A CRISP AND SUNNY MANILVA ON WEDNESDAY THE LAST DAY OF 2014;

WEDNESDAY 31^st/ DECEMBER 2014.

I took ‘Scruffy’ out for is first walk of the day before coming back for our usual breakfast of Weetabix,toast ,fresh fruit and tea, ‘Reina’ is not with us today for  sleep over as planned, she’s coming at lunchtime tomorrow for a short while,’Chispa’is here already this morning rather earlier than normal and is eating some bones at the moment; meanwhile ‘Charlie’ is just waking up and starting his usual dawn chorus of his full repertoire of calls,whistles,sounds,with words and sayings after we take his cover off!

At lunchtime we went for a nice walk with both of the dogs down to the 'Mirador' at the bottom of the village.We sat on our 'Derby & Joan' bench over looking the valley towards the mountains and across to the 'Med'

Today we have another beautiful day here in sunny Manilva with a clear blue sky, the sun out early and no breeze, the forecast is for more of the same for the rest of the week and over the weekend getting a little warmer, its still very crisp and you have to wrap up well including ‘Scruffy’ in his Tartan coat! First thing in the morning its cold and later in the evening also, during the night it’s dropping down to 3/4degs at the moment.

Now for the bad news this morning, yesterday the ‘UK’ Government and the Minister of Pensions, Ian Duncan Smith stopped next years ‘Winter Fuel Payments’ to pensioner’s living abroad in various counties especially here in Spain, if you are living in Bulgeria,Finland or even Belgium you will still receive it but we are getting nothing! Its £100 per person and arrives in the bank account towards the end of November, the new law is based on overall temperatures in the country calculated against the temperatures in some part of Southern England at the same time! It does not take into account any very cold spells or local circumstances.

We have both paid our taxes since starting work at the age of sixteen and working all our lives until the age of over sixty never claiming any benefits and in our case paying two full council taxes on our house and apartments at the hotels!! We have electricity bills just like everybody else and in the winter you need some sort of heating on to keep the cold chills at bay, the Minister even went as far a to ‘Hint’ that the money was spent of drinking and eating!! This in our case is just not true, we have to budget just like any other pensioners and look after ourselves and maintain a decent style of life in our old age!

It was also a reminder of our origins and pace of birth and how we have worked all our lives in the country of our birth and paid our way at all times – it feels like a ‘kick in the face’ – to say that we are not happy is somewhat of a understatement to say the least!!

Rant over, for now so back to tonight’s supper – we are treating ourselves to ‘T-Bone’ steaks cooked on the hot griddle plate ‘Med–Rare’ with sautéed Baby Mushrooms, finely sliced Green Beans and twice-cooked ‘Frits’ before welcoming in the New Year here in a crisp and sunny Manilva – just the two old age pensioners ‘huddled’ together for warmth in front of the TV with ‘Scruffy’ & ‘Charlie’ for company!

                      

                                        “ FELIZ ANO NUEVO ”               “ HAPPY NEW YEAR ”
 
                               
                                  " FROM THE SEXTONS & SCRUFFY IN SUNNY MANILVA"

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

..