Wednesday, August 31, 2016

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM SUNNY MANILVA;
























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A VERY HOT & CLAMMY SUNNY MANILVA ON WEDNESDAY;

WEDNESDAY 31st / AUGUST 2016 !




















I was up again this morning to see ‘ Reina’ back with us for the day, Lee is collecting her later this evening as Daniela is away in the UK on business, the Council workmen have started to get ‘Calle Mar’ ready for the ‘ Vendimia Festival’ over this weekend, the sun canopy is up, the lights and decorations have started, the temporary buildings have been constructed and then they will erect the two music stages. After a quick shower we had our ‘light’ breakfast of ‘Weetabix’ fresh fruit tea & toast before getting ourselves sorted for the day ahead.

We had another very hot & sticky night with not a lot of sleep, this morning its started hot & clammy, the forecast is that its going to be a little cooler for the rest of the week, 31/32 degs making it bearable for the time of the year.

At lunchtime I’m going down to the surgery for my ‘ ECG’ tests and will arrange at the same time our appointments with our Doctor, later in the month, after all our blood tests etc. Watch this space.

This afternoon we will be watching the ' Vuelta d' Espana' after yesterdays 'rest day' See the route map below of Stage 11.











This evening for our supper we are having ‘ Grilled Chicken Wings’ with a Baked Potato & a Mixed Salad, tomorrow night we will be out for a ‘ Tapas’ supper as its the Chef’s & Staff night off! On Friday I’m going to make my famous ‘ Seafood Risotto ‘ with all the leftover fish, prawns, mussels etc from the deep freeze.

Last night after supper we watched the excellent new crime drama series on BBC 1 “ One of Us “ – its getting very gripping with lots of sub plots, we are also looking forward to the second series of ‘ Poldark’ this coming Sunday, it’s on before the next episode of Victoria’ over on ITV1! We are enjoying our new found ‘TV’ watching as we have never had the chance since we arrived down here on the ‘ Costa Del Sol’ all those years ago and certainly never in the past in our working lives!














Thoughts for the Day; See above.








ITS FIND THE  ‘MOFFATT’S WEEK’ OVER IN NORTH WALES.









ARE THEY IN THE HILLS ?!





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Tuesday, August 30, 2016

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM SUNNY MANILVA;




















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A STILL VERY WARM & SUNNY MANILVA ON TUESDAY;

TUESDAY 30th AUGUST 2016.























I was up first this morning to welcome back ‘ Reina’ for the day, she’s with us everyday up to and including Friday, ‘ Chispa’ came calling at the same time, she’s in & out all the time, we then freshened up and had our breakfast, ‘Smoked Bacon Butties’ for me and fresh fruit & toast for Brenda.

PS; ' Charlie ' is back with us this weekend for a sleep over on Saturday & Sunday, Jan just rang to see if we could have him! 

We are expecting the maintenance man later as our drains are blocking, we have also arranged for the painter to come back to touch up the outside and also attend to some nasty damp spots in the main bathroom, office and main bedroom, that have been caused by all the building work next door! At the same time the four main window shutters on the front of the house are in disrepair/broken ( due to old age!) so we have asked for new ones to be installed, watch this space.

Last night it was very hot & sticky and it got rather uncomfortable, to say the least, this morning its very close with not a breath of air, the sun was out early and the sky is blue, the forecast is for it to get a little cooler, the mid 30s, the rest of the week is staying hot & sunny and the weekend is going to be warm for the ‘ Vendimia Festival ‘ weekend! See the pictures below of the latest ‘Muscatel’ grapes and a different view of the village taken from across the far valley.










This evening we are having the rest of the ‘ Smoked Chicken & Green Bean Risotto’ for our supper, we have it cold with a little salad on the side, if anything its even nicer served cold, the flavour has matured and I add a few more pieces of the Leg & Thigh meat! The rest of the week we are still taking one day at the time.

Tomorrow lunchtime I’m back at the surgery for my ‘ ECG’ test, I will then make the appointments to see our Doctor, after our various blood tests etc over the next couple of weeks, it takes a week for the results to come back, watch this space.

Yesterday evening after supper we caught the second episode of ‘ Victoria’ . during the late afternoon and early evening we watched the various ‘ Quiz’ shows that we follow; we are looking forward to all the new series that are starting over the next few weeks, then it will be time for ‘ Strictly Come Dancing’!













IT'S FIND THE ' MOFFATT'S WEEK OVER IN NORTH WALES;







NO SIGN THERE THEN!







Thoughts for the Day; See above.




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Monday, August 29, 2016

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

























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

MONDAY 28th / AUGUST 2016.






















 I was up early this morning and after a quick freshen up I shot off across to the local Hospital in Estepona for my X-Ray appointment, the department is very efficient and you are in, on time, and out in a few minutes, I went across early as its very difficult to park near the hospital, the local Police in Estepona are very hot and hunt in ‘packs’ – they fine you and take away the car to the car pound above the town! Before going in I had a quick fresh Orange juice, Tostada & Tea ( no milk!) in a very good Cafe in the street opposite the hospital, all for 2.20 Euros!

We are in for a ‘hot one’ today, as I drove down through the vine fields there was a thick sea mist in the valley, it cleared as I went along the coast road past a sparkling Mediterranean, it was all ready hot in Estepona, it’s always hotter down on the coast, by lunchtime its due to reach 38/40 degs, we had a hot & sticky night, the forecast for the week ahead is for more of the same into the weekend.

Before I left this morning I tuned into ‘ Castle Radio FM 89.2 & Online on the WWW’ to listen to the new Station Manager & Presenter, Sid Oliverea, with his first ‘ live’ Breakfast Show, sadly there where  technical problems with the broadcast link, at the start, and the standby ‘Robert the Robot’ music kicked in, 






Brenda heard the end of the programme which came ‘on air’ for the last 20 minutes! He’s been appointed by Andrew and the ‘ Castle Media Group’ and is a very experienced radio presenter, Andrew is taking over the 4-00 to 6-00pm slot on weekdays, watch out for the return of ‘ Sir Malcolm’s Classic Show’ on Saturday lunchtimes hitting the air ways ‘ live’ from the heart of sunny Manilva, soon, from Studio 4!
















Yesterday lunchtime I went along to ‘Bar Castillo’ for a ‘ take out’ Tapas lunch, ‘Paella’ for me & an ‘Pincho de Gambas’ for Brenda, this meant that we decided to have my special & famous ‘Smoked Chicken & Three Green Bean Risotto ‘ this evening instead! The rest of the week is TBC, I usually make a Curry for the ‘Vendimia festival ‘ weekend, watch this space. See the ' Risotto ' below.






A quick sports update; Barcelona won 0-1 & Manchester City won 3-1 and are top of the ‘ Premiere League’ Lewis Hamilton came from 21st on the back of the grid to third as Rosberg won the ‘Belgium Grand Prix’ – meanwhile Chris Froome lost some more time and is 4th, today’s Stage 10 in the ‘ Vuelta d’Espana’ has two big climbs so he could have the chance to take over the race leaders ‘Red Jersey’- see the route map below, watch this space.





In the evening we watched ‘ Antiques Roadshow’ as one of the most exciting finds in the history of the programme emerged, it was a collection of very rare figures & a dolls house with furnishings from 1705! It was of national importance and was valued at nearly 250,000 Pounds, as a conservative estimate!!

We then went over to ITV to watch the first episode of ‘ Victoria’ starting in 1837 when at the age of 18 she became the Queen, it’s an excellent production with a strong cast, the second episode this evening and then on Sundays. Finally I caught a very good train programme, ‘ Slow Train Through Africa ‘ presented by Griff Rhys-Jones.










PS; ITS ' FIND THE MOFFATT'S WEEK ' OVER IN NORTH WALES !!


















Thoughts for the Day; See above.



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Sunday, August 28, 2016

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM A VERY SUNNY MANILVA;












                                                                                        SPOT THE MISTAKE !




                                                                                          " TWO TO s " !!


                                                                                           A FRIEND POINTED IT OUT !1


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A VERY WARM & SUNNY MANILVA ON SUNDAY;

SUNDAY 28th / AUGUST 2016.





















We all had a nice lie in this morning, ‘Reina’ slept on the top of her duvet and we were on the top of our sheet, as it’s still very warm & sticky during the night, she is being collected later and then is back on Tuesday morning for four days next week as it’s the ‘Bank Holiday’ in Gibraltar, where Lee & Daniela work.

The sun was out early again this morning and we are in for another hot day ahead, then next week we are in for more of the same. See below the village this morning.





Brenda had her shower as she got up and I will have mine later after typing & posting the Blog, for our breakfast we all had Scrambled ‘ Campo’ Eggs on toast, Brenda is getting the three types of Green Beans ready for this evenings ‘ Smoked Chicken Risotto’

Here in Spain it’s just a normal weekend, next weekend, of course, it’s the ‘ Vendimia Festival ‘ from Friday to Sunday and a local Bank Holiday on the Monday! I have my appointment, first thing on Monday, for an X-Ray over in Estepona at the local hospital ( like an old fashioned ‘ Cottage Hospital!) then on Wednesday morning I’m going down to the surgery for my ‘ ECG’ before all the blood tests etc the following week! Brenda has another blood test due in the system and we then both have to make appointments back with our Doctor for all the results before she goes on holiday at the end of September!  We are also starting to use our new ‘ Blood Pressure Testing Kit’ on Monday’ - it records in the memory both our results and you then take it along to the surgery when you see the Doctor. Watch this space.

Just a quick update/round up on the sport from yesterday; Real Madrid had a lucky win 2-1, Liverpool gave away a goal in the last few minutes and drew 1-1, Everton had a good win 1-0, at the ‘ Belgium Grand Prix’ Lewis Hamilton starts last on the grid after a penalty for an engine change and Chris Froome did not have a good day at the office and fell back 27 secs on the last climb on Stage 8 behind Nario Quintana! See the route map below for today’s stage.










Last night after supper we settled down to watch the special feature length 30th anniversary episode of “ Casual+y “! Since we have not seen it in many years we couldn’t follow all the story line, at the start there was a car/chase crash and the main Consultant and her daughter were badly injured when their car went over a cliff, the other lady driver did not stop, she then had a fit of remorse, stopped her car further along the road and got out to ring for help and was mowed down by a passing car! This was all before the titles started!!

Eventually they were all found, the two lady victims ended up in the Casualty department, the daughter had to be taken to the hospital in the ‘Air Ambulance ‘ which then crashed onto the ‘Casualty’ entrance because a young boy was playing with his birthday present ‘ a Drone’ – he lost control and flew it into the helicopter engine!! It was all very surprising and exciting, a spectacular filmed crash with lots of death & mayhem, two of the young Doctors trapped under falling scaffolding, the department closed, the daughter in the Air Ambulance with even more severe head injuries, I nearly forgot, a Irish lady arrived with pains which turned out to be a dead baby in her womb from fifty year ago?!

During all this ‘Charlie’ the main character played by the excellent Derek Thomson, carries on as normal with his knowledge, wit etc, as they battle to overcome all the problems, Connie, the Consultant, rips out her tubes to get to her badly injured daughter and then collapse’s again, are you following?! One ‘ Helluva ‘ episode !!















Thoughts for the Day; See above.




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