A VERY ' CLOSE' AND STILL A LITTLE OVERCAST SUNNY MANILVA ON SATURDAY.

SATURDAY 17^th/ AUGUST 2019.

I was up very early this morning and after a quick freshen up I shot off on my travels, through the sea mist, down to Sabinillas for our weekly shopping, I called into ‘ItZabar’ for my toast & tea, then walked along to ‘ Mercadona’ where it was everyman for himself, very busy, the shelves being topped up all the time, all 17 check-outs in operation.

I then popped along to the ‘ English Bookshop’ for the local newspapers, we picked up the fresh flowers, from the market at the far-end of the promenade yesterday morning, on our way to the hospital, so it was then time to shoot back up the hill, through the vine fields, still overcast & misty, to unload back at the house.

Back at the house Brenda took ‘ Chico’ out for his first walk of the day, in the ‘ damp’ sea mist, around the bottom of the village, tomorrow evening ‘ Pucci’ is arriving for his weeks holiday, with us in ‘Doggy World Heaven’ – on Monday/Tuesday little ‘ Miss Bella’ is back with all of us for the day. Watch this space.

The sun is attempting to break through and the sky is slowly clearing, by lunchtime it due to reach 29 degs+ - with a light breeze, coming up off the Mediterranean (Lavente) – tomorrow shooting up to 34 degs+ - next week it’s starting hot & sunny, then from Wednesday onwards as the breeze stiffens, it’s dropping to the mid/high 20s, -  with the chance of the ‘ wet-stuff’ on one of the forecast, still overnight hovering on the 20 degs mark, for now, watch this space.

See below two aerial pictures of Liverpool, the old one from 1940, just after the ‘ Blitz’ taken from a plane and the new one taken from a ‘ drone’ yesterday!

Over the past two weeks we have had our regular ‘Pension/Annuities’ arriving in our ‘Spanish’ Bank Account along with some transfers from our ‘English’ Bank Account, sadly at the moment the ‘Euro’ is at its lowest against the ‘Pound’ in over 10 years at 1-052, meaning that we are now getting  “1 Euro for 1 Pound “!  We are down nearly 50% - which equates to nearly 550 Euro’s per month!!  Watch this space.

On the sports front this weekend it’s the return of ‘La Liga’ over here in Spain, yesterday evening it kicked off with Athletic Bilbalo v Barcelona, it was on in all the bars along ‘Calle Mar’ - as we were out for our ‘Tapas’ supper, sadly Barcelona lost 0-1 in the 89^th minute, when a substitute came on and scored a sublime winner, with his first kick of the game, with a spectacular overhead scissor-kick! All of sunny Manilva support Real Madrid, so they let me know, as I’m the only Barcelona supporter in the village!! Today Real Madrid travel to Celta Vigo.

Over in the ‘ Premiere League’ Everton are at home to Watford and Manchester City welcome Tottenham Hotspur, meanwhile Liverpool travel down to play Southampton, with their two goalkeepers injured?!

This afternoon in the ‘ Rugby Union World Cup’ warm-up games, England travel down to Cardiff to play Wales.

The Horse Racing is from Newbury.

This evening for our supper we are having ‘ Turkey Brochettes’  ( Mercadona ) which I add Shallot Onions & Mushrooms to, accompanied with a pool of Tomato sauce, with Whole ‘ French’ Baby Green Beans and Baby New Potatoes in their skins, tomorrow evening, for a change we are having ‘Chicken Empanadas’ ( Mercadona again!) – flattened ‘Chicken Breast’ coated in savoury breadcrumbs, then shallow fried in Vegetable Oil until crisp & golden! ( Lots of Lemon Wedges!)

After supper we will settle down, keeping as cool as possible, to watch the TV, channel hopping to find a good film to watch.

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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A VERY WARM & SUNNY MANILVA ON ' VENDIMIA ' SATURDAY.

SATURDAY 2^nd/ SEPTEMBER 2017.

We had a nice lie in this morning as the village is very quiet, everybody is preparing themselves for this evenings celebration, including us! For breakfast we had Weetabix’- fresh fruit, toast & tea, I then made the ‘ Braised sliced Beef Steak’ in a rich Red Wine, Mushroom & Onion Sauce, it will go in the oven later and then we will have it with Parsley New Potatoes and finally sliced Green Beans, as the night goes on and also tomorrow!

The sun broke through early and the sky is bright blue, there is just a little, very pleasant breeze, by lunchtime it’s due to reach 28/29 degs, tomorrow it’s the same and then from Monday, onwards, it’s getting hotter, starting with 32 degs, watch this space.

On the sports front this weekend there are no ‘Premier League or La Liga’ matches as all the counties have qualifying games for the ‘World Cup’ next year, over in Monza it’s the Italian Grand Prix, at times the cars reach 230mph on one of the fastest race tracks!

Today’s Stage 14 of the ‘ Vuelta a Esapana 17 ‘ goes from Ecija to La Pendera over 188 kms with the highest summit finish, so far, there was no change in the overall standings yesterday, today could be different see the route map below, watch this space.

After supper last night we channel hopped and then later watched on ‘ BBC FOUR’ the live concert from the ‘Royal Albert Hall ‘ of the “ Stax Prom “ paying tribute to the pioneering label of soul music, 50 years of Soul! -  our favourite ‘ Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra ‘at its best, with guests, Sir Tom Jones, Beverley Night, Ruby Turner, James Morrison, along with old ‘ Stax Records’ stars, Sam Moore, William Bell, Eddie Floyd, Booker T. Jones & Steve Cropper!

All the great tracks from Ottis Reading, Rufus Thomas, the Staple Singers, etc with the classic sounds of ‘Sittin’ On the Dock of the Bay, Soul Man, Private Number’ and so on! Booker T. Jones on the Hammond Organ was just out of this World as he played his classic track “ Green Onions “ backed by the excellent orchestra with Steve Cropper on Guitar, we danced the night away!!

“ VENDIMIA WINE FESTIVAL 2017 “

It all kicks off this evening with the religious parade led by the Manilva Brass Band, then the weigh in of the grape bunches before the two bands kick off into the wee small hours.


See also above the parade later in the evening along 'Calle Mar'

I’m popping out later to take some pictures of all the ‘ Sonbrajos’ along Calle Mar, see above.

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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A STILL WARM & SUNNY MANILVA ON THURSDAY;

THURSDAY 12^th/ NOVEMBER 2015.

I was up early to welcome back ‘Riena’ who is with us for the day, after breakfast ‘ Scruffy’ arrived for the day also and later ‘Chispa’ came calling to see her friends! One bit of news in ‘Doggy World Heaven’ is that little ‘Maisie’ is not joining us for Xmas, with ‘Barny’ as a dear friend of Lyndsey - ‘Barny’s’ owner, has fallen in love with her and she has moved in with them! It sounds like both dogs are fine and content with the new arrangement.

The sun is out and its already warm in sunny Manilva, the forecast for over the weekend into next week is also looking good with more of the same to come. During the night its a little cooler but the day time temperatures are hovering on the 22 degs mark , so we can’t complain.

Just before breakfast we were listening to ‘Castle Radio FM 89.2’ on the WWW. as were getting ourselves freshened up and I sent Andrew a ‘Skype’ message to say what a great show, later Andrew made contact on the ‘Skype’ video and we had a nice chat and get to know as we have not met him, so tomorrow afternoon we are going down to Castillo de la Duquesa to meet him in his local and then go along to the studio which is in his house. 

As we talked we found that we have lots of things in common and I’m now looking forward to and getting rather excited to my firsts ‘live’ broadcast show on Sunday morning between 11.00 am – 12.00 noon. Hopefully I will get asked back, for a regular spot, and if so Andrew suggested that I would be able with my new computer system be able to broadcast from my office upstairs in the house!! That would be terrific so please listen in to the ‘Sunday Lunchtime Classic Show’ with ‘Sir’ Malcolm Sexton’ and send in your suggestions/requests!! Watch this space!!

For our supper this evening we are having Pan-Fried ‘Lambs Liver’ dusted in flour and seared ‘Pink’ with English Pork Sausage, crispy Spanish Smoked Bacon & sautéed Onions; Cabbage with Alselgas and dry-sauteed thick-cut slices of Baked Potatoes. See below;

Last night after supper we watched on ITV the ‘Beatles’ programme with some classic pictures and films of them, some un-scene, of all their records with lots of information and comments from various celebrity’s,  it was their top 30 records as voted by the audience and the number one was the classic over 7 minute long “ Hey Jude “ PS; it makes my ‘Beatles’ spot on my Radio Show even more relevant!!

PS; I've just booked a table at the celebrity restaurant " La Sala " in Puerto Banus for their Sunday Lunch with Live Music on the 29/th November for our 44/ th wedding anniversary!!

See below a picture taken this morning of 'Mount Snowdon' ( 1085 m ) at its best; back in December 1971. we climbed the mountain with the help of the Worlds Greatest Mountaineer,at the time, Joe Brown!! It was our first job after we had been married, we were the Managers of the very famous Mountaineer's Hotel " Pen Y Gwrd" which was Sir Edmund Hilary's training base back in 1953 before the first assent of Everest!!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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A WARM AND SUNNY MANILVA ON FRIDAY AT THE START OF THE WEEKEND;

FRIDAY 20^th/ JUNE 2014.

We were up and out this morning after breakfast and first went to the local market down by the sports ground to get some fresh flowers; then down to Sabinillas to the bank first then we picked up the papers and I chose a birthday card for my child bride! Next it was the supermarket for our main shop of the week including a rather nice Cava for the birthday girl on Sunday, finally we popped into the Garden Centre for some plants and another wall pot to finish our outside display! See the picture above of the new Yellow plants.

Back at the house we have up-packed and are now sorting ourselves out for the weekend ahead; this evening is the ‘Chef’s’ night off so we are going down to ‘Bar Las Vinas’ – see the pictures above, for supper – then it’s just a short walk across the road to go up to the terrace in front of the ‘School of Music’ for tonight’s concert where we hope to see Gillian and Josie.

The concert pictures above give you a little taste,the 'Red Haired' Boy singer is Sally Ann's son and Anna's grandson!

We are meeting them in 'Bar Rojas' for a pre-supper/concert drink to start the night off in the right direction !

At 'Bar Las Vinas' Angela & Marie( See above) looked after us very well,the girls had assorted Tapas including 'Carne Merchad' and I had as you can see in the pictures above my favourite Chicken,Eggs and Chips - Spanish style! The girls ordered a plate of chips as well ! The views are to die for;We also bumped into 'Liverpool Brian' with 'Charlie' from his stay with us over Xmas - he made a big fuss of us!

Tomorrow morning  there’s a little preparation in the kitchen including my famous ‘Ensalillida Rusa’and tomorrow nights special ‘Steak Night’ as we have bought this morning two rather large and hopefully succulent ‘Entrecote’ steaks – see the picture above of one of them!

NB; Also on Saturday evening there is a 'Flamenco Night' down at the 'Pabellon' See the poster above.

Then at lunchtime the ‘Classic Car Rally’ is coming up to the village and parking on the ‘Plaza de laVendimia’ Next on the agenda is Sunday and the birthday girls 21^st?! celebrations starting here in the house with a very nice bottle of ‘Anna Codorniu Brut Cava’ with Smoked Salmon and Prawn canapés followed by lunch at ‘Venta Garcia’!

Brian has just called on the Skype video as he was driving, he’s passed his license recently and was showing off his clever mobile phone in front of him! Keep to the right Big Bri !!

The only thing left to do is get the ‘Trousseaus’ ready for the weekend – I know what I’ am wearing but the problem is Brenda  who tells me that she has got nothing to wear?!

PS; On Monday it's of course the " Notche de San Juan " - the 'Fire Festival' - see the pictures above of the newly constructed " Tableau ' down on the beach in Sabinillas !

PPS; ENGLAND are out of the 'World Cup' after eight days after Costa Rica beat Italy 1-0 !!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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