A VERY CRISP BUT STILL DRY SUNNY MANILVA ON THURSDAY;

THURSDAY 24^th/ NOVEMBER 2016.

I was up first this morning to see ‘ Reina’ back with us for the day, we then freshened ourselves up and had our usual breakfast of ‘Weetabix’ - fresh fruit, toast & tea, we then sorted out the weekly shopping list out ready for tomorrow morning. I shot along to the Chemists in ‘Calle Mar’ for my prescription tablets, I’m going down to Sabinillas as usual on Friday, on Saturday lunchtime we are picking our friend Gillian up from the Bus Station over in Marbella, she’s staying with us for 3 days before we take her across to Estepona on Tuesday morning where she is staying with another friend.

Overnight the rains returned but by this morning it’s very crisp & dry, for now, the forecast is for more rain later, tomorrow and over the weekend we are in, sadly, for more of the same, we are yet to find out what next week has in store for us, watch this space.

For our supper this evening we are having Grilled Cumberland Sausages ( Iceland !) & Crispy Smoked Bacon with a ‘ fry-up’ of the leftover vegetables & potatoes, Friday night will be ‘ Fish Night’ and then on Saturday it’s going to be ‘ Steak Night’ with Gillian joining us, on Sunday we are out for our ‘ Roast Sunday Lunch’ and then on Monday its TBC!

Yesterday evening we watched ' Master Chef - The Professionals ' - one of the tasks was to make a 'Lamb Tartare ' - very unusual - ' Beef Tartare' is one of the restaurant dishes that I was taught many years ago in Liverpool back at the ' Stork Hotel' The last time I made it was for a regular customer at the ' Pollards Inn' on the Wirral; he was a famous ' Brain Consultant' at the 'Children's Hospital' in Liverpool, it also happens to be one of Brenda's favourite dishes!

It's presented on a large silver platter; finely diced, lean, 'Fillet Steak' ( not minced !) with finely diced Onions/Shallots, Capers, Gherkins, Parsley, Mustard, Lee & Perrins & Tabasco, Brandy and a raw Egg Yolk, then mixed in a chilled bowl in front of the customer to his taste, seasoning as it comes together, presented in a mound with the 'Egg Yolk' ( sometimes Confit!) in the centre, accompanied with a selection of breads, 

See below; 

And even ' Frits'!

After supper Lee shot off with ‘ Reina’ and we settled down to watch the next episode of “ The Missing “ – it was the best episode of the entire series as more questions were answered, the killer is on the run to a strange cabin in the Swiss Alps, with his young daughter, and her young mother, one of the missing girls, the French detective has discovered a hidden cellar under the garage floor of his house, what happened and by whom over in Gulf War has been revealed, he confronted the killer but was arrested himself, then right at the very end is showed the another missing girl in the cabin who has been taken there in the boot of the killers car! There is just one final episode left of the trilling drama, watch this space.

Last night as we were getting ready to go to bed Jack & Lyn came online on the Skype video from Melbourne; it was 9-50 am on Friday over there and 11-50 pm here on Thursday, still 10 hours difference, they are both very well but Jack is having a little breathing problem so is due to go and see the ‘ Lung Man’ as he says!

It’s the summer over there so they are enjoying the warmer weather and making plans for Xmas with their extended large family, they are arranging a family get-together before Xmas and have booked a large house down on ‘Philip Island’ below Melbourne, Jack had just become a great grandfather again, his 3/4^th, Lyn has 3, so far! Watch this space!!

It’s an at home day catching up with the chores around the house, Brenda is getting the main guest bedroom ready for Gillian, meanwhile I’m in the office/studio on the ‘WWW’ – I’m still hopeful of getting back online ‘ Live’ on air, in the not too distant future, on ‘Castle Radio FM 89.2’ with my ‘ Sir Malcolm’s Classic Show’ on Saturday lunchtime, watch this space.

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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