MANILVA AT THE START OF THE WEEK.

MONDAY 7^th/ JANUARY 2013.

Monday was a bank holiday here in Spain for the ‘ Three Kings ’on Sunday; the village was very quiet after the day before which is a real family day with children all over the place running around with toys. The weather forecast for the week is more of the same – Sun with the temperature hovering at around 18/19 degs! First thing it was time for the Xmas decorations to come down; Father Christmas has left the house! In the post we had a Xmas card from Jeff and Annette in Kuala Lumpur – it was posted on the 14^th December, it turned out that ours only got there on Saturday after we posted it here at the beginning of December! There was also a long news-letter brining us up to date, the main news was that Jeff has extended his contract for another two years.

At lunchtime we went up to Bar Rojas for some Tapas as you can see in the picture below; we sat in the warm sunshine as it reached 23 degs and enjoyed our drinks and Lumy’s Diced Liver with Patatas Fritas. In the evening just before supper the phone went; it was our very old and dear friend Rafael in Madrid ringing to let us know that his very dear and lovely wife Jill had died just after the New Year – we were just about to make contact with them as for the first time in over 45 years we did not receive an Xmas card from him – it turned out that he had been at the hospital all over Xmas.I met Rafael and Jill at the Stork Hotel in Liverpool back in 1965 when I was an assistant manager and he was the senior assistant manager,he had just got married to Jill, a Birmingham girl, at the time ! They were both very good to us seven years ago when we first came to Spain in the Winnebago and we stopped into Madrid to see them and their three sons on three occasions as we crossed back and forth across Spain. They made us very welcome and showed us around the city and took us to Toledo and El Escorial. We are sorry and our very deepest thoughts go out to Rafael and all his family at this very difficult and sorrowful time, love to you Rafael.

Over in England in the FA Cup game Everton won at Cheltenham 1-5 to make Brian very happy and Lionel Messi won the ‘Ballon d’Or ’for the forth year running as the worlds best player; Ronaldo was not a happy bunny and it knocked the smirk of his face! Vicente Del Bosque won the coach of the year. The late film was a ‘ Caper Movie ’ “ Entrapment ” from 1999 with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones in the main roles, it end’s up in Kuala Lumpur at the ‘ Petronas Towers ’which are just across the road from Jeff and Annett’s condo – it’s a small world!

Thought for the Day;

Life brings simple pleasures to us every day. It is up to us to make them wonderful memories.

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