A GREY, COLD & OVERCAST SUNNY MANILVA ON THURSDAY.

THURSDAY 25^th/ JANUARY 2018.

We had a nice lie in this morning as we are ‘ doggy-free’ for a day, Charlie’ is due to be dropped off on Friday afternoon, for his short two-night weekend break, ‘ Chispa’ is now back and is in & out as usual all the time, she’s lost some weight, after showering we had our normal light breakfast of ‘Weetabix’ fresh fruit, toast & tea, we then sorted out the shopping list for tomorrow morning, we are both up very early on Friday, as we have our appointments down at the ‘Medical Centre’ in Sabinillas, with our Doctor, Natalia, for our review/check ups, we are first on her list!

We will then carry on to ‘Mercadona’ for our main shop, as well as calling into the ‘English Bookshop’ for the local newspapers, then the ‘ Ferraterias’ for a new front door mat, before going along to the local market at the far end of the promenade for the wall plants and a new pair of slippers for me! It’s the first time in a long time that Brenda has been with me on my travels, watch this space.

Last night as we were just starting our supper an Engineer from a ‘Fumigation’ company called in to check out our problem with ‘Cockroach’s – Cucaracha’s ’ that came to light when we had the burst a few weeks ago, it will mean that we might have to move out for a day or two while they tackle the problem, watch this space.

This morning has started grey; cold & overcast, as forecast, with a light breeze, it’s getting a little better later, hovering on the 17 degs+ mark, on Friday & Saturday we are back to normal. for the time of the year, with the sun back with us, sadly on Sunday we are now in for a prolonged cold & wet spell, as an ‘Atlantic’ front comes in, bringing with it rain and wind, before it picks up towards next weekend, watch this space.

For our supper this evening we are having the rest of the ‘ Braised Steak, Mushroom & Onion Casserole’ with a Baked Potato and a fry-up of the leftover vegetables, on Friday it’s going to be, as requested by Brenda, a ‘Poached Fish’ dish, for a change, say, the old classic “ Paupiette’s of Hake Fillet Veronique “ – using local White Grapes – in a White Wine Cream Sauce! On Saturday it’s ‘ Steak Night’ as usual and then on Sunday for our ‘ Roast’ it’s going to be a ‘ Leg of New Zealand, South Island, Lamb’ with our favourite ‘ Boulangere Potatoes’

Last night after supper we settled down to watch the next harrowing, penultimate, episode of ‘ Kiri’ with Sarah Lancashire, as more shocks and secrets came spilling out, the mother of the adopted murdered girl, played by Lia Williams, was uncovered, by her ‘ obsessive ‘ mother- loving son, as having an extra-marital affair, slapping a student at the college where she teaches and hiding evidence, Sarah Lancashire’s character also had a bad time, still in the firing line for her decisions, at the end the mother lied to the police, to get them to look the other way, as she thinks her son is the killer, watch this space.

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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A VERY ' CRISP' & WARM SUNNY MANILVA ON FRIDAY AT THE START OF THE WEEKEND.

FRIDAY 24^th/ NOVEMBER 2017        “ BLACK FRIDAY “ !

I was up first thing this morning to see little princess ‘ Reina’ back with us for the day, she shot into her duvet and after a quick freshen up I walked down to catch the local bus down to Sabinillas ( Pensioners rate!) Brenda also got up and sorted her-self out for the day and weekend ahead!

I called into the ‘ English Bookshop’ first, for the local English newspapers before walking along to ‘ Mercadona’ for the main shop, the check out lady called a taxi for me, he was very helpful and brought me through the back streets up to the house to unload. After a quick toast & tea I went along to the local bank to pay the electricity bill, Brenda then popped out for some local shopping, ‘Chispa’ has already been in & out this morning.

It’s another glorious day here in sunny Manilva, with a bright blue sky, on the sunny side of the street it’s warm, in the shade ‘ crisp’ but there is no breeze, by lunchtime it will be 21 degs+ - tomorrow it’s going up to 24/25 degs before the ‘ Atlantic’ front comes across on Sunday making it a lot cooler, the threat of the wet stuff next week is still showing on the forecast,’ it could go down to 16/17 degs – overnight into single figures possibly 9 degs! Time for the Oil heaters to go on and when we are out we will need socks & trainers, not sandals! Watch this space.


See below a spectacular picture of the 'Barmouth Railway Bridge' across the 'River Mawddach' in North Wales, with  'Snowdonia' in the background.

The Council have just announced all the details for the first “ Saborea Manilva “ Wine and Food Gastronomic Festival taking place over the weekend of 8/9^th December on the ‘ Plaza de la Vendimia ‘ – with stalls, tastings, wine & cake baking contests, free ‘Caldereta & Paella’ music & dancing and the official turn-on of the Christmas lights & tree. ‘ Fingers’ crossed that it stays dry! See the poster below. Watch this space.

This evening for our supper we are having ‘ Grilled Fillets of Hake’ – dusted in seasoned flour and finished in a foaming ‘Lime & Parsley’ Butter salsa ( Meuniere style) with New potatoes & Garden Peas, on Saturday evening it’s going to be a large ‘Entrecote Steak’ cooked on a very hot griddle-plate ‘ Med-Rare’ – then left to rest before slicing it into fingers ‘ French style ‘ with, youv’e guessed, twice-cooked ‘ Pont Neuf ‘ Chips ( Door Steps!) etc. For our supper on Sunday I’m going to prepare my famous ‘ Lancashire Hotpot ‘ to my own special recipe, using ‘ New Zealand, South Island, Lamb’ – comfort food, as the weather goes cooler!

Last night after supper we settled down to watch the next episode of ‘ Love, Lies and Records ‘ on BBC TV 1 – packed with warmth, humour and emotional tension, I won’t give the story away, catch it if you can!

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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A WARM & SUNNY MANILVA ON SATURDAY.

SATURDAY 16^th / SEPTEMBER 2017.

We all had a little lie this morning as the village was very quiet, overnight the stiff ‘ Poinente’ breeze has dropped, ‘Charlie’ slept all night and ‘ Bo ‘ has also been very good, they are both getting on with one another, when ‘ Bo’ arrived yesterday evening we has a surprise, he’s a very large ‘Alsatian German Shepherd’! – we were expecting a small dog! When ‘ Sarah ‘ described him she said he was a ‘  little sweetie ’!! He is but he’s also a ‘ big boy ‘ – he’s very gentle, he dosn’t pull when you are walking him and has a big appetite, we took them both out for their first walk, when we retuned we had our normal breakfast of ‘ Weetabix’ toast & tea, we then fed ‘ Bo’  then ‘ Charlie’ later, ‘Bo’ is being collected later this evening.

See the picture’s below of ‘Bo’

This morning it’s still a little cloudy with a blue sky, the sun is just braking through, by lunchtime it will be in the high 20s, tomorrow it’s the same and next week is now looking warm & sunny, hovering in the mid 20s, normal for the time of the year, very pleasant and comfortable, also a little cooler during the night, watch this space.

The ‘ Bars ‘ along ‘ Calle Mar ‘ as I commented the other day are closing for their holidays, ‘Cafe Plaza’ re-opened yesterday just as Juan from ‘ Bar Castillo ‘ went on his holidays for two weeks, he re-opens on the 1^st October, sadly ‘ Bar Ocaña ‘ is also closed for two weeks, due to the sudden death of the old owner, he died yesterday morning, his son ‘Fran’ runs the business,  the burial/service is this afternoon down at the church, the normal timing here, within 24 hours. ‘ Nacho’s Bar ‘ ( Juan’s brother) was closed last week, meanwhile ‘ Bar Rojas’ with Susanna is open, but not on a regular basis, lastly the bar, two doors down our Street ‘ Bodegon Andaluz ‘ has closed permanently  as the owner, Andres, is taking a long break! His sister, Anna, runs ‘ Cafe Plaza’!

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 and deep-fried ‘Onion Rings’( dipped in milk & flour ) with the classic ‘ Bearnaise’ sauce on the side, whole Baby Green Beans and of course twice-cooked ‘ Chips’  See below.

On Sunday evening it’s going to be ‘Medallions of Pork Fillet’ cooked on the griddle plate, with ‘Breton’ style potatoes ( diced/boiled potatoes tossed with Onions & Red & Green Peppers ) and an assortment of vegetables.

Over here in ‘ La Liga’ this weekend Barcelona travel to Getafe and Real Madrid are at Real Sociedad; in the ‘Premier League’ Liverpool host Burnley and Manchester City travel down the MI to play Watford, tomorrow Manchester Utd welcome Everton with Wayne Rooney! It’s the ‘ Grand Prix ‘ over in Singapore under the flood lights tomorrow.

Tomorrow afternoon at 3-00 pm we have arranged to call Sandra & Bill on the ‘ Skype’ video over in Everett, Ontario Canada,( 9-00 am over there!)  for a final chat & catch up before they set off on their travels to Spain next weekend! It’s all getting rather exciting.

On Monday morning we are going out in the car for a ‘ Recce ‘ to check the roads out as we have not been to one place before that we are going to, also to make sure that the newly re-surfaced road is open out of the back of the village.

In ‘ Doggy World Heaven ‘ Charlie ‘ goes home on Tuesday, as usual we will miss him as he’s a great character and good company, ‘Reina’ is back with us on Tuesday & Wednesday  

This evening we will channel hop and perhaps find a good film to watch, tomorrow night it’s the second and final episode of ‘Strike: The Silkworm ‘ – then on Monday/Tuesday we have all the new series to follow, watch this space.

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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A VERY HOT AND SUNNY MANILVA ON SATURDAY;

SATURDAY 3Oth/ AUGUST 2014.

A little lie in this morning and then I came down to Brenda’s famous ‘Poached Eggs (Campo) on Toast for breakfast with a large mug of steaming tea! It’s all ready hot and tomorrow it’s getting much hotter over the next few days, fingers crossed for the ‘Vendimia Festival’ next weekend.

I’ve just had a message on Facebook from Jane to say that a new ‘Green Beans Slicer ‘is in the post! She brought the first one a few years ago but sadly this time she can’t make it over at the moment due to the pressure of business, David & Jane are also going on holiday this weekend to France – thanks Jane – the power of the written word/blog is alive and working!

We are having a nice quiet day taking things easy, trying to keep reasonable cool, catching up with chores, later showering and freshening up, at the moment I’m watching ‘Saturday Kitchen Live’ at the same time as I’m typing the Blog; later we will get our supper on the go ready for tonight, ‘Entrecote Steaks’ with sautéed Baby Mushrooms, finely sliced (the old one is still working just!) Green Beans! Twice-cooked ‘Frits’ and the usual toppings.

‘Scruffy’ is arriving for a sleep over before supper this evening.

We have now arranged the ‘Last Supper’ tomorrow for the final state visit of the ‘Queen of Skelton’ To start we are having ‘Asparagus Spears with Béarnaise sauce’ with ‘Smoked Salmon’ accompanied with either ‘Kir Royal’ or ‘Bucks Fizz’ made with Cava; the main course is ‘Medallions of Pork Fillet’ cooked on the griddle plate and garnished with Baby Mushrooms, with a large sauceboat of my famous ‘Charcutiere’ sauce on the side, from the vegetable department we are offering crushed Baby Carrots & Diamond cut Green Beans and I’m producing ‘Breton’ style potatoes made with Red, Green and Yellow Peppers.

For the dessert its simple local fresh fruit and coffee to finish.

This weekend on the sports front it’s the ‘British Motor GP’ from Silverstone and in the ‘Premiere League’ its Manchester City v Stoke,Everton v Chelsea and tomorrow Tottenham v Liverpool; over here in ‘La Liga’ its Villareal v Barcelona and Real Sociedad v Real Madrid while the ‘Vuelta’ is going from Bazea to Albacete.

Last night we watched the epic ‘Troy’ from 2004 with wait for it,Brad ( Mr Muscles!) Pitt, Eric Dona, Orlando Bloom,Diane Kruger, Saffron Burows, Sean Bean,Brian Cox,Peter O’Toole,Brendan Gleeson and Julie Christie!

PS; See the picture below of the dashboard of the ‘Red Limousine’ as it reached the classic “ 77777 ”kms as we went down to Sabinillas!!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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