MANILVA.

Friday 20th February.

We stocked up in the morning for the weekend and next week as we will hopefully be away in Tarifa for nine days; we called into the bank in Estepona and then came back to Sabinillas to the supermarket and the English butchers in Playa de La Duquesa before we came back up to the village and stopped at the butchers to pick up a fresh Chicken for Sunday dinner.In the afternoon I spent some time in the office as when we were over in Tarifa,Mark gave me the details of a web page that you can follow the shipping going through the Straites of Gibraltar;from the villa and the village we can see the ships all the time and now as you click on the symbols on the detailed map it gives you all the details of the ship,name,speed,destination,etc.as well as the type,passenger,cargo,tanker,hi-speed ferry or navy for example!Then you can Google and see the ship,a bit “ Nerdy ” but interesting at the same time! Meanwhile on the Skype phone I caught up with the new baby details with Carols two daughters,we are a month ahead in our thinking,they are both due at the start of March,not February as we thought! and both are OK.Watch this space! Just in passing whilst I am in the office if anybody out there can find us a wall map of Australia and send or bring it! we would be very grateful as we have had no luck finding one here and we want to ready for May when Brenda’s sister is visiting us.Later in the afternoon I made for the first time here a Fish Pie;With Brenda’s famous Mashed potatoes as the topping,it contained Hake,Cod ,Crab,Prawns and Smoked Salmon all mixed together with a White Wine reduction of diced Onions,Carrots,Celery and Mushrooms and then coated with a Béchamel Sauce made with the fish stock,as it came out of the oven our front door bell rang,it was one of our friendly neighbors,Antonia whos was asking us to a PP party meeting next week,she ended up having some pie and a glass of wine with us and also asked for the recipe! We then settled down to watch the Carnival from Las Palmas De Gran Canaria live on the TV,it was the Drag Queen night and as you can just see below,I took the pictures off our TV in the lounge,so the picures are not that good but are to be seen to be believed!