A COLD & DAMP SUNNY MANILVA ON FRIDAY AT THE START OF THE WEEKEND.

FRIDAY 1^st/ FEBRUARY 2019.

We managed a nice lie in this morning and then after freshening up we had my now famous ‘ Toasted Crispy Smoked Bacon Butties’ – smothered in ‘ HP’ Brown sauce – open on brown for Brenda, with mugs of strong/hot ‘PG’ Tips Tea, I was on the breakfast rota, as I was not out on my travels, as usual, because of the weather.

Late yesterday evening the wind strengthened up, as forecast, the rain then hit us and carried on all night, with strong gusts of wind, the whole region is on ‘Yellow/Orange’ alerts, as the new ‘Atlantic’ storm – now classed as “ Hurricane Leslie “ - hits us, this morning it’s cold, grey & overcast, with lots of black clouds around, the storm is moving inland up into the mountains behind the village, at the moment it’s stopped raining, it will only reach 14 degs+ later, down to even 4 degs during the night! Tomorrow is staying dry & cold, but dry, then on Sunday the new ‘ Atlantic’ front comes in bringing with it warmer/sunny weather, next week is now looking dry, most importantly, with warmer sunshine and a few patchy clouds at times, hovering in the mid/high ‘teens’ – reaching 20 degs+ by next Thursday! Watch this space.

See below;

After typing/posting today’s Blog I’m going down in the kitchen preparing this evening supper – my famous recipe of ‘ Fish Pie ‘ – topped with Brenda’s famous ‘ Mashed Potato ‘ – I first  sweat-off  a ‘ Mirapoix’  of small diced vegetables, in ‘White Wine or Vermouth’ ( Big Brian’s recipe!) – the fish is poached off ‘ Haddock & Pink Trout ‘ today – I then make a rich ‘Bechamel’ sauce and add the ‘Mirapoix’ – as well as the flaked poached Fish, Mussels, Prawns & Crab, along with chopped Parsley and seasoning, adjust the consistency and ‘cook-off’ – it’s then placed in the buttered glass casserole dish and left to cool off before Brenda tops it with her ‘ Mashed Potato’ ready to go in the oven this evening!  

Just a quick sports update; this evening the “ Guinness Six Nations “ Rugby Union kicks off with the first game over in Paris, as France welcome Wales. Tomorrow Scotland welcome Italy and the ‘Game of the Day’ is over in Dublin as the Champions, Ireland welcome England!

Later we will settle down in front of the TV to catch up with all the ‘ Quiz Shows’ that we follow, this evening it will be the ‘Rugby’ match and then our regular Friday programmes.

Thoughts for the Day ; See above.

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MANILVA WEATHERFLASH

SATURDAY 19TH JANUARY 2013


We were rudely woken this morning with a very loud crash/bang; our front door shutter had been blown off and ended up half-way up our street ! The forecast for today was severe storms with heavy rain and hurricane force winds!! It is the tail end of the weather that is hitting the rest of Europe and the UK -It come's in from the Atlantic in the west and then turns towards the north east of Spain.As usual down here in Sunny Manilva when it rains - it does it properly!! I had to go out with only my bathrobe on to retrieve them - I can confirm that the wind was blowing up the street and was hitting the parts that it should not!! It is back to normal tomorrow on the forecast,sun and 19degs - fingers crossed.


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MANILVA THIS WEEKEND.

FRIDAY/SATURDAY/SUNDAY 21ST/22ND/23RD JANUARY 2011.

Friday morning was shopping morning as usual with us calling into the three supermarkets and the English butchers; the weather forecast for the weekend is not good with wind, rain and getting a lot colder, the rest of Spain is getting it worse with snow and extreme cold with temperatures dropping to below freezing even during the day, it is the coldest spell in living memory so we are still very lucky as we are only down to 14 degs but we are at the moment in the middle of rain storms! In the evening we had Haddock in crispy batter with Mushy Peas and thick cut chips for dinner which reminded us of “ Enoch’s ”in Llandudno ! Just as we finished Lilli and Aulikki called in to take us out for a drink, Bar Rojas was closed so we ended up in Bar Nacho which got very loud and noisy as the card game started ! Brian came along later after he had finished, he is off to Liverpool on Saturday morning on a surprise visit to his sister’s Claire 30th birthday party but Lilli is taking her mum to the airport on Sunday and is on her own till Wednesday.

We stayed in on Saturday as the weather changed,Cheta came and played around the house in the morning and in the evening we had Steak and Frits for supper before we watched the football and a film.

Sunday was back to normal as we had a roast, in the morning we got things ready, Roast Chicken, Chestnut stuffing with crispy Smoked Bacon and thick gravy, Leek and Mushroom bake,Cabbage,Cauilflower in Cheese sauce, Whole Baby Carrots and Garden Peas along with Herb Roasted Potatoes, we then had Sausage butties for a snack lunch .Mano and Anna joined us along with Lilli in the evening as we caught up with all the local news and gossip from Mano.


Thought for the Day;


No one really listens to any one else, and if you try it for a while you’ll see why.


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MANILVA WEATHER FLASH.

FRIDAY 16TH. APRIL 2010.

This morning we have been out and about in Estepona and Sabinillas after the storms of the last two days; on Wednesday evening, as forecast, the rain started at about 11-00pm and did not stop until 11-ooam on Thursday. When I say rain in fact it was a Monsoon, it was the most severe and heavy rain that anybody has ever seen here in Manilva, the locals can’t remember any thing like it in their lifetime! We have not had any problems at our house and in the street but in other parts of the village and down in Sabinillas it has been horrific; at Mano and Anna’s house and complex, on the side of the hill above the vine fields, their problem this time was a mud slide that blocked the drains when a retaining bank gave way! They were out all yesterday shoveling away the mud and Mano went and got a friend who has a JCB to help dig out a car and clean away the debris. Some of the house’s still ended up with mud inside and at the same time the electricity was cut off! It then starts to wash away all the earth banks by the side of the road and soon goes down the hill into Sabinillas which then became flooded again like the time a few weeks ago when we got caught on the Smart car; only this time it was much worse and people had to be rescued from their cars, the river in the valley overflowed and washed away the road. All the main drains stopped working and in Puerto Duquesa all the businesses were flooded, the same also happened in Estepona and further along the coast.

So last night on Spanish TV the main news on all the eight terrestrial channels was good old little Manilva !! The emergency services were called out to help rescue people from their cars and homes and pump out the water; one of the main problems here is the underground car parks, which all the buildings have, they are the first to be hit and it causes the most damage to the cars.
So all in all it brought a little excitement into our life down here in sunny Manilva !

CASA DEL ABUELO.

Friday 26th September.

After the floor repair man and the cleaner had arrived first thing in the morning we shot out to the bank in Estepona and on the way passed the garage only to see that the Winnebago was still on the forecourt;it turned out that DHL had not delivered the trade plates due to technical problems,so it will now leave on Monday! We then called into the house as we needed some chargers that we had left behind and on the way back we called into the local supermarket and the English butchers to stock up for the weekend.When we got back we made arrangements to see the James,the floor man and the cleaner on Monday morning;as it was still warm and sunny we went for a swim in the early evening and then had supper and watched BBC/ITV for the first time in a long while including Jools Holland ! During the night another heavy rain storm hit us as forecast,as I went to bed late everything was all right in the house.

Saturday 27th.September.

As we got up and opened the door into our lounge in the old part of the house we found that we had a problem,It was under two inches of water !! It was coming from under a door which leads to some steps down to the main patio between the old house and the new,from a broken roof gully and faulty down pipes which are just above the door! We started to make sure that all the electrics in the lounge and the stored IT equipment where safe and then started to brush away the water through the now open door,it’s a tiled floor so it was not so bad to get rid of the water,we also found at the same time that another drain on yet another patio outside the laundry was blocked so we called Miguel the gardener and he came and unblocked it with a long trenching tool as the patio was under a foot of water! As the rain stopped we then were able to get rid of all the water and then covered the floor in newspaper’s to dry it out.We then closed the door and filled in the space at the bottom with newspaper,old curtains and pillows to form a barrier on both sides to stop the water getting in again-for now! I then went all around the house and checked and unblocked all the drains and gullies.After the excitement of the morning we then watched some TV in the late afternoon and saw the most superb and exhilarating women’s cycle race from the world championship in Italy,Nicola Cook,the English Olympic champion won in a thrilling finish!she comes from SouthWales !! In the evening we had steak and frits for dinner and then watched Strictly Come Dancing for the first time since we left Wales last year!

Sunday 28th September.

The flood defenses have worked ! During the night and first thing in the morning the rains came again but we have not had any flooding and all the drains are working; the Sextons Flood Defense and Risk Assessment Plan has worked !! We have just had our usual Sunday Brunch, a little later then normal, and are now settled down to some reading in the late afternoon,We have spoken to Carolyn and she is arranging for the builder to call in at the start of the week to see what repair he can do to the roof and gullies. As I’ve said before ,watch this space!

CAMPING PARQUE TROPICAL

Monday 19th November.
The forecast for the week was not good so we took the chance whilst the weather was dry and fine to service the Winnebago and do all the chores.October has been very dry and sunny,in fact it is the driest October in 30 years! But it looks like November is going to make up for it although it is still warm during the day-18/20dgrs.We went out in the afternoon to the hypermarket to stock up with the essentials for the week.
Tuesday 20th November.
The storms that are forecast are quite severe so we have checked out everything on the Winnebago and the car and are watching the TV news foe updates;It hit Sevilla in the afternoon with bad flooding and a tornedo just outside the city;we missed the worst but the heavy rains came in the evening and we had a call from Gissy at 11-oopm for help! The heavy plastic covering over the tent and RV. Was forming a lake due to the amount of rain falling and not being able to drain quickly so I cut a hole at the side to drain it off-which worked too well-it emptied over me!!-but this was only the start!
Wednesday 21st November.
During the night the weather got a lot worse and the rain became very severe-at about 4-ooam Gissy rang for help again-the same problem as before but this time the lake was on top of the tent and the poles where bending under the weight, as I got there they broke and the roof of the tent became the largest lake in Estepona!! This time we cut the tent roof and plastic covering with the same result!!
In the morning we went round to see what we could do to fix things and with the help of one of Gissy's neighbours,Dennis-who is 80 years old, who had some new sheeting and rope we where able to erect a new cover over the tent and Rv with Gissy and Brenda helping-five hours later it was finished and it had not started to rain again-luckily! After a warm shower we settled down to a late supper of Pork escalops with some cabbage that we had spotted in the market,finished with smoked bacon crispy bits!!
Thursday 22nd November.
We went into Estepona on a sunny start to the day to get some x-ray results from the dentists and as it was so nice we popped over to marina and had a light tapas lunch sat outside in the sun! In the evening we watched the Spain match on the TV and followed the England match on the PC as we had a light supper.
Friday 23rd November.
After servicing the Winnebago we decided it was a curry night so we went out on a fine dry day to the butchers and got our weekend supplies in as the forecast was rain over the weekend. We also showed Gissy the way to her bank as she is not used to the roads around here and she then followed us to the shops in the BMW as Vidal is not due back for another week or so. In the evening we had a “Helluva” curry even if I do say so myself!! The aromas stay around for days and we also freeze some for the following week.
Saturday 24th November.
When we got up the day was grey and wet and is still the same as I am typing this so we are having a “at home” day and watching the live football from England-its Arsenal-Wigan! In Spanish.! Tonight we are having Sirloin steak and all the trimming with baked potatoes for dinner .We spoke to Mano this lunchtime as Anna and Carlos have gone over to Wales for a long weekend,Carlos is going to the City match and Anna is seeing some old friends, so we might see Mano on Sunday if the weather picks up-the forecast next week is sun,sun!!and more sun.