A VERY COLD & CRISP START TO THE WEEK IN SUNNY MANILVA;

MONDAY 23rd/ JANUARY 2017.

I was up first to welcome little princess ‘ Reina’ back with us for the day, she shot into her Duvet, she’s back with us here in ‘Doggy World Heaven’ for five days this week, we then got ourselves sorted for the week ahead, I shot out before breakfast for one of my prescription tablets from the ‘Chemists’ in Call Mar, I then carried on down to the ‘Butchers’ and bought some  ‘Escalope of Calves Liver’ for this evenings supper. When I returned we had our regular breakfast of Weetabix, toast & tea.

This morning the sun was out early and the sky is now clear and bright blue, it’s still very cold & crisp but by lunchtime it will warm up and this afternoon it will be very pleasant in the sunshine, the week ahead is looking fine & settled, we will find out later what all the details are on the main ‘TVE1’ weather forecast this afternoon, watch this space.

Yesterday Lee & Daniela went for a charity hike up the ‘Sierra Bermeja’ – see the pictures above;

So for our supper this evening we are having ‘ Pan Seared Escalopes of Calves Liver’ dusted in seasoned flour, with crispy Smoked Bacon and seared Onion Rings, a fry-up of the leftover vegetables and a dish of the rest of the ‘Boulangere’ Potatoes; the menu’s for the rest of the week are yet to planned, watch this space.

This morning one of our Pensions has just arrived in our ‘Spanish Bank’ account, the rest come in over the next two weeks, the ‘Euro’ is going up at the moment but sadly not in time for the transfer, it’s the lowest transfer so far, at the same time the ‘ Electricity ‘ charges are going up this month so our next bill will be a lot higher, due also to the usage, we do get a ‘ Pensioners’ 25% discount but we are of course missing the ‘Winter Fuel’ allowance  from the UK Government that the Ex Minister Mr Ian Duncan Smith stopped! If we were living in Belgium or Bulgaria we would get it?

Last night after supper we watched the new four part series on BBC1 “ Apple Tree Yard “ It turned out to be a back alley pockmarked with CCTV cameras! The very watchable Emily Watson is a married research scientist enjoying an upright tryst with a stranger, played by Ben Chaplin, that she first humped in a ‘House of Commons’ broom cupboard earlier! We first met her handcuffed in a security van on her way to court, then in a flashback nine months earlier it all takes pace!!

The stranger is a ‘ Civil Servant’ who is showing signs of being a ‘ Spook’ as she soon realizes, he keeps out of the way of the CCTV cameras and all the ‘ action’ takes place in alley’s/ toilets! The sting at the end of this week’s episode was when she was trapped & raped by an innocent-looking colleague!!

What makes it compelling is Watson, who has a rare talent for wearing her thoughts, fears and joys on her face, while Chaplin adeptly put solid flesh on the bones of a mystery wrapped in an enigma. One to watch!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

A VERY WARM BUT NOT SUNNY MANILVA ON MONDAY AT THE START OF THE WEEK;

MONDAY 27^th / JUNE 2016.

We were up early this morning as I had to take the hire car back to Marbella, Mano brought me back and we called into our local garage in the village and arranged for our car to go in for its ‘ ITV-MOT’ tomorrow morning, Pedro takes it through to Estepona, for a small fee, and if it does not pass he will sort it out, fingers crossed and watch this space.

Brenda saw ‘ Reina’ back with us for the day, she’s here for her regular five days, this evening ‘ Scruffy’ is joining us for a sleep over, when I came back this morning ‘ Chispa’ was here to see her friends, she call in all the time. This afternoon Brenda has an appointment with the ‘ Physiotherapist’

When ‘Reina’ is collected this evening Lee is going to check my ‘Dell’ computer system that is connected to our large screen TV and see if he can sort out the problem and un-block ( Add Block ?!) the two main channels so as we can watch the football,  this evening Spain play Italy, its on ‘Tele-Cinco’ but later England play Iceland which is on BBC 1, watch this space.

For our supper this evening we are having the rest of the ‘Roast Lamb’ with a fry up of the leftover vegetables and ‘ Boulangere Potatoes’ – tomorrow evening its going to be ‘ Grilled Gammon Steaks ’- for the rest of the week we are deciding one day at a time!

Today its still very warm but a little overcast and humid, the sky is overcast & grey but by lunchtime, no doubt, it will be back to normal, the week ahead is calm and settled with warm sunshine although in Northern Spain there are storms and rain. See below the ' Playa de Sabinillas ' early this morning !

Last night after supper we watched ‘ Glastonbury’ as ‘ Jeff Lynn’s ELO ’ took to the main stage first, he played all the old songs with the ‘grandest’ orchestra behind him, all very professional and the whole set was terrific with a great atmosphere, they finished with a very special version of ‘ Roll Over Beethoven ’ that I played on my show the other day!

The closing act was ‘ Coldplay ‘ who did a very good and moving set with great lighting and sound effects, fireworks etc, they did a tribute to the young group ‘ Vilola Beach’ who were all killed in a tragic car accident in Sweden earlier in the year, Chris Martin’s children, Apple & Moses, joined him on stage to sing a ‘Chorus’ line and Barry Gibb came on and they did a ‘ Disco’ version of ‘ Stayin’ Alive ‘ ! At the end of the show Micheal Eavis, the dairy farmer that started Glastonbury back in the 60s came on and ' sang ' a version of ' My way ' accompanied by ' Coldplay' !!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

..

MANILVA OVER THE WEEKEND.

SUNDAY 18^th NOVEMBER 2012.

Well we had a well deserved lie in on Sunday morning after all the excitement of Saturday; for breakfast we had Brenda’s famous ‘Poached Eggs on Toast’ it looks like the rain has passed us by and we are in for sun and clear skies for a few days. We have started the process of drying out the car, we have to take it to the ITV(MOT) centre in Estepona on Wednesday morning ,very early, so fingers crossed ! Tim has just been on the Skype Video as I was typing this as he has just read the blog about our adventure on Saturday-so we caught up with his news, mainly about Jo and Ben and their life at University in Liverpool and Ormskirk! Brenda had another appointment at the surgery for a blood pressure test tomorrow but they have just cancelled it until next Monday. So today was a sports day – the Davis Cup tennis was on all day on TVE1 as Spain played the Czechs in Prague, Spain lost, they were the holders, over in America the grand Prix was on a new spectacular track in Austin Texas – Lewis Hamilton beat Vettel so the World Championship title goes down to the final race in Brazil next weekend with Alonso only having an outside chance against Vettel.I caught up with all the football on the Spanish highlights programs – over in England City, Liverpool and Arsenal all had good wins but Everton lost and Utd also lost 1-0 to Norwich! Over here no change with both Barcelona and Real Madrid winning,Messi scored two but sulky Ronaldo did not get on the score sheet ! For supper we had Steak a la Plancha with Chips before settling down to watch the late film, earlier we had watched “ Appalosa ”from 2008 – a really good Cowboy yarn with Ed Harris, who also directed the film,Vitto Mortesen,Jeremy Irons and Renee Zellweger as the love interest! The late film was “ Freedomland ”from 2006 starring Samuel.L.Jackson and the excellent Julianne Moore in a very riveting crime drama with a twist !

Thought for the Day;

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

..

.