CASA OLIMPIA.

Thursday/Friday 10th/11th September 2009.

Thursday was a quiet day at the villa as we took things easy, the weather is changing at the moment but it is still warm here but the mountains all around us create different mornings as the clouds roll down the valley, back in Manilva it is still warm and sunny all day! For supper we had Braised steak and Frits as we all enjoyed the previous nights meal and I had made two dish’s one to put in the deep freeze!
On Friday morning we went down to Tarifa to do the weekend shopping, now that all the holiday makers have gone back it is a lot quieter and a lot less traffic to contend with, it was the same over in Estepona and Manilva during the week. Later in the morning we had our very first rain in nearly five months; it was a cloud burst and lasted for about twenty minutes, at the same time the electricity went off and continued to go off and on for the rest of day! In the afternoon I made fish pie, I had been stocking up with things for a couple of weeks and we found some lovely fresh Hake and so along with Salmon,Gambas,Crab and Smoked Salmon and Trout we had all the ingredients for a “ Helluva ” fish pie! The white wine sauce was made with a homemade fish stock and I sweated off diced Carrots, Onions, Leeks, Celery and Mushrooms in butter and more wine! I made three dish’s as you can see below, the large one for me and freezing, the middle one with cheese sauce and topping on the mash for Brenda and an individual one for Joan, as you can see ! During the evening we had great news from England, Jenny and Norah,Brenda's sisters have booked their flights and they are arriving on the 23rd September,which is also the day before my birthday, at Gibraltar airport from Manchester. This really made Brenda’s day and we are very excited and are looking forward to the two weeks with us! The plan is to spend some time here and then go over to the house in Manilva for four or five days if possible.We also had a call from some friends with an offer of a possible hotel and restaurant consultancy job that sounds very exciting, fingers crossed and watch this space!! Later I made contact with Chris and arranged for a long conference call on Sunday to make plans for the future here at Casa Olimpia.It’s all happening down here on the sunny Costa del Sol !