THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM SUNNY MANILVA;

A VERY HOT AND SUNNY MANILVA ON SUNDAY;

SUNDAY 31^st/ AUGUST 2014.

It was another hot night so we all had a little lie in this morning before breakfast; we then prepared tonight’s special “State Banquet” – the dessert has been up graded to ‘Pineapple Flambé’!

‘Scruffy’ is being picked up early this evening and is back with us next week, possibley Friday (TBC) ‘Reina’ is here on Tuesday and Thursday; at the moment ‘Scruffy & Chispa’ are playing around my feet up in the office,

On Tuesday morning I’m dropping Josie off at the Bus Station over in Marbella to catch her flight home from Malaga. We are going to miss her & Den terribly as they have become very good friends, yesterday morning Josie dropped off her ‘Herb Garden’ for us to look after until her return so fingers crossed that it survives the next few months up on the roof terrace as we are not very ‘Green Fingered!’

Next weekend it’s the “ Vendimia Festival ” so we are starting to make plans to survive all the excitement!  On Friday it’s the ‘Flamenco Concert’ on a stage in Calle Mar and then on Saturday it the religious part of the festival with a parade of the ‘Virgin’ led by the village Brass Band and then the weigh in for the biggest bunch of grapes! Then music, singing and dancing with two bands into the wee small hours.

On Sunday it all kicks off at 1-00pm with two more bands, the ‘Andalusia Horse’ parade at 5-00pm and the ceremonial grape crushing at around 7-00pm with the partying going on till well into the next day which is a ‘ Bank Holiday’ in the village!!

Yesterday on the sports front over in England in the ‘Premiere League’ Manchester City lost at home to Stoke 0-1and did not play well but the ‘Match of the Day’ was at Everton as they lost to Chelsea 3-6 with their new signing Diego Costa scoring after 35 seconds and then on the 90^th minutes!

Down at Silverstone Marquez is on the pole position for today’s ‘British Motor GP’ Over here the ‘Vuelta’ is going from ‘Carboneras Guadazaon’ through the mountains to ‘Aramon Valdelinares’on stage 9.See the route map below.

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM A VERY HOT AND SUNNY MANILVA;

A VERY HOT AND SUNNY MANILVA ON SATURDAY;

SATURDAY 3Oth/ AUGUST 2014.

A little lie in this morning and then I came down to Brenda’s famous ‘Poached Eggs (Campo) on Toast for breakfast with a large mug of steaming tea! It’s all ready hot and tomorrow it’s getting much hotter over the next few days, fingers crossed for the ‘Vendimia Festival’ next weekend.

I’ve just had a message on Facebook from Jane to say that a new ‘Green Beans Slicer ‘is in the post! She brought the first one a few years ago but sadly this time she can’t make it over at the moment due to the pressure of business, David & Jane are also going on holiday this weekend to France – thanks Jane – the power of the written word/blog is alive and working!

We are having a nice quiet day taking things easy, trying to keep reasonable cool, catching up with chores, later showering and freshening up, at the moment I’m watching ‘Saturday Kitchen Live’ at the same time as I’m typing the Blog; later we will get our supper on the go ready for tonight, ‘Entrecote Steaks’ with sautéed Baby Mushrooms, finely sliced (the old one is still working just!) Green Beans! Twice-cooked ‘Frits’ and the usual toppings.

‘Scruffy’ is arriving for a sleep over before supper this evening.

We have now arranged the ‘Last Supper’ tomorrow for the final state visit of the ‘Queen of Skelton’ To start we are having ‘Asparagus Spears with Béarnaise sauce’ with ‘Smoked Salmon’ accompanied with either ‘Kir Royal’ or ‘Bucks Fizz’ made with Cava; the main course is ‘Medallions of Pork Fillet’ cooked on the griddle plate and garnished with Baby Mushrooms, with a large sauceboat of my famous ‘Charcutiere’ sauce on the side, from the vegetable department we are offering crushed Baby Carrots & Diamond cut Green Beans and I’m producing ‘Breton’ style potatoes made with Red, Green and Yellow Peppers.

For the dessert its simple local fresh fruit and coffee to finish.

This weekend on the sports front it’s the ‘British Motor GP’ from Silverstone and in the ‘Premiere League’ its Manchester City v Stoke,Everton v Chelsea and tomorrow Tottenham v Liverpool; over here in ‘La Liga’ its Villareal v Barcelona and Real Sociedad v Real Madrid while the ‘Vuelta’ is going from Bazea to Albacete.

Last night we watched the epic ‘Troy’ from 2004 with wait for it,Brad ( Mr Muscles!) Pitt, Eric Dona, Orlando Bloom,Diane Kruger, Saffron Burows, Sean Bean,Brian Cox,Peter O’Toole,Brendan Gleeson and Julie Christie!

PS; See the picture below of the dashboard of the ‘Red Limousine’ as it reached the classic “ 77777 ”kms as we went down to Sabinillas!!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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" CALLE SAN VICENTE " BALMY MANILVA THIS EVENING;

" ART EXHIBITION " MANILVA WINE CENTRE " CARLOS VARQUEZ MANCERA "

" MANILVA WINE CENTRE " THIS MORNING;

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM SUNNY MANILVA;

A VERY HOT AND SUNNY MANILVA ON FRIDAY AT THE START OF THE WEEKEND;

FRIDAY 29^th/ AUGUST 2014.

Another early start after breakfast this morning as we first shot down to the local market for some fresh flowers, then a call into the ‘Ferratiras’ for light bulbs, the local retail/wholesale fruit and vegetable market for some extra things( Yellow Peppers,Aspargus,Carrots en Branch!) -  the newsagents for the papers and then both supermarkets.

Today it’s all ready very hot again and they are now forecasting a ‘Heat Wave’ here in Andalusia and especially along the ‘Costa Del Sol’! They are giving health warnings to the young and old people (that does not mean us!) as the temperatures are rising to 43c over the weekend!! The usual fronts are coming across from Africa but unusually one from the Atlantic also; this one is also going to make it a little hotter over in the UK at the same time.

As I was coming out of the underground car park one of our local councilors, Marcus invited us to a special wine presentation in the Wine Centre that was starting in half an hour so I shot back up to the house and collected Brenda and the camera! It was to introduce the new man that has taken over the running of the centre from the Council as a new business ‘Argimiro Martinez Moreno’ So we joined the selected few and were given the first private presentation and a little tasting of the local wine “ NILVA!” – see the pictures above. down in the ‘Bodega’ the first wine of this year is all ready fermenting in the stainless steal vats as you can see!

At the same time there is an “Art Exhibition” taking place in the gallery by a local well known painter ‘Carlos Vazquez Mancera’as you can see above, so I’ve killed two birds with one stone!!

As it happens tonight’s supper is another old fish classic as I’m making 'Paupiettes of Fillets of Hake( Sole) Veronique’ which is a white wine cream sauce with ‘Muscatel Local Grapes’! Brenda is getting ready Garden Peas & Saffron New Potatoes.See the picture above !

At lunchtime Mano & Anna called in for a good chat and gossip as we have not seen Anna for a little while

Yesterday afternoon I watched the final part of the ‘Vuelta’ as they reached the last climb of the day outside Cordoba  - it was 3kms up a steep 1/7 hill and all five of the main riders were in the lead as they battled up the hill; Contador,Froome,Val Verde,Rodriquez and Quintana! ‘Val Verde’ won and took over the ‘Red ( Yellow!) jersey. Today’s stage 7 is from Alhendir to Alcaudete and is another ‘climbers’ stage as you can see below.

Tonight is film night so we look for something to watch later after our ‘Fish’ supper.

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM A VERY HOT AND SUNNY MANILVA;

A VERY HOT AND SUNNY MANILVA ON THURSDAY;

THURSDAY 28^th/ AUGUST 2014.

I was up before the sun this morning as little princess ‘Reina’ was being dropped off; ‘Scruffy’ is coming along later, just as we went for our walk after breakfast with ‘Reina’ who should come running up our street to join us but ‘Chispa’ So we all set off to pick up some warm fresh bread and Mushrooms from one of the local shops in Call Mar.

The council has started this morning to put up the street canopies along Calle Mar ready for the ‘Vendimia Festival’ next weekend, it’s a little earlier than usual but no doubt because of the heat at the moment they have started now! Last night was the hottest so far which made it rather uncomfortable to say the least, even the locals are complaining! 27/28c!!

At lunchtime Mano & Fabio called in for a cool drink and a chat so we updated our Mobile phones as Fabio now has his own! 

Yesterday on ‘Facebook’ there was two videos of friends taking the latest craze of the “Ice Bucket Challenge” Our very dear friend over in Old Colwyn Tim did it in his own inevitable style “Naked!’ His son Ben did a very good job and thankfully Tim remembered to keep his hands over his vital parts! Meanwhile in Chester a lady who used to work for us as a part-time waitress at the ‘Pollard Inn’ also while she was still at school ‘Izzy’ was totally drowned!!

So today the ‘Vuelta; starts in Benalmadena just along the coast and ends up in the high ‘Sierras’ below Granada at La Zubia; as you can see below its a climbers stage to say the least.

This evening for supper I’ve treated us to a nice piece of steak from our butchers, hence the Mushrooms earlier, cooked on the hot griddle plate med- rare with lots of twice-cooked ‘Frits’ with Brenda’s finely sliced Green Beans, which reminds me that our next visitors coming over could bring us a new slicer?!! Our usual toppings of fried Garlic Buds and a Campo Fried Egg with a sauceboat of ‘Béarnaise’ sauce on the side.

Last nights supper went down very well, the ‘Pork Chops’ were very succulent and tasty especially as they were baked in the oven, it gives the meat a different texture, the ‘Bubble & Squeek’ was also a nice change; after supper we found another good film to watch “ Water for Elephants” from 2011 about an American circus back in the depression starring Robert Pattison, Reese Witherspoon and Charles Waltz – watch it to find out what its all about! A hint is in the title!!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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" SABINILLAS " BEACH FRONT YESTERDAY;

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM A VERY HOT AND SUNNY MANILVA;

A VERY HOT AND SUNNY MANILVA ON WEDNESDAY;

WEDNESDAY 27^th/ AUGUST 2014.

Well it’s officially another very hot day today, again! Here in sunny Manilva the temperatures are rising, in some parts of the region yesterday it reached 42c( Cordoba) and we are due to go up to 37c! I’ve just come back from the butchers with tonight’s Pork Chops, cut English style( thick!) and could not resist buying a nice slice of steak for tomorrow nights supper instead of the Chicken wings!

After breakfast of a nice glass of freshly squeezed local orange juice, tea,toast and Weetabix for me we are sorting ourselves out for the rest of the day ahead; I’m up in the office on the WWW and as you can see typing the Blog and Brenda is pottering about catching up with all her chores, at lunchtime ‘Scruffy’ is arriving for the day and is being picked up later in the evening.

Den arrived home safely in Skelton and is back in work and rather busy, meanwhile Josie is taking in the sun on her balcony/terrace and generally 'Gadding'about visiting her adoring public, yesterday they had a new boiler fitted at the apartment.

We are now back into our reading in the afternoons before our ‘Happy Hour’ cocktails but its still too hot to go out on the roof terrace at the moment. For our supper tonight we are having the ‘Pork Chops’ baked in the oven with some ‘Bubble & Squeek’from last nights left over Cabbage and mashed potatoes with more of the Onion Gravy!

The coverage of the ‘Vuelta a Espana’ on ‘TVE 1’ is excellent with replays later if you miss it on the ‘TDP’ sports channel,todays stage 5 goes from ‘Priego De Cordoba’ to ‘Ronda’ through the high Sierras.

After supper we will watch the news and then find something to watch.

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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" CALLE SAN VICENTE " SUNNY MANILVA THIS EVENING;

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM SUNNY MANILVA;