A CRISP & SUNNY MANILVA ON MONDAY AT THE START OF THE WEEK;

MONDAY 30^th NOVEMBER 2015.

Just a little lie in this morning as the workmen were in full knocking mode as they arrived; we had our usual breakfast and then sorted our week ahead out. I first put a small Ham on to boil which we will use for sandwiches and also in tomorrows ‘Chicken, Ham & Mushroom Tarragon Pie’ I then shot down to the butchers for some Escalope of Chicken for this evenings supper, I also bought a boned Leg & Thigh of Chicken to go in the pie mix and finally some Calves Liver for later in the week!

On the way back I stopped at the Chemists in Calle Mar for some prescriptions tablets for Brenda and then picked up three very large and beautiful Poinsettia’s from the local ladies charity stall, you can never have enough of them! The sun is just braking through and the sky is blue, its crisp and by lunchtime it will reach 21/22 degs, its still cold during the night so we are going into the ‘winter’ Duvet mode!

In ‘Doggy World Heaven’ this week ‘Reina’ is here as usual on Tuesday & Thursday for the day and then ‘Barny’ is back for a long weekend break on Saturday, ‘Chispa’ is in and out all the time and even called in last night after we came back from Puerto Banus and so she had her ‘Doggy Bag’ meal early” 

 As were getting ready we were listening to ‘Castle Radio FM 89.2’ as it was the ‘Pete Black’ lunchtime request show, I sent in a request and he played ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ by Van Morrison for my ‘child bride’! See the picture below before we set off.

Speaking of Puerto Banus, we had a ‘Helluva’ Sunday Lunch out at the ‘La Sala’ celebrity restaurant; the ‘Hotel Princess’ in Estepona was closed for pre-xmas holidays so we carried on to the restaurant, I left the ‘Ferrari – Red Fiesta’ in the hands of the Valet Parking ( complementary! ) – the car before  us was a Black Bentley that had just cut me up! As we were early for our booking we were able to sit outside on the terrace in the afternoon sunshine and had two nice glasses of chilled ‘Cava Rosado’ to start; we then found a nice table in the middle of the busy restaurant which already had a nice atmosphere with the ‘in crowd’ as the afternoon ‘Duo’ played in the main bar.

 The ‘Amuse Bouches’ that came along was some beautiful crisp ‘Pork Cracking’ with Apple sauce To start Brenda had a very nice & large Smoked Salmon parcel filled with Advocado and I had an excellent  Cream of Spinach Soup, for our main course Brenda chose the Roast Pork and I had the Roast Sirloin of Beef, they both came with very large ‘Guinness’ Yorkshire Puddings and resting on a bed of seasonal local vegetables of Red Cabbage, Mange Tout, Carrot & Parsnip strips and Broccoli florets, the Cauiflower Mornay was separate in a small bowl, I asked for an extra sauceboat of the excellent Red Wine Gravy and also some more of the Goose Fat Roast Potatoes!

My Beef was very good and Med-Rare as I asked for it, Brenda’s Pork was cut a little thicker than we like but was very tasty, overall very good and we would go again. Brenda had a nice glass of the House Sauvigon Blanc to start and their excellent House Rioja with her main course, I had my usual Bacardi & Coke as you can see in the pictures below!

In the early evening a six piece ‘Combo’ with two saxophone players started playing “ Mustang Sally “ followed by a up-beat version, by chance, of “Brown Eyed Girl” – so a dance was called for!! We ended with two glasses of the House Cava on the ‘house’!!

Overall we had a very nice time at ‘La Sala’ – its different to ‘Cocomo’ and the ‘Roast’ is not as good and could not be beaten and of course more expensive but we shall return again for the atmosphere & service.

PS, Andy Murray won the 'Davies Cup' for England for the first time in 79 years! Liverpool won 1-0 & Real Madrid won 0-2 and finally Rosberg won the 'Abu Dhabi Grand Prix'

PPS, The first of our 'Pensions' has just arrived in our new Bank account, and its up on last month as the Euro is also!

Thoughts for the Day ; See above.

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