MANILVA.

Monday 8th.September.

After the weekends celebrations we got up late and had a day at home catching up with the chores. In the evening we had pan fried minute steak with onions,mushrooms and Green peppers and of course frits! for supper.

Tuesday 9th September.

We went across to the garage and met Vidal as we had arranged a meeting with the German owner to plan the next stage in the sale of the Winnebago if possible in Germany on E-Bay,at the same time we gave the Winnebago a good check over with Vidals help so as it will be ready to move.On the way back we called into see Mano at the Aparhotel,he has some work problems and staff issues as the season finishes and has to make decisions about the future;Mano’s friend Juan was in the bar and made an offer once again for the Winnebago,watch this space for the result as we go to press! In the evening we had a light supper of Omeletts,cheese for Brenda and a savoury one for me with the leftover onions,mushrooms and Green peppers as the filling.

Wednesday 10th.September.

In the morning we called into our bank in Estepona as we needed to update our resident account card’s and make some arrangements for the future with our bank manager;Wednesday is now curry night so when we arrived back home I made the sauce and added the Chicken later which we have with Basmati rice and Banana,Anna could not join us as she is in the middle of an extreme makeover of her house from new walls,floors,pipe work,kitchen,decoration and furniture! We can’t waite to see it when it is finished;we are not housesitting for them next week as they have had to cancel their holiday due to Mano’s work commitments.


Thursday 11th.September.

The phone went early in the morning and it was not good news;our very dear and old friend Carol had been taken into hospital and is very seriously ill and on a life support machine,Andrea,her son Bens partner rang us to give us an update,later we spoke to Ben and passed on our thoughts to all the family,Yola her eldest daughter is flying in from Switzerland later this evening.We had only spoken to Carol a couple of weeks ago when the whole family were together at Carol’s house in Willaston so it has come as a very great shock to us all.Later in the evening Gissy called in and cut and styled Brenda’s hair and took two inches’s off mine at the same time as it was below my shoulders!

Friday 12th.September.

We called Michelle,Carols younger daughter first thing in the morning for a update,Carol had a quiet night and was stable;she is in a hospital in Birkenhead with a dedicated nurse looking after her and with all her family around her for support. Earlier in the week we received a phone call from a lady,Carolyn, that we had spoken to a few days before about house-sitting towards the end of this month and we made an appointment to go and see her later on Friday morning;The villa is in the country behind San Pedro de Alcantara and sits in a spectacular setting in the largest garden you will ever see,with Advacado trees in abundance along with all sorts of other fruit trees,it is a old Spanish finca with a very grand new addition on the side,together with a swimming pool in the grounds and the property once belonged to Audrey Hepburn ! We are going to move in on Monday 22nd for two weeks and look after the two house cats and the six/seven wild cats in the garden as well as the fish in the pond,the owner’s are going to Nice for a trade show as Clive,her husband,has an international boat building company based in Puerto Banus,At the same time they are going to Italy to arrange the move of their furniture from their house there.They also have workmen finishing off the floors so it means that they can carry on working. I have also offered to drive them to and from the Airport in their car as part of the service,if required! In the evening we had a phone call from Anna to say that Mano had a surprise couple of days off over the weekend,so they ended up coming for dinner after we found some more Lamb chops in the deep freeze to go with the ones that we had picked up earlier from the English butchers on our way home.I roasted the chops on top of Boulangere potatoes and Brenda sorted out some Broccoli,garden peas with Ham and Ratatouille;later we walked up to Bar Castillo and finished the night in lively style with the locals!