A OVERCAST & CLOUDY AND DAMP SUNNY MANILVA ON SUNDAY;

SUNDAY 23^rd/ OCTOBER 2016.

We managed a nice lie in this morning before the church bells calling the faithful started! ‘ Pax’ is very patient as he waits for us to get ready to take him out for his first walk of the day, he’s sleeping well on his bed, eating & drinking everything we give him, he follows Brenda everywhere, as she feed him, he’s in the kitchen when we are cooking and sits at meal times with a ‘look’ on his face, he gets on with ‘Reina & Chispa’ when they are here, he’s into the routine of our walks around the village and is leaving his ‘ scents’ everywhere!

After our regular breakfast of Weetabix, toast & tea I got this evenings supper on the go with the help of the ’ Second Chef ’ – she peels all the vegetables & potatoes for the ‘ Lancashire Hotpot’ which I then make, my own recipe/version of the classic dish.

 I first brown off the seasoned ( Tarragon) ‘ New Zealand, South Island, Rack of Lamb’ cut into cutlets/steaks before buttering the ‘Hotpot’ casserole pan and layering the sliced Potato( hand cut) – thinner as the layers build, up with the top ones as thin as possible to ‘crisp off’ at the end of cooking, on each layer I add the diced Carrots & Turnips, Leeks, Celery, Mushrooms and Onions & Shallots with Garlic, seasoning each layer and then adding a good, rich & strong ‘Chicken & Vegetable’ stock before the sealing the top with tin-foil and placing the lid back on, its goes in a hot oven this evening to cook, near the end I take off the lid & tin-foil, sprinkle with knob’s of butter and leave to crisp off! The ‘ Vegetable ‘ Chef has prepared Green Cabbage and pickled Red Cabbage!! See below;

Overnight a stiff breeze got up, this morning it’s started grey & overcast with ‘Black’ clouds threatening over the village, the rain will arrive later, it’s also gone a little cooler during the day, down to 22/23 degs, we managed to beat the rain for ‘ Pax’s’ first walk of the day but later we have the raincoats ready!  Next week is now looking unsettled, watch this space.

The rain finally arrived but it has blown over later this afternoon so we were able to take ' Pax' out for his walk, over the rest of Andalucia they are having the having the worst rain storms, so far this year, there are severe floods in Cadiz & Seville! 

See the picture below taken this morning of the sunrise over the world famous waterfront in Liverpool, ‘The Three Graces ‘ – ‘The Royal Liver Building, The Cunard Building & The Port of Liverpool Building’ !!!

Just a quick update on the sport; Hamilton is on pole for the ‘American Grand Prix’ in Austin Texas; Everton lost 2-1 and Liverpool won 2-1 and went joint top of the ‘ Premiere League’ – over here in ‘ La Liga’ last night Barcelona won 2-3 in a nasty match in Valencia with injuries and bottles being thrown!

Before our supper we watched ‘ Strictly Come Dancing’ and then later ‘The Jonathan Ross Show’ with the cast of ‘ Cold Feet’ who were very good, then Phil Collins joined them, he’s not a very likeable man, looks fat & old and can’t now sing, he’s making a comeback next year, he should listen to the online ‘Facebook’ page begging him not to return!!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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SUNNY MANILVA ON WEDNESDAY.

WEDNESDAY 5^th/ JUNE 2013.

This morning we had our showers early as it is going to be a hot one; there is a cold front coming down into Northern Spain which is the tail of the bed weather in the rest of Europe so it is going to be a little cooler in the next few days.

We have been for a walk with the dog around the village, first I called into the small bank branch in Calle Mar and picked up some cash, we then went down to the butchers and got the Pork Escalope’s for tomorrow night, I spotted a nice Crown of local Turkey so we bought it for the roast when the folks are here; they have now started to paint the outside of the Pensioner’s Club ready for the re-opening and it all hands to the pumps at the new ‘Plaza Vendemia’ as they work to get it ready – for September the 1^st! – the festival !!

This weekend it is the Festival ‘ La Romeria ’ when the village celebrates the very religious festival with a ‘Cattle’ drawn procession down to the Shrine in the valley below the village with singing, dancing and eating over Saturday and Sunday!

I’ am still struggling to get full coverage of the cycling; yesterday Chris Froome dropped down to 11^th overall so today’s 32kms Time Trial from Villars Les Dombes to Parc des Oiseaux should help him to gain a few places as he is rather good at Time Trialing! Hopefully !!  It has just finished and Froome was 3rd! He is now second in the general classification !! Meanwhile over in Australia the ' British and Irish Lions' have just won their first game in Australia against the 'Western Force' as they ran riot- 17-69  and scored nine try's with 'Jonny Sexton'scoring one in the first half!

PS; I'am watching the French Open Tennis upstairs in the office as there is no live coverage on Spanish TV - Sharapova is struggling against Jankovic.She just held on to win 0-6 6-4 6-3 so Maria Sharapova,the defending champion is in the semi-finals.Nadel has also just won - the live coverage on the sports Channel is rather different - you choose what match you want and it comes on with no commmentator's which is a rather pleasant change !!

Last night we watched the Spanish Master Chef; at one stage they were in Valencia, the home of the dish and where the famous Rice fields are, to cook ‘Paella’- two sorts, Seafood and Meat – one of the contestants collapsed with the heat as they had to cook them over open wood fires! In the elimination round they had to copy a dish that one of the judges is famous for in his ‘Mitchelin’ starred restaurant; one of them did not produce the dish as it should be but she is a bit of a ‘Character’ and she went into the next round and the one that was eliminated had been complemented on her dish as they tasted it ?!

This evening for supper we having Calves Liver, lightly dusted in flour and seared ‘Pink’ with crispy Smoked Bacon and English Pork Sausages, well cooked and sauté Onions – on the side dry sautéed Baked Potato slices with Brenda’s Cabbage with Alselgas – mmmmmmmm !!

Thought for the Day; See above.

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MANILVA AT THE START OF THE WEEKEND

FRIDAY 3^rd/ MAY 2013

We were up bright and early this morning and shot down to Sabinillas for our shopping; the weather is just a little overcast but the weekend and into next week is fine. After Mercadona I went across to the bank and then we picked up the papers from the bookshop, next door is the charity shop which is a very big one with all sorts of goods so we called in as we are looking for a lounger chair, we found a cream two seater white leather settee so we are waiting to hear how much it is as the owner is away and there was no price on it! Keep you fingers crossed.

We don’t need any fresh flowers this morning so I just popped around to the butchers for our Saturday night Steaks; the dog has just come crashing in so Brenda is taking her for a short walk around the side streets as it is threatening to rain.

This weekend the ‘Giro d’Italia’ starts on Saturday in Naples and reaches its conclusion in Brescia on Sunday 26^th/ May; Sir Bradley Wiggins is hoping to become the first British winner of the race, we will see what his team mate Froome has to sat about that! Mark Cavendish is aiming to win at least one stage for his new team at the same time.Also this weekend it is the MotorGP in Jerez  so watch out for more domination of the Spanish riders on home ground! It is also a big weekend for football with the Liverpool v Everton Derby match on Sunday; over here in ‘La Liga’ both Real and Barcelona have home matches so we will see how they react after this weeks drubbings in the Champions League. Watch this space.

This afternoon later on we are going across to Marbella bus station to pick Gillian up as she is flying into Malaga; for supper we bought this morning from the fish market some very nice fresh Pink Sea Trout fillets so I’ am going to grill them quickly and we are having Baby New Potatoes and Garden Peas, on the side we are having Hollandaise sauce – we can’t wait to try the local trout for the first time!See the picture above which shows the Pink Trout fillets,two very large 'Gambas' Seared Asparagus spears for Brenda and some Saute Potatoes for me! The Hollandaise sauce finished the whole meal off!! 

Then it will be time to find a good film to watch as Friday evening is one of the best nights for films.We ended up watching " The Bourne Supremacy" from 2002,written by Robert Ludlum as a trilogy it stars Matt Damon as Jason Bourne with Brian Cox,Joan Allen and July Stiles - watch out for one of the three best car chases ever,this one in Moscow! 

Thought for the Day; It’s another picture one – see above.

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MANILVA ON SUNDAY

SUNDAY 24th/ MARCH 2013.


Sadly the first parade of the 'Semana Santa' week has just been cancelled due to the rain storms hitting us at intervals this morning; 'The 'Procesion De La Borriquita' ( The Donkey) is always the first and Lumy's son Paco should have been carrying the tableau,I've just taken a picture of him all dressed up in Bar Rojas ready to go out!

PS; The pictures from inside the Congress Centre have just come in - posted by the council photographer !

So instead you can see above some pictures of our Sunday dinner being prepared !!

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