A VERY HOT & SUNNY MANILVA ON MONDAY ON BRENDA'S BIRTHDAY, AT THE START OF THE WEEK.

MONDAY 22^nd / JUNE 2020.    “ NEW NORMALITY – DAY 1 “

“ BRENDA’S ** BIRTHDAY “

Just a little lie in this morning after a very busy day out & about yesterday, celebrating Brenda‘s birthday, down on the ‘Costa Del Sol’ and here in a very sunny Manilva. ( See below)

For our breakfast, as I was on the rota, I had my favourite ‘ Toasted Crispy Smoked Bacon Butty’ – smothered in ‘HP’ Brown sauce – open on brown for Brenda with her favourite, sliced/seared Button Mushrooms, tossed in the Bacon juices with a knob of Butter, some of which she donated for my Butty, with mugs of very hot/strong Tea, to set us up for the day ahead!

At lunchtime we are going along to ‘ Bar Castillo ‘ for nice cool drinks and a few light ‘ Tapas’ – then this evening we are going up to ‘ Bar Rojas Vida Sol’ for a few celebration drinks, with the two ‘ Fabio’s – one of them is 50 today!

After breakfast I shot out, down to Sabinillas in the car, first checking out the prices for a new ceiling fan in the main guest bedroom ( the very old one is on it’s last legs!) – I then picked up a birthday card/candles from the ‘English’ Bookshop, I next topped up the car with petrol and went through the car wash, finally I called into ‘ Super Sol’ for a ‘ Birthday Cake ( Surprise) before shooting back up the hill to a very sunny Manilva.

Speaking of which, this morning it’s very hot & sunny, with just a very light breeze, the sky is blue & cloudless and by lunchtime it’s due to reach, 27/28 degs+ overnight only down to 20 degs+ - the rest of the week is looking the same, hovering in the mid 20s, by the weekend up into the low 30s, next week, at the start of July we are in for a ‘ Hot-One’ with lots of very hot sunshine, light breeze’s, clear blue skies all the time, watch this space.

Yesterday evening we spoke to Sandra &Bill over in a very hot humid, Everett, Ontario, Canada, as it reached 38 degs+ it’s a very dry heat and dosen’t last long, they are both fine & well, still at home on Lockdown, Bill’s Son, Dylan & his wife Kritika, had visited them, coming  down from Toronto for the weekend, for ‘ Fathers’ day! We had arranged the call on the ‘Skype’ video on Sunday, as Sandra is working from home today.

See below of the pictures from the past with Sandra and her sister Caroline with their dear Father ( Dad) 

Yesterday morning Lyn called us on the ‘ Facebook ‘ video link-up for a nice chat and catch up, as well as passing on her birthday wishes to Brenda, as her card has still not arrived! Watch this space.

The only other news at the moment is that our “ IPTV’ system has gone offline and will not load, I have tried all the reset operations etc, with no luck, so our friend Lee is calling in this evening on his way home from work in Gibraltar, to have a look and see if he can work his ‘wonders’ again! Watch this space.

 SUNDAY 21^ST JUNE 2020.   “ STATE OF ALARM – THE FINAL DAY 99 “

After freshening up we shot down to Sabinillas and I dropped Brenda off at the far end of the promenade, it then took me nearly half an hour to find a spot to park, as all the locals were down on the beach for the first time since the Lockdown’ started back in March!

She was sat on the best window seat in the front of the patio, overlooking the beach at ‘ Chiringuito Ramos’ – we ordered cool drinks and checked out the menu, as we ordered out starters, I then asked for Rodaballo ( Turbot’ for Brenda and Lenguado ( Sole ‘ for me ) – both grilled – sadly they didn’ t have any of them, I then tried for ‘ John Dory – St Pierre or St Peter’s Fish ? – Sadly no luck either, so we decided to head somewhere else, we will give them a chance on another day!

The nearest spot was our old favourite ‘La Choza’ which we have used for over 20 years, with all the family and friends having been there, we had a cool drink in the small patio and then went to our tables, sat in the window, next to water feature, Brenda ordered the Avocado & Prawns, I had the Melon & Seafood Cocktail, both were exceptional, the Prawns were large and juicy, the Avocado perfect and my ‘Galia Melon’ was served in the ‘ Crowned’ Melon, with all the Balls, Prawn & Crab, both mouth watering and delicious, Brenda had Grilled Sole Fillets – off the bone and I had my usual ‘ Beef Stroganoff ‘ – we came home for a little ‘ Siesta’ Sadly the batteries on the camera ran out ( I need a new charger and rechargeable batteries ) so no pictures of the food!

 



And mine was even bigger!

And Sandra & Brenda last year in ' La Choza ' !

We then went up to ‘ Bar Rojas Sol Vida’ for a nightcap, sat outside as the sun went down (Red Sky) on a warm & balmy evening.

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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A VERY HOT & HUMID SUNNY MANILVA ON THURSDAY.

THURSDAY 27^th / SEPTEMBER 2018.

NEWS UPDATE:

THE BLOG WILL BE BACK ON MONDAY 1st/ OCTOBER 2018.

Last Friday lunchtime just as the banking system was closing for the weekend my computer system came under a virus attack, we then had a landline phone call saying it was ‘Microsoft Security ‘ – could they help? Stupidly I fell for it and was subsequently hacked & scammed ! They took over the computer, froze the screen & mouse and then proceeded to hack into our ‘PayPal’ account- changing the password & later into our online Banking Account, this went on for nearly five hours, before giving me back the system with a starter password, controlled by them!

On Saturday morning it carried on again, before they disappeared, I then tried over the weekend to contact ‘Help/Hotlines’ to report the attack, with no luck, we also had more phone calls(2) over the weekend offering more support from the same ‘ Company’!

Over the weekend we also seeked the advice of our dear friend Brian, over in England, as he works in online Fraud/Security, for a major online Gaming company, as well as speaking to Tim & Thea up in Mojacar!

So on Monday morning I was up very early and shot down to Sabinillas to our Bank, to wait for it to open at 8-30 am, the Assistant Manager, Roberto, who looks after our account, was on holiday, the four staff on duty including the new Manager didn’t speak a word of English, as the Bank advertises, I then threw a ‘ Wobbler’ – a Spanish lady at the cash desk, responded and gave them a name of a Lady Lawyer, Natalia, her boss,  who would translate on the phone, she then sorted out the necessary arrangements for us, they cancelled our two Debit Cards, issued a new Password to the online Banking, etc, after deciding not to close the account for a new one, due to the complex standing orders/ incoming payments etc. Our Bank Account, at that moment had not been hacked, and showed the same balance as from Friday morning!

I then arranged to meet Natalia, at her suggestion, at the main Guardia Civil’ Headquarters in Sabinillas to make a ‘Denunciar’ - where she gave them all the necessary details, documents, etc, to report the problem.

Next on Tuesday morning we went across to Estepona to see Ben, at ‘ PC Macs.es’ as he set up the new computer system three years ago, for his advice/help, I then took the computer ‘Stack’ back across to him, for him to clear all the virus’s , check all the systems, fix any problems and give it a good service, at the same time changing all the Passwords as needed, I collected it yesterday lunchtime and then installed later in the early evening, when I then discovered that our Bank Account had been hacked by a ‘PayPay’ transfer transaction first thing on Monday morning before we had the chance to stop the Debit Cards, taking a large sum of money!!

I immediately ‘E-Mailed’ ‘PayPal ‘ and put in a ‘hacked’ report, about unauthorized activity on the account, with all the details, they responded later in the evening, saying that they were denying our claim, as they had determined that there was no unauthorized use!

To say that we were not happy was an understatement to say the least!!

So first thing this morning I was back down at our Bank in Sabinillas as it opened and with Natalia’s help, on the phone again, I signed all the statements, documents, copies etc and they E-Mailed them to the Banks ‘Fraud’ Department in Madrid, watch this space.

The computer system is now up back and running, with the help of Ben on the phone and Lee last night when the folks picked up ‘Reina’ and so over the next few days I will be checking out all the passwords etc, before re-opening the Blog on Monday.

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