MANILVA START OF THE WEEKEND

THURSDAY/FRIDAY 19th/20th JULY 2012.


On Thursday morning we went for a short walk with the dog as it is getting hotter every day; I paid the electricity bill at the bank and picked up one of my tablet prescriptions from the chemists which since the 1st July we have to pay for, everybody has now to pay in Spain including pensioners i.e.; .20c !! When we got back I checked out the WWW – I read the newspapers and watch the news on various channels and also I follow the markets especially the ‘ Euro v Pound ’ and yes it is still going up as I type this to its highest in three years – at the same time I’ am always fascinated by some of the other currencies – for example Vietnamese Dong, 32692.00000, Iranian Rial, 19254.19920, Colombian Peso,2787.30000 and the Indonesian Rupiah, 14827.00000 !! Quiz of the Day ; Which countries have the ‘ Baht,Yuan,Riyal,Hayvnia,Boliviano,Quetzal and the Fuerte ’? Answers on a postcard !!

The Tour de France is won. barring an accident or a chronic loss of his imperious form, Bradley Wiggins will ride into Paris on Sunday as the first British Cyclist to win the Tour; his lone rival Vincenzo Nibali was tailing off on the last climb – but Wiggins then lost his concentration and rhythm and Chris Froome his team mate and laying second had to hold back one again under instructions and pace him to the top ! Alejandro Valverde from Spain won the stage after an epic ride by 19 seconds with Froome and Wiggins second and third to the top. I have now read that at the start of the season Chris Froome could have been the leader in another team but he choose to join Team Sky as a worker for more money – if he had he would now be leading the Tour not Wiggins !! As they say ‘ Hindsight ’is a wonderful thing !!

Last night was the ‘ Chefs ’night off so we went up to Bar Rojas for our supper Brenda had two Tapas,small Sardines in a rich sauce and diced Pork in a Tomato sauce while I had flattened Pork Fillets a la Plancha with Patatas Fritas and a fried Egg and a fried Green Pepper ! Just as we were starting to eat at about 10-30 a couple with their daughter came along and asked us where they could eat ! We of course recommended and said ‘ Here ’! It turned out that they were Norwegian/Swedish and so I greeted them in my best Swedish ! I ended up in the kitchen as it was Lumy’s night off helping to interpreting for them in the kitchen with Angelina Lumy’s assistant ! We then sat and chatted with them until 1-45am ! We had a lovely evening and enjoyed putting the world to rights with ‘Oddbjorn,his wife Anehebrinh and their daughter Emilia ’ Sadly the photo that I took with the new phone I have lost when I tried to download it to the PC – so hopefully they will send me their pictures by e-mail as promised – please !

This morning, Friday we had a little lie in; I shot down to our butcher’s for Saturday night’s streak and Brenda carried on down to the local market for some flowers and a plant. I’ am at the moment following the stage 18 of the Tour and Brenda is catching up with washing. Tonight for supper we are having Goujons of Hake with fresh Tartare sauce that I made this morning. The picture above show Jane’s new bakery business in Northwich and some of the special bread being baked by her son Olly !

PS; Mark Cavendish has just won stage 18 of the Tour de France - Incredible ! Amazing speed from Cav in the last few metres,he came from nowhere on the home straight - that's his second stage win of this year's Tour,and his 22nd. in total. What a leadout by Team Sky ,Wiggins started it off and then Edvald Boasson Hagen took him up to the back of front six - then ' BOOM '! The " Manx Missile " fired and Cav did the rest !! See the picture above of Cavendish crossing the line wearing his World Championship ' Rainbow ' jersey !

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Thought for the Day ;


Everybody has talent at 25. The difficulty is to have it at 50.



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