A LITTLE OVERCAST START, BUT NOW SUNNY MANILVA ON THURSDAY.

THURSDAY 13^th/ FEBRUARY 2020.

We were both up early this morning and after a quick freshen up we grabbed an even quicker toast & tea, before setting off on our travels, down to Sabinillas and along the coast road, past a very calm Mediterranean, to Estepona, I was first into my Barbers, Manuel, for the ‘ full-works’ and Brenda shot along to ‘Primore’ for her various cosmetics etc, as well as a little window shopping, as the sales are still on, next we stopped at ‘La Casa’ for some nightlights.

It was then time to come back along the coast road, past Sotogrande, to ‘Pueblo de Nuevo Guadiaro ‘ to the ‘Iceland’ supermarket, to stock up with all the English’ essentials, we than came back up to sunny Manilva to unload back at the house.

This morning started a little grey and overcast, with dark clouds and a light breeze, by lunchtime at we returned it had cleared, with a few patchy clouds and blue sky, hovering on the 19/20 degs mark, overnight down to 11/12 degs, tomorrow will be the same and then over the weekend it’s going a little warmer, into next week, staying in the 20s, warm & sunny, then on Wednesday, as the new colder ‘ Atlantic’ front comes in, it’s dropping down to 16/17 degs+ for the rest of the week, as the breeze pick up, next weekend is now looking a little cooler with the threat of the ‘ Wet-Stuff’ in the air, watch this space.

This evening ‘ Scruffy’ will be dropped off as he’s with us for a sleep-over and then picked up later tomorrow, on Saturday ‘ Chico’ is due to arrive with us in ‘ Doggy World Heaven’ for his extended 3/ 4 week holiday, little ‘Miss Bella’ is back on Monday/Tuesday.

For our supper this evening we are having our favourite ‘ Grilled Chicken Wings’ with finely sliced ‘ French’ Green Beans & Baked Potato.

After supper we will channel hop and later watch the next episode of ‘Death in Paradise’ as the new ‘English Detective’ takes over, played by Ralf Little.

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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A WARM & SUNNY MANILVA, CASTILLO DE LA DUQUESA AND SOTOGRANDE MARINA ON SUNDAY.

SUNDAY 12th / JANUARY 2020.

We had a little lie in this morning and then had breakfast before getting ourselves, slowly, showered, dressed up and ready to go out, we met ‘ Joyce Baby’ – who had driven down from Alhaurin el Grande ( 1 hour+) -  outside ‘ Bar Rojas – Sol Vida Pizzeria ‘ as the sun was out and warm we sat outside with our coffee’s and drinks, as we started a ‘ catch-up’ with all her news, ours of course is all on the Blog!

It was then time to go down to ‘ Castillo de la Duquesa’ to ‘La Taberna 2’ where I had booked a table for our ‘ Sunday Roast Lunch’ – Joyce is vegetarian but eats fish! Our ‘ Aperitif’s’ arrived and I ordered a fine bottle of a ‘ Ribera del Duero 2015 ‘ – which came, but 2018?! With the excuse that it was a printing error!

Brenda & Joyce ordered the ‘ Smoked Salmon Surprise ‘ starter that was very good , as usual, I had the ‘ Crab & Prawn Fishcake ‘ with Tartar sauce, which was also very tasty, Joyce chose the ‘ Grilled Salmon ‘ Brenda the ‘ Carved Roast Lamb’ and I ordered the ‘ Roast Sirloin of Beef ‘

It then all went wrong; my ‘ Roast SIRLOIN’ of Beef ‘ was unedible, very small  thin/slices of ‘Black Leather’?! I sent it back, straight away and asked for the ‘Roast Lamb’ which Brenda was also having, it came thinly sliced and not very good, meanwhile Joyce’s ‘ Grilled Salmon’ was small/thin and over cooked! The ‘ VEGETABLE’ selection was overcooked and tasteless, to say the least!!

We did not complain to the lady owner, as we didn’t want to make the fuss, in front of our guest, as we have been there many times and everything has always been excellent, we will call back in and tell her in private! 

For our dessert we had her excellent Homemade ‘ Bakewell Tart’ with Ice Cream and Double Cream, which as usual was very tasty. I paid the bill ( not cheap! ) and left no tip, watch this space.

See below a picture of Brenda & Joyce on the breakwater in ‘ Castillo de la Duquesa’ looking along the coast to ‘Puerto de la Duquesa’!

We then drove along the coast past a sparkling Mediterranean to the ‘ Sotogrande Marina’ and called into the famous ‘ K Bar’ – which was very busy, with the ‘ in- crowd’ – the sun was out and we found a table in the front overlooking the marina. I ordered a chilled bottle of the ‘ White Cava Ann de Cordorniu ’ which is the ‘ poor-mans’ version of the latest ‘ Ice Imperial Moet & Chandon ‘ White’ champagne created to be enjoyed on/over large Ice cubes with chilled slices of Lemon, Orange & Cucumber – a ‘Pimms’ style ‘ Champagne!

See below Brenda & Joyce enjoying theirs !

I was then time to come back up to sunny Manilva, as dusk was settling in - ‘Joyce Baby’ is back later in the year, around March, watch this space.

See below ' Calle Mar' as dusk sets in ! 

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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A ' FRESH' & SUNNY MANILVA ON SUNDAY.

SUNDAY 1^st DECEMBER 2019.

“ NEWSFLASH “ 

We are out at lunchtime celebrating our  ‘ 48^th Wedding Anniversary ‘ at the “ La Finca Thai Fusion “ – which comes highly recommended – for their special ‘Sunday Roast Lunch ‘! 

Watch out later for the pictures on today’s Blog, which I will be posting later.

See above;

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A CLEAR & DRY SUNNY MANILVA ON MONDAY AT THE START OF ANOTHER ' HELLUVA' WEEK.

MONDAY 21^st/ OCTOBER 2019.

I was up very early this morning to see little ‘ Miss Bella’ back with us, she’s also back tomorrow morning, she went on her small rug and had a little sleep, ‘Lolo’ as usual, slept all night on his bed/rug, he’s due to be collected later this evening, on Thursday afternoon ‘ Scruffy’ is joining us for a sleep-over, then on Friday afternoon ‘ Sunny’ is arriving for her two-week holiday, no doubt ‘ Chispa’ will be in & out all the time to see all her old friends in ‘ Doggy World Heaven’ Watch this space.

After freshening up Brenda took ‘Lolo’ out for his first walk of the day, around the ‘Plaza de la Vendemia’ – when they returned I had prepared our breakfast, a ‘ Toasted Crispy Smoked Bacon Butty’ for me, smothered in ‘ HP ‘ Brown sauce, open on brown for Brenda, with some of her favourite sliced Mushrooms that I had sautéed in the Bacon juices, with a knob of Butter, some of which ended up in my Butty, along with mugs of strong/hot tea, to set us up for the week ahead!

On Tuesday morning I’m taking the car to be checked, for Oil, Water & Tyre pressure, then topping up the petrol, as on Wednesday morning we are going up to ‘ Alhaurin el Grande’- behind Malaga, to meet our dear friend ‘ Joyce Baby’- from Chester, she has had her house there for many years, in the centre of the town, we will then spend the day with her, no doubt visiting various Bars & Restaurants!  

As usual, on Friday morning I will be out on my travels, down in Sabinillas for the weekly shopping, watch this space.

Overnight the breeze has dropped a bit, the sun is attempting to break through and the clouds are clearing slowly, the threat of the ‘ Wet-Stuff’ later, is still in the air, by this afternoon it will only reach 19 degs+ - the first time in over nearly five months that it’s dropped below 20 degs!  Tomorrow is looking the same, then on Wednesday, on most of the forecasts, it’s now looking dry & sunny, with just the chance of patchy rain possible, as the breeze pick up, the rest of the week and over the weekend is now looking dry, sunny and settled, with a few patchy clouds, hovering on the 21 degs+ mark, next week is looking a little cooler. Watch this space.

Just one football result from yesterday; sadly Liverpool didn’t play very well and could only draw with Manchester Utd 1-1 ! They are still six points clear of Manchester City at the top of the ‘ Premiere League’!!

Now for a memory from the past; back in the early 60s, in Liverpool, as the ‘ Mersey Beat’ scene was at it’s highest, my school friends formed a group called “ The Dennisons “ while at the ‘ Collegiate Grammer School’ ( Clive Hornby & Ray Scragg ( Rhythm Guitar) ) with me as their ‘ Roadie’!

See below;

Named after a street in Liverpool, and inspired by the an early ‘Merseybeat’ band ‘The Ravens’ ( later Faron’s Flamingos ) – all from the ‘Orrell Park’ area, near Aintree! Our local music centre, where all the Bands in Liverpool played, upstairs,  was in the famous ‘ Orrell Park Ballroom’  

See below;

I grew up with Clive ( Drums) Steve McLaren ( Lead Guitar) & Allan Willis (Bass Guitar) where we all lived in two streets, next to one-another. Clive Horby later became the actor best known for his portraying of ‘Jack Sugden’ in the soap ‘ Emmerdale ‘ ! 

Sadly they are all now dead except Allan Willis, who’s mum, Ann, was my mum’s, Muriel, best friend, we lived at 78 Trevor Road & Ann at 68 Trevor Road, five doors down, Ann lived to be 100+ years old, we spoke to her on her ‘Birthday’ - where she lived down in Ross-on–Wye, with Allan and his family, who we are still in contact with ( Facebook)

See below;

                                                    From left to right; Clive, Steve, Ray, Eddy & Allan!

Their debut single “ Be My Girl “ was written by Steve & Eddy Parry (the Singer) – later the classic ‘ Little Latin Lupe Lu’ & ‘ Tutti Frutti’ and 'Walking The Dog' were hits.




 “Happy Days and many Memories “

For our supper this evening we are having the rest of the ‘Roast Chicken’  ( cold ) with the Vegetables and ‘ Goose-Fat Roast Potatoes’ On Tuesday, for a change, it’s going to be ‘ Braised Beef ( Entrecote) Slices in a rich Red Wine, Onion, Shallot & Mushroom Salas ‘ with some of Brenda’s famous ‘ Mashed Potato’! Thursday we will find something  in fridge, then on Friday it will be our usual ‘ Fish Supper’ – Saturday is always ‘ Steak Night’ and then next Sunday it could be one of my famous ‘ Risotto’s’ Watch this space.

We are taking things easy today, Brenda has a stack of Ironing to get through, not her favourite job, as we prepare to go out tomorrow, later we will channel hop to find something to watch, this morning as we were getting ready, we were listening, as usual, to the ‘ Andrew Charles Breakfast Show’ on “ Castle Radio FM 89.2 & Online on the WWW “ as the ‘ Music quiz’ came on, we know it but can’t agree who it is, watch this space!

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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A NOW WARM & SUNNY MANILVA ON MONDAY AT THE START OF THE WEEK.

MONDAY 9^th/ SEPTEMBER 2019.

I was up early this morning to welcome back little ‘ Miss Bella’ for the day, she’s back with us in ‘Doggy World Heaven’ on Wednesday morning and then Friday morning for her first three nights sleep-over, no doubt ‘ Chispa’ will be calling in to see her later!

I then listened to the ‘ Andrew Charles Breakfast Show’ on “ Castle Radio FM 892 & Online on the WWW”  as this week's‘Music Quiz’ came on, it was a three second starter-track ( burst) – I got it straight away, it was ‘Congratulations ‘ with Cliff Richard, from back in 1968!  I was first in the draw, for Friday’s winner, again!

We then all had a little lie in as overnight it was rather ‘ Close’ – so we didn’t have a good night sleep, after freshening up, I was on the breakfast rota, I sautéed some sliced Baby Mushrooms in the ‘Crispy Smoked Bacon’ fat, adding a knob of Butter, to have on my butty, open on brown for Brenda , with mugs of strong ‘ PG ‘ Tips Tea, to start the week in the right way!

Tomorrow morning we are going across to Estepona, first thing in the morning, I’m going to my Barbers, Manuel, for the ‘ full-works’ & Brenda is going to do a little essential retail shopping, so she tells me! 


PS; The ' Costa Del Sol Hospital ' has just rung with my appointment at the ' Dermatology Department'  -  tomorrow evening at 6-00 pm ! 



Then on Thursday morning we are going across to Marbella to the ‘Hypermarket/Mall ‘ –  “ La Cañada “ for some new clothes etc, ready for the arrival of the ‘Canadian Clan ‘ at the end of the month ( 29^th!)

“ Countdown 22 Days “

Yesterday the forecast/expected, long needed ‘ Rain’ didn’t appear, it spitted a little as we went along to ‘ Bar Castillo for a light ‘Tapas Paella ‘ lunch, but main storm moved up the coast past Malaga, this morning it’s started a little grey & overcast, again, the sun is slowly breaking through the patchy clouds, with still the threat of the ‘ wet-stuff’ in the air, by lunchtime it’s stiil due to reach 28/29 degs+ - the overnight temperatures are  dropping down a little, for the rest of the week and over the coming weekend it’s now looking dry and settled, with some patchy clouds hanging around,  still warm & sunny, hovering in the mid/high 20s into next week, watch this space.

Just a quick update on the sports results; Rafael Nadal beat Daniil Medvedev at the ‘ US Open Tennis ‘ to win his 19^th Grand Slam ! Spain beat the Faroe Islands 4-0 in the ‘ European Championship Qualifying ‘ Football, at Monza,.

At the ‘Italian Grand Prix’ the ‘ Monegasque’ young driver Charles Leclerc,(21 years old)  in the ‘ ‘Red Farrari’ won, in an incident-filled and controversial race, as he pushed the rules on driving conduct, as he nearly ran Lewis Hamilton off the track, to give ‘Farrari ‘their first win, at home, in nine years!

Today’s ‘ Stage 16’ ( see below) of the ‘ Vuelta d’España 19’ goes from Pravia to the top of the Alta de la Cubilla, over 145 kms, through the mountains of Northern Spain, tomorrow is a ‘ Rest-Day’ – the race finishes on Sunday in Madrid, as usual.

For our supper this evening we are having the same as last night, ‘Cold, Sliced Poached Chicken Breast’ with my famous ‘ Russian Salad’ – the rest of the week we are still taking one day at the time, as it’s still too hot to go back to full ‘repertoire’ of classic dishes, watch this space.

Yesterday evening after supper we watched the next exciting and gripping episode of “ Peaky Blinders’ as Tom ( Cillian Murphy) was at his best, as he plotted various new money-making new ventures, made a peace treaty with the ‘ Billy Boys’- as he tries to keep his family under control, Polly, in the green dress below, his sister and the ‘Matriarch Gypsy Queen’ still rules the ‘Mob’-  with her son the young pretender, at the end, in a surprise, the wife of Arthur, the elder nasty brother, tries to shoot him, only to be shot dead by ?!  Catch it to find out who?!

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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A VERY ' CLOSE' AND SUNNY MANILVA ON THURSDAY.

THURSDAY 5^th/ SEPTEMBER 2019.

We all had a nice lie in this morning after another very ‘ sticky’ night’s sleep, ‘Scoobie’ stayed on his mat in front of the window, we then freshened up, before Brenda took him out for his walk of the day, around the bottom of the village, he’s with us until sometime on Sunday, when they returned, as I was on the breakfast rota, I had prepared my famous ‘ Toasted Crispy Smoked Butty’ for myself, -smothered in ‘ HP’ Brown sauce – open on brown for Brenda, with mugs of strong tea.

I then retired upstairs to the office/studio to go on the ‘WWW’ before typing/posting today’s Blog. Brenda is pottering around in her ‘ ing’ mode finding things to do.

Yesterday evening we went down to ‘ Castillo de Duquesa’ to the ‘La Taberna 2’ for our supper, the lady owner, Deb, her husband owns ‘ Marlows Fish n’Chip ‘ shop, greeted us and we had a nice table sat outside in the cooler evening air, we were just in time for the ‘ Early Bird Menu’ so we choose from the two-course selection, Brenda had a very nice & generous ‘Warm Goats Cheese & Crispy Bacon Salad’ – while I had, for a change, the excellent, individual ‘ Huevos Rancheros’ – a Fried Egg resting on a very rich Tomato/Chill & Pepper Salsa, then topped with soft Cheese and Baked in the oven! It was excellent and very tasty, the Egg was hard, I prefer it soft, as they do on the ‘ Feria’ stalls, using a very large ‘Paella’ pan, with lots of Eggs cracked into it!

Brenda for her main course choose the ‘ Dish of the Day ‘ – ‘ Grilled Pork Loin Steaks’ with a savoury Green Pepper sauce, two small steaks, cooked perfectly and very succulent & tasty, I had, you’ve guessed, the ‘ Grilled Sirloin Steak 250 grams’ – served ‘Rare’ as I asked for, with a little of the Green Pepper salsa on the side, with ‘Hand-Cut’ chips?! Brenda had sautéed Baby New Potatoes, both dishes came with a small selection of Vegetables, Carrot Batons, Garden Peas & Broccoli & Cauliflower ‘Mornay’ ( a little over cooked)

Brenda had the excellent ‘House White Wine ( reasonably priced) while I had my usual ‘ Cuba Libre’ ( expensive) – a ‘Cafe Cortado’ to finish for Brenda, with the complementary ‘House Limoncellos’ A very pleasant evening out, for the first time in a while, after the summer hordes have gone home.

This morning the sun is just breaking through, there is a very light breeze, so the sky is clearing slowly, by lunchtime it will reach a very ‘ close’ and warm 28 degs, - with just a little threat of the ‘ wet-stuff’ hanging in the air, tomorrow and over the weekend it’s going a little cooler, as the breeze stiffens, hovering on the 24/25 degs mark, overnight still only down to 20/21 degs+ - next week is now looking to stay the same, going a little warmer as the week goes on, back up to 31 degs by next Wednesday, watch this space.

Earlier in the week, over in Liverpool, berthed at the Pier Head, the “ MS Black Watch “ of the ‘Fred Olsen Line’ ( see below ) made a visit to the City, the plans have just been passed for a spectacular new ‘ Cruise Liner Terminal’  with a ‘ shimmering Zinc skin’! ( see below)

Tonight we have given the ‘ Staff’ the night off, again, after yesterday evening when the ‘ Boss’s’ went out to play, down on the ‘ Costa Del Sol, so they are going out for a light ‘Tapas’ supper along at ‘ Bar Castillo’ if it’s open, as all the other Bars, along ‘Calle Mar’ are closed after the weekend celebrations! Watch this space.

This week we watched, the over evening, the first episode of yet another excellent ‘BBC TV’ Police drama, about deceit, delusion and video fakery, “ The Capture “ starring Callum Turner, as a soldier, who has just been released from an overturned Murder conviction, with his posh lady barrister played by Laura Haddock and Holliday Grainger as a  young ‘ high-flying’ – ‘ fast-tracked’ senior Detective, who is having an affair with her senior boss, the lady barrister goes missing and it all kicks off! Catch it if you can.

Last night we caught the next episode of “ Deep Water ‘ over on ‘ITV’ as the lives of the three women, living in Windermere, in the Lake District,   got even more complicated, as the true story unfolds, at the very end there was a harrowing and surprise attack on one of them?! 

“ Countdown 25 Days “

Thoughts for the Day;  See above.

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