" LA JABEGA - FREIDURIA " SABINILLAS PROMENADE, FRIDAY AFTERNOON.

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A VERY HOT AND SUNNY MANILVA,ESTEPONA & SAN PEDRO ON WEDNESDAY;

WEDNESDAY 1 st/ APRIL 2015.             “ APRIL FOOLS DAY ”

Early reports in the morning papers of the sightings of ‘Sharks’ in the River Mersey were somewhat exaggerated !!

No lie in this morning as we had to get ourselves ready for our day out with Den & Josie on the ‘Costa Del Sol’ We grabbed a quick breakfast and then headed out to pick them up outside their apartment, as we were setting off Chispa’ came rushing around the corner and jumped into the car, sadly we could not take her with us; our first port of call was at our favorite Café in Estepona for a quick coffee in the lovely warm sunshine with just a little cooling breeze to make it comfortable, the forecast is for more of the same for the next few days up to Sunday.

We then walked along our favorite street in the center of Estepona, where all the shops are! The new opened  “ Orchdarium – Orchid House ” is just a short walk and as you come around the corner there it is in its entire splendor, to say its spectacular is some what of an understatement, both architecturally, and using any other superlatives that you can think off!

As you enter the building through a plain doorway, so you don’t see what is coming, it opens up before your eyes and takes your breath away! As you walk further into the main dome it gets more spectacular at every turning,the planting is unbelievable and the the best surprise is when you come around the final walkway and see the waterfall in front of you, its one of three, the others are coming into use next week, they are even more spectacular than the one in use at the moment!

The ‘Orchids’ are only just starting to flower so it will get even better as time goes on, the temperature is of course controlled and is rather surprisingly cool, not hot as you are expecting! Now for the bad news, I sadly forgot to charge my camera last night so I was not able to take any pictures! Den & Josie have come to my rescue and the pictures above are thanks to them! More to follow at another time.

We then called into the ‘H10 Hotel’ for our first ‘pit stop’ of the day where we had a nice glass of chilled Cava; we then made our way along the front of Estepona, I managed to fit in a call at the ‘English Computer’ shop to get Den to check out what I’m planning to buy, tomorrow morning my local ‘IT’ Consultant, our friend Andy, is calling in do some work on both of the PCs and then discuss the next point of action. he’s going to come along with me to help choose the right Towers, Screens etc.Watch this space.

So next we arrived at the very busy, as usual, ‘Cocomo’ where we had a nice table outside in the shade ,as requested; the drinks arrived and shortly after our Menu choices, Brenda had the ‘House’ Smoked Chicken Caesar Salad with Rosemary Croutons, Josie and I had the ‘Fish & Chips’ – Josie’s with a nice side salad, the batter was light & Crisp, and Den had the Smoked Salmon Fishcakes with a Chili dressing and a side order of steamed Broccoli Florets. All very nice and so cheap, no wonder the place is full as the food and the prices are just right!

For dessert Den and I had the Sticky Toffee Pudding with Caramel sauce topped with Vanilla Ice Cream – which I had recommended to him. The girls had coffee. Avery special lunch with very special people,oh and yes it was Josie’s birthday yesterday!!  Thank you both for a ‘Helluva’ Day !!

We set off along the coast road to San Pedro to show Den the new ‘Boulevard’ – by then it was even hotter but the light breeze made it very pleasent.On the way back we dropped down into Estepona again to check out the new “ Felipe VI Theater”  that also opened last Saturday, for another occasion in the future; we are also planning to go across to Estepona and San Pedro in the evening to see the night time lighting and then have a spot of supper, when Den & Josie are both over again in July.

We then came back along to sunny Manilva and dropped the folks off, then shot back down to ‘Mercadona’ to do our weekly shopping as they are closed early tomorrow and all day on Friday. We also have an extra booking on Sunday in ‘Doggy World Heaven’ as ‘Reina’is joining us for the day.

Yet another ‘Helluva’ day down here on the ‘Costa Del Sol’ with great friends.

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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A VERY WARM BUT CLOUDY " ALHAURIN EL GRANDE " ON THURSDAY;

THURSDAY 5^th/JUNE 2014.

A nice early morning getting our self’s ready after breakfast for our trip/adventure over to see Joyce ‘Baby’ over in ‘Ahhaurin el Grande’ at lunchtime; all the news and some pictures later – watch this space.

Well we have had a ‘Helluva’day with Joyce taking and in the sights and sounds of the town of ‘Alhaurin el Grande’ We set off at 11-00am and it took 1hr to get to the centre of the town, its 74kms but as you turn left in Marbella up the A 335, it’s then 14kms up and over the ‘Sierra de la Nieves’-  the old ‘Red Fiesta’(It thinks its a Ferrari) just about made it up the twists and turns of the spectacular drive; coming back it enjoyed it more as it’s all down hill!

The town is much larger then we expected and is busy all day with lots of traffic especially in the old part of the town with a narrow one-way system; it has many fine shops, bars and restaurants to suit all tastes which Joyce showed us as we drove round to get our sense of direction, she has livid in the town since 1990 so she knows all the best bars and restaurants including  more in the surrounding country side – as we soon found out!

The town is in a large valley and is known as ‘Bread Basket of the Region’ from back in early Roman times so there still lots of bakeries and mills to this day!

Our first port of call was to ‘Finca La Mota’ in the hills behind the town for a nice chilled bottle of Cava with some Dutch ‘Bols Cassis’  - the owners are Dutch! A little light Tapes of Smoked Salmon with Horseradish sauce and warm local bread went down a treat.

Next I was to ‘Venta el Bichito’ for our 6 euro,3 course ‘Menu Del Dia!’ I kid you not – both places knew Joyce very well and gave  us a warm welcome; to start with Brenda had a Chicken,Bread & Potato Broth, Joyce had the Mixed Salad and I had a ‘Small ‘ plate of the house Paella as you can see in the pictures above. To follow Brenda had deep –Fried Hake in Tempura Batter, Joyce had Baby fried Calamari, which were delicious and tender and I had fried Breast of Chicken, again!  - All with lots of frits and mine topped with a Campo fried Egg!! A nice chilled bottle of ‘Faustino VII Blanco’ instead of the usual ‘Tinto de Verano’ went down very well.

By now it was nearly six o’clock so we had a late afternoon cool drink by the side of a very busy roundabout in the center of the town as Joyce had an appointment at her Doctors; while we were waiting Brenda found the largest shoe shop in the town and so bought herself a new pair of White shoes!! Joyce came back and picked us up and we ended our day in ‘Alhaurin el Grande – on the way to our last port of call for the day we called into to see Joyce’s house in the center of the old part of town, it’s at the top of a very narrow street with no cars as you can see in the picture above, it has steep slopping steps down and is called “ Cueste Rhoda Huevos ” !! – Which translate roughly as “ Rolling Eggs down the Hill” !!???? It’s a very old and ancient pass-time the locals used to take part in as the raced the Eggs down the hill – honest!

From the outside Joyce’s house looks very narrow as you an see in the picture above; in fact its an ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ with two separate apartments/houses in the one block with roof terrace’s, very old and Joyce is still to this day working on it with the help of her friends in the town especially her dear friend Danny who we met and went with for our final drink or two to a bar at the far end of the town called “ The Frog & Toad ” – the only ‘English Bar’ in the town!?

A very big ‘Thank You’ to Joyce for one ‘Helluva’ day; lots of love to you “ Health, Wealth and Happiness ”as the saying goes – see you in October – she is flying back next Thursday and we wish her all the very best as she starts new life in Chester – fingers crossed!

PS; The pictures will give you a small idea of the town as we traveled round.

PPS; John ( Joyce's ex-husband) - hope you enjoyed reading the Blog and the pictures!!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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