CASA OLIMPIA WEATHER NEWS AND TV UPDATE.

Tuesday 9th March 2010.

Well the first news is that the Sky system came back on of its own accord on Friday evening at 10-pm in the middle of yet another storm; the satellite had been knocked out and it took three days to be realigned! Over the weekend during more bad weather the electricity has also been going off and on all the time and on Monday morning we had also lost all the water pressure, which was fixed by late afternoon; this weather is now the worst in living memory down here on the Costa del Sol and the locals in Manilva just can’t believe how wet it has been, over the weekend next door to Mano and Ann where they live on the side of the hills along side the vine fields there have been landslides and some of the locals residents had to be moved out of their properties for safety reasons ! I have just come off the phone after speaking to Mano and the news is not good; two houses have collapsed and a third is in a bad condition, the family’s are all English and have been put up in the Manilvagreen Aparhotel for the moment. Today we have for the first time no wind or rain and clear blue skies across the Straite to Africa but the seven day forecast is not too good. My thought for the week is “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass … it’s about learning to dance in the rain " !!
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When I was on the phone to Mano,he was just about to ring us with some very sad news to tell us that the wife of a mutual friend in Manilva had died and the mass and burial was later today in the village; Anna’s husband Andy has looked after her through a long illness and our thoughts and feelings go out to him and all the family; her mother lives in the village and her sister lives just around the corner from our house, she was very much a local girl and there will be a massive turnout from the village as she was very much loved.

The Hake in batter with chips and peas ( sadly not mushy ) on Friday was very nice as was our Minute steak and frits on Saturday, on Sunday morning we always have breakfast as we don’s sit down to our Sunday lunch ( Chicken this week ) until late afternoon; and this week we treated ourselves to Scrambled Eggs and Smoked Salmon, tonight we are having Liver and Bacon with Saute potatoes for supper. On Saturday morning we were watching Saturday Morning Kitchen hosted by James Martin,which is very good, it has all the top chefs on and every week they have to take part in the Ouellette challenge, this week one of the film inserts was of the Celebrity Master Chef semi final and one of their tasks was to make a Pizza, so Brenda then said that she fancied one for lunch! Now normally they are not on the menu but we had some Pizza bases in the deep freeze so I then made a Sexton special; The base was smeared with Tomato Frito and herbs and the topping was diced Ham and Chorizo, sliced vine Tomatoes,baby leaf Spinach and crumbled Blue Cheese all sprinkled with a fine Olive Oil ! The result was a big hit and I’m waiting for takeaway orders to come flooding in !!

Yesterday I had to shoot across to pick up a small money transfer and took the opportunity to check out the house and pick up my tablets from the chemists, on the way back I had a engine warning light come on in the Smart car, which is a little worrying and means that we will have to go to a Mercedes garage to be hooked up to the computer,fingers crossed that it is only a service light ! Tomorrow we are going to Estepona to the dentists, we have had to cancel the last couple of appointments due to the weather and circumstances and will then make the arrangements to get the car checked. Watch this space !