MANILVA START OR THE WEEK.

MONDAY/TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY 19th/20th/21st MARCH 2012.

The weather is still fine with sun and clear skies and no breeze down here on the Costa Del Sol; the rest of Spain is not as good, in fact at the start of this week there have already been severe rain storms in Northern Spain and just up the coast from us and also inland a bit they have had four inches of snow in Almeria and Jaen ! On Monday we took things easy and caught up with the jobs around the house; after our walk Brenda was up on the roof after lunch and I went in the office to catch up with all the news and watch some TV on the BBCIPlayer – ‘ Saturday Morning Kitchen ’and the last ever ‘ Something for the Weekend ’ At different times of the day we also listen to the ‘ Chris Moyle’s Breakfast Show ’ and one of my favourite radio programmes – which has been hosted by Nicholas Parsons since it started 47 years ago ‘ Just a Minute ’ with currently Paul Merton as the main panelist. Each of the four guests on the panel are given a topic to speak on for one minute without ‘ Hesitation, Repetition or Deviation ’ It is very funny and at the same time very clever as Nicholas Parson’s adjudicates the show, this week it was recorded in Mumbai and had two Indian comics on the panel who were hilarious as they attempted to take on Paul Merton – the master ! In the evening for supper we had ‘ Minute Steak ’for supper !!

Tuesday morning after breakfast of Tea and Toast with local Honey we went for a walk with Cheta and Anna who had called in earlier; I’ am also at the moment reading again and catching up with books that Brenda has read ! For dinner we had Pan Fried flattened Chicken Breast with Boulangere Potatoes before watching the TV, Barcelona in the late match beat Granada 5-3 ( Not many teams score three goals at Barcelona ) with Messi scoring another hat trick including two lobs and at the same time he became the leading goal scorer in ‘ La Liga ’and he is know the leading goal scorer in history for Barcelona !

Today is one of our at home days; tonight we are having Sliced Turkey Breast cooked in foaming Lime Butter ( I know it is nearly the same as last night ) but we are clearing out the deep freeze ! I have made a Mushroom Cream sauce and Basmati Rice with diced Pimento’s for a change. Later the big game over in England is Manchester City v Chelsea – watch this space. Tomorrow night I am going to make a Liver and Sausage Casserole with the Liver from the deep freeze along with some Homemade Leek and Onion Sausages from the English butchers and last weeks Braised Onion sauce !! Yummy !!!

PS; Manchester City beat Chelsea in the last 15mins 2-1which means that Utd.are still only one point ahead but down at QPR.Liverpool lost in the last 15mins. 3-2 ! meanwhile Everton were robbed and lost 1-0 to Spurs - it was not off side - sorry Big Bri ! Over here Real Madrid drew again 1-1 against Villarreal and so they are now only six points ahead of Barca.


Thought for the Day;

Many years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than the ones you did do.



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WILLASTON ON THE WIRRAL

At the start of our second week in Willaston we popped down to Birkenhead to do a bit of shopping to top up with the essentials ready for the trip back to Spain at the start of September.On Tuesday we had arranged to go to Brenda's sister's,Jenny for lunch and took all the photo's and video's to show them after which which we said our goodby's.Wednesday was spent getting ready for our few days away over the weekend.We set off to see Zoe who has a lovely cottage in Marple Bridge outside Stockport and we were lucky with the weather which was hot and sunny.After settling in we cracked a bottle or two of champagne in the garden as we only had to walk down to the local bistro in the village for dinner! We had a lovely meal of Duck.Steak and Liver washed down with Rioja and walked back to the cottage on a balmy evening.After a full English breakfast again sat out in the garden we said “Au Revoir”and made our way over to Bridgnorth to stay for a couple of days with Penny.Bridgnorth is a very old market town in the heart of Shropshire which we have visited for over 35yrs.and was in full bloom on a very hot and sunny day.In the evening Penny had some of her old Girlfriends round for a party as one of them who we had met in Belamadena earlier in the year was celebrating her birthday. We sat outside on Penny's new decked patio and ordered an Indian take-away which was washed down with Red wine,Champagne.G/Ts.and shots of Hazelnut liquor! Saturday morning was again hot and sunny and was market day in the town.We first payed a visit to the main church behind the main road in the centre of “HighTown” where Veronica,the birthday girl is the development officer.The church is more like a small cathedral and can be seen for miles around.Bridgnorth has also a”Low Town” which is connected to by a very old passenger lift railwayOne other fact about the town-it has over 100 pubs and hotels!We had Gammon and eggs for lunch and booked intoa friend of Penny's brassiere for dinner.After a late start on Sunday we went down to the town in a taxi and had a marvellous brunch and stayed for the day in the main square in front of the old town hall/cornmarket building as there was a music festival on with local bands and bellydancers! We found a newly opened wine bar next to the oldest hotel which also has its own brewery and spent the day on sparkling cava rose !! watching the world go by.We arrived back in the Wirral later in the evening after a special drive back thru Shewsbury,Whitchurch and Chester along the country roads.We are now making plans to set off to Oxford on Wednesday and to cross over to Spain at the start of next week after booking the boat to Bilbao from Portsmouth.Watch this space for an update on our E-mail address's and blog details.Still no pictures of our trip around the UK.sorry!