A WARM AND SUNNY MANILVA ON TUESDAY;

TUESDAY 16^th/SEPTEMBER 2014.

Little princess ‘Reina’ was dropped off early this morning and so she then has a little nap before we all get up for our breakfast; ‘Chispa’ came calling so we all went for a short walk along to the bank in Calle Mar and then down to the butchers. They are at the moment sat at my feet and playing around in the ‘Chill- Out’ room!

As he was on holiday last week he’s just getting back to normal so I had a ‘Field Day’ -  he had just made some Pork ‘Albondigas’- the local ‘Calves Liver’ was fresh in, the local whole Chickens had just been delivered so I had a large Breast sliced into Escalopes and finally lots of Chicken Wings for Tapas!

All this means that the menus have been rotated; tonight we are having pan-seared Calves Liver with crispy Smoked Bacon and well cooked English Pork Sausages (left over from last night!) together with Potato Cakes (last nights Mashed!) with baby Brussels Sprouts and crushed Carrots & Turnips and not forgetting the Red Wine Onion gravy that I have just added more sautéed Onions too!

See the picture above!

So tomorrow it’s the ‘Chicken Schnitzels’ with Spaghetti ‘Milanaise’ and on Thursday the Meatballs in my famous Tomato salsa with Basmati Rice; fish on Friday and Entrecote steak on Saturday and Brenda has requested Roast Loin of Pork with all the trimmings for our first Sunday ‘Roast’ for a while!!

The weather forecast last night had changed as a large front has stationed its self off the West coast in the Atlantic and that’s what causing all the storms and floods in Northern Spain; we are just about missing any of the wet ‘stuff’ at the moment and the temperatures is still 32 degs today! Still a warm and sunny Manilva!!

On the sports front (sorry Josie!) tonight it’s the opening rounds of the ‘Champions League’ when Liverpool welcome ‘Ludo Razgd?!’(Bulgarian) and Real Madrid host FC Basel – the Real game is on TVE 1 and I will watch the Liverpool match in the office on the large PC via the ‘First Row’ sports channel!

Later after supper we will channel hop and find something to watch; the Blog tomorrow will be published a little later than normal as we out in Marbella shopping and then for spot of lunch at “ La Sala ”in Puerto Banus – it’s the start of my week of celebrations building up to my birthday next Wednesday when we are going to ‘Venta Garcia’! Watch this space for the pictures!!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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MANILVA THIS WEEKEND.

SATURDAY/SUNDAY 12^th/13^th NOVEMBER 2011.

After breakfast on Saturday we went for a long walk around the village and ended up down at he sports complex; on the football pitch I watched the seven a side football between local cub teams which is always very competitive even though they are friends off the pitch ! In the sports hall it was the junior basketball between local villages, the teams are mixed, boys and girls, and in our team in red one of our friend’s daughter was playing – the pictures are below. On the way back we called into Bar Rojas for a lunchtime snifter as the weather was so good, warm and sunny with blue skies. As we were having a snack lunch back at the house Mano and Anna called in, he had finished work early so we went back up to Bar Rojas for another one! Later we watched the England v Spain friendly match from Wembley,Spain outplayed England and had total possession for most of the game, hitting the post twice, David Villa played out of his skin – England’s only attempt on goal resulted in Lampard scoring – 1 – 0 to England ! In the evening we had Entrecote Steak with crushed black peppercorns quickly grilled a la plancha with whole Baby Mushrooms, thinly sliced Green Beans and chips.

On Sunday morning I tried to watch the Remembrance Day parade past the Cenotaph in London but could not get it to connect on the IPlayer until later; it was a glorious day in London and it is very moving as the bands play music to match the old soldiers marching with their different regiments and association’s. It was another sunny day so we went up to Bar Rojas for a tapas lunch after we had got the Sunday roast on the go, Chicken with all the trimmings as Mano and Anna were joining us in the evening for dinner, Chicken is Anna’s favourite. At Bar Rojas we had diced liver in a rich salsa with Patatas Fritas! When we got back we watched the end of the Grand Prix from Abu Dhabi when a superb Hamilton won; After dinner we watched the late film on RTVE/1 which was “ 300 ” starring Gerard Butler as King Leonidas leading the Spartans at the battle of the Pass at Thermopylae against the invading Persian hordes ! One “ Helena ” battle ! I was reminded back to my school days when we had ‘ Houses ’ – Romans-Red, Greeks-Blue, Trojans-Yellow ( Mine ) and Spartans-Green !!

Over the weekend I have been reading a copy of ‘ The Times ’which Anna brought back from Tenerife; it is the first time in many years that I have seen a copy and especially in the tabloid format, it is printed in Madrid and as always it is a good read with lots of interesting articles on politics,book,films,music and of course the readers letters one of which was headed ‘ Ladle of Scouse ’ It started by saying that it is properly called ‘ Lobscouse ’and is known in other parts of Lancashire as ‘ lobby ’It then went on to describe the origins of the dish as I was told by my mum ! There is a dish in Norway called ‘ Lapskaus ’and was introduced into Liverpool by the sailors on the docks, the nutritious stew then fed generations of poor Liverpudlians ! She also used to tell me the story of a young pupil in a school where a friend was teaching who when asked how his mother coped with the arrival of the ninth new baby in the family replied “ Aw,miss,she just puts another cup of water and an extra carrot in the Scouse” !!

PS; As I’ am typing this the heavens have opened as forecast for today.

Thought for the Day;

“ People will forget what you said; People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made

them feel ”

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