A CRISP & SUNNY MANILVA & ESTEPONA ON WEDNESDAY;

WEDNESDAY 25^th/ NOVEMBER 2015

We were up early again this morning and after a quick cup of tea we shot off on our travels down here on the ‘Costa Del Sol’ 

We parked in the promenade underground car park in Estepona and called into our favourite ‘Cafe’ for our morning ‘Tostado & Coffee’ Brenda went along to the shops for some essentials and I settled into my barbers for the full works including a scalp massage!

The sun is out again and the sky is blue, its crisp as you start off but by mid morning its warm in the sunshine, 21degs today, so we can’t complain, the rest of the week is staying fine and over the weekend we have more of the same, this means that it will be nice for our 44^th ‘Wedding Anniversary’ Sunday lunch over in Puerto Banus at the ‘La Sala’ celebrity restaurant.

We then went along to the far end of Estepona to ‘La Casa’ and found some very nice Xmas Tree decorations & lights, napkins and Xmas cloth and our usual night lights as well as some rather different Xmas cards; On the way back we called in the Hypermarket ‘Carrefour’ and found some more nice decorations and a super ‘Red Plant Pot’ for our latest ‘Poinsettia’ – we have three more plants on order from a local charity in the village!

After un-packing back at the house I got this evenings supper on the go; ‘ Casserole of Liver, Sausages & Bacon’ in a rich Red Wine Onion Gravy. I pan-sear the floured Liver & cook the English Pork Sausages along with some Crispy Smoked Bacon, at the same time I made the gravy with sliced Onions & Shallots, Garlic, diced Mushrooms & Smoked Bacon sippits, a good Red Wine ( sorry Brenda !) along with a rich Beef & Vegetable stock, lots of seasoning, gravy browning ( thanks Josie !) and  adjust the consistancy with Cornflour and coat the Liver, Sausage & Bacon with the sauce ready to go in the oven this evening,Brenda has made some of her famous ‘Mashed Potato’ and Cabbage with Aselgas! See below;

The picture below shows the old ‘Runcorn – Widnes Transporter Bridge’ that was built in 1901/5 and closed in 1961, it was the first in the UK and the largest in the world at the time, it crossed over the River Mersey & the Manchester Ship Canal, by the side of it was the railway bridge opened in 1865 to take the railway from Liverpool to London, the footpath that you can see at the side brought back lots of happy memories.

Back in the 1950s/early 60s my dad ‘Tommy Sexton’ used to take me across on our bikes on the footpath and we would come back on the transporter; my dad was a long distance racing cyclist, over 100 mile Time Trails and 12 hour & 24 hour distance races, he was a founding member of the ‘Mersey Roads Club’ and every weekend he would take me out riding in Lancashire, Cheshire and North Wales, longer each time and more hills as time went on, to start we used to go across the Aintree Racecourse on the Melling Road and up to Ormskirk, my first hill to climb! Then the next challenge was the hill at Parbold,by then I had a handmade dropped - handle bike with five gears made by the famous ‘Harry Quinn’ cycle shop in Everton Valley.

As time went on we went further and further, just before we reached home we would stop and he would freshen me up, with a bit of water, and get me all smart so as when we got home to Trevor Road in Orrell Park, where mum was waiting on the steps! As he said ‘She will let us go out again if your looking OK!! I can still feel to this day his left hand across my shoulder as we rode along ­­- ‘ very happy memories’ The ‘Mersey Roads Club’ has had its centenary and is still famous for the ‘Mersey Road 24 hour’ race along the roads of the Wirral and Cheshire to this day!

Thoughts for the Day ; See above.

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