A VERY WARM & SUNNY MANILVA ON SUNDAY AS THE CANADIAN SIDE OF THE FAMILY ARRIVES!

THEY HAVE ARRIVED !!  

...

A VERY WARM & SUNNY MANILVA ON SUNDAY, THE LAST DAY OF THE ' FERIA SANTA ANA'

SUNDAY 28^th/JULY 2019.    “ FERIA SANTA ANA “

We had a nice, long,  lie in this morning after another very late night with the music, the bands finished at 4-00am, but our local ‘Bar Rojas’ which was re-opened by Paco, Lumy’s son, he played on until 6-00am with ‘ Drum & Beat’ music! After freshening up we had our usual fresh fruit ( Banana & Nectarines ) with toast and tea, to set us up for another long day ahead.

Yesterday evening as were sat outside ‘ Bar Castillo’ watching the parade go by, our dear friends Brian & Jan came along, Jan looked very good, as earlier in the year she had a very nasty fall at her home, they then told us the very sad news that ‘ Charlie’ their wonderful ‘Water Dog’ had passed away last week, he had the ‘ nasty’ illness, on his brain, so they had to let him go, peacefully, he was the first dog that we looked after in the now ‘Doggy World Heaven’ – all those year ago, we had him for hi-days, holidays and especially over ‘Xmas and the New Year’ – for many years.

He was the most lovable dog, very gentle and got on with all the other regular dogs that we then had, especially little princess ‘Reina’ – he used to put his paw on her to calm her down, we remember him sitting on the settee, between us, watching the TV, his head turning, he let us know when he wanted to go out, first thing in the morning he would come and put his paw on my arm to let me know!

One Christmas morning, as I went to take him for his first walk of the day, as I opened the door, the rain was flooding down our street and was blowing horizontally, he loved it, when we came back Brenda was waiting with the towels, he was dried first, then me!!

He walked at our ‘ Pensioner’ pace when we were out, he will be splashing away in the sea in the sky! His favourite walk, when Brian was out with him in the village, was going in the fountain, he would come calling at our house, his ‘second home’- still dripping, as Brian said!!  “ RIP” Charlie.

He was dreaming of water!

The ‘Poinente’ breeze has dropped overnight, this morning the sun was out early in a still blue/cloudy sky, by lunchtime it’s due to reach 30 degs+ - for the last day of the ‘Feria Santa Ana ‘ – next week we are in for another very hot & sunny Manilva, hovering in the high 20s at the start, then going hotter by next Saturday/Sunday, when it will be 34 degs+! The following week is looking ‘ Scorching’ to say the least, watch this space.

On the sports from later today; Lewis Hamilton is on the ‘Pole’ position for the ‘Grand Prix of Germany’ at Hockenheim, the two ‘Ferrari’s’ blew up!! Yesterday the ‘ Greatest’ jockey, Frankie Dettori, won the ‘King George V1 and Queen Elizabeth Stakes’ at Ascot, on ‘Enable’ in a fantastic finish!

This afternoon the “ Tour de France “ last ‘Stage 21’ is in and around Paris, as the winner of the famous ‘Yellow Jersey’ - by tradition, is not challenged, it’s the young Colombian rider Egan Bernal, Geraint Thomas, his teammate, is second, last year Bernal helped Thomas to win, they did a spectacular one/two getaway, on the highest climb of the ‘Iseran’ – which was then stopped due to the weather conditions, as the Colombian beat him to the top and took the ‘ Yellow’ jersey off the Frenchman, Julien Alaphippe!

Yesterday evening, as usual, we sat outside ‘Bar Castillo’ to watch the ‘ Feria Santa Ana’ parade pass along ‘ Calle Mar ‘ – later came the two ‘ Dance ‘ spectaculars, which we didn’t stay to watch, as we were a little upset about the sad news of ‘ Charlie ‘ – the two bands played on into the wee small hours, ( see above) - we came home and watched the final exciting episode of “ Killing Eve “ instead, sat in front of the TV, easting ‘ Heinz’ Spaghetti on toast, with three more very ‘bloody’ killings and a surprise ending?! Watch it to find out!! 


See all the pictures above of the parade.

This afternoon the two bands will play on the stages, one at the time, until at 10-00pm, there is then a ‘ Tribute Band ‘ on the main stage from 10-00 pm until mid-night, when all the music has to finish, by a local by-law, finally a spectacular ‘Fire Works’ display takes place across the bottom of the village, after mid-night, we are staying in to watch the next episode of “ Poldark” before going out around the two fairgrounds, before the close of the ‘Feria Santa Ana 2019’  

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

....

A EVEN HOTTER SUNNY MANILVA ON ' FERIA' SUNDAY.

SUNDAY 30^th/ JULY 2017.  “ FERIA DE SANTA ANA “

Well we needed a good lie in this morning after last night’s festivities in the village, the music didn’t finish until 6-00 am this morning, by the time Brenda took ‘ Chico ‘ for his first walk of the day the streets had been cleaned by the Council workmen and the water wagon was washing down everywhere, our local lady street cleaner always give our street a special going over, I then thank her!

After our breakfast of ‘Weetabix’ fresh fruit, toast & tea we sorted ourselves out for the day ahead; we are taking things easy, catching up with the chores around the house, at lunchtime we will take ‘ Chico ‘ out for his next walk before he’s collected later in the afternoon, we will miss him as he’s great company and a real character, he’s back in early September for a short sleep-over, of course ‘ Chispa’ will call in to see us and him!

This morning it’s already very hot & sunny, there is no breeze so by lunchtime when the ‘Feria’ kicks off at 2-00 pm it will be 36 degs+ - Next week we are in for another ‘ hot one’ with the temperatures hovering in the mid/high 30s, watch this space.

This afternoon Mario, the Mayor, with his wife Anna, Mario Jnr & Pablo called in with a little' thank you' for our help with Mario's English speaking, he passed the exam with flying colours, next it will be Pablo's turn to improve his English, watch this space. 

Before we hit the streets, again’ we are going to have our supper of ‘ Scouse’ -  to fortify us for the night ahead!!

We are then going out this evening to see the ‘Planet 80’ performing classic pop hits from the “ Golden Age of Pop “ – we are going to try, if it’s not too hot, to walk down to the large fairground down by the sports complex to check it out. Then at around 11-00 pm we are going to watch the fire work display from the terrace above the ‘ Plaza de la Vendimia’

Last night we went along to ‘ Bar Castillo’ and found a nice table in the shade, we then had our cool drinks served in glasses, at the locals price, thanks Juan!

The ‘Feria Queens’ Parade then came along with the floats, led by the ‘ Chichipom ‘ Band, followed by an ‘ Andalusian Horse  Parade ‘  ( including a ‘ Burro’!) – not forgetting the Council cleaning wagons to tidy up the confetti and other mess left by the horses!

We then watched the start of the ‘ School of Flamenco ‘ Dance Show, in the first of the young performers on the right, in Pink, is our neighbours granddaughter, Alba, that we have known since she was a baby! We then came back to the house for a late supper of ‘Cold Ham with the Russian Salad’ The two bands then kicked off, they finished at 6-00 am!!

See all the pictures above;

                                                                     “ INTERNATIONAL DAY OF FRIENDSHIP “

1                                               1.   The ability to be rational.

2                                               2. A great heart.

3                                               3.   A small mouth.

4                                               4.  A good ear.

5                                               5. Just a little bit of a bad memory.

...

A VERY HOT & SUNNY MANILVA ON SUNDAY.

SUNDAY 28^th/ MAY 2017.

We had a nice lie in this morning after all the excitement of yesterday, after Brenda’s breakfast treat of ‘ Campo Poached Eggs on Toast ‘ with a hot cup of ‘ PG Tips’ we sorted ourselves out for the day ahead.

We are picking our friends Kevin & Carloline up later, it was Carolines birthday yesterday, we are then heading along the coast road to Estepona, where we will park in the underground car park beneath the promenade, we are going to the ‘ Champagne/Sushi Bar’ for a nice glass of chilled ‘ Cava Rosado’ before carrying on to ‘ Kokomo’ for our ‘ Sunday Roast Lunch ‘ – watch this space for the pictures later.

A full report of our day out with Kevin & Caroline will appear on tomorrow's Blog;

We are in for another ‘hot one’ today, the sun was out early and the sky is bright blue, the ‘ Levante’ wind has dropped, so by lunchtime it’s due to reach the high 20s again, next week we are in for more of the same, by mid-week it will be even hotter, next weekend is also looking good, which is good news as we are heading up to Alhaurin el Grande, on Saturday morning, to see our dear fried Joyce, watch this space.

Early evening, yesterday, when we returned from the ‘ International Day ‘ down in Castillo de la Duquesa, some pictures later after a friend posts them, we settled down to watch the ‘ FA Cup Final’ from Wembley, in a big surprise, Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-1 and played very well, Chelsea were poor; then after supper we caught the ‘ Copa del Rey Final’ as Barcelona won 3-1 against Alaves with an inspired Lionel Messi scoring and assisting with another goal.

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

...

A VERY HOT & SUNNY MANILVA ON MONDAY AT THE START OF THE WEEK;

MONDAY 28^th / AUGUST 2016.

 I was up early this morning and after a quick freshen up I shot off across to the local Hospital in Estepona for my X-Ray appointment, the department is very efficient and you are in, on time, and out in a few minutes, I went across early as its very difficult to park near the hospital, the local Police in Estepona are very hot and hunt in ‘packs’ – they fine you and take away the car to the car pound above the town! Before going in I had a quick fresh Orange juice, Tostada & Tea ( no milk!) in a very good Cafe in the street opposite the hospital, all for 2.20 Euros!

We are in for a ‘hot one’ today, as I drove down through the vine fields there was a thick sea mist in the valley, it cleared as I went along the coast road past a sparkling Mediterranean, it was all ready hot in Estepona, it’s always hotter down on the coast, by lunchtime its due to reach 38/40 degs, we had a hot & sticky night, the forecast for the week ahead is for more of the same into the weekend.

Before I left this morning I tuned into ‘ Castle Radio FM 89.2 & Online on the WWW’ to listen to the new Station Manager & Presenter, Sid Oliverea, with his first ‘ live’ Breakfast Show, sadly there where  technical problems with the broadcast link, at the start, and the standby ‘Robert the Robot’ music kicked in, 

Brenda heard the end of the programme which came ‘on air’ for the last 20 minutes! He’s been appointed by Andrew and the ‘ Castle Media Group’ and is a very experienced radio presenter, Andrew is taking over the 4-00 to 6-00pm slot on weekdays, watch out for the return of ‘ Sir Malcolm’s Classic Show’ on Saturday lunchtimes hitting the air ways ‘ live’ from the heart of sunny Manilva, soon, from Studio 4!

Yesterday lunchtime I went along to ‘Bar Castillo’ for a ‘ take out’ Tapas lunch, ‘Paella’ for me & an ‘Pincho de Gambas’ for Brenda, this meant that we decided to have my special & famous ‘Smoked Chicken & Three Green Bean Risotto ‘ this evening instead! The rest of the week is TBC, I usually make a Curry for the ‘Vendimia festival ‘ weekend, watch this space. See the ' Risotto ' below.

A quick sports update; Barcelona won 0-1 & Manchester City won 3-1 and are top of the ‘ Premiere League’ Lewis Hamilton came from 21^st on the back of the grid to third as Rosberg won the ‘Belgium Grand Prix’ – meanwhile Chris Froome lost some more time and is 4^th, today’s Stage 10 in the ‘ Vuelta d’Espana’ has two big climbs so he could have the chance to take over the race leaders ‘Red Jersey’- see the route map below, watch this space.

In the evening we watched ‘ Antiques Roadshow’ as one of the most exciting finds in the history of the programme emerged, it was a collection of very rare figures & a dolls house with furnishings from 1705! It was of national importance and was valued at nearly 250,000 Pounds, as a conservative estimate!!

We then went over to ITV to watch the first episode of ‘ Victoria’ starting in 1837 when at the age of 18 she became the Queen, it’s an excellent production with a strong cast, the second episode this evening and then on Sundays. Finally I caught a very good train programme, ‘ Slow Train Through Africa ‘ presented by Griff Rhys-Jones.

PS; ITS ' FIND THE MOFFATT'S WEEK ' OVER IN NORTH WALES !!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

..