A VERY HOT & SUNNY MANILVA ON THURSDAY;

THURSDAY 7^th/ MAY 2015.

I was up early this morning as ‘Reina’ was due back with us for the day; she’s back next week, as normal, on Tuesday & Thursday; the sun was out already and the sky is blue, there is a slight breeze which makes it very comfortable here in sunny Manilva.

Yesterday we had another invitation to this time the new ‘IU’parties ‘Bash’ this coming Sunday in the early evening in the ‘Plaza Pozo Del Rey’ We have also been asked to go to the ‘PPs’ party office on Saturday down in Sabinillas for their ‘Do’- at the same time in the square it’s the ‘ASM’ parties ‘Get together’ !! They are all of course chasing our two votes on the 24th May!!

Meanwhile up in a rather damp Skelton ‘Up North’ I’ve just heard ‘rumors’ that the local ‘Polling Station’ has been burnt down by right-wing activists so the ‘Queen & her Consort’ will not be able to vote in today’s General Election !!

I was reading all the newspapers on-line yesterday, as usual, including the ‘Daily Mail’ (sorry Josie)!  When I got to the North Wales edition of the Daily Post the front page new was that Llandudno Pier had been sold for £4.5 million to a local leisure entrepreneur from Rhyl Adam Williams – See the picture below;

I suddenly realized that I knew the name, It turns out that he is the son of the late Billy Williams who we used to work for back in 1972/5 as managers of the ‘Kinmel Manor Hotel’ in Abergele that he owned!

This then brought back lots of memories of our time there, Billy Williams was a fairground showman and owned the ‘Big Wheel’ and a club called the “Downtown” in Rhyl next to the fairground; on the night that Adam was born I called across to Billy’s house next to the hotel and ended up toasting the new born babies health with him until staggering back to the hotel the next morning!

During our time at the hotel we met our very dear friend Tim and his first wife Sandra, Douglas Leech and his then girlfriend Sue and his best mate Alan Dunton and his first wife Yola as well as many more North Wales friends including Prys Jones the local Estate Agent from Abergele that we later bought our house from in Rhyd-y-Foel!  Happy times and fond memories of the good old days over 40 years ago.

Speaking of Douglas we have now made contact and it turns out that he is arriving at Malaga Airport this Sunday for a holiday with his wife Lynn and two friends Pedro & Ann from Llandudno who we also know as Ann’s family owned the historic 'Clare's' departmental store in the Mostyn street!

They are staying at a villa up in the lake district above Malaga in the tiny white village of Iznajar so we are planning, if possible, to meet up with them; at the same time Jenny Faux, from Llandullas, who used to work for us for many years at the ‘Hotel Seventy Degrees’ is coming with some of her family to their apartment in Duquesa for a holiday so no doubt we will catch up with her also!

That’s enough nostalgia for now; so this evening for our supper we are having pan-fried ‘Escallops of Chicken Breast’ cooked in foaming Lemon Butter with a dash of Balsamic Vineagre & on the side finely sliced Green Beans and thick-cut slices of Baked Potato dry-sautéed.

At lunchtime we went for a walk with 'Chispa' and ended up at Bar Rojas for a cool drink,we then met a English couple out on their bikes,they have a house in Casares Costa on the way out from Sabinillas, so we had a nice chat with them 'Peter & Hannah - nice to meet you and look forward to seeing you again up in sunny Manilva at the 'Vendimia' at the start of September if not before! 

Last night we watched, later. the high lights of the Barcelona v Bayern Munich game on ‘TDP’as Barcelona beat the German champions 3-0 with Messi scoring two goals! Next week is the second leg back in Germany.

PS;This morning we were looking at the Australian side of the family on Facebook' and clicked to make contact with on of Lyn's daughter's son - the reply came back instantly - it just reminds you of the power of the WWW!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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MANILVA THIS WEEK.

MONDAY/TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY 13th/14th/15th MARCH 2012.

The forecast for this week is clear skies and warm sun; on Monday we had an at home day to catch up with the chores around the house and I disappeared into the office to loose myself on the WWW. The pictures from Melbourne came in early and just show how good Jack looks after his operation. Brenda ended up on the roof terrace taking in the sun and reading and I tried to set up a connection to watch the racing from Cheltenham over the next few days – with no luck – so I will have to follow it on the BBC Sports channel text and chat; at the same time I did have some luck as I was able to sign up and then log-on to Channel 4’s Iplayer 40D at last and I’ am now able to follow ‘Shameless’! In the evening we had Cold Pork for supper and then caught up with the news and weather; the main weather reports are on twice a day on TVE1 and are very comprehensive.

On Tuesday morning we took Cheta for her cut and trim as her coat at this time of the year starts to go, she as usual ends up looking like ‘ ET ’ as you can see in the pictures below ! Later I was in the office following the racing when the new phone went and showed the message that had appeared on ‘ Oscars ’blog; it has brought back all the memories of the Hotel Seventy Degrees back in the late 70s and early 80s. At the time it was the best and led all the others in food, style and service and of course the loyal customers and staff all helped to make it something special to be be proud of. In the evening after dinner of Pork Cutlets with our favourite Lyonnaise Potatoes we settled down and watched TV after I caught the Derby Match Liverpool v Everton – on the PC, Liverpool won 3-0 with a Gerrard hat trick – sorry Big Bri !

In the morning on Wednesday I got the Braised Steak on the go; I sauté lots of sliced Onions and then pan fry the floured steaks to brown them off, I make the sauce with diced Onions, Carrots, Garlic, Celery, Leeks, Turnips, Mushrooms and Green Beans all sautéed in Red Wine and Tomato Sauce and then a Beef and Vegetable Stock to finish – I then put all the ingredients together in a large braising dish ready to go in the oven for a couple of hours in the evening! After our walk with the dog Brenda went up on the roof terrace and I followed the racing from Cheltenham; it was very exciting and at the same time it is very frustrating as I’ am watching the text come up on the screen – I have also now found that I can listen to a commentary on Radio 5 Live at the same time ! but sadly still no pictures. After dinner we watched the football from Madrid on our local regional channel; Real beat CSKA Moscow 4-1 – aggregate 5-2 to go into the Quarter Finals of the UEFA Champions League but the match of the night was in England when Chelsea came back against Napoli after loosing badly in the first leg 3-1 and beat them 4-1 after extra time to go through to the next round as well. The late film was a political thriller a ‘Goodin’ called “ The Interpreter ”with Nicole Kidman in the title role and Sean Penn also starring in the last film directed by Sydney Pollack in 2005.


Thought for the Day;


A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.



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DAY 4 COUNTDOWN TO D DAY.

Monday 29th March 2010.

We have just come back from the clinic in Tarifa and the wound is looking a lot better and now only requires a small dressing so in the next few days we think that it will be OK and our daily visits will be over. Tomorrow I have to go across to Manilva as I need to get a new prescription for my tablets so I am going to take more of our stuff so as we are ready for an easy getaway on Thursday!

This morning before we went out we made contact with Jack and Lyn in Melbourne on the Skype video phone; they have been away for a couple of weeks in their touring caravan along the coast, they have also celebrated their first wedding anniversary whilst they were away – doesn’t time fly when you are having fun ! We wish you all the very best and many more of the same in the future.

The weather is still very good, today it is warm and crisp with white fluffy clouds but a just a little breeze; it is also keeping the same over the next week so we are looking forward to getting back into out life in the village and seeing all our friends and neighbours and visiting all our local bars especially Bar Rochas as the top of our street !

Thought for the Day;

Birthdays are good for you, the more you have ,the longer you live.

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L