MANILVA 2009.

Wednesday 31st December 2008.

As we went out to the local shops it was warm and sunny,we called into the butchers and thanked him for the two Spanish Christmas Turkeys which turned out to be very good;we also collected a new calendar from the Opticians in the Main Street for the office wall.For lunch we had good old Egg and chips to line the stomach ready for the nights celebrations! We walked down to Carlos’s house later in the evening to join Mano and Anna,Ana Mari with Fabio and Carlos when he got in from work later for supper.When Carlos arrived we sat down to Sirloin Steak and Frits with Fried Peppers and Mushrooms accompanied with a pepper sauce then as midnight approached we opened a bottle of very nice pink Cava, which we dropped all the wedding rings into the glasses,a Spanish tradition and at the same time we had little cups filled with twelve Grapes which you eat on the chimes at midnight,the secret is to use tinned grapes as they are easier to eat! The beer flowed, the wine kept coming and my Bacardi and Coke were just right as the night went on,Fabio was a non stop whirl of energy as we watched the Spanish equivalent of Jools Holland and then had a rather loud game of Trivial Pursuits and at the same time we introduced Fabio to Party Poppers! On the way home we found out that the only two clubs in the village,which was dead when we walked down earlier, had opened;One of them is in what looks like a deserted house just by the roundabout and the other is opposite the Police Headquarters underneath a block of flats! The village streets where full of cars,hundreds of them parked in every possible space,but not a sole in site!They were all in the clubs,except for us! As we arrived home I let in the New Year and yes I did have in my pocket a little parcel of Suger,Tea and Coal for good luck.

Thursday 1st January 2009.

After a nice lie in we had a late breakfast of Brenda’s famous Poached Eggs on Toast with a glass of Pink Cava to welcome in the New Year in the right way! We then hit the Skype phone and rang all the family and friends we could think of to wish them all the best for 2009.In the afternoon Gissy rang to say that she would come and cut our hair and so I picked her up from Duquesa Marina as Vidal had a New Years Day gig at one of his regular spots.We caught up with all their Christmas news as we had not seen them since the start of December,we do miss seeing them as they live on the other side of Estepona now.In the evening after I had dropped Gissy back down to the marina we settled down to watch some TV and found that they were showing the Coldplay concert when they played live in front of the BBC headquarters in London,we had seen it before but it was still very good to watch again even though we don’t like them much! For Supper we had the stew from the day before which we are living on for now!

Friday 2nd January.

The weather over this weekend is not very good and the forecast for the start of next week when it is the Big Christmas celebrations for the Spanish people,it is a Bank Holiday on Monday and Tuesday for the “ Three Kings” and this is when they go mad and celebrate and give presents,much more than at Christmas. At lunchtime today we went down to Sabinillas as we had an appointment at the solicitors office to re sign the contract on the house,In Spain it is 11 months at a time so we have to renegotiate every year at this time,keep all your fingers crossed as we have few problems at the moment with the Pound now being down to one Euros!
Tonight we are having a quiet night in and watching TV,not forgetting to mention Tim our dear friend in Colwyn Bay who’s birthday it is today,he is having a Helluva party at a friends house tonight and we will be having a drink to toast him,later!