MANILVA OVER THE THREE KINGS WEEKEND.

SATURDAY 5^th/ SUNDAY 6^th/ JANUARY 2013.

The forecast for the weekend was good and it turned out to be even hotter on Sunday – 22degs. Anna called in on Saturday morning for a chat and a gossip as we had not seen her since Xmas day; some good news came in from Llandulas over in North Wales, Rob,Jenny;s husband came out of hospital today after his triple-by-pass and valve repair operation, he is very fragile but is on the road to recovery – the prognosis is three months and he will be fit as a fiddle ! All the very best to him, Jenny and all their family for 2013. Over in England it was FA Cup day, third round when the Premiership teams join, Liverpool beat Mansfield 1-2 and Everton take on lowly Cheltenham tonight.

In the evening it was the parade for the “ Three Kings ” along Calle Mar and then around the village; the villagers and children came out in force and the atmosphere was great as the children run wild, and Brenda, collecting the ‘ Caramelo’s ’( Sweets ) thrown from the floats – it happens all over Spain and at the main ones in Madrid,Malaga,Seville etc. they use hundreds of thousands of kilos of them! There were two bands, led by the ‘ Xmas Bomba Band ’who warmed up the crowd and then the ‘Manilva Brass Band ’all dressed up in the main parade as you can see in the pictures above.Mano,Anna,Sally-Ann,Carlos,Fabio and Dylan came along and joined in.

We then came back to the house for a late supper of Steak a la Plancha with sautéed Musrooms,sliced Green Beans, crisp Chips and this week for a change I fancied some good old fashioned Fried Onions Rings, dipped in Milk and Flour and deep-fried! Spectacular is the only word that I can use!! We then caught up with football ‘ La Liga ’as it restarted for 2013.

After another good lie in on Sunday morning we got up to a glorious day; the sun was out and the ‘ Levante ’breeze had dropped and by lunchtime when we went for our walk with the dog it was 22degs! Down at Bodega Augustin we bumped into Mano,Anna and Sally Ann and ended up joining them for a drink and later we went back to Sally Ann’s for an impromptu late Brunch;Dominico was performing in the kitchen so  I had a delicious ‘ Rigatoni Bolognaise ’ and the others had a very rich and lovely ‘ Wild Mushroom Ravioli ’ with Black Truffle shavings! We had devoured the Tapas with local fresh bread especially the Italian cooked meats before staring on the main course! The wine flowed and it ended up with a cake fight with the Cream filled ‘ Roscon de Reyes ’traditional cake,Dominico got Anna and then she got Brenda and me – watch out as revenge will be sweet when she least expects it!

In the evening later back at our house we had “ Lamb Cutlets on Boulangere Potatoes ”for supper, I had made them in the morning before we went out, and then we caught the Spanish football highlights – Barcelona easily beat their local rivals Espanyol 4-0 before Real Madrid held on to win 4-3. The late film was “ Boardwalk Empire ”from 2009 – it was a made for TV series about the 1920s/30s and prohibition in New Jersey and stars Steve Buscemi in the main role, the English actor Stephen Graham shows up as Al Capone - very compelling and the series won widespread critical acclaim,particulary for its visual style, based on historical figures of the time and Buscemi’s lead performance ! One to watch.

Thoughts for the Day;

We create our fate every day we live.   Fate only takes you so far, then it’s up to you to make it happen.

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