A ' WET & WINDY' SUNNY MANILVA ON FRIDAY AT THE START OF THE WEEKEND.

FRIDAY 22^nd/ NOVEMBER 2019.

We had a nice long lie in this morning, as Brenda slowly gets herself back on the road to recovery, the tablets & ointment are helping as well as the ‘ Nursing Care’ on offer! Thanks for the messages from the family back in the UK and over in a very snowy Canada.

After freshening up we had our usual toast, with sliced Banana and mugs of hot tea to set us up for the day ahead. Brenda is doing a little light pottering before taking it easy for the rest of the day, I’m now up in the office/studio on the ‘WWW’ checking the ‘E-Mail’s, Facebook’ Messages etc, before reading the online newspapers, ‘ Daily Mail ( the excellent No 1 online news) El Pais (the main Spanish newspaper in English)  - then the ‘ Aljazeera’ News Channel ( World News ) as well the ‘ BBC News’ service, before reading the local news on the ‘IT’- I then prepare my  ‘post–it’ notes before typing/posting today’s Blog!

Overnight the new ‘ Atlantic’ front hit us, it started raining just after mid-night and was still raining earlier this morning, a moderate to heavy storm with higher winds, it’s very grey & overcast, with a low cloud base, the breeze has dropped a little, so by lunchtime it’s due to reach 17 degs+ now!

On Saturday it’s forecast to be dry with patchy clouds, on most of the local forecasts, as the front moves on, by Sunday as the next ‘ Atlantic’ front comes in the wind is dropping and next week is now looking dry, warmer & sunny, hovering in the high ‘ teens’ by next Thursday/Friday back up to 20 degs+ - still overnight dropping down to 11/12 degs, just about normal for the time of the year, watch this space.

Tomorrow is hopefully going to be dry as I’m out on my travels, first thing in the morning,  instead of today, down in Sabinillas for our weekly shopping, I’m only going to call in ‘Super Sol’ for our essentials, then I’m calling into the ‘ Movistar’ shop to chase up a ‘ copy bill’ so as I can carry on with changing to our new  ‘IT’ Router/Fiber Optic connection, to  ‘OliveNet’ -as well as our landline update, when I get back up to the village I’m going to park back in the underground car-park, ‘ Fingers Crossed’ that’s it’s all back to normal, watch this space.

See below some pictures of Chester, the World famous ‘ Walled City’ in Cheshire, on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, with black & white architecture,  the ‘ Rows’ are unique in Britain, they consist of buildings with shops or dwellings on the lowest two storeys, the ground floor are often lower than the street and are entered by steps, which sometimes lead to ‘ crypt-like vaults! The famous ‘Chester Grosvenor Hotel’ - *****  – owned by the ‘ Duke of Westminster’ – is in the heart of the City, where we have ‘spent’ many happy times in the old ‘ The Arkle Bar ‘ as well in the Parisian style ‘La Brasserie’

For our supper this evening we are having ‘ Goujons of Hake Fillet ‘ – coated in breadcrumbs from the local Bakery, shallow-fried in Vegetable Oil, until crisp & golden, served with lots of Lemon Wedges and Homemade ‘Tartar’ sauce, accompanied with Garden Peas, sadly still no ‘Mushy Peas’ in stock, and of course triple-cooked ‘ Chips’!

We are taking things very easy today and over the weekend, keeping warm, relaxing and basically doing nothing, because we can! Last night we caught the next episode of ‘ Giri Haji ’ on ‘ BBC TV TWO’ – with more gruesome killings over in Tokyo, this time, as the plot un-folded, I won’t give the game away, watch it to find out what is happening!

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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A OVERCAST, WET & WINDY SUNNY MANILVA ON SATURDAY.

SATURDAY 2^nd/ NOVEMBER 2019.

We managed a little lie in this morning and after freshening up Brenda shot out with ‘ Sunny’ for her first walk of the day, before the ‘ Rains’ arrive later, overnight it rained for over an hour, the first in nearly ten months!

When she returned, as Brenda was on the breakfast rota I her famous & perfect ‘ Campò’ Poached Eggs on Toast, scrambled for her on brown, with mugs of strong/hot Tea, sat in front of the TV as I settled down to watch the “ Rugby World Cup “ from Japan!

Sadly England lost to the ‘ Springboks’ 12 -32 – as they were totally outplayed by ‘ South Africa’

This morning started grey & overcast, with heavy ‘ Rain’ clouds overhead, the breeze has stiffened and we are in for a wet & windy afternoon, with light to moderate rain all the time, only reaching 21 degs+ - tomorrow is looking the same, next week we are in for cooler, wet and windy time, with lots of clouds and the breeze getting up again, hovering in the high ‘ teens’ - on the 18/19degs mark, by next weekend possibly staying dry, watch this space.

On the sports front later today; over in the ‘Premiere League’ Liverpool travel down the M6 to play Aston Villa, Manchester City are at home to Southampton & Everton welcome Tottenham Hotspur, over here in ‘La Liga’ Real Madrid are at home to Real Betis & Barcelona travel to Levante.

This weekend over in Austin, Texas, it’s the ‘Grand Prix of USA ‘ as Lewis Hamilton goes to win his sixth world title, this afternoon the ‘ National Hunt Racing ‘ is from Wetherby.

For our supper this evening we are having ‘ Grilled Fillet Steaks’ – cooked on a very hot griddle-plate ‘ Med-Rare ‘ – then left to rest, garnished with seared Asparagus Spears & Button Mushrooms, accompanied with a classic ‘ Bearnaise’ sauce, served with Baby Whole ‘French’ Green Beans and triple-cooked ‘ Frits’

We are taking things very easy over the weekend, due to the weather conditions, staying inside and relaxing, settled down in front of the TV, which at the moment is all working online with the ‘IPTV’ system, so we will be able to follow all the programmes that we follow, watch this space.

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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A VERY WET & WINDY SUNNY MANILVA ON FRIDAY AT THE START OF THE WEEKEND.

FRIDAY 5^th/ APRIL 2019.

I was up early again this morning, the last time this week, and after a quick freshen up I shot off on my travels, braving the rain & wind, down to Sabinillas for our weekly shopping, I had my usual toast & tea in ‘ ItZabar’ before ‘Mercadona’ opened, I then called into the ‘ Morrocan Butchers’ and bought a large ‘Halal Leg of Lamb ‘ for our Sunday Roast, it was not cheap, but not as much as the ‘English Butchers’!

I then stopped at the ‘English Bookshop’ for the local newspapers before on the way back up the hill, calling into ‘ Super Sol’ for the ‘English’ essentials, it was then time to come back up the three u-turn bends, through the vine fields, the roads this morning are very slippery as it’s the first proper rain that we have had in over six months and all the ‘ rubber’ has not yet been washed away, you can’t brake or accelerate on the corners.

See below a picture of the vine leaves starting to appear, taken yesterday.

Meanwhile back at the house Brenda had taken ‘ Scruffy’ out for his first walk of the day, he’s very good and slept all night on his bed, she tried to beat the rain, but they were both caught and had come back like drowned rats! I know how they feel as I was also caught in the heavy rain and ended up wet-through! He’s due to be collected later today, he’s then back on Monday for another sleep-over. He’s at my feet as I’m typing/posting today’s Blog, as usual.

The rain started during the night and on all the forecasts it looks like we are in for a pro-longed ‘ wet-spell’ over nearly two weeks!! The breeze is getting up and we are having moderate to heavy rain storms, all the time, hovering in the mid ‘ teens’ around the 15/16 degs mark, down at night to 8/9 degs! ‘Fingers’ crossed that it clears for the ‘ Semana Santa ‘ week of religious celebrations starting on ‘ Palm Sunday’  Watch this space.

See below pictures of the ‘ Conwy Tea House’ – “ Tu Hwnt I’r Bont “ in Llanrwst, North Wales in Autumn and now!

This afternoon we will be watching the National Hunt Racing from the ‘ Grand National Meeting’ at Aintree on day two ‘Ladies Day’ – when the ‘ Liverpool Girls’ come out in their finest! Sadly it’s also very wet & windy over there!

For our supper this evening we are having ‘ Goujons of Hake Fillet’ – coated in breadcrumbs from the local Bakery, shallow fried in Vegetable Oil until crisp & golden, served with a ‘ Homemade’ Tartar sauce and lots of Lemon Wedges, accompanied with Mushy Peas and of course twice-cooked ‘ Chips’ On Saturday it’s going to be a large ‘Grilled Rib of Beef’ - on the bone, with all the trimmings.( more ‘ Frits!) Then on Sunday the ‘Roast Halal Leg of Lamb’ with ‘Boulangere’ Potatoes.

See below a picture of the Rib of ‘Sashi ‘ Beef – ‘ Ayrshire Finnish Breed’ that they are serving at ‘Restaurante Sarmiento ‘ up in Casares at the moment!  Ours looks the same!! ‘ Honest ‘ !!

When we had lunch last year in October, with Sandra & Bill, at the restaurant, Bill and I had the ‘ House Burgers’ made with the same Beef!

This evening we will be channel hopping to find something to watch, last night we caught a very interesting documentary on the ‘ McVities Carr Biscuit ‘ Factory in Carlisle, the largest biscuit factory in the World! This morning I bought in ‘ Super Sol’ a packet of the famous ‘ Ginger Nuts’ -  which don’t contain any ‘ nuts’ – the name came from them being know originally as  ‘hard as nuts’ ! I also bought a packet of the ‘ Crunchy Custard Creams ‘ – the ladies who work in the factory are known as ‘ Cracker Packers ‘ –  as they pack the ‘ Carr’s Water Biscuits’ - not a lot of people know that, they do now!  

See the picture below of the ‘ Custard Creams’

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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A VERY COLD, GREY & OVERCAST AND 'DAMP' SUNNY MANILVA ON SATURDAY.

SATURDAY 19^th/ JANUARY 2019.

We had a nice lie in this morning, as usual, the village is even more quieter at the weekend, we then showered/freshened up, later this morning Brenda is washing/shampooing her hair, it was then time for breakfast, Brenda was on the breakfast rota so she prepared her famous ‘ Campo’ Poached Eggs.

I fancied, as a treat, the classic “ Eggs Benedict “ – first introduced at ‘ Delmonico’s Restaurant ‘ in Lower Manhatten, back in the 1860! The original recipe calls for ‘ English Muffins, Canadian Cured Ham & Hollandaise Sauce ‘ – my version today used local toasted Muffins, sliced in half & buttered, a large slice of ‘ Spanish Smoked Ham & Bearnasie Sauce’! – a very tasty recipe !!

See below;

Overnight the ‘RAIN’ arrived down here on the ‘ Costa Del Sol’ – we can’t complain as it’s the first in nearly three months! This morning it’s grey & overcast, colder and damp, with more of the ‘ wet-stuff’ to come, by lunchtime only reaching 14 degs, tomorrow is looking a little better & dry, with patchy clouds, there is a light breeze, picking up over the weekend, next week is now looking mostly dry & sunny, going a little warmer, up to 17 degs+ - but by next weekend it’s going colder again, down to 12 degs, overnight 5 degs, with the threat of the ‘ wet-stuff’ in the air all the time, the following week is looking very wet on the long range forecasts! Watch this space.

Just a update on yesterdays ‘Blog’ about the terrorist arrest in the village, it turns out that it all took place this week, on Tuesday, as a 27 years old Moroccan man was detained in a dawn raid, in the abandoned part of the complex down at the bottom of the village,  now shown in a ‘Policia Nacional’ video. The jihadist terrorist was taken to jail to be interrogated, he had been monitored for a few months, as he was preparing earlier last year to bomb/shoot at one of the 3/ 4main ‘Ferias/ Festivals’ in the centre of the village of Manilva, back in 2018!!

For the past few years the problem of squatters in the complex has been going on, there is no electricity or water, but they maintain the lifestyle by taking the water from the street wells, in large containers, and connecting wires to any source that they can find! The ‘Council’ & Police are monitoring the problem all the time, watch this space.

On the sports front this weekend; over in the ‘ Premier League’ Liverpool are at home to Crystal Palace and Everton have the long journey down to Southampton, tomorrow Manchester City travel across the Pennines to play Huddersfield; over here in ‘La Liga’ Real Madrid are at home to Sevilla and Barcelona welcome Leganes, the ‘ National Hunt Racing’ this afternoon is from Ascot.

This evening for our supper we are having ‘ Grilled Fillet Steaks ‘ – cooked on a very hot griddle-plate ‘ Med-Rare’ – Pink no blood, garnished with seared Asparagus Spears, Banana Shallots & Button Mushrooms, with whole ‘ French’ Green Beans and hand-cut ( Brenda) – twice-cooked – ‘Stringfellow Frits’!

This afternoon we will be watching the ‘Jump Racing’ and then this evening we will channel hop to find something to watch, later catching a good film.

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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