THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM A VERY ' CRISP' SUNNY MANILVA;

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A ' CRISP' & OVERCAST SUNNY MANILVA ON WEDNESDAY.

WEDNESDAY 31st/ JANUARY 2018.     “ SUPER BLUE BLOOD MOON “

Sadly Daniela is still not very well so little princess ‘ Reina’ has not joined us this morning in ‘ Doggy World Heaven ‘ – this means that we had a little lie in, the village is still very quiet as the ‘Contractors’ workmen are at present at the top end of ‘ Calle Mar ‘ and with no traffic in our street and the school children are making their way up to the school by the back streets, it’s stays quiet until the local neighbours come out and start chatting!

After our normal light breakfast of toast & tea I got this evenings supper on the go, my famous ‘ Chicken & Mushroom Curry ‘

See below ‘Calle Mar ‘ this morning.

At the moment it’s grey & overcast but keeping dry, the wind has dropped a little and the sky is starting to clear, by lunchtime it’s due to reach 15/16 degs+ - hopefully the wet stuff will keep away, from tomorrow it’s now looking dry & settled, with some sunshine but keeping on the cool side, hovering on the 13/14 degs mark for the next few days and into the weekend, next week is also looking the same, unseasonably cold for the time of the year, watch this space.

See below the start of the supper blue blood moon over Liverpool, last night, it’s the dome of the Town Hall with the ‘Minerva’ Statue looking towards the ‘ Everton Water Tower ‘ in blue in the distance!

I made the ‘ Chicken & Mushroom Curry ‘ to my own recipe; the diced Chicken Breast is tossed in seasoned curry flavoured flour and browned off, at the same time I make the sauce using diced Onions, a little Garlic & ‘ Fuji Apples, diced Pineapple and Baby Mushrooms, lots of Lime & Lemon juice, the secret ingredients along with Tomato Frito, with three sorts of Curry Powders & Turmeric and Cumin powder, then a little Mango Chutney and pastes of Rogan Josh, Tikka Masala & Madras Curry before adding a rich Chicken & Vegetables stock and the diced Chicken, it’s then left to ‘ cook-off’ under the very able eye of the ‘ Second Chef ‘ – who will prepare and cook her famous ‘ Basmati Rice’ later!

The aromas are wafting up the street and upstairs into the office/studio as I’m typing/posting the Blog!!

See below some more pictures of the old Pier in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, before the ‘demolition’ start work, later today, very sad to see it in its last ‘ Stand ‘ !!


Check out the view in the first picture below, don't forget that you can enlarge all the pictures by clicking on them! The small ' window' picture is from 1902 !!

Last night we watched before our supper the next episode of ‘ Great American Railroad Journeys’ with Michael Portillo as he reached Canada, his first stop was Montreal in the province of Quebec, as he discovered the influence of French & British colonial roots, it’s going to get even more interesting as he goes to Toronto later in the week, we are learning more about Canada, the first things is how large it is! We are watching out for a mention of ‘Everett’ in Ontario, as it brings Sandra & Bill that bit nearer and into our thoughts!! Watch this space.

After supper we settled down to watch the next episode of the excellent  two-part ‘ Silent Witness ‘ only to be disappointed as the TV system crashed, I tried all the re-set tricks, that Lee has showed me, but with no luck, this morning I’ve managed to get it back on so later we will use the ‘BBC I –Player’ to catch up with the end.

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM A VERY COLD SUNNY MANILVA;

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A COLD BUT DRY SUNNY MANILVA ON WEDNESDAY.

TUESDAY 30^th/ JANUARY 2018.

We were both up early this morning, ‘Reina’ has not been dropped off as Daniela’ is not feeling very well, we then freshened ourselves up and grabbed a quick toast & tea before setting off to the ‘ Costa Del Sol Hospital’ past Marbella, along the coast road with a stormy & grey Mediterranean crashing onto the beaches, for Brenda’s appointment with the ‘ Kidney’ consultant, at the hospital both the lift into the hospital and the one up to the department were not working, which meant a lot of stairs!

The regular lady consultant, who has been in charge of Brenda’s health for a few years, is very thorough, she checks Brenda’s weight, her blood pressure and heart beat before reading all the test results, she checks all Brenda’s prescription tablets and adjusts them, if required, she confirmed our Doctor, Natalia’s response, that everything is looking settled and better than last times check up, six months ago, so she has another check up/review in six months time!

We then set back off to a not so sunny Manilva, this morning the wind has dropped a little but it was grey & overcast as we set off, a least for now the rain has kept away, in fact by late lunchtime the sun has broken through, hovering on the 15 degs mark, over in Marbella is was not so cold & windy, as usual, it’s more of the same tomorrow before it picks up into the weekend, back up to 16 degs+ - on Sunday we could have more of the wet stuff and then next week is now looking dry one day, rain on another and so on, watch this space.

See below the beach down in Sabinillas this morning.

Meanwhile up in sunny Mojacar Thea is celebrating her 60^th birthday, we had a nice catch up/chat with them yesterday evening and caught up with all their news, Thea has just received all her cards in the afternoon post, our arrived early, as we now take no chances! They have all their friends off the site, joining them for a grand party, later, we wish Thea a very “ Happy Birthday – Feliz Cumpleaños “ – Have a ‘ Helluva’ Day  and thanks for your friendship over all the years, with your family, Lots of Love Malcolm & Brenda in sunny Manilva, just down the coast ( 400 kms!) !!  “ CHEERS “

This evening for our supper we are having ‘ Pan-Seared Lambs Liver’ – thinly sliced & lightly dusted in seasoned flour, garnished with Crispy Smoked ‘Back’ Bacon ( English) & Button Mushrooms, with Cabbage with Acelgas & Glazed Carrot Batons, the rest of the ‘ Boulangere Potatoes’ and a sauceboat of finger-licking Pan Gravy! Tomorrow I’m making a large pan of my famous ‘ Chicken Curry ‘ along with Brenda’s equally famous ‘ Basmati Rice ‘

Yesterday afternoon/evening we watched all the ‘Quiz’ shows, ‘ Countdown, Pointless, Eggheads, Only Connect  & University Challenge ‘ before watching the next two-part episodes of the excellent ‘ Silent Witness ‘

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM A VERY COLD AND WINDY SUNNY MANILVA;

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A VERY COLD & WINDY SUNNY MANILVA ON MONDAY AT THE START OF THE WEEK.

MONDAY 29^th/ JANUARY 2018.

I was up early this morning to welcome back little princess ‘ Reina’ for the day, she shot upstairs and joined us for a nice long lie in, she’s with us in ‘ Doggy World Heaven’ for four days this week, no doubt later ‘ Chispa’ will come crashing in to see her friend and us, we then showered and got the day and the week on the go, after our regular breakfast of ‘ Weetabix’ toast & tea Brenda is catching up with the chores and I’m up in the office/ studio on the ‘WWW’ catching up with the ‘E-Mail’s, Facebook’ messages etc – then reading the online newspapers and watching the news  from around the World before typing/posting the Blog.

Tomorrow morning we are going across to the ' Costa Del Sol Hospital ' past Marbellas as Brenda had a appointment with the ' Kidney ' consultant for her six-month check up/review, while we are at the Hospital we are going to the reception/admissions desk to try and re-arrange her two appointments with the ' Heart ' consultant that we missed before Xmas, when the car was off the road, watch this space.

It’s very cold & overcast this morning with strong winds, all our wall plants have been damaged, over in Gibraltar next to the offices where Lee & Daniela work the scaffolding on a large building next to theirs has just been blown down! We are in for a stormy day, It’s forecast to stay dry but then tomorrow the rain is back with us until Thursday, the overall temperatures are hovering on the 15/16 degs mark, then over the coming weekend we are back to normal, for the time of the year, with sunshine and clear skies, reaching 18 degs+ by Sunday, next week is carrying on warm & sunny before more of the cold & wet stuff returns, watch this space.

See below a picture of a stormy sky & the Mediterranean crashing onto the  beach down in Sabinillas yesterday in the early evening.

Sadly we were not able to make contact with Tim & Thea on the ‘ Skype’ video yesterday afternoon as they had problems charging their phones, we have arranged to make a call later today via the ‘ Facebook’ messenger video, so will then catch up with all the news and plans for Thea’s 60^th birthday celebrations tomorrow!

See below a picture taken this morning showing the newly updated promenade in Colwyn Bay looking towards the old classic Pier, awaiting it’s ‘ Fate’ later today!

We have also has a long ‘ Facebook ‘ message from Sandra & Bill over in Everett, Ontario, Canada, at the moment over there it’s mild & warm, a balmy 3c! The snow has cleared for now and there is lots of water in the low lying areas, they are bracing themselves for the return of Winter!! We have arranged to call them on the ‘ Skype’ video on Sunday.

We are also planning to make contact with Jack & Lyn over in Melbourne during the week to catch up with all their news, we will ring them to set up a ‘ Skype’ video chat, watch this space.

See below a spectacular view taken from the top of the ‘Roman Catholic’ Cathedral in Liverpool, looking along ‘ Hope Street’ to the ‘ Anglican ‘ Cathedral!

For our supper this evening we are having the rest of the ‘Roast Leg of New Zealand, South Island, Lamb’ cold, we love ‘ cold-cuts’ of roast meats, we will have a fry-up of the leftover vegetables with ‘ Boulangere’ Potatoes; tomorrow it’s going to ‘Pan-Seared Liver ‘ sliced very thin, dusted in seasoned flour, with Crispy Smoked Bacon etc. The rest of the weeks menu’s are still TBC, watch this space.

Last night after supper we settled down to watch the next episode of “ McMafia “ over on ‘BBC TV 1 ‘ – Betrayals, break-ups, blackmail and flying bullets as the global drama unfolded, ‘ PPO’ ( personal protection officer) for nearly all the family, a Russian hit squad landed at Heathrow, meanwhile in Prague one of the drug overlords betrayed our main character, at the end there was a surprise assassination target, not the mother of the family but the pregnant girlfriend of our ‘ hero’ – she was shot in the stomach, the lady assassin was shot dead by a bodyguard, watch this space.

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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