and shown to our main window table.

See below;

After a round of ‘ Aperitif’s ‘ as we perused the menus, Donna chose the ‘King Prawns Piri-Piri ‘Jason the ‘ Burgundy Style Snails ‘ and I had the ‘ House Prawn Cocktail’

See below;

For our main course Brenda had ‘Grilled Turbot’ Donna had the ‘ Grilled Sea Bass ‘ with a sauceboat of a Mild Mustard sauce, both Jason & I had the ‘ Grilled Sole’ – filleted at the table, with a large dish of ‘ Patatas Fritas’ Everything was spot-on, all the fish were seasoned and cooked to perfection, as usual. The service was excellent, as normal.

See below one of the ‘Grilled Soles’ which I coudn’t resist trying!

I choose our wines; a fine ‘ Marques de Riscal Verdejo ‘ to start and for our main course, breaking with tradition a rich, fruity and very smooth ‘ Red ‘ Painto ‘ from the valley of the ‘  Ribera del Rueda ‘ – at the end of the evening with the coffees we had chilled shots , on the ‘ House’ of ‘Limoncello & Caramel Vodka ‘– to finish a perfect evening, before jumping into a Taxi back up to the village.

Back to today, Friday, as you can see ‘ Paddy ‘ has been out & about in sunny Manilva with us, including joining us for breakfast this morning, see below, he slept all night on our bed and has settled in very well, he’s joy to have with us in ‘Doggy World Heaven ‘ and at every chance he’s sat on our knees, for his cuddles and so he dosen’t miss anything!

It’s another beautiful day, the sun is out, the sky is blue and there is a light breeze, our favourite time of the year, before it gets too hot and the holiday ‘masses’ hit us! By lunchtime it will be 24 degs+ - more of the same over the weekend, next week we are now looking forward to an even warmer, sunny time down here on the ‘ Costa Del Sol’ – hovering in the high 20s+ at times, watch this space.

For our supper this evening we are having ‘ Goujons of Hake Fillet’ –using breadcrumbs from the local Bakery – shallow fried in Vegetable Oil, with on the side, ‘Mushy Green Peas ‘ and of course twice-cooked ‘ Chips’ – not forgetting the Homemade ‘ Tartar’ sauce, Saturday is still ‘ Steak Night’ and Sunday is now TBC as the weather is getting hotter, so a ‘Roast’ may not be on the cards, I’m out & about on my travels tomorrow morning, Saturday, down in Sabinillas for our weekly shopping, watch this space.

This afternoon/evening we will be catching up with all the Quiz Shows, etc before later channel hopping to find something to watch.

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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