A VERY HOT & SUNNY MANILVA ON WEDNESDAY;

WEDNESDAY 6^th/ MAY 2015.

A nice little lie in this morning until the sun came in through the shutters, it’s going to be a hot one today here in sunny Manilva; the forecast over the next few days and into the weekend is for it to get a lot hotter, the minimum night time temperatures are also going up.

The workmen on the development arrived early and are working on the steel foundation rods for the foundations along with the shuttering around the edges, they have assured me that there is damp proof coursing going in along our walls – watch this space – it also means that very shortly we will be cut off again as the cement lorries and master pump return, this time it will need a lot more deliveries and time! See the pictures below;

‘Scruffy’ was picked later in the morning, he slept all night either in his bed or on the Marble floor under the bed, in the morning he jumps on the bed for a cuddle, his first of the day! We will not see him now for a couple of weeks as Adrian & Rose are on holiday next week – we will miss him!

After our normal breakfast we sorted ourselves out for the day ahead, Brenda is catching up with a little washing & ironing and I grabbed a quick shave & shower ‘Chispa’ called in early so we went for a nice walk in the hot sunshine, the sky is blue and there is just a small breeze in the air, very agreeable to say the least.

We ended up sitting in the garden of Carlos’s ‘Antiguidades Bar under the large palm tree having a cool drink and taking the views across to the mountains and down to the sparkling Mediterranean; Anna came along and joined is for a quick chat.

When we got back up to the house are Swedish friend Lillemor called in for a chat, I have also arranged to take her across to the bus station in Marbella,at the end of the month, as she flying home to Gotenberg.

Around about the same time, at the end of May, we are very busy here in ‘Doggy World Heaven’ as ‘Reina’ is staying with us for four days as Lee & Daniela are going away to Edinburgh for a long weekend and at the same time ‘Charlie’ is with us for eight days as Brian & Jan are going to Liverpool! This is before ‘Scruffy’ is booked in and of course not forgetting ‘Chispa’!!

This evening after our supper, the rest of the ‘Brochettes’ will watch the news, sport and weather details before settling down to find something to watch.

Many years ago at the 'Hotel Seventy Degrees' " Hot Chocolate"- at the hight of their fame -  stayed the night with us after a concert in Llandudno,they went on to drink the cellar dry of my finest Red Wines; it took me six months to get the bill paid by their record company!!

                                                                      R.I.P. Errol Brown.

                                         
                                                       PS; We still licked their music !!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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A VERY HOT AND SUNNY MANILVA ON " PALM SUNDAY"

SUNDAY 29^th/ MARCH 2015          “ PALM SUNDAY ”

Last night was the warmest night on record for this time of the year as the tempretetures reached 14/15 degs and today its forecast to rise during the day to 27/28degs! We were up early despite loosing the hour as we have busy day ahead of us; after a quick breakfast I got the ‘Mince’ on the go for tonight’s ‘Cottage Pie’ that Brenda will top later with her famous Mashed potato!

The mince is made with a good rich Beef & Vegetable stock after sweating off the finely diced Carrots,Onions,Celery,Leeks, Turnips & Mushrooms along with the Beef & Pork Mince, adding my secret ingreadinents,brought to boil and simmered and skimmed before adjusting the taste and consistency.

We then freshened ourselves up and shot down to the church in time for the ‘Palm Sunday’ celebrations; as the weather is so fine all the village was out, normally at this time of the year it’s a little cold and overcast, today is the hottest ‘Palm Sunday’ that anybody can remember!

See all the pictures above of the procession through the streets of sunny Manilva as the ‘Tableau’ of the ‘La Borriquita’ now decorated, was carried by the ‘Brotherhood’ with in charge Salvador who is the foreman on the building site next to our house! Led by the village Brass Band and its leader Fernando along with the Civic dignitaries and the young children it took longer than normal as they had to stop more often for refreshments.

Last night I went down to the official opening ceremony as the guest of the Mayor, Diego, the new Sports ‘City’ Complex, is very impressive as you can see in the pictures below; its going to be run by a company and all the Gyms. Sports Hall etc will be fitted out by them, the main hall is also going to be used for functions seating up to 400 hundred people, and it will be a great asset to the village.

Also last night over in Estepona the new and spectacular ‘Orchid House & Botanic Park’ was also official opened, the pictures below were taken by Gary of ‘The Resident’ newspaper, thanks! The night time pictures with the colored lights is very impressive.

We sat under the ‘Sonbrajo’ outside Bar Rojas for a cool drink with ‘Chispa; who had joined us; this week in ‘Doggy World Heaven’ we are very busy as ‘Reina’ is with us on Tuesday & Thursday as normal and then back on Friday for a sleep over until Saturday evening ‘Scruffy’ is on a sleep over on Tuesday & Saturday and of course ‘Chispa’ will be out and about and calling in for her regular cool drink!

This evening we are going across to the border to pick Den & Josie up from the airport in Gibraltar and will have our supper when we return. They are here for two weeks, so no doubt we will be out and about with them in their busy schedule!

They have arrived !

Thoughts for the Day;See above.

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A VERY HOT & SUNNY MANILVA ON TUESDAY;

TUESDAY 29^th/APRIL 2014.

This morning it was the sun that got us up, the weather at the moment and for the rest of the week and into next is hot sunshine and no breeze, clear blue skies and getting hotter, today its 29/31 degs! It’s also warmer during the night so we are already changing to our summer covers on the bed.

After breakfast we decided to go across to Estepona to the car hypermarket for Oil & Coolant as it’s a lot cheaper, we then dropped down through the town and called in ‘Carrefore’ to have a look around, first to check out the camera’s as I’ am planning to get a new Nikon later in the year, not much in stock so it means that we will go across to the larger ‘Las Palomas’ shopping mall and hyper shops behind Algeciras some time next week; I was also looking for a light cotton bathrobe for the summer at the same time ,no luck also! We did call into the ‘Josh-Stick/Oils’ shop for some scented oil for the burner on our coffee table – success!

Last night I had an E-Mail from Bedwyr over in North Wales with an up-date on the exhibition/project at the ‘Oriel Mostyn Art Gallery’in Llandudno; it has been very well received, including a review in the ‘Guardian’ guide last Saturday, everybody has said that it has brought back very many happy memories of the Hotel 70* He is sending us a signed print from the model that the animators made; to watch the film you can go to – bedyrwilliams.wista.com/projects/olookharg3 – bear in mind that he used some artistic license with the interior and in his own words “ Be warned the film is a little strange” !!

So this evening for supper we are having ‘Pan-fried Calves Liver’ with English Pork Sausages, Smoked Bacon, sautéed Mushrooms and grilled Tomato, fried Onion rings and the rest of last night’ ‘Spaghetti Milanaise’ – yesterday our next door neighbor Anna passed in through the back kitchen window some lovely fresh large Broad Beans, so I’ am making them into a local ‘Dish’ after cooking and shelling them I will toss them with a little Garlic and Smoked Bacon sippits!

It will then be time to watch the second leg semi-final of the ‘UEFA Champions League’ between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid on TVE 1 – last nights film was one that we had not seen before, for a change “ The Cold Light of Day” from 2012 – it’s a CIA/Mossad spy story filmed in Spain and mostly in the center of Madrid starring Henry Cavill,Bruce Willis( Briefly!) Sigourney Weaver as the baddie and Veronica Echegui as the love interest – watch it to the end to catch the night-time car chase through the streets in the center of Madrid!

Real Madrid won 0-4 - 0-5 on aggregate to reach the final - totally out-playing the Germans!!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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SUNNY AND A VERY HOT MANILVA ON WEDNESDAY

WEDNESDAY 17^th/ JULY 2013.

Today is already building up to a hot one, the sun was out early and the breeze has dropped; inland Spain as usual is even hotter, Mardid, Toledo, Jaen,Cordoba,Granada and Seville are all on or nearly 40degs! But in Northern Spain they are having heavy rain storms and floods as well as snow in Andorra!!

We are having an at home day and Brenda is about with her mop and is then doing her ‘Prep’ work on the roof terrace as I have to move the paint container slowly up the stairs, one step at the time! The forecast is that it will reach her some time tomorrow!!See the picture above!!

This afternoon I will be watching the ‘Tour de France’ stage 17 – it’s a Time Trial from Embrun to Chorges over a hilly, hard and particularly technical route – short but not sweet 32kms! Then the next three stages are in the Alps before the last stage on Sunday in Paris which is going to be a very special one on a different route in Paris with a finish at dusk! Watch this space for more details!

Chris Froome has just won the Time Trail stage by 9 seconds from Contador in very dangerous conditions as it started to rain on the descent - he now leads the Spaniard by 4mins-34sec in the overall standings.

Tonight for supper we are having ‘Estefado’ – ‘Scouse’ which I made last week and put a pan away in the deep freeze, later this morning I making another batch of ‘Ensaladilla Rusa’which we are becoming addicted too! We will then watch the news and later catch a film.

Thought for the Day; See above.

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A VERY HOT AND SUNNY MANILVA ON SUNDAY

SUNDAY 16^th/ JUNE 2013.

Well it’s the weather that is the lead story today; it is getting hotter again and in parts of Andalusia there are ‘Health Alerts’ as the temperatures are due to reach 38/40 degs! – Cordoba, Granada, Malaga and especially Seville with the ‘White village’ of Ecija, outside Seville are the main spots but all over the region and further up the Mediterranean coast there’s more of the same! ‘Ecija’ is always the hottest place in Spain every year as it sits in a natural depression which acts like a large ‘Bowl’ – in fact in Spanish the area is called the Soup Bowl! For this time of the year it is hotter than normal, usually it like this by the middle of July and all of August – we are expecting it to reach 32degs in sunny Manilva today! So it’s keep the young children covered, the old people indoors and drink lots of water – this of course is the total opposite to what the locals do, they go down to the beach every day with their mats,towels,umbreallas,wrapped under their arms and carrying ice boxes!!

So no roast today, we are having this evening for supper flattened Chicken Breast cooked on the griddle with dry-sautéed slices of Baked Potatoes and finely sliced Green Beans with our Tomato Salsa on the side – our version of healthy eating!

We will go for a walk this morning after getting freshened up remembering to keep in the shade as I suppose we come under the banner of ‘Old People’!! As for water, well it’s for washing in – not drinking has always been my motto!! We stopped at Bar Rojas and had a nice cool drink sat under the Sonbrajo.

This lunchtime and this afternoon the ‘MotorGP’ from Barcelona will be on Spanish TV, the Spanish rider’s domination in all three categories is starting to be eroded, mainly by British rider’s - it’s getting rather interesting. Sadly the 'Brits' did not do well,Redding could only manage 4th and Cruchlow crashed out! So in. 'Motor1' the first five riders were Spanish,in 'Motor2' the first two riders were Spanish and in 'Motor3' it was 1,2,3 again for Spain !!

Over in Brazil last night it was the first match in the ‘Confederation Cup’ as Brazil played Japan – Brazil won 3-0 with a wonder goal by Neymar; tonight its Mexico v Italy and then later Spain v Uruguay, meanwhile over in Israel the final of the ‘Euro U21’ is between Spain and Italy! All the games are on various channels on Spanish TV.Italy beat Mexico 1-2 and the half time score in the Spain v Uruguay is 2-0 to Spain at the moment! The final score was 2-1 after superb free-kick by Suarez ( Sorry Big Bri!)  Monday night is Tahiti v Nigeria.

PS; As I have been watching the Spain match Justin Rose has just won the 'US Open' at Merion by two shots !He is the first Englishman to win the US Open in 43 years !!


Finally we found tonight a good film to watch; " Changeling " from 2008,it was Produced,Directed and the Music score by Clint Eastwood, it is based on a true story about the kidnapping of a young boy by a madman,in 1928,in fact he chopped to death 19 young boys, and the on-going saga of the mother's efforts to find out the truth after the corrupt Los Angeles police department brings home a boy to her that they say is her son - he isn't and she fights to get the truth!! The mother is played by Angeline Jolie and for once John Malkovich is a 'Goodie !'One to watch for her award winning performance alone! See the picture above of her,Eastwood choose her because she fitted the look and could act !! The period settings won a lot of awards and the 'Star' of the props department was the two period 'Electric Street Cars' - see above also.

PS; The fire took place this evening as we were on the roof terrace and the fire helicopter came across the tops of the roofs on its way to put it out!

Thought for the Day; See above.

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MANILVA/ ESTEPONA.

WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY 9th/10th MAY 2012.

Well the hot weather that was forecast for this week has certainly hit us; it is coming across from North Africa and each day it is getting hotter especially down here on the Costa del Sol and around the corner up to Cadiz and Sevilla, the temperature today is just reaching 30degs here and down on the coast 32/35 degs and up to 38degs by tomorrow ! In Manilva there is just a little breeze that makes it very pleasant but down in Estepona this morning by early lunchtime it was hot, the rest of Spain is also a lot warmer and sunnier but nothing like what we have got ! On Wednesday after breakfast I made the Braised Steak and Onions for dinner, it also has lots of vegetables in it and then goes in the oven in the evening; Brenda had got Cabbage with Alselgas ready and local boiled potatoes to go with it – comfort food. After freshening up we went for a short walk with Cheta who is definitely missing Derrick who was ‘ Dog- napped ’ back from us by Mano on Tuesday afternoon as Anna had arrived back late on Monday evening, we had got used to having the little ‘ Mutt ’ around and he was no trouble to look after even though we don’t have any outside space here at the house. No word from Anna yet as she settles back into life here in sunny Manilva and gets ready to welcome Sally Ann and Dylan sometime this weekend we think. At lunchtime after our walk we stopped at Bar Rojas and treated ourselves to an alfresco Tapas lunch under the Sonbrajo,Brenda had the diced Liver and I had Lumy’s Albondigas in a rich Tomato sauce with a side of her famous Patatas Fritas ! In the evening after dinner we watched the Europa League Cup Final from Bucharest – a brilliant double from Radamel Falcao and a bustling performance from the rest of the Atletico Madrid undid Athletic Bilbao 3-0 – it turns out that the Colombian also scored the only goal in last years final for ‘ Porto ’! The film later was the award winning “ The Pianist ” directed by Roman Polanski who won the Oscar and starring Adrian Brody who won the Oscar for best actor as well as the film for best film !

This morning we were up bright and early and shot across to Estepona for our appointment at the ‘ Policia National ’ to get a Residency Card – it turns out that what we have got in another document is fine and correct and we our totally up to date and legal! So with some time on our hands we parked up in the underground car park on the front and walked into the main shopping area; we bought a top up phone card for Brenda’s good old mobile and I had a Haircut and face massage in the Barber’s shop before we sat and had a coffee and took in the sights and sounds of our favorite town down here. The Euro has just reached a three and a half year high so now is a good time to come and visit us as you get more Euros for your pound ! Bookings now being taken !! At lunchtime we met some friends outside Bar Rojas so it gave us an excuse to have a ' Tincture ' At the moment I'am weening my self back onto the ' Cuba Libre's ' as I have stopped taking the pain killing tablets !Every afternoon Brenda is up on the roof terrace in her Bikini ( Just! ) reading and taking in the sun until it gets to hot The pictures below taken at lunchtime show the work slowly progressing on the new square and the small garden center that has been opened by the owner of the ‘ Antiguedades ’ Bar Carlos outside his Bodega next to it .The late film was " Mississippi Burning " from 1988 - it is an American crime drama loosley based on the FBI investigation of the murder of three civil rights workers in the State of Mississippi back in 1964 - starring Gene Hackman and William Defoe as the waring FBI agents.


Thought for the Day;

When you cannot make up our mind which of two evenly balanced courses of action you should – choose the bolder.


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MANILVA START OF THE WEEK.

WEDNESDAY 6^th JULY 2011.

Well we are back into our routine in sunny Manilva; the fans are on in the lounge, bedrooms and office, we don’t use the air conditioning as it takes time to get used to it and it is expensive, the shutters are down and the sun block is on ! In the morning we have tea and toast as we plan our day,chores,bloging,reading,shopping and reading, Brenda goes to the shop just below us for all our daily esstentials,the fresh vegetables and fruit are all local, at the moment the Cherries are to die for! The weather forecast is sun, sun and more sun and the temperature is always above 35degs. and at night it is 20/25degs! At lunchtime we have a light snack, today we walked down to Bodega Augustin for Tapas and drinks, Brenda had a Fish Roe salad and I had the Carne de Tomates,Cheta came running in so we took her down with us but we have to be very careful during the day as it is so hot and the pavements are baking. Brenda retired to the roof terrace in the afternoon and I settled down in the office to watch the ‘ Tour de France’ We then have our cocktails up on the roof terrace at this time of the year as the sun has moved around and the chill out room is not chilled out ! In the evening we keep the cooking down to the minimum, on Tuesday we had a nice slice of Beef ‘ A la Plancha ’with salad from our regular butcher and this evening we went a bit mad as we spotted in the other butchers in the village some lovely Liver, which the lady butcher sliced very thin, so I dusted it in flour and quickly Pan Fried it in foaming Herb Butter, Brenda made some of her famous Mash and also Cabbage and Baby Carrots, a fine Rioja helped it along. We then watched a film on TV, the only thing missing that we are missing is the pool !

Mark Cavendish won the fifth stage of the Tour de France on a day when a number of leading riders suffered crashes including Contador and Wiggins. This was Cavendish’s 16^th stage victory in the Tour over his career which equaled the record of the legendary five-time Tour winner,Jacques Anguetil ! He came from tenth position with 50mtrs.to go and surged over the line leaving the other riders in his wake after his team set him up in the last few kilometers to Cape Frehel on the Atlantic coast,todays stage takes them across into Normandy.

Thought for the Day;

If you don’t have the time to do it right, when will you have time to do it ever.

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ESTEPONA BENALMADENA RONDA.

Thursday/Friday 1st/2nd October 2009.

Thursday 1st.

In the morning we went across to Estepona as I had arranged to meet Mano at the bank to pass on some payments for the work completed at the villa; Norah and Jenny went shopping and sightseeing as we had also arranged to see Ben and Andrea over in Benalmadena,they are over for a weeks holiday and are staying in the all inclusive holiday village. When we arrived the gate security would not let us in, the only way was to pay for a day pass,45euros each! So they came to the gate and we had a short chat, their baby daughter Freya is now 15 months old with blonde hair and blue eyes and we have fallen in love with her as they introduced her to us as Uncle Malcolm and Aunty Brenda ! The other piece of news they told us was that they are getting married in May next year, guess where, Gibraltar ! This means that the whole family will be down here in our neck of the woods and we will get to go to the wedding, when we receive the invitation ! We then went back over to Estepona and picked Norah and Jenny up and stopped at the marina for a quick snack lunch at the “ Irish Fiddler ”as you can see in the picture. In the evening back at the villa we had the Barnsley Lamb chops on Boulangere potatoes for dinner.

Friday 2nd.

Today the weather forecast was very good and so it proved; we drove over to Manilva then up through the mountains to Casares,Gaucin,Algatocin and into Ronda. We gave the girls the tour around Ronda and after parking the car we walked around the walls and past the famous bullring and down to the bridge across the gorge. For lunch we went to our favorite restaurant “ Don Miguel ”built into the walls of the gorge and had another great meal, Brenda had the Monkfish and Prawn Brochette, Norah had Pink Trout, Jenny had the Hake in a savory sauce and I had the Roasted Leg of baby Lamb with our own mint sauce! The Rosado went down a treat and the restaurant looked after us very well, we then went across the bridge into the old town and whilst the girls wandered about I did some checking out of the Boutique hotels for future reference ! The temperature went up to 33degs.as we walked back to the car.

CASA OLIMPIA.

Saturday 1st.August 2009.

As it is so hot we are not getting much sleep even with the windows open and the fans on 24/7; it is also too hot to go out by the pool until the sun goes down, behind the mountains in the early evening. Both dogs are fine and have stopped scratching but we have not been able to catch the three cats to give them the treatment as they come and go as they please and keep out of the way of the dogs! We had a light snack lunch on the balcony, in the morning before it got too hot I made a Beef and vegetable stew for supper so as there was no need to cook in the evening. The large screen TV has no picture and I have not been able to fix it over the last few days so we are suffering from TV withdrawal symptoms!! It is strange listening to the news programmes with no pictures! We are now following everything on the internet with our BBC, ITN, CHANNEL4 connections along with the online newspapers etc.

MANILVA.

Saturday 14th June.

Yet another hot and sunny day as the summer season sets in and the forecast is for it to get even hotter as the month goes on.We are making plans to cook up on the roof terrace as the kitchen annex where the electric hotplate is not very big and gets very hot when I am cooking up a storm!The electric oven in the main kitchen which has taken a bashing over the last few months with all the roasting is also going to be given a rest as we change the menus for the summer season!! We are going to use our small portable gas BBQ, and an electric hot plate and set them up on the roof terrace on the side which goes into the shade in the afternoon as the sun moves round and we will eat outside.Brenda is starting to go really brown as she is spending a lot more time on the terrace. Meanwhile I am planning where to put the fans and a large portable air conditioner in the house as well as when to use the air conditioning unit ! We are going to sleep in the guest room if it’s not in use! As it also has a large ceiling fan ! We have also now started to drop all the shutters on the windows and door-Spanish style which cuts out the natural light but does make a difference.

Sunday 15th June.

Sunday is cooked breakfast day so we had some local Bacon and Eggs as we got up late in the morning.Mano and Anna are not coming for dinner as Anna has found some jobs for Mano to do round the house on his first day off for quite a while! In the afternoon we went up to our favorite bar in the village and had the small prawns on sticks which are very good and cheap! As we have to watch the coppers at the moment until the Winnebago sells! In the evening for supper we had Chicken salad and watched the football on TV. Which is getting very interesting and exciting as the Spanish team is looking very good ! We also sent off some birthday greetings to Brenda’s nephew, Jeff who is travelling around Europe at the moment with his wife Annette on a five week holiday- six/seven countries so far ! and to our dear friend Zoe in Manchester who is probably away helping her husband Graham on the executive yacht on which he is the captain.What a life!!

Monday 16th June.

In the morning we called into our Spanish bank in Estepona and also at the same time we called into the office of the Sur in English to re book are adverts,over the weekend I had noticed that in the paper there is a monthly photographic competition on line so I have with a little bit of difficulty posted some of my pictures on the web page which is controlled by an administrator and they have been accepted and are already on the newspaper web page when we looked this morning! Watch this space yet again as another string to the bow is happening!!
We went to check out the Winnebago and at the same time they are getting us some quotes for the insurance on the Smart car and to change the plates to Spanish as we have to do this when we sign the resident papers in August. We then called into to see Vidal and Gissy on the site as we don’t see as much of them as we would like as they are now playing a lot more gigs and caught up with all their news.In the evening we had Lamb chops baked in the oven on Boulangere potatoes ,the butcher cut the chops especially for us and we had a really nice meal accompanied with the local Rioja! We have also found some Spanish Cassis in a wine shop in Estepona for our Kir Royale’s to go with the very cheap but excellent local Cava! I have booked a table for Sunday lunch at the Beach House restaurant on the far side of Marbella for Brenda’s birthday,it’s the first time that we have been out on her birthday for a very long time and we are looking forward to somebody else cooking lunch! All our friends are working so we are going to catch up with them as and when over the weekend.