A VERY HOT AND REFRESHING DAY IN SUNNY MANILVA ON SUNDAY;

SUNDAY 20^th/ JULY 2014.

Just a little lie in this morning as the sun was crashing through the shutters to welcome us to another ‘Helluva’ day here in sunny Manilva, the ‘Lavent’ breeze is still making it very bearable as it would be very hot without it!

For breakfast I had a nice surprise as you can see in the picture below as Brenda had produced her famous ‘Poached Campo Eggs on Toast’ to start the day in the right fashion!

Yesterday evening’s ‘Moroccan Banquet’ at ‘Victor’s Restaurant’ at the ‘Manilva Green Aparthotel’ turned out to be more like a second rate three course meal with a hint of Morocco, not like the seven course banquet from last time! The ‘Company’ made up for it as Claus & Doreen, Den & Josie and us all had a good chat and covered all sorts of topics from music, art, food,memrobilia to life in general! See the picture below. The tent was down above the pool area next to the Chiringuito’ under the stars, the ‘Belly Dancers’ even danced to modern style hip-hop music at one stage, art it was not! Our visiting ‘Professor of Contemporary Art’rtd.( Josie!) was not impressed!

Meanwhile over in Australia we are still waiting for an up-date on Jack & Lyn’s adventure/travels around the whole country in an anti-clockwise direction, the last news was that they were heading for Adelaide across the desert! Watch this space.

At lunchtime we went for a short walk and then came back to 'Bar Rojas' for our Sunday Paella 'Hit' - outside we met Nick,Brona and their son Teddy who are over again so we had a good catch up with them,nice to see you! Then as we came back down our street we bumped into another Nick with his wife Katharina who were just leaving 'Bodega Andaluz' and brought them up to date as well,not that they needed to as Nick follows the Blog - nice to see them again!

Later today I will catch the ‘German Grand Prix’from Hokenheim with Rosberg on pole after Hamilton crashed out with brake failure; at the ‘Open Golf’ at ‘Royal Liverpool – Hoylake’ Rory Mcllroy takes a six shot lead at 16 under par into the final round after two ‘Eagles’ in the final holes! Also on the Wirral this weekend it’s the famous “ Mersey Roads Club ” 24hr Time Trial cycle race finishing around the lanes of Cheshire outside Chester.

Hamilton got up to third after starting 20th on the grid as Rosberg won!

Rory Mcllroy has just won by two shots !!

Later this afternoon I will then watch on TVE1 the 15^th stage of the ‘Tour De France’ as it enters the ‘Provence’ region on its way from Tallard to the historic city of Nimes.

Tonight for supper we having our usual ‘Saturday Night Steak’ with all the trimmings to make up for missing it last night “ Entrecote ” medium rare!! We will then catch up with all the news, sport and weather reports before finding a film to watch.

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

..

MANILVA ON SEMANA SANTA WEEKEND

SATURDAY 30^th/ SUNDAY 31^st/ MARCH 2013.

We had a little lie in on Saturday morning after being out and about on Friday evening; the ‘Procesion De La Soledad’ – the silent procession when nobody speaks and all the instructions for carrying the ‘Tronos’ are done with a beat of the ceremonial staff, on Friday night sadly did no take place because of the rain.

Mano called in with the papers and confirmed that they will be able come for dinner on Sunday; we caught up with chores around the house, the shutters were blown off the front door, twice so we had to re-hang them with help from some of our neighbours. At lunchtime as promised Tim rang us on the Skype video so we were able to speak to his daughter Stacy and a gorgeous ten year old young lady, her daughter Olivia! We have known Stacy since she was a baby in the womb and have very many happy memories of the time as she and Ben grew up!

 

In the afternoon I watched the Premier League over in England, both City and Everton won and later over here in ‘La Liga’ both Real Madrid and Barcelona were held to draws away – Messi meanwhile was writing his name in the history books, becoming the first player to score against each team in the’ La Liga’ in his 19^th successive match ! Later on the Channel 4 sports news on the Spanish TV  I caught all the goals from here,England,Italy and Germany on their sports round up; In the afternoon we watched on TDP the live coverage from Miami of the Sony Open Tennis, Serena Williams stormed back to sink Sharapova in three sets to win her sixth title in Miami.

In the evening for dinner we had ‘Steak a la Plancha’ with Sauté Onions and Mushrooms along with sliced Green Beans and crisp chips; the late film was “ Gone Baby Gone ”from 2008, it is directed by Ben Affleck and stars his brother Casey Affleck along with Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman and Michelle Morgan in a very gripping story of a kidnapped young girl.

This morning we got up late after the change in the clocks going forward; the Sunday parade at lunchtime of the ‘Procesion Del Santisimo Cristo Resucitado Y LA Stma. Virgen Rosario A.M.D.G.’ was cancelled as the forecast was rain, it has not rained but is very overcast and windy so they did a quick walk around the square in front of the congress centre and went back inside as you can see in the pictures above. So we carried on and sorted out our Easter Sunday Roast Leg of Lamb,locally reared and killed by Manolo from Bar Rojas, I studded it with Garlic cloves and rubbed it with Virgin Olive Oil and Rosemary; Brenda’s vegetables are Cauliflower and Broccoli Florets in a three cheese sauce, sugar glazed Baby Carrots, Garden Peas and Baby Brussels Spouts with Smoked Bacon snippets; I have made a dish of ‘Boulangere’ Potatoes and some turned New Potatoes that I’ am going to roast in the oven and the finger coating Gravy is also made! See the pictures above !!We all enjoyed our Easter meal,four clear plates to prove it !

Liverpool have just beaten Aston Villa 1-2, we are now going to watch the Boat Race on the PC on the BBC1 live coverage and then its time for the Sony Open tennis final over in Miami between Andy Murray and David Ferrer downstairs on the large screen TV. Watch this space for the results later.

PS; Oxford have just won !

PPS; Andy Murray won in a very exciting game


The late film that we caught was " Blood Diamonds" from 2006,a political war thriller based in Sierra Leone starring Leonardo DiCapirio,Dijmon Hounsu and Jennifer Connelly-not to be missed.

Thoughts for the Day;

The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on.  Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else.

…

.