A CRISP, WARM & SUNNY MANILVA ON SATURDAY.

SATURDAY 29^th / JANUARY 2017.

                                                          " Chinese New Year of the Rooster "

I was up and out first thing this morning on my travels down to Sabinillas for the weekly shopping, I picked up the local newspapers from the ‘ English Bookshop’ before the main shop in ‘ Mercadona’ – I then went along to ‘ Puerto de la Duquesa’ to the  ‘English Butchers’ and came out with Homemade Pork Sausages & Smoked Bacon, Gammon Steaks, Dutch Calves Liver, Home Cured Boiled Ham, & ‘Colman’s English Mustard’ – I then came back up the hill through the vine fields, at this time of the year they trim back all the branches and burn them off, the smoke has a strong vine aroma, the very old gnarled black vines are then left exposed on the ground.

After yesterdays ‘ Atlantic’ front passed over us, it was not as bad as forecast, this morning we are back to normal for the time of the year, the sky is bright blue, there is no breeze and its crisp & sunny, by lunchtime its due to reach 19degs! Tomorrow we have more of the same and into the start of next week it’s getting a little better, the rest of the week ahead we will find out what is in store for us on Mondays main weather forecast on TVE! Watch this space.

See below the view from Sabinillas promenade this lunchtime.

At lunchtime we are going around to the new ‘ Tapas Bar’ that reopened on Wednesday ‘ La Padreta ‘ on the bottom by-pass road on the side of the village overlooking the valley & mountains, the first reports are very good and we will find out who is running it and check out the drink prices and food, watch this space.

We had a very nice ' Tapas ' lunch, the young lady running the bar, 'Laura' looked after us, meanwhile in the kitchen it was our friend ' Pilar '- who is the best cook in the village - Brenda had a toasted 'Chicken, Bacon, Egg, Tomato & Lettuce Sandwich ( thick bread) - the Spanish version of the classic ' Club Sandwich' and I had my favourite ' Pollo a la Plancha with a ' CAMPO ' Fried Egg and fresh ' Patatas Fritas ' ! ( Chicken & Chips ) !!


See below some pictures taken on the opening day;

This evening for our supper we are having ‘ Grilled Fillet Steak ‘ cooked on a very hot griddle plate ‘ Med-Rare’ and then left to rest, garnished with seared Asparagus Spears, Button Mushrooms & ‘ French-Fried ‘ Onion Rings ( milk & flour) – topped with a quenelle of ‘Iberico’ Pate! Finely sliced Green Beans & twice-cooked ‘ Frits’ on the side; on Sunday we are Roasting, a large Chicken, with lots of seasonal vegetables, ‘Duck Fat’ Roast Potatoes and a rich finger licking pan Gravy.

This weekend over in England it’s the Fourth Round of the ‘FA Cup’- the early kick-off is Liverpool at home to Wolves, later Manchester City travel down to Crystal Palace; over here in ‘La Liga’ on Sunday Barcelona travel to Real Betis in Seville & Real Madrid are at home to Real Sociedad. The National Hunt Racing today is from Cheltenham & Doncaster over on ‘ITV4’

Tonight after supper we will channel hop and find a good film to watch.

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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