SUNNY AND A VERY HOT MANILVA ON WEDNESDAY

WEDNESDAY 7^th/AUGUST 2013.

We had a little lie in this morning, just because we can! Today is going to be the hottest day so far this year; the forecast for the weekend is getting hotter as the warm weather comes cross from Africa with the ‘Levante’ breeze.

Before it got too hot I went and took some pictures of the work progressing on the ‘La Padreta’and ‘Plaza Vendimia’as you can see above; this week it is the ‘Feria De Agosto’which after the ‘Vendimia’festival is the biggest thing to happen in sunny Manilva at this time of the year; I will post some pictures later in the week from the council web-page and the ‘Resident’ newspaper as we are not going down this year.

Yesterday evening after watching a programme on TVE2 that we tend to catch each evening called “ Espana Entre El Ciero Y La Tierra ” – ‘Spain between Heaven and Earth’ We called our dear friend Rafael in Madrid to catch up on his news. It shows from the air by helicopter and on the ground from a mounted steady-cam all the regions of Spain with detail about them, names of all the villages, towns and cities along with all the history and of course all the building and churches of note; last evening it ended up in Toledo after following the river ‘Tajo’

This reminded of the time nearly eight year ago when our dear friend in Madrid, Rafael and his late wife Jillian took us there when we stayed with them at their home just before Christmas – hence the call -after finding him for the first time in nearly 40 years as we stopped in Madrid with the ‘Winnebago’! To cut a long story short I first met them in Liverpool at the ‘Stork Hotel’ in Queens Square opposite the ‘Royal Court Theatre’- I went to work there as a trainee assistant manager at the age of 19 and Rafael was the assistant manager with his new bride from Birmingham Jillian!

When he left eventually I became the senior assistant manager running the hotel just like him! We kept in touch for the next 40 years with Christmas cards until we made contact with him on our way to Madrid; they were very kind and took us into their home and family, by then of course they had three grown up sons. Sadly over last Christmas his dear wife Jillian died, he has now got three grandchildren with another on the way, his youngest son Victor is going to work in Mexico later in the year for the ‘Banko Santander’ He is 78,nearly ten years ahead of me in September (Plug!) – keeping very well and sounds just like his jovial self as usual, we are now able to speak in both Spanish and English, his English is still very good as we caught up with all his news. It was so nice talking to him and we have promised one-another to keep in touch more often!

Last night I watched on BBC1TV on the small PC in full screen the latest episode of “New Tricks ”which was filmed in Gibraltar earlier this year! The cast is evolving with Dennis Lawson taking over from James Bolam and in this series later Amanda Redman is being replaced by Tasmin Outhwaite and Alun Armstrong by Nicholas Lyndhurst! The comedy-drama that follows the work of the fictional “Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad (UCOS)” is still very watch able – the title is taken from the proverb ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks’

Thought for the Day; See above.

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