MANILVA TODAY.

SATURDAY 7th JULY 2012.

We had a little lie in this morning before our regular only cooked breakfast of the week, Brenda’s famous ‘ Poached Eggs on Toast ’- we then freshened ourselves up and Brenda put some washing on – it’s good drying weather still ! We then went for a walk around the very quiet village ( All away at their ‘Campo’s ) without Cheta who is on her holidays and we are missing terrible. The pictures below show the pool which is now open and looking very tempting ( Possible Monday ) and the work on the car underground car park and plaza is starting to take shape. We then had a light ‘ Tapas ’lunch up at Bar Rojas under the Sonbrajo – Chicken in Orange sauce, Diced Pork in a savory sauce and Diced Liver with fried Potatoes in a rich sauce – they are just .80c per dish.

When we got back I retired to the office to watch the sport and Brenda shot up to the roof terrace to relax under the ‘ Moet Chandon ’umbrella – I had no luck finding live coverage of the British Grand Prix from Silverstone so I followed the tennis on BBC Sports tele/text and at the same time on the large PC I watched the ‘ Tour de France ’ live. Serena Williams overcame a resurgent Agnieszka Radwanska ( Now there’s a mouthful ! ) to clinch a hard-fought victory and earn her fifth Wimbledon title as you can see in the picture above.Meanwhile on stage 7 from Tomblaine to La Planche des Belles over 199kms it was a classic – as Britain’s Bradley Wiggins took the race leaders Yellow jersey as Team Sky showed their power on the Tour de France’s first summit finish; Wiggins and his team-mate Chris Froome ramped up the pressure in the final 5km with last year’s winner Cadel Evans sticking stubbornly with them, Froome broke clear on the last 200m to win and Evans and Wiggins followed him in. It means that Wiggins now is only the fifth English man to wear the famous jersey ! and also he holds a 10 second lead in the overall standings over Evans. See the pictures above. Tomorrow’s stage 8 is from Belfort to Porrentruy over 158km and takes the riders into the Jura mountains and Switzerland, it’s a rollercoaster of a stage and takes in seven categorized climbs as you can see in the map above !

This evening we have been up on the roof terrace for our cocktails, we are at the moment reading books by the same author ‘ S.J. Rozan ’which were recommended to us by a lady in the English bookshop; they are in the mold of ‘ James Patterson ’- detective novels with a twist, they are about a Chinese- American private detective, Lydia Chin and her partner Bill Smith – Rozan’s soaring imagination is breathtaking ! Later for dinner we had the Sirlion Steaks with Chips and fine Green Beans – they were delicious and the crisp fat was sweet and tasty – I dry-cooked them in a very hot pan for under two minutes on one side and then turned them over and left them to stand !


Thought for the Day;


Achievement is largely the product of steadily raising one’s levels of expectations.



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