A VERY WARM & SUNNY MANILVA ON A ' BANK HOLIDAY' MONDAY AT THE START OF THE WEEK;

MONDAY 2^nd / MAY 2016.

We managed another nice lie in this morning as the village is very quiet, its a ‘Bank Holiday’ here in Spain as well, it was not marked on our local calendar! After freshening ourselves up we had a treat of toasted ‘ Smoked Bacon Butties’ smeared with ‘HP’ sauce and mugs of steaming ‘English Tea’ ( PG Tips!) with fresh Milk; we then had our weekly Menu planning meeting, this evening we are having ‘ Burgers’ – just plain grilled and served with sauté Onions etc ( no buns!) On Tuesday its going to be ‘ Entrecote Steak’ cut ‘French ‘ style and on Wednesday I’m making my now famous ‘ Chicken Curry’ Thursday is TBC and on Friday its my famous ‘ Seafood Risotto ‘ as we are going to ask our Swedish friend Lillimore to join us.

Its another beautiful day here in sunny Manilva, the sun was out early and the sky is bright blue, there is a little breeze making it very pleasant, by lunchtime it will be getting hot, its perfect for a washing/drying day so the machine has just gone on and later I will be up on the roof patio in the sky putting it all out to dry! I like to colour co-ordinate the pegs!! See below a picture of Sabinillas beach this morning.

No ‘ Reina’ today, she’s back with us from Tuesday to Friday, each day, at the moment ‘ Chispa’ is crashing in and out, she needs a wash & groom as she looks like a little street urchin, watch this space.

Just a quick sports results round up; Liverpool lost 3-1, Manchester City lost 4-2 and Hamilton finished second at the ‘Russian Grand Prix’ after some spectacular racing.

We had a news update E-Mail from Tim & Thea, they are moving closer, day by day, they are in Aguilas and going onto Torrox for a week or so, they posted some pictures as they passed Benidorm, they use their bicycles to get out and about in the villages and down to the coast by the sparkling Mediterrnean, enjoy and relax, see you soon?! 

PS; They missed their request on my radio show last Saturday as they were on the road so this week they have requested ' On the Road Again' by Canned Heat - it just turns out that its the first track on this weeks playlist at 11-00 am - RESULT!! 

Last night after supper we watched a new series on ‘Channel 4’ “ Paul Merton’s Secret Stations “ He travels on trains around the country to visit Britain’s ‘request stops’ ( over 150 ) still in use; They are marked on the railway time tables by a ‘X’ and show the time that the train is due to pass, if you want it to stop you have to inform the ticket/conductor/guard so as he can inform the driver to stop, when you are on the station you hold your hand up to stop the train – honest!

It brought bake the memory of the time back in 1965 when I was in Austria to see a girl friend and on my way home I went to the local station to catch a train, it turned out that you had to stop the train by waving a white stick with a red disk! As it slowed down the famous ‘ ‘Wagons Lits’ sleeping carriages passed ( see below ) - it was the original “ Orient Express “ on its way from Constantinople ( Istanbul) to the ‘ Gare De L’est in Paris !! Happy memories of my time in Paris, but that’s another story/tale!!

At one such station on the ‘ Cumbrian Coast Line’ at Drigg, he got off the train to see that the station and the surrounding area was controlled with high barb wired fences and armed ‘MOD’ guards, its the main nuclear waste repository for the UK, all the low level waste is taken there in concrete lined containers, on guarded special trains, its vast and very scary, the containers are stacked four high and are then covered with special sheeting and soil, it will be there for thousands of years to come! It reminded me of  well over 50 year ago in North Wales when the ‘Transfyndd Nuclear Power Station ‘ opened and they built a special railway line for the construction, if fact it was for when the plant was decommissioned in 1991 so as they were able to take the low level(?) waste away safely!!

We then watched the next to last episode of ‘ Undercover’ on BBC 1 with the excellent ( Shakesperean ) actors Sophie Okonedo & Adrian Lester in the main roles, the plot is starting to unfold, there was more killings and the ‘CIA’ are now implicated & involved along with the secret British intelligence group! Its building up to a very gripping and exciting climax next week when all will be revealed?!


PS; Don't forget to keep your postcards coming in when you are out and about , we have ours ready to send back to you!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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