A VERY HOT & SUNNY MANILVA ON FRIDAY AT THE START OF A ' HELLUVA' WEEKEND.

FRIDAY 16^th/ AUGUST 2019.

We managed a little in this morning, Brenda then took ‘ Chico’ for his first walk of the day, when she returned we freshened up and had our breakfast, a ‘ treat’- ‘Toasted Crispy Smoked Bacon Butties’ – open on brown for Brenda – topped with ‘HP’ Brown sauce, with mugs of strong hot tea to set us up for the day ahead.

Today the sun was out early and the sky was blue, with just a very slight breeze, so by lunchtime it’s due to reach 31 degs+ very hot & sunny, as well as being very ‘ close’ – the weekend is going to be a ‘ hot-one’ – next week is still starting very warm & sunny, then as the breeze gets up it’s going a little cooler, hovering in the mid/high 20s,  for the rest of the week, still hot during the night, watch this space.

It was then time to set off across to the ‘ Costa Del Sol Hospital’ – we dropped ‘ Chico’ off with Rose, for a few hours,  I then topped up the car with petrol before ‘ Braving’ the summer  ‘ Holiday’ traffic along the coast road, all the junction are conjested, lots of slow moving jams, it’s ‘ Mad ‘ and very dangerous!

Our appointment, for Brenda, at the ‘ Dermatology Department’ was on time, a new Consultant, he gave Brenda a good check up and has prescribed some new sprays and shampoos, he even checked my two problems out after I asked him to have a quick look!

We then came back along the coast road, with all the same problems, with overtaking/undertaking in the inside lane, as the Spanish drivers get a little ‘hot under the collar’! We picked ‘ Chico’ up from Rose and came back up to the house, rather hot & sweaty to say the least!

This evening we have given the ‘ Staff’  a well deserved ‘night-off’- so we are going along, youv’e guessed, to ‘ Bar Castillo’ for some nice cool drinks and a ‘ Fish Tapas’ supper.

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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A VERY BREEZY BUT STILL VERY HOT SUNNY MANILVA ON FRIDAY AT THE START OF THE WEEKEND;

FRIDAY 15^th / JULY 2016.

I was up very early this morning as ‘ Reina’ was being dropped off by Daniela, she is very busy before flying off to England; ‘Reina’ is with us until Monday evening, then she’s back next Tuesday for the week. She is no problem, she is very quiet, most of the time, she has the loudest bark of all of the dogs, she sleeps a lot of the time and goes to bed early, like all good girls!

I then got myself ready and shot of on my travels down to Sabinillas for the weekly shopping, its staring to get busy, more cars on the road, nowhere to park, all the shops busy and  ‘ Mercadona ‘ with all the tills open from first thing, I posted a birthday card in the ‘English Bookshop’ and picked up the local newspapers, the main shop was then done before going along to the local market, at the end of the promenade, for fresh flowers & wall plants, I popped into ‘ Super Sol ‘ for some English essentials before coming back up the hill through the green vine fields to the village and our house, after unpacking I shot along to the local Bank in ‘Calle Mar’ to pay the electricity bill.

Over night a stiff breeze has come along but its still very hot & sunny, making  it a bit more bearable, over the weekend its getting hotter and next week we are in for very hot spell, usual for this time of the year. See below the sign on the railway station on the Isle of Anglesey, North Wales, that is the next to longest name ( 58 ) in the World, the longest one is on the North Island of New Zealand ( 85 )

TAUMATAWHAKAJANGIHANGAKOAUTAMATEATURIPUKAKAPIKIMAUNGAHORONUKUPOKAIWHENUAKITANATAHU  !! 

This afternoon I'm going across to the Bus Station above Marbella to collect our Swedish friend Lillimor, who is flying in from Gothenburg, she’s her for the next 3/4 months, she  has a small house in a complex below the village on the side of the valley.

When I get back I will be watching ‘ Stage 13 ‘ of the “ Tour De France’ which today is a hilly ‘Time Trial’ over 37 kms from Bourg-Saint-Andeol to La cavern Du Pont –D’Arc – See the route map below.

Yesterdays stage will be the most talked about stage in the history of the race as Chris Froome was forced to run up Mont Ventoux , without a bike, following a crash with a motorbike, after a member of the crown forced it to brake sharply, His bike was damaged by another motorbike rider crashing into his bike at the same time, he eventually got one near the finish as he must finish on a bike/or with one! He had left all the other contenders behind and was well ahead of them all on time, he was with two other riders, one of them managed to carry on. In the end Froome was given the same time as the rider who escaped and so he retained the Yellow Jersey and increased his lead over the other riders – RESULT!!

Tonight for our supper we are having ‘ Pan-Seared Fillets of Hake a la Meuniere ‘ with Garden Peas and Parsley new Potatoes, on Saturday its going to be ‘ Grilled Entrecote Steak ‘ – sliced ‘French’ style and then on Sunday possibly  ‘Escalopes of Turkey Breast’

Last night after our Tapas supper up at  ‘ Bar Castillo ‘  we went down to the Cultural Centre ‘ Casa Del Torres ‘ to watch the ‘ Tango Concert ‘ it turns out that its next week! The concert this week was a professional ‘ Copla’ singer ‘ Mari Carmen Morino ‘ from Sevilla, with a very good five piece backing band, she sings ‘ Flamenco, Fandango & Musical songs and the very full local audience was enthralled, lots of shouting and clapping!  See the picture above.

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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A VERY WARM & SUNNY MANILVA ON SATURDAY;

SATURDAY 21^st / MAY 2016.

We had a little lie in this morning as I did not need to go down to ‘ Castillo de la Duquesa’ for my show on ‘ Castle Radio FM 89.2 & Online on the WWW’ as it was cancelled yesterday due to a technical difficulty with the new broadcast mast. Back next Saturday ‘ Live’ on air from 11-00 am – 1-00 pm- listen and enjoy!

For our breakfast we had ‘ Campo’ Fried Eggs with Smoked Bacon, lots of toast and mugs of steaming tea; for our supper this evening its ‘ Grilled Entrecote Steak’ grilled ‘ Med-Rare’ and the sliced ‘ French’ style, garnished with Asparagus Spears & sautéed Button Mushrooms with whole Green Beans and twice-cooked ‘ Frits’ – on the side ‘ Bearnaise’ sauce.

We have another very hot & sunny day down here on the ‘ Costa Del Sol’ – the sky is bright blue and there is a little light breeze to make it very pleasant, tomorrow its the same and next week is looking settled with more of the hot weather to come.

At lunchtime we took our Swedish friend Lillemor across to the bus station in Marbella as she is flying back to Gothenburg from Malaga this evening, this afternoon ‘ Reina’ is due back with us for a sleep over. Later we will watch the ‘ FA Cup Final’ from Wembley as Crystal Palace play Manchester Utd. Tomorrow over here its the ‘ Copa Del Rey Final ‘ as Barcelona play Sevilla.

We spoke to Jack & Lyn over in Melbourne on the ‘ Skype’ video last night to check out their travel details, they fly from Melbourne on Wednesday and are due in Manchester early on Thursday morning, they have arranged a hire car and are then driving down the ‘M56’ to Runcorn, turn off at Junction 11 to Halton Village, to see Norah before going on to see Jenny after a couple of days, they all fly over here into Gibraltar on the 13^th June – we can’t wait!!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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SUNNY MANILVA

THURSDAY 31^st/ FRIDAY 1^st/ JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2013.

After our tea and toast on Thursday morning we went for a nice walk around the village with the dog; the sun was out and the breeze had dropped so it was actually hot! The good weather is lasting over the weekend and into next week so fingers crossed for our trip to the Carnival in Cadiz on the 10^th/ February. We ended up down at Bodega Augustin for a coffee, as you can see in the picture below it was a gorgeous day down here in sunny Manilva.In the afternoon Brenda shot up to the roof terrace and actually stripped off as she was reading her book – now there’s a sight to think about!! She was so engrossed in her book that she missed the crane being taken down on the Plaza Pozo Del Rey site, it was there on Wednesday and was gone this morning on our walk so sadly no pictures of the man as he walks along the crane to the end of the hoist to start the procedure! The phone went late in the afternoon; it was Mano asking us down to a surprise birthday party for Fabio (7) in the party/garage, the pictures above show him blowing out the candle and the cake that was made by Sally Ann. In the evening we watched the second semi-final first leg of the ‘ Copa de Rey’ between Ath.Madrid and Seville – 2-1 to Madrid.

This morning, Friday we have been down for the shopping and called into the English bookshop for the papers and to exchange some books; after unpacking we went down to the local market by the sports complex to pickup some flowers. The bad news this week is that the Euro is at its lowest against the pound in over a year; this means that when our pensions arrive in the bank we loose out, this month from last month it is over 80 euros! Since 2008 we have lost over a third of their value – that’s a lot! Tonight we are having, you’ve gussed,Large Gambas a la Plancha for supper- you could get addicted ! In the early evening we watched a World War 2 film " U571" from 2000 with Matthew McConaughy,Harvey Keitel,Bill Paxton and Jon Bon Jovi in a ' Tale' totally untrue about the Americans capturing the 'Enigma' code machine in a German submarine - in fact we did it a lot earlier in the war before even the USA was involved! Then later we watched a good,all action FBI story " US Marshals " from 1998 with Tommy Lee Jones,acting himself,Wesley Snipes,Robert Downey Jr. and Kate Nelligan.

Thought for the Day;

You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream.

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