MANILVA.

Tuesday 8th July.

Well this time last year we where on the high seas on our way back to England to service and repair the Winnebago and spend the time seeing family and friends during the months of July and August; how times change. The weather is getting hotter everyday and by the afternoon with the warm African breeze it reaches the high 30s.Vidal is coming over on Thursday to fix the bed as he needed to get some metal brackets and screws in Estepona.Brenda is now getting into reading in the late afternoon in the shade on the roof terrace as we adapt to our new life here in Manilva.We have a late supper as it cools down and listen to our neighbour’s talking away in the back yard and out in front on the street as we have the front doors open all the time and watch the world go by,they all greet us and gossip about the weather, the plants on the window balconies and their families as the local children play up and down in the street.

Wednesday 9th July.

Talking about the plants on all the balconies we thought that we should update you on our gardening exploits so far; we are not having very much success with pot planting and when Tim comes over in August we are going to use some of his expertise and knowledge to get us on the right track. Brenda is the gardener in the family as I just advise on colour and position, our neighbour’s all comment on our display and one very nice lady from around the corner brought us some cuttings to put in the pots on the window sill the other day.Brenda is in charge of watering and talking to all the plants!The sun in the afternoon now hits the front of the house and burns some of the plants to nothing whilst some of them in particular the Geranium’s flourish and are already on their second bloom!Watch for updates on the plant saga and the pictures when we are in full bloom!

Thursday 10th July.

We popped down to Sabinillas for some shopping and called into the ironmonger’s for wire to help to fix the bed in the afternoon as Vidal was calling in on his way to a gig later in the evening.Just before he was due to arrive the agents called to say that a joiner was coming at six o’clock and the owner arrived the next moment and started to talk away to us as we tried to tell her that we did not need a joiner to fix the bed as the problem was with the metal work! Vidal and Gissy then arrived and were able to speak to her and reinforce our idea’s on fixing the bed.As we talked to her the man arrived and he was not a joiner but was a welder!So very quickly the bed was dismantled and he spot welded it in the street outside our front door! He then called me up to bedroom to show me that it was all right and proceeded to dance on the frame! then the senora also did a Spanish dance on the board on top of the frame also!! Gissy decided to stay for the evening and spent some time with me on the PC and showed me how to use Word more,it has a lot more options and I learnt a lot from Gissy on how to make and print business cards and use the photo print facilities as well.She has used Word for many years and her knowledge knows no bounds!Thanks Gissy! For supper we had Sausage and mash with onion gravy which also happened to be a childhood favourite of Gissy’s

Friday 11th.July.

As usual on Friday we went to the hypermarket to do the weekly shopping and as there was a fifty percent discount offer on the clothes we bought some tops.shorts and flip flops all for 4/6 euros each! When we are out we also buy the Papers and pick up the free copy of the Sur in English which comes out on a Friday.I have online the English daily’s and the local papers as well as the BBC news web page which is very good and has video news inserts to watch,I can also log into the Welsh news in North Wales,it even has a facility to see live from the web cams the Express way junctions ! The Sur in English is the Spanish news and so we are able to confirm that what we have seen on the Spanish TV news and what we think is happening-is! After we unpacked all the goods we then went on the roof terrace to read all the papers.We had for lunch Steak and Onion toasted sandwiches as a treat and a change from our normal salad.I was looking through the Sur and came to the page with the results of the monthly photographic competition and the winning picture.If you remember I posted online on the webpage quite a lot of our pictures and have been following them in the various categories as they are viewed.The winning picture was a sea view and we both thought that any of mine were better! Anyway as we looked the runner up picture was a lot better and we both commented on it,it was a view of Puerto Banus taken earlier this year.It was not untill we read the credit that we realized that it was one of mine! Second is better than nothing and it was my first attempt and when I checked online I have also come high up on the ratings that show the most viewed and admired ! A star is born as you can see from the picture below!




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