THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM A VERY HOT & SUNNY MANILVA;

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A VERY HOT & SUNNY MANILVA & ESTEPONA ON TUESDAY

TUESDAY 9^th / AUGUST 2016.

I was up first this morning to see ‘ Reina’ back with us for the day, we then got ourselves ready and shot out on our travels across to  a very hot & sunny Estepona; we called into our favourite Bar/Cafe for glass’s of fresh Orange Juice and Tostadas, I then went across to my Barber, Manuel, for the full works, he dry shaves with a cut-throat Razor, then he trims and shapes my ‘Goatee’ Beard, cuts and trims the ‘Ponytail’ and then gives me a  very refreshing cold water shampoo and scalp massage, finally he styles and finally applies a light face moisturizing cream & Eau de Cologne!

Meanwhile Brenda called into the Jewellers to check on the second repair of our ‘ Carriage Clock’ – it’s going to be ready sometime next week, she then found some nice ‘ dress’ Hoop Earrings, opposite the cafe in the accessories shop, and a summer top in ‘ Mango’ – we then shot along to ‘ La Casa’ for our night lights and some new towels, in the sale!

As we shot along the coast road the sky was bright Blue and the ‘Mediterranean’ was a sparkling Blue/ Green, the roads are a lot more busy, at this time of the year, with all the holiday hoards, Estepona is also a lot hotter, as usual, all the flowers along the streets are at their finest, the promenade had sun awnings and the beach’s are full.

We are in for a very hot day ahead, its already very warm & sunny with just a little breeze, by this afternoon it will get hotter, reaching the high 30s, overnight its only dropping a few degs, making it very sticky and uncomfortable, over the next few day and over the weekend its forecast to be the hottest, so far this year, watch this space.

We came back up to the village by the back road past the ‘ Feria’ ground, which they are getting ready, there was a crash on the last roundabout before Sabinllas, the ‘ Manilva Feria’ pre-opens tomorrow with all the rides at half prices for the children, its then the formal opening ceremony on Thursday evening, the parade of the ‘ Feria Queens’ on floats with street bands etc is on Saturday evening along Calle Mar, watch this space.

Brenda has just popped along to the ‘ Rotisserie ‘ and ordered a ‘Chicken ‘ for later, for our supper, we are going to have a nice Mixed Salad, Egg Mayonnaise, Baby Beetroot ( Iceland ) and the rest of the Baby New Potatoes in their skins, tomorrow night we are having the rest of last week’s Beef Curry, out of the deep-freeze, with Basmati Rice & ‘ Chips’!

We have just had a regular phone call from the ‘ Junta de Andalusia’ Heart Service ‘ checking on Brenda, we have an online monitoring call system which is also a ‘Red Button’ emergency call system in case of any problems, it was installed after Brenda’s ‘Arrhythmia’  heart problem a couple of year ago, by the Mayor, at that time, ‘Antonia’ who arranged for it to be installed ASAP! The call checks on your health, are you taking the tablets and seeing your Doctor, and of course drinking lots of water at this time of year, they also ask if you have any holidays planned, we said that we have no plans as we are on one long holiday!!

Yesterday afternoon and evening we managed to watch some of our regular Quiz shows by Channel hopping in between all the ‘Blacked Out Screens’ on ‘ BBC TV 1  & ITV, Channel 4’ etc as the Olympic coverage continues, I will try and follow the ‘ Track Cycling’ via the ‘ First Row Sports’ channel as well on TVE 1/TDP as it happens.

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM A VERY SUNNY MANILVA;

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

MONDAY 8^th / AUGUST 2016.

I was first to see ‘ Reina’ back with us for the day, she’s here everyday this week up to Friday; Brenda had a little lie before a quick shower, I’m showering later after typing & posting the Blog. For breakfast we had local Necterins, toast & tea, we are having a quiet day at home catching up with the chores, Brenda is going into one of her ‘ ing ‘ modes and I’m upstairs in the office/studio catching up on the WWW. First, she has just been for a long walk, as recommended by our Doctor, down to the swimming pool and on the way back called into the local ' Opticians' in Calle Mar for a quick repair to her glasses.

Its another hot & sunny day here in sunny Manilva, there is a little breeze keeping it a little cooler, over the next couple of days we have more of the same before it starts to get very hot towards the end of the week and over the weekend, watch this space. See the picture below of the view across to Gibraltar & Africa taken this morning.

As usual at this time of the year we are choosing the menu, day by day, this evening we are going to have plain ‘Burgers’- from our local butcher, just garnished with sautéed Onion & Mushroom, Garden Peas & twice-cooked ‘ Frits ‘ – not forgetting the ‘ Heinz Tomato Ketchup’! Yesterday lunchtime we went along to Bar Castillo for our  'Paella ' lunch as it was a little cooler with a nice breeze.

See the pictures below of the sunrise over the Liverpool waterfront and then the Anglican Cathedral at night.

Yesterday afternoon & evening we watched some sport in various ways, on Spanish TV, a little on BBC TV before its blocked and via ‘ First Row Sports’ From the ‘Olympics’ we caught the Tennis, Basket Ball & Trap Shooting etc, the Spanish TV consentrate’s on the Spanish competitors, as you would expect, we also watched the ‘ Community Shield’ from Wembley as Manchester Utd beat Leicester 2-1.

We then caught the end of the ‘ Ladies Road Race ‘ over the same course as the ‘Men’s’ but with not as many laps on the two circuits, on the final dangerous & treacherous descent a Dutch rider, Alex van Vleuten, was leading, when then very fortunate to escape without serious injury after crashing at the same spot as the men on Saturday, she went over her handlebars, flipped, and landed on the 2 foot stone kerb on her back, she’s in intensive care with severe concussion & broken bones to her spine, a young rider from the USA saw the accident and went down slowly and headed for the finish, she was caught in the last 50m by 3 riders, who beat her to the medals, the Gold was won by a team mate of the Dutch girl, Anna van der Braggan, sounds familiar?! – well it just like the men’s race finish!!

PS; Alex van Vleuten has confirmed that she is fine!!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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" FLAMENCO FASHION SHOW " ON SATURDAY EVENING;

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM A VERY SUNNY MANILVA;

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A VERY HOT & SUNNY MANILVA ON SUNDAY;

SUNDAY 7^th / AUGUST 2016.

We had a nice long lie in this morning as the village is very quiet, that’s until the Church Bells starred ringing, calling the faithful! We are taking things easy today and just relaxing, no plans, Brenda has put some washing on otherwise it’s a nice easy day doing nothing.

Next week we are going across to Estepona on Tuesday morning so as I can go to my ‘Barbers’ for the full works, Brenda is going to call into the Jewellers to check on our Carriage Clock and then do some window shopping. Here in ‘ Doggy World Heaven ‘ little Princess ‘ Reina’ is back with us for her normal five days, the following week she’s with us for seven days with a sleep over on Saturday & Sunday, ‘Scruffy’ is also booked in for a sleep over on the Friday evening.

Today its already very hot & sunny and next week is going to be ‘ Scorching ’ with the whole Region on ‘ Red Alert’ – at the moment there is a little breeze, good for drying the washing later, making its just pleasant & bearable. See below the aerial picture of ‘ Puerto Duquesa Marina ‘ yesterday morning.

Yesterday evening we ended up going up to ‘Calle Mar’  to watch the unannounced ‘ Flamenco Fashion Show ‘ on the stage and ‘ Blue’ carpet in front of the Town Hall! We knew that the street was closed and something was going to happen but the Council had not put up any posters or any information on its Web site; the whole village was sat in front of the stage as the singing & dancing started before the ‘Fashion Show’ later, this meant that we cancelled our ‘ Steak Night’ – we are having it this evening instead of the Roast Chicken. When we came home we had ‘ Heinz Baked Beans with Sausages’ on Toast!  See the pictures above of the show including our friend Valentina in her finest!

In the afternoon and early evening we watched the whole of the ‘ Men’s Road Race ‘ via  the ‘ First Row Sports’ Channel with the ‘BBC TVs’ coverage, ‘Film On’ is blocking all the ‘BBC TV’ coverage of the  “ Rio Olympics “ including all the highlight’s programmes, meanwhile we will have to follow it on our Spanish sports channel ‘TDP & TVE1’! 

The ‘ Men’s Road Race’ was over 237 kms and took over six hours to complete, the views of ‘Rio De Janerio’ and the Copacabana & Ipanema beaches, the 38m ‘ Christ the Redeemer’ statue atop ‘Mt.Corcovado’- the granite monolith of ‘Sugarloaf’ and all the ‘ Favelas’ ( Shanty Towns ) were spectacular to say the least, the race started on ‘ Copacabana Beach’ and then went along the coast of white sandy beaches with the Blue/Green waves crashing onto them, it then went onto mountain circuit ( 4 times ) with a steep climb and descent and a very dangerous Cobblestone section which caused lots of problems & crashes, chains coming off the fly wheels, water bottle jumping out of the holders and even one of the British riders bike breaking into two!

It then retraced its step back towards Rio and then turned onto another mountain circuit ( 3 times!) through the ‘Rain Forest’ with a very steep climb and the most dangerous and treacherous descents in the history of the ‘ Men’s Olympic Road Race ‘ The road was very narrow with hairpin bends and twists,  with on either side a 1 foot wide & deep rain gully with a 2 foot stone kerb! Needles to say there were lots of crashes as riders lost control, in some places they had thankfully erected netting, like in the ‘Downhill Skiing’ which saved a couple of riders, on the final lap down the descent three of the leaders crashed, Vincenzo Nibali,Meidlef and then Geraint Thomas, when he was in the Gold Medal winning position, this meant that the riders behind took it more easy and there was a sprint finish along the beach front back at Copacobana beach in which the Belgium rider Greg van Avermaet won! Chris Froome was overcome by the relentless heat and finished down the field, he will be back on Wednesday for the ‘ Time Trial ‘

At the moment as I’m typing & posting the Blog I’m listening to the ‘Pete Black Retro Road Show’ Requests programme on ‘ Castle Radio FM 89.2 & Online on the WWW’

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM A VERY SUNNY MANILVA;

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A STILL VERY HOT & SUNNY MANILVA ON SATURDAY;

SATURDAY 6th / AUGUST 2016.

We managed a little lie in this morning and after a quick cup of tea & a piece of toast started another day here in sunny Manilva, the gas bottle delivery man arrived and we exchanged our bottle, I then settled down to watch ‘ Saturday Kitchen Live ’- the’ Heaven ‘ dish was a ‘ Lobster Curry ‘ – what a waste, the only way to eat fresh Lobster is warm  & undressed with a little Lemon Juice, over many year we served  the classic ‘ Lobster Thermidor ‘- a creamy Cheese based sauce, our favourite, and of our customers, on the menu at the Hotel 70* was ‘ Lobster Cardinale ‘ – a Mushroom & Sherry Lobster sauce.

Staying on the food front we are having for our supper this evening a “  Grilled Entrecote Steak “ cooked on a very hot griddle plate ‘ Med-Rare’ then left to rest before slicing it  ‘ French ‘ style into fingers, it will be garnished with sautéed Button Mushrooms, finely whole Green Beans & twice-cooked ‘ Frits’ with lots of ‘ Bearnaise’ sauce on the side. On Sunday evening we are going to have a ‘ Roast Chicken ‘ from our local ‘ Rotisserie’ with Baby New Potatoes  and a Mixed Salad.

Overnight it stayed very hot & close with not a breath of air making it rather uncomfortable to say the least, this morning its a little cooler as there is just a hint of a breeze, by this afternoon it will be back to normal, for this time of the year, very hot & sunny, next week its forecast to be the hottest so far this year, watch this space.

 

Last night after supper we watched the late film “ The Green Mile “ from 1999 with Tom Hanks, David Morse and Michael Clarke Duncan before catching the start of the lavish opening ceremony of the  ‘Rio Olympic’ games, the  ‘BBC TV’ coverage over the next two weeks is extensive, to say the least, its on morning, afternoon, evening and of course during the night due to the 4 hour time difference. 

This afternoon its the ‘ Men’s Road Race ‘ over a very steep circuit route over 237 kms along the coast outside Rio and along the Copacabana, Chris Froome, with his five team mates are the favourites to win, Steve Cummings & Adam Yates and even Geraint Thomas are also possible contenders and is the end its a one off race for the Gold Medal, watch this space.

PS; The only problem is that the' BBC TV' coverage is not coming online on my ' Film On System ' - It's blocked for all of the Games ?! -  so I'm going to have find another way to watch it, watch this space!

PPS; I've got the main Spanish TV coverage on the sports channel ' TDP ' and then I was able to go online on ' First Row Sports ' channel and follow the ' BBC ' coverage of the race !!

Thoughts for the Day; See above.

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