A STILL GREY, COLD & OVERCAST SUNNY MANILVA ON SUNDAY.

SUNDAY 23^rd/ FEBRUARY 2020.

We had another nice lie in this morning, we all slept until the church bells started calling the ‘faithful’ to mass, ‘Chico’ is very patient and waits while we freshen up, we then tried to call Lyn over in Melbourne, Australia, but sadly she was not answering, we called on the ‘ Facebook Messenger’ – twice- with no luck, we will try again later this evening, as we are going to bed – breakfast time over in Australia!

Brenda then took ‘ Chico’ out for his first walk of the day, while I prepared our breakfast, yes you have guessed, a ‘ Toasted Crispy Smoked Bacon Butty’ – smothered in ‘ HP’ Brown sauce – open on brown for Brenda with some of her favourite seared/sliced Baby Mushrooms, quickly cooked in the bacon juices with a knob of butter, I ‘ pinched’ a few to go into my butty!  Mugs of strong and hot ‘PG’ Tips Tea helped to wash them down!! 

This morning has started grey & overcast with a stiff breeze, it’s forecast to clear by lunchtime, with a few patchy clouds left behind, staying sunny, reaching 18 degs+ by this afternoon, overnight down to 11 degs, next week is now looking dry & settled to start, with warm sunshine, going up to 21 degs+ by next Wednesday, then as the new ‘ Atlantic’ front now comes in, it’s all change, again, as it’s bringing with it some of the ‘ Wet-Stuff’ as well as a cold wind, with patchy clouds and hovering in the mid ‘ teens’ – with light to moderate rain, then next weekend could pick up, back to warm sunshine, watch this space.

Just a quick update on the football& rugby results from yesterday; Manchester City had a lucky 0-1 win, they can’t score penalties! Over here Real Madrid lost 1-0 to lowly Levante and Barcelona won 5-0 with Messi scoring 4 goals, taking them to the top of the ‘La Liga’ by 2 points and ahead on goal difference, meanwhile Scotland beat Italy 0-17 and France beat Wales, for the first time in a long time, 24-27, down in Cardiff, to make them favourites to win the ‘ Six Nations’ Championship!

This evening for our supper we are having ‘Braised Lamb Shanks in a Minted Gravy’ – with the ‘Second Chef’ ( Brenda!) on form, with crushed  Baby Carrots & Turnips, Broccoli & Cauliflower Florets in a Cheese sauce, creamed/sliced Baby Leeks and Garden Peas for me! The Potato dish is the classic ‘Pommes de Terre ( Apples of the Earth) Rissolees ‘ – my recipe using boiled Baby New Potatoes in their skins, then tossed in foaming parsley butter until crisp & golden! Not forgetting the ‘ Mint Jelly’ on the side!!

I’m just about to listen to the ‘Almost The Retro Roadshow’ with Andrew Charles, on “ Castle Radio FM 89.2 & Online on the WWW” as Pete Black is away on holiday and family business ( Carmarthen in South Wales ) Andrew is broadcasting ‘ live’ from the studio, here in Sunny Manilva.

We are due to call Sandra & Bill, over in Everett, Ontario, Canada, later this afternoon on the ‘Skype’ video, for a nice news/catch up, before the folks fly down to Florida to see some friends, in two weeks time.

After supper we will settled down to watch the first episode of the return of the ( 5^th series ) of the awarding winning “ Last Tango in Halifax” – written by Sally Wainwright and starring Derek Jacobi, Anne Reid, Sarah Lancashire & Nicola Walker, with a mega-cast of the ‘English’ supporting actors.

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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A STILL COOL & OVERCAST SUNNY MANILVA ON TUESDAY.

TUESDAY 18^th/ FEBRUARY 2020.

I was up first this morning to see little ‘Miss Bella’ back with us for the day, ‘ Chico’ as usual slept all night on his duvet at the foot of our bed, we then freshened up and had our regular light breakfast of fresh fruit ( Banana) toast & tea, before taking both the dogs out for their fist walk of the day, Brenda then waited for the early local bus to take her down to Sabinillas, as she has an appointment with her hairdresser Annie, for a shampoo, cut & style, she will catch the bus back up later this morning. We met here off the bus, she was carrying a shopping bag, as she had bought a new pair of Jeans, a Jumper and Socks!

Meanwhile I came back to the house and came up to the office/studio to go on the ‘WWW’ – read all the online newspapers ( Daily Mail & El Pais) -  check the E-Mails & Facebook messages, catch the news on the BBC/ITV/ Al Jazerra, news channels and check out the weather forecasts (3) before typing/posting today’s Blog!

This morning has started a little grey & overcast with a low cloud base, there is a light/cool breeze, so by lunchtime it’s forecast to reach just  18 degs+ -  overnight down to 11/12 degs, with a chance of the ‘Wet-Stuff’ in the air, as the new ‘ Atlantic’ front hits us, the tail-end of ‘ Storm Dennis’ – the rest of the week and over the weekend is now looking a little unsettled, with patchy clouds hanging around, the breeze is due to pick up by the weekend, so it will be hovering in the mid ‘Teens’- with the treat of ‘Rain’ at all times, next week is now looking a lot more settled, dry & sunny, going warmer each day, back up to 20 degs+ by next Tuesday, watch this space.

This evening for our supper we are having ‘Posh Chicken N’ Chips’ – ‘ Escalope’s of Breast of Chicken’ seared on a hot griddle-plate and finished with a Balsamic Vinegar & Lime Butter salsa, served with finely sliced ‘ French’ Green Beans and triple-cooked ‘ Chips’

Tomorrow I’m now going to make a ‘ Stir-Fry ‘ – using the ‘ Wok’ – for the first time in a while, using strips of sliced Entrecote of Beef, with  strips of Onions & Shallots, Red, Green & Yellow Peppers and Mushrooms & Diamond-cut Haricot Green Beans,  adding a dash of ‘Lee & Perrins & Tabasco’ and a sharp Piquant salsa,  served with ‘ Hash Browns’!

This evening it’s the last – 16 –first-leg tie  of the ‘ Champions League’ at the ‘Wanda Metropolitano’ stadium in Madrid, as Atletico Madrid welcome the ‘European Champions’ Liverpool!

This evening we will be watching, as we have been doing over the past two weeks, ‘Great Asian Railway Journeys’ with Michael Portillo, he’s travelled a total distance of 2,500 miles, passing through six different countries on his way, from Hong Kong and moving on to Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia & Malaysia before reaching his final destination of Singapore!

After supper we will catch the next episode of ‘The Split ‘ - as the three sisters and their mother, all divorce lawyers, taken on difficult cases while battling their own problems  of pregnancy, miss- carriage, ex-boy friend’s and one having an affair with a colleague, after her husband has an affair !

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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A VERY WARM & SUNNY MANILVA ON WEDNESDAY.

WEDNESDAY 22^nd/ AUGUST 2018.

We had a nice lie in this morning as last night we were out on the tiles, late! ( More later!) After freshening up we had our normal light breakfast of ‘ Weetabix’ fresh fruit, toast & tea, we are having an ‘at home day’ today, this afternoon I’m going down to the main surgery for my 4 weekly ‘V12’ injection.

Little princess ‘ Reina’ is joining us on Friday morning, here in ‘ Doggy World Heaven’ for the day, so she will see her ‘ boyfriend’ ‘Charlie’ who arrives the same morning for a one-night sleep over, ‘Chispa’ will no doubt be calling in, as usual, to see all her friends.

Yesterday I was speaking to a new friend and the problems about our ‘ English’ TV system came up, he immediately gave me all the contact details for the ‘IPTV’ system and within a few hours I was sent all the information/details about how to download the system, ( above my grade of ‘IT’ knowledge) I’m now waiting for Lee’s help to check out the system etc, watch this space.

Back to last night, after supper we decided to go out for a cool drink as it was a beautiful evening with a light breeze, we bumped into a group of friends outside ‘ Bar Castillo’- Adrian & Rose with ‘ Scruffy’ ( who we took for a little walk along to the local Bank) and Lllona ( from Dublin) who has a house in the top of the village, with her older daughter Abi and her daughter, who are moving into an apartment next to Adrian & Rose on Friday, with Lllona’s two small children, also running around playing, we had a nice catch up and gossip.

Then two new friends which we met the other day came along, Billy & Julie, from Dover, are here for 3 weeks staying in their family apartment in the large urbanization below our street, with their three children, who were playing ‘ Pool ‘ in ‘Cafe Plaza ‘ – it was their last night as they were flying home this morning, so we ended up sitting with them into the wee small hours, the only people left outside ‘Bar Castillo’ and along ‘ Calle Mar’ ! Juan & Paqui then came out and had their supper and bought us a nightcap on the house, to round off a ‘ Helluva’ evening here in Sunny Manilva. Hence the ‘ lie in’ this morning!!

The sun is just about to break through after a cloudy start to the day, it’s still very hot & clammy, despite the light breeze, blowing up from the Mediterranean, by lunchtime it will be 30 degs+ over the next couple of days we are in for more of the same, getting hotter by Friday – 34 degs+! Over the ‘Sabinillas Feria’ weekend the forecast are still showing patchy/light rain, next week leading up to the ‘ Vendemia Wine Festival ‘ weekend it’s going to be warm & sunny hovering on the 30 degs mark, watch this space.

                                                                           A picture of the Mediterranean just taken ! 

We have just come off the ‘ Skype’ video with Tm & Thea over in Old Colwyn, North Wales, they are both very well and looking forward to returning to sunny ‘Mojacar’ in three weeks time! Jo is returning home to Madrid, at the moment, after her South American adventures, Ben is due to move to Manchester in two weeks time, we had a good catch up with all their news, they of course see all ours on the Blog, from time to time!

See below the picture taken from the ‘ Skype’ connection!

The 'Council' workmen have started to put up the old Green canopy in the 'Plaza de la Vendemia' 

For our supper this evening we are having ‘ Campo Omelettes of Choice ‘ – Brenda is having Cheese ( grated Mild Cheddar & Parmesan) and I’m having my favourite ‘Paysanne’ filling, small diced Potatoes, Smoked Bacon, Green Peppers, Shallots, Mushrooms, etc, tossed/fried in Olive Oil! Not forgetting the hand-cut, twice-cooked ‘ Stringfellows’ and a small Mixed Salad.

We will then find something to watch on the ‘Spanish’ TV system!

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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A WARM & SUNNY MANILVA ON WEDNESDAY.

WEDNESDAY 16^th/ AUGUST 2017.

I was up first this morning to see little princess ‘ Reina’ back with us, she shot upstairs, as usual, and we all had a little further lie in before breakfast of ‘Crispy Smoked Bacon Butties’ with mugs of steaming tea, we then put together the shopping list for Friday morning.

It’s an ‘at home’ day, today, catching up with the chores around the house, Brenda is in one of her ‘ ing’ modes, meanwhile I’m up in the office/studio on the ‘WWW’ catching up with the ‘E-Mails, Facebook Messages, reading the On-line newspapers and catching up with news around the World, then typing & posting the Blog ( my ‘ings’!)

The sun was out early and the sky is now bright blue, there is a slight breeze keeping the temperatures at around the 28/29 degs mark, overnight 21/22 degs, the rest of the week and over the weekend is staying the same and next week is also hovering on the high 20s/low30s, warm & sunny, watch this space.

See the pictures below taken in the Albert Docks in Liverpool yesterday of the fleet of  the ‘Ocean Clippers’ taking part in the ‘Clipper’s Race Around the World’- 2017/2018 – starting this Saturday/Sunday and finishing in Liverpool next year!

Passing along the River Mersey,with Birkenhead and the Wirral in the background, is the ferry boat ’Snowdrop’ painted by Sir Peter Blake, the English pop artist who co-created the sleeve design for the ‘ Beatles’ album’ Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band’

At lunchtime we went along to ' Bar Ocana' as ' Bar Castillo' is closed on a Wednesday, for a cool drink and a Tapas, sat under in the shade with a light ' Levante' breeze blowing along 'Calle Mar' up from the Mediterranean, across from Africa.

For our supper this evening we are having ‘Braised Sliced Entrecote of Beef’ in a rich ‘Red Wine, Mushroom, Onion & Shallot’ sauce, with Whole Green Beans &  glazed Carrot Batons and Brenda’s famous ‘Mashed Potato’ Tomorrow evening it’s going to be our old favourite ‘ Grilled Chicken Wings’ after we return from our day out down on the ‘ Costa Del Sol’

See the pictures below of the ‘Iglesia Santa Ana Church’ at the bottom of the village, it shows the new ‘Plaza’ & Cross, with steps, in front of the church, that has been re-designed and laid with very nice,large, floor tiles and floor lighting.

This evening after supper we will watch the second leg of the ‘Spanish Super Cup’ as Real Madrid welcome Barcelona, they are leading 1-3, Ronaldo will not be playing as he was ‘let-off’ with a 5 match ban, it should have been 12, after pushing the referee, when being shown a Red Card in the first leg!

See below some pictures of the new 3 billion pound "HMS Queen Elizabeth " arriving in her home port of Portsmouth this morning, the Royal Navy's flagship aircraft carrier.

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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