TARIFA THEN MANILVA.

Thursday/Friday/ Saturday 13th/14th/15th August.

Thursday 13th!

Not quite Friday the 13th but very similar! We were up bright and early for a very busy day at Casa Olimpia with the workmen due to finish off and then we had to get the villa mopped and polished before I went to pick the folks up from the airport in Gibraltar; I was just online checking the bank when all the electrics went off at 9-00am! I immediately shot out up the drive and out of the gate only to see the man in the Endesa van was about to drive off, he would not open his window and gave me the finger and drove off nearly running over my foot at the same time! Charming!! I came back in rather upset to say the least and got on the phone ASAP, just then Mano,Juan and workmen arrived! At the same time I rang Chris in London to check again that the payment had gone through last Friday and got a call back very quickly to say that it had been cleared by Endesa, as we had confirmed with them on Monday! As usual it took me over half an hour to get through to the right department, they confirmed that the account had been paid and was up to date but they had not cancelled the disconnection notice!! To say that I was mad is a understatement; they then said that they would arrange for it to be reconnected by 8-00pm,to which my answer was that was not good enough as we had a ninety year old grandmother on life support checking machines and the battery back up would not last( A little white lie ) but they would still not give me any guarantee as to when! Plan B took over as this meant that the master bedroom would not be finished as well as the downstairs toilet, the workmen brought up an extra bed to the other large room and we put the cot in as well so the family could use that room and the other grandmother arriving could sleep in the children’s room, meanwhile I let Nina know what was going on! Mano and Juan and I then decided that even if the electric came back on later in the day it would not leave enough time to finish so the packed up and planned to come back on Friday morning. At about 12-30 we were on the phone to Nina to let her know what was happening when the electricity came back on, my bluff had worked !! I went to Gibraltar at 6-00pm to pick the family up from the airport and got caught in a large traffic jam crossing across the border and getting back across to the airport as we had arranged to pick them up outside the airport not on the border, after blagging a spot with a friendly British policemen by the arrivals hall they eventually came out as the plane was late landing! We could not get all their luggage in so Nina and the two children came in the VW and her husband and his mother jumped in a taxi, we the had another long wait as the Spanish police were on a go slow! They got to the villa before just before us at 8-30pm and we then went on the balcony, with Joan and cracked open a bottle of chilled Cava to welcome then back to Casa Olimpia! What a “ Helluva ” Day !! We then set off back to Manilva and arrived home at about 10-30pm, dropped our bags off and walked up to Bar Rochas for a well earned nightcap and fried eggs and homemade frits as we had not eaten all day!

Friday 14th.

After a little lie in we started to settle back into the house, Brenda unpacked as I had to shoot down to the bank and then meet Mano and Juan back in Manilva to hand over their weekly payment before they went back over to Casa Olimpia to finish off the work. We went across later to make sure that the folks had settled in and that all the arrangements were all right, on the way back we popped into our local supermarket to pick up a few things; In the evening we met Mano and Anna at Bar Rochas and sat outside with some lovely tapas and watched the world go by as we caught up with all the news; the reason Calle Mar has been closed for so long is that they have resurfaced the road with very good individual flat stone cobbles, they look very impressive and later in the evening after they had washed down the street and the houses it was reopened to traffic!

Saturday 15th .

This morning we had a long lie in after the excitement of the last few days before we sorted our self’s out,we don’t think that Clive and Carolyn are going away so we have started to make plans for next week, Brenda has started to clean the house as we can’t remember when we were last here! And I am catching up on the PC and checking out all the messages and e-mails,all our neighbours have welcomed us back and the locals as we see them are asking us where we have been? We had Smoked Bacon butties to start the day and at lunchtime some very fresh Gambas as we are joining Mano and Anna later tonight as it is Anna’s birthday. In the afternoon we had a siesta as it is very hot here in Manilva before we went up on the roof terrace for our early evening cocktails, back in our old routine! Mano and Anna picked us up and went to the Manilva Green Aparamentos as Carlos was working for a drink, the new reception is now open along with the restaurant and mini market as well as the bar which overlooks the valley, you can see the grape fields which are due for picking at any moment now! Anna had her new Red Ray Bans on all night and would not take them off as they looked so cool! We then went down to Restaurante Alonso,one of our favourite local spots, it is family run and they always look after us very well, we had some tapas starters of fresh, sweet local Gambas,cold Octopus and Potato vinaigrette and the best for the last, local baby Anchovie. Boquerones,filleted and marinated in Olive oil and herbs! which you can see on the table in front of us ! For our main course Brenda had, as usual, John Dory pan fried in Lemon butter, Anna had Fillet steak and frits, and I had a huge Sirloin steak and Frits whilst Mano has the most beautiful braised shoulder of Baby Lamb with mint sauce! All washed down with the local Tinto Rioja and coffee and Brandy,the gang are back in town as you can see in the picture below, we then went back to Mano and Annas house for a night cap and watched Match of the Day,Anna had still got her Red Ray Bans on!!