MANILVA START OF THE WEEK.

MONDAY 15^th/ OCTOBER 2012.

The start of another week in the still sunny Manilva; the rest of Spain is getting rain, winds and snow in the mountains but down here on the Costa Del Sol it remains warm and sunny,26 degs. today, with clear blue skies and views across the mountains and down to the Mediterranean to die for. We are into our taking things very easy mode at the moment that is because we can! Watching films is also the same reason; we were not able to in our past life – now we can!! Our life is very simple and as stress free as possible as we enjoy our retirement down here in sunny Manilva – doing nothing – for example reading – I never thought for one moment that I would see Brenda sitting down and reading a book ! Cooking is also another relaxation, I actually enjoy doing ‘ Mis En Place ’and of course we love our food and having friends around to join us is a bonus. Finally we love to see family and friends coming over to see us and stay in our house – bookings are still available for this year and next year we open and ready for all comers – please book early to avoid disappointment !

Today in the morning Brenda went down and brought the dog up for a couple of hours, still no walks at the moment, just a quick one when the coast is clear for the essentials ! We are still able to get up on the roof terrace for our early evening cocktails before supper – tonight cold Pork which is one of our favorite cold-cuts. We also follow the news all the time on TVE1, we do not just watch films, we catch some regular Spanish programmes and only today we watched a very moving documentary on TVE2 – “ The Last Days of World War One ” It was an episode in the ‘Timewatch ’series in 2008 which was presented by Michael Palin. He revels the shocking truth that soldiers continued to be killed in battle for many hours after the Armistice had been signed.Palin recounts the personal stories of the last soldiers to die on the final day, hours and minutes of World War One “ 11 am on the 11^th November 1918 – “ Armistice Day ” The day the Great war came to an end. Lives were sacrificed by the attitude of the Generals, in particular the Americans who came into the war at the last moment, one sent his troops to storm the town of Stenay simply so his troops could have a bath – that lunatic decision cost over 300 casualties. Over 11,000 soldiers on all sides were killed, wounded or were missing on the final day alone. Near the end of the programme Pailn is walking along a wall of names in a War Graves Cemetery when he stops and points to a name ‘ Palin.H. ’His Great Uncle Harry ! It is a very moving moment in the story; Nine Million soldiers died in the War of all Wars. “ The War to end all Wars ” At the end is shows a young Hitler in uniform after surviving the trenches ! Please watch it – least we not forget.

Thought for the Day;

We learn courageous actions by going forward whenever fear urges us back.

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