MANILVA THIS WEEK.

SUNDAY/THURSDAY 25^th/29^th SEPTEMBER 2011.

We had a lie in on Sunday morning after a great day on Saturday; the weather forecast for the week ahead is good, warm and sunny with a light breeze. We popped a Chicken in the oven to roast and Brenda got all the usual vegetables ready for supper, the rest of the Chicken was for a light supper on Monday and sandwiches on Tuesday lunchtime! The rest of the day we had a nice leisurely time taking it easy, reading a little and on the roof terrace in the early evening before our dinner and then watched a film on the TV.

On Monday Brenda finished off getting ready for the girls arrival on Tuesday morning; the car rental people rang and said that they would drop off the car later in the afternoon, for free, so we went out for a drive round and ended up in Sotogrande Marina as you can see on the pictures below. Before we went out I made the filling for a Beef and Mushroom Pie for Tuesday evening’s dinner to welcome Norah and Jenny.

We shot over to Gibraltar to pick up the girls on Tuesday morning and on the way back called into the ‘ Roman Oasis ’ for a glass of chilled Champagne and Smoked Salmon canapés to start their holiday in the right fashion ! The pictures below shows them as then came across the border and in the ‘Roman Oasis’ we then came back to the house and had Chicken/Mayo sandwiches before a little siesta. In the evening I finished the Beef and Mushroom Pie with short pastry top and Brenda made some of her famous mashed potato and Cabbage with Alselgas before Brenda and the girls settled down to have a good chinwag!

Wednesday morning after a light tea, toast and fresh Orange juice breakfast we set off to Estepona; they had a good look around the shops and went for a walk along the front and dipped their toes in the sea as I sat and read an English paper. We had a light salad snack lunch; well I had Albondigas with a fried egg and frits, in a café next to the square and then had a nice drive home in the warm sunshine. In the evening we had Pork Cutlets pan fried in Lemon butter with Lyonnaise Potatoes and Baby Carrots and Green Beans before we settled down to watch a film.

The sisters were up bright and breezy on Thursday morning and after breakfast caught the bus down to Sabinillas and came back later in the morning to change and freshen up before we went out for lunch; it gave us a chance to catch up with things around the house and get ourselves ready at the same time. We then went up to ‘ Venta Garcia ’for my birthday treat lunch ! We had the best table in the restaurant over looking the valley back down to the coast, we soon had a nice bottle of Sparkling Pinot Noir Cava opened as we ordered from the three course ‘ Del Dia ’menu, Brenda had a Smoked Salmon salad and Norah had a Cream of vegetable soup followed by Confit of Duck and grilled Sole, Jenny and I ordered the Roast Lamb from the A la Carte menu which was out of this world, it was a whole Leg of Baby Lamb for each of us that had been cooked to order and fell off the bone and came with fresh baby Vegetables and Boulangere Potatoes and lots of Mint Sauce ! Everything was up to their usual standard and they looked after us very well as the restaurant was very busy, for dessert the girls had sorbets and I had the Sticky Toffee Pudding of the Del Dian menu ! I round of complementary drinks then came from the management for my birthday to finish off another memorable meal at the Venta – the pictures below show the sisters before and after the meal.

Thought for the Day;

If you can spend a perfectly useless aftertnoon,in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned to live.

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