A MILD BUT VERY WET SUNNY MANILVA ON TUESDAY.

TUESDAY 13^th/ MARCH 2018.

I was up early this morning to welcome back little princess ‘ Reina’ for the day, she shot upstairs and joined us on the bed for a little lie, before going into her duvet, outside the office/studio door, yesterday evening Rose  was not feeling very well after she returned from the Hospital, so ‘ Scruffy’ stayed the night with us and ‘ Chico’ who arrived yesterday morning, they both slept in their beds all night, this morning , after we had freshened up we took them for their first walk of the day, as we ‘braved’ the wet weather, that has returned!

We are now totally cut off from ‘Calle Mar ‘ as the Contractors are now digging up the top terrace along our side of the street, the far side of ‘Calle Mar’ is too muddy,  so we have to go down our steep street, very carefully, when it’s wet, to get out for our walks!

Last night as we were settling down to watch the ‘TV’ both the dogs ended up in each other’s beds, ‘ Scruffy’ loves ‘ Chico’s and ‘vice-versa’ as ‘ Chico’ ended up in ‘ Scruffs’ – as you can see below.

As I said above Rose was very upset when she returned from the ‘ Costa Del Sol ‘ Hospital after seeing Adrian, she’ still has a problem with her Hernia operation dressings and called into the  ‘Estepona Hospital’ Emergency Department on her way home but couldn’t get any help from a rather nasty non-cooperative nurse, after language problems, she then tried the ‘Medical Centre’ down in Sabinillas but it was too late, so Brenda popped her take-away ‘ Roast Dinner Platter’ into her, which she was very grateful for and enjoyed, as she not eating proper food at the moment, this morning she’s going back to the main hospital, for hopefully the correct treatment, watch this space.

As I said above this morning it’s grey & overcast with more black storm clouds on the horizon, it was drizzling as we set off, the forecast is for heavy rain later, there is no change over the next few days and over the weekend, there is just a slight breeze so it’s still very mild, the overall temperatures are still hovering on the 18/19 degs+ mark, over the weekend a little cooler, then from Monday, next week, it’s now forecast for the sun to return, back to normal for the time of the year, sunny everyday and even reaching 21/22 degs + at times! Watch this space.

Just in time for the start of the week of the ‘ Semana Santa’ Easter celebrations starting on ‘ Palm Sunday’!! Watch this space, as we still don’t know where it’s taking place in the village?!


Later this afternoon we will be watching the ' National Hunt Jump Racing ' from the ' Cheltenham Festival ' with the ' Champion Hurdle' taking place in the  wettest ground for 36 years! 

This evening for our supper we are having ‘ Pan-Seared Lambs Liver’ – dusted in seasoned flour, served with ‘Crispy Smoked Bacon’ & Grilled Homemade English ‘Farmhouse Sausages’ and a sauceboat of a rich ‘ Red Wine Mushroom, Onion & Shallot Salsa’ with Cabbage with Acelgas, Glazed Carrot Batons & Garden Peas, and Baby New Potatoes, boiled in their skins, and then tossed in foaming butter, with chopped Parsley ‘ Rissole’s ‘ style! On Wednesday it’s ‘ Grilled Gammon Steaks’ with all the trimmings with twice-cooked ‘ Frits’ – then on Thursday we are having our favourite ‘ Grilled Chicken Wings ‘

Now it’s time for a little flash back in time to the late 50s/ early 60s in Liverpool, when I was just about to leave the ‘ Collegiate Grammar School’ and go to the ‘Catering College’ in Colquitt Street, also in the centre of the city, at the start of the ‘ Mersey Beat ‘ era!

My school friends, from the same streets, where we lived, in Orrell Park/Aintree had formed a group ‘The Dennisons ‘ – named after a local street, and played all the clubs of the time including the now world famous ‘ Cavern Club ‘

At this time ‘The Beatles ‘ were over in Hamburg playing at the ‘ Star Club’ – all five of them – as Stuart Sutcliffe was the Bass player, with Pete Best on the drums, as you can see in the old ‘ before & after’ pictures below, which was changed later after Ringo ( ex-Rory Storm and the Hurricanes) became the drummer and Stuart left to stay in Germany, Stuart went to the Liverpool College of Art with John Lennon, where they were credited with inventing the name “ Beetles “ as they both liked Buddy Holly’s band the ‘ Crickets’ – later changed to “ The Beatles “ from the word ‘ beat’ by John Lennon!

Last night after supper we settled down to watch Episode 4 of the excellent ‘ Marcella ‘ ( Anna Friel ) - as the young boy escaped and was picked up by a old couple in their car, which was then pushed in front of a train, by a lorry, killing them, the boy survived, then ‘ Marcellas’s son was tied up and threatened with rape by the peodphile, her ex-husband turned even nastier, her colleague cop, spying on her was caught and had his face smashed, by her, two new suspects appeared, both ladies, the millionaire is still watching a young boy boxer, with lust in his eyes, the old pop star’s manager looks like he is ready to smother him to death with a cushion, if he dosn’t keep quiet, the head of the Nursing Home is acting suspicious, and at the end the lorry driver was found stabbed to death in the eye, all this and it’s got 4 more episodes to go!  Watch this space.

PS, This evening we are going down to our local surgery as we have our regular appointments with the Council Chiropodist.

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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A STILL VERY GREY, OVERCAST AND NOW WET, AGAIN, SUNNY MANILVA ON TUESDAY.

TUESDAY 6^th/ MARCH 2018.

I was up first this morning, a little later than normal, to see little princess ‘ Reina’ back with us for the day, she shot upstairs, as usual, and we all had a little lie, she then goes on her duvet for the rest of the morning, after freshening up we had our regular light breakfast of fresh, local, Orange juice,’ Weetabix’ fresh fruit, toast & tea before getting the day on the go, I popped out and picked up ‘ Scruffy’ for the day, he’ settled in the office/studio with me as I’m typing/posting today’s Blog, ‘Chispa’ also called in to see her friends a little later.

Brenda has just popped along to the Chemists in ‘Calle Mar’ for some of our prescription tablets, the Contractors are battling on with the work on ‘Phase 2’down the lower part of the street, all the new supply/drain ditches are full of rain water and all the works are mud-bound, to say the least, it’s a mess! She then went down our street to the local shop for a little local shopping.

Overnight, for the first time in a while, we have had no rain, this morning it’s still grey and overcast with black clouds, the air is damp, but at the moment it’s still dry, the forecast is for more of the wet stuff later, over the next few days it’s now showing a little break in the wet weather, with the sun due to break through, at times, still hovering on the 18/19 degs+ - overnight down to 12/14 degs+! Over the weekend we are in for more of the same, next week is still looking a little more settled with sunshine most of the time, fingers crossed, that we are back to normal, for the time of the year, watch this space.

See below some pictures of the ‘ Green Goddess ‘ trams, back in Liverpool, they were still running when I was a child, back in the early 50s, I remember going down to the ‘Pier Head’ on them, from Aintree, and then going on the  various ferry boats across the River Mersey to Birkenhead and New Brighton, sadly, the trams stopped running in 1957. ’Happy Days & Happy Memories’!



At the ' Pier Head' turnaround;

 And passing a still dirty St George's Hall;

We have had a nice catch-up news message on 'Facebook' from Sandra & Bill over in Everett, Ontario, Canada, Bill is a little off-colour with a cold despite it being sunny over there! Later in the year they are hopping to meet up with Jeff, Lyn's son, and his wife Annette, as they are stopping off in Toronto, on their way to Alberta, from Brisbane, Australia, to see their daughter, Kate, who lives there, it's a small World!!

This evening for our supper we are having “ Grilled ‘Spanish’ Lamb Steaks & Cutlets “ that I have just marinated in Sea Salt, crushed Black Peppercorns, Rosemary & Virgin Olive Oil,  served with whole Baby French Green Beans and as a treat, twice-cooked ‘ Chips’ for a change, with lots of Mint Sauce on the side!

Tomorrow evening in celebration of “ British Pie Week “ I’m making a ‘ Chicken & Mushroom Tarragon Pie ‘ – my recipe/version, with a Puff Pastry lid, not fully encased, as tradition requires! Then on Friday it’s going to be my now famous “ Fish Pie “  with Brenda famous ‘ Mashed Potato’ topping.

Last night after supper we settled down to watch Episode 3 of the excellent police/crime drama series, “ Marcella “ with Anna Friel in the title role, as a Detective in the Murder squad,  there are still 5 more episodes to come! She has lots of family problems to handle, including a nasty ex-husband and a son with mental problems, who squeezed to death his sisters pet mouse, did he do the same to the baby daughter, which she now has ‘ black- outs’ about, that she lost years before, the son is also now being stalked by the convicted child molester, who is very peeved as he blames the detective for the death of his son in ‘ utero ‘!

The pop band managers alibi doesn’t hold up, the wooden disks inserted into the victims after they has been ‘ Lobotomised ‘ are symbols to ward off evil?! The paralysed surviving victim is starting to try and spell out a name, the current boy in captivity has escaped, who has not been reported missing yet, only to get into a suspicious car, again, and finally the boss of the factory, whose wife is having an affair with a detective in the case, as she runs a ‘Child Line Help’ charity, has revealed he has a secret past involving a young male boxer!! All this just after 3 episodes, watch this space.

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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A BREEZY, WARM & SUNNY MANILVA ON FRIDAY AT THE START OF THE WEEKEND;

FRIDAY 28^th / OCTOBER 2016.

I was up early this morning to see ‘ Reina’ back with us for the day, I then shot off on my travels, I called into the local Surgery for some sample bottles (!) and the carried on down to Sabinillas, I stopped at our Banks cash machine, with great difficulty, the main square is being resurfaced, so the parking is closed, I called into the main ‘Ferraterias’ for some light bulbs etc, I then did our main shop in ‘ Mercadona’ before going along to the ‘English Butchers’ in Puerto de Duquesa’- on the way back I called into ‘ Super Sol ‘ for the English essentials, no flowers or plants this week.

After unpacking back at the house we then took ‘ Pax’ out for his first walk of the day, around the village, we take him out again in the early evening and then, if necessary, last thing at night, along ‘ Calle Mar’ He’s sleeping very well on his bed by the side of our bed, during the day he wonders around and follows Brenda everywhere, he’s eating everything and drinking a lot of water, tomorrow we are going to shampoo him and make him smell nice! Watch this space for the picture!

It’s another beautiful day down here on the ‘ Costa Del Sol’- the sun was out early and the sky is clear, there is light breeze making it very pleasant, the weekend is looking dry & sunny and next week’s forecast is also staying fine, at the moment, watch this space.

See below the picture of a spectacular ' Autumn' day at the Pier Head in Liverpool yesterday evening and ' Castillo de la Duquesa's' waterfront  this morning!

This evenings supper is going to be ‘ Poached Cushions of Hake Fillet ‘ resting on a pool of my ‘Tomato Salsa’ with ‘crushed’ Parsley Potatoes and Garden Peas on the side; tomorrow night its ‘ Grilled Entrecote Steak’- served ‘ French’ style with all the trimmings and then on Sunday we are having ‘ Pan-Seared Medallions of Pork Fillet’ with ‘Lyonnaise’ Potatoes, Cabbage with Acelgas ( Swiss Chard !) and my famous ‘ Charcutiere’ sauce!

Next week our monthly ‘ Pension’ cycle starts to arrive in our ‘Spanish’ bank account, the ‘ Euro’ over the past couple of weeks had picked up a little but sadly overnight its dropped again, not good news for us, watch this space.

Every day we watch the various ‘Quiz’ shows, this week on Channel 4 ‘ Deal or No Deal’ has reappeared, with ‘Noel Edmonds’ – it’s the last series as its being ‘axed’ after 3,000 shows, giving away over 40 million pounds over the last 11 years, only 8 contestants have ever won the 250,000 top prize!

Many year ago, back in the early 80s we went down to London for the weekend, with friends, and went to see the ‘ Noel Edmonds, Late, Late Breakfast Show’ on the Saturday evening ‘ live’ at the BBC TV Studio, we then carried on to Leicester Square to the ‘Premiere’ of the science fiction action/ adventure film “ Tron “ - afterwards we had supper at the top Chinese Restaurant  ‘ Kwok’- Deep Fried Seaweed, Lemon Chicken & the fabulous ‘Peking Duck’ being prepared by the waiter with super-fast hands, all severed on a large spinning ‘ Lazy Suzan’ table in the middle! I had ‘connections’ in those days for the tickets and reservations!!  

 ‘ Happy Days and Many Memories’

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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