AT THE MOMENT A STILL DRY & SUNNY MANILVA ON WEDNESDAY.

WEDNESDAY 1^st/APRIL 2020.    “ STATE OF ALARM DAY 18 “

We set the alarm this morning, not too early, as we had a busy morning ahead, after freshening up we had a quick fresh fruit ( Banana) toast & tea before getting the day on the go.

At the moment it’s dry and a little overcast with dark clouds overhead, there is a light breeze, with rain in the air, so by lunchtime, it’s forecast to reach only 16 degs+ - overnight down to 10 degs+ - tomorrow going a little cooler as the breeze stiffens, on Friday we could have a little sunshine, then over the weekend we are due for more of the ‘ Wet-Stuff’ – and going windy, hovering in the mid ‘ Teens’ – next week is now still looking unsettled, with moderate to heavy rain, at times, with sunshine on some days, as the breeze drops down, so by next Tuesday it’s forecast go up to 22/23 degs+! Overnight back up to 15/16 degs, staying partly cloudy, as it reaches the ‘Easter Weekend’  Watch this space.

After breakfast we got this evening supper on the go; we are having my now famous “ Chicken & Mushroom ‘ Tarragon’ Casserole “ - the diced Chicken Breast is tossed in seasoned flour and lightly browned-off in Vegetable Oil, I then make the sauce by sweating-off the diced Onion & Garlic, Carrots, Leeks, Celery, Turnips, Baby Button Mushrooms ( Tinned) & Smoked Bacon Sippets, in Vegetable Oil, with a knob of Butter, adding a good dash of ‘Lea & Perrins and Tabasco ‘and a large handful of Tarragon Herbs, along with a large glug of White Wine, which is on ration! ( thanks Brenda!!) – a rich ‘Chicken & Vegetable’ stock is poured in and the Chicken is then added along with a large handful of Chopped Parsley, as the seasoning is adjusted, then it’s brought up to boil, turned down to simmer and then left to cook-off under the eagle eye of the ‘ Second Chef’ – the ‘Aromas’ are wafting upstairs to the office/studio!

It will be reheated this evening and the seasoning & consistency adjusted, served with Glazed Baby Carrot Batons and Whole Baby ‘ French’ Green Beans and Parsley New Potatoes. 

                                                            “ COMFORT FOOD FOR THE GODS “

“ CORONAVIRUS UPDATE – COVID 19 PANDEMIC “

Yesterday at lunchtime we talked to Leah on the ‘Facebook’ video chat, for a good catch-up with all her news, Deemy was online with his School and little ‘ Miss Bella’ was sat on her lap, smiling at us! They are all well, sadly Leah, who is self employed,  and not in work over in Gibraltar, which is now on full ‘ Lockdown’ as well, hopefully the ‘Gibraltar’ Government will help her later in the month, she is then going to consider her circumstances, next week she is planning to go out shopping, so she is going to help us again, ‘ Thanks’

I also managed to get through to the ‘ Costa Del Sol Hospital’ and cancelled Brenda’s three appointments, later this month, for tests and in June, with the ‘ Heart Consultant’ Watch this space.

Today over in Gibraltar there is a large cruise liner docking, the ‘ Viking Sea ‘ – it has no passengers and the crew can’t leave the ship, it’s calling in for ‘Bunkering’ and technical reasons only, taking on fresh water and supplies, refuelling & waste disposal etc. 

See below;

Meanwhile over in North Wales in Llandudno the ‘ Natives’ are getting restless! A herd ( 60) of ‘ Kashmiri Goats’ have come down off the ‘Great Orme’ mountain behind the town and are roaming around the  deserted streets- feeding on the bushes and any grass that can find! It is said that they were a gift to ‘Queen Victoria’ from the ‘Shah of Persia’ and she then gifted then to Llandudno to join an existing herd to help with the manufacture of the ‘ Cashmere Shawls’ that she favoured!!

See below;

The Police have now taken charge to stop any ' Ram Raiding'!

On this morning’s ‘ Lockdown Part’ on the three local Radio Stations the ‘Mystery Voice ‘ Quiz came on, I got it straight away, it was ‘Lulu’ – so I’m in the weekly draw, watch this space.

PS; Brenda has just popped down to our local shop at the bottom of the street, masked & gloved up, for the fresh Vegetables & Fruit, Water, Bread and especially ' Wine ' !! 

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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A RATHER OVERCAST, COLD & DAMP, SUNNY MANILVA ON MONDAY AT THE START OF THE WEEK.

MONDAY 23^rd/ MARCH 2020.    “ STATE OF ALARM DAY 9 “

This morning I set the alarm so as I could go along to the local Bank in ‘Calle Mar’ to pay the Electricity bill, after freshening up, I then masked/gloved up and shot along to the Bank, on the way back I stopped at the Chemists for my prescription tablet, the ‘ Council’ workmen with the help of the ‘Fire Brigade’ had just washed and sanitized down ‘Calle Mar’!

See below;

When I returned I treated myself & Brenda to our favourite ‘ Toasted Crispy Smoked Bacon Butty’  ( 1 per week now ) – open on brown for Brenda, with mugs of very hot/strong tea to set us up for the week ahead.

This morning has started grey & overcast with rain in the air hitting us later, there is light breeze at the moment, so by lunchtime it’s forecast to reach 15 degs+ - overnight down to 10 degs+ - the rest of the week and over the coming weekend is now looking the same, with light to moderate rain all the time, cloudy & overcast, hovering in the mid ‘ teens’ – next week is not looking much better, so it’s good time to be at home, watch this space.

“ CORONAVIRUS UPDATE – COVID 19 “

This morning Leah has made contact and she is picking up, at lunchtime today, our shopping list ( large!) for her visit to ‘ Mercadona’ tomorrow morning, we are leaving ‘ Suma’ for now, Brenda will pick up anything else from the shop at the bottom of our street, when needed. “THANKS “

As I returned this morning I met the Mayor, Mario, our neighbour, coming up from the local shop, I asked him about ‘Masks’ and at the same time thanked him and the ‘Council’ for all their very quick response and hard work for sunny Manilva, I followed him to his house and he gave us two more ‘ Masks’ !( grade 2 ) “ RESULT “

See below local production of the Masks!  “ THANKS JESUS BELMOTE “

One of our main problems was highlighted this morning, as the second of our  monthly ‘Pensions’ arrived in our Spanish Bank account, we are now down, this month, due to the Pound/Euro exchange rate being at its lowest in over 35 years, nearly 130 Euros!!  “ NOT GOOD “

Yesterday afternoon we spoke to Norah, over in Runcorn, on the ‘ Skype’ audio call system, she is fine and staying inside at all times, we tried to make contact with Jenny as well, as usual, but sadly she is not answering her text messages and her landline is not accepting our calls?!  “ JENNY PICK UP “

For our supper this evening we are having the rest of the ‘ Roast Chicken’ – cold – with all the leftover Vegetables & Roast Potatoes, on Tuesday it’s going to be ‘Pan-Seared Liver & Smoked Bacon’ with a Red Wine Onion Gravy, on Wednesday ‘ Grilled English Pork Sausages’ and Brenda’s famous ‘ Mashed Potato’ – Thursday it’s ‘ Omelettes of Choice’ – then a ‘ Fish N Chip ‘ supper on Friday, hopefully a ‘Steak Night’ on Saturday and then this coming Sunday we are having ‘ Baked Herb-Crusted Spanish Pork Chops’ with my famous ‘ Lyonnaise Potatoes’!  “ WE WILL SURVIVE “

Today as usual on a Monday it’s our main ‘ Quiz Day’ as we catch up with all the shows that we follow;  ‘ Countdown, Tenable, Tipping Point, The Chase, Pointless, Mastermind, Only Connect & University Challenge ‘ !  “ ONE OR TWO ANSWER’S PER SHOW “ !!

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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" NEWSFLASH - UPDATE "

FRIDAY 1^st/NOVEMBER 2019.

Yesterday evening Daniela’s husband Lee got in touch with me, he’s been away in the UK as he’s started a new job, still based in Gibraltar, he was familiarising himself with the new company’s systems, we first made contact on the ‘Skype’ messenger, I told him my problems about storage space/posting my pictures, he decided to ‘log-in’ to my system, I then showed him the problem, he checked all the details and then changed the ‘Picture Resolution’ levels, which took over an hour to download, the problem was resolved and everything is back to normal!

                                                                                                         " RESULT " 

He is now going to check out the ‘IPTV’ system, which is not working properly at the moment, after I chase up the systems controller, then we are considering changing our main ‘IT’ provider, so he’s going to help me with the change to another local system, which is a lot cheaper! Watch this space.

All this means that I’m now able to post all the pictures from when we went up to see our dear fried ‘ Joyce Baby’ in Alhaurin el Grande, on Wednesday 23^rd October, as she showed us around ‘Alhaurin de la Torre’ and took us to the ‘Garden Centre Guzman ‘ – we then had our lunch back at the ‘Bar Restaurante Venta Los Chavos’ – before going back to Joyce’s house for tea & cakes!

See Above;

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A WARM & SUNNY MANILVA ON MONDAY AT THE START OF THE WEEK.

MONDAY 29^th/ APRIL 2019.

I was up early this morning and after a quick freshen up I shot off across to the ‘ Estepona Hospital’ for my first, of four, appointments this week, at the ‘Physiotherapy Department’ for more extensive treatment on my left hand, I found a spot to park straight away and had my usual tostado & tea in ‘Tikitapi’ before crossing to the Hospital.

The sun was up above the horizon as I set off along the coast road past a sparkling & calm, Blue/Green Mediterranean, there is a light breeze, the sky was clear & blue, by lunchtime it’s due to reach 21 degs+ - over the next few days, overnight down to 13/14 degs, it’s staying the same, then by Thursday it’s going to be a little overcast, with patchy clouds, over the weekend the ‘ wet-stuff’ could return, going a little cooler, hovering in the high ‘ teens/low 20s’ - the following week is looking a lot better, with prolonged sunshine, reaching 26 degs+ by mid-week, watch this space.

We have a busy week in ‘ Doggy World Heaven’ – on Wednesday afternoon ‘ Chico’ arrives for a week’s holiday, Friday afternoon ‘ Scruffy’ is back with us for a few hours, then on Saturday morning ‘ Winnie, the little ‘Black Pug’ is here for a two-day sleep-over, no doubt ‘ Chispa’ will be in & out all the time, as usual.

Over in Liverpool over the weekend, down at the Pier Head a French Cruise Liner berthed “L’Austral “ – see below.

Just a quick update on the football results etc; Everton drew 0-0, Manchester City won 0-1 and went back to the top of the ‘Premiere League’ with two games to play, Real Madrid lost 1-0 & Barcelona won 1-0 with another ‘ Messi’ goal and won the ‘ La Liga ‘!

For our supper this evening we are having ‘ Cold Roast Loin of Pork’ with a selection of Vegetables and the rest of the ‘ Goose-Fat’ Roast Potatoes, on Tuesday it’s going to be a ‘Lambs Liver Casserole’ – then on Wednesday I’m making my famous ‘ Chicken & Mushroom Tarragon Pie’ – Thursday is find something in the fridge day, Friday will be a ‘Fish n ’Chip Supper’ – then on Saturday it’s ‘ Steak Night’ – Sunday is TBC.

Yesterday evening after supper we settled down to watch the pen-ultimate episode of the very gripping ‘ Line of Duty ‘ – a body of a lady was found in a fridge, another body was dumped in a scrap yard, 2/3 gang members were shot dead and one captured, the boss of ‘ AC-12’ ended up in Prison, was he framed or is he ‘H’ & guilty?! – ‘ AC-3’ are now investigating them! Next week’s final episode is a special long one when all the questions will be answered?! Watch this space.

This evening and tomorrow evening it’s the final two episode of ‘The Widow’ – will she find her husband?!  Watch this space .

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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