Thursday 11th March 2010.
Yesterday we went over in the morning to Estepona as Brenda had an appointment at the dentists; the weather was dry for a change and the sun came out later but it was still a little crisp, the clear blue sky was also a pleasant change and the views across to Gibraltar on the way down the mountain from the villa were spectacular. In other parts of Spain in Barcelona and across in Majorca they have been having severe blizzards with 4 inches of snow falling, the worst weather in over 50 years! On the seven day forecast it is showing for the first time this year that we are going to have sunshine over the weekend.
On our way back we stopped at the house in Manilva as I had to photocopy some documents, Brenda meanwhile was pottering about the house as I was upstairs in the office; my mobile rang and it was Mano to say that they were up in Bar Rojas having a coffee with Brenda ! She had slipped out with the rubbish and bumped into them. When I finished I then shot up and joined them, the owners of the bar welcomed us with open arms as we caught up with all the news from Mano and Anna; Carlos, their son, who was on his day off called in and with him was Andy who lost his wife, he had with him his mother who had flown over on Wednesday evening but she had missed the funeral; they take place very quickly in Spain. We all then had a couple of drinks and toasted the life of Anna, she was only 48, and we all had a good cry as well as remembering the past.
On Tuesday we watched the first episode of “ Wonders of the Solar System ” which was entitled “ Empire of the Sun ” It is introduced by a young looking Professor,Brian Cox, and was quite spectacular; his enthusiasm and knowledge helps you to understand what he is talking about and showing you as he travels around the world; in India he went to Varanass on the bank of the Ganges to witness a total solar eclipse, he was made speechless as the huge mass of people went very quiet; he then went to the Iquazu falls in Brazil to show the power of the sun over water, they are the largest falls in the world and they just take your breath away. The next part took us to above the Artic circle in Norway to watch for his first time the Northern Lights, the “Aurora Boreals” which are caused by solar wind from the sun. Later he visited various giant telescopes around the world and ended up at one listening to the signal from the Voyager probe that was launched over thirty years ago and so far it has traveled over 14 billion kilometers, it is the size of a double Decker bus and his fascination with it was what first got him interested in philosophy. We can’t wait for the second episode !
We are still awaiting another phone call from Chris to give us more dates and details about what is going to happen to Joan, the dogs and cats and the villa over next month- watch this space !!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
CASA OLIMPIA WEATHER NEWS AND TV UPDATE.
Tuesday 9th March 2010.
Well the first news is that the Sky system came back on of its own accord on Friday evening at 10-pm in the middle of yet another storm; the satellite had been knocked out and it took three days to be realigned! Over the weekend during more bad weather the electricity has also been going off and on all the time and on Monday morning we had also lost all the water pressure, which was fixed by late afternoon; this weather is now the worst in living memory down here on the Costa del Sol and the locals in Manilva just can’t believe how wet it has been, over the weekend next door to Mano and Ann where they live on the side of the hills along side the vine fields there have been landslides and some of the locals residents had to be moved out of their properties for safety reasons ! I have just come off the phone after speaking to Mano and the news is not good; two houses have collapsed and a third is in a bad condition, the family’s are all English and have been put up in the Manilvagreen Aparhotel for the moment. Today we have for the first time no wind or rain and clear blue skies across the Straite to Africa but the seven day forecast is not too good. My thought for the week is “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass … it’s about learning to dance in the rain " !!
""
When I was on the phone to Mano,he was just about to ring us with some very sad news to tell us that the wife of a mutual friend in Manilva had died and the mass and burial was later today in the village; Anna’s husband Andy has looked after her through a long illness and our thoughts and feelings go out to him and all the family; her mother lives in the village and her sister lives just around the corner from our house, she was very much a local girl and there will be a massive turnout from the village as she was very much loved.
The Hake in batter with chips and peas ( sadly not mushy ) on Friday was very nice as was our Minute steak and frits on Saturday, on Sunday morning we always have breakfast as we don’s sit down to our Sunday lunch ( Chicken this week ) until late afternoon; and this week we treated ourselves to Scrambled Eggs and Smoked Salmon, tonight we are having Liver and Bacon with Saute potatoes for supper. On Saturday morning we were watching Saturday Morning Kitchen hosted by James Martin,which is very good, it has all the top chefs on and every week they have to take part in the Ouellette challenge, this week one of the film inserts was of the Celebrity Master Chef semi final and one of their tasks was to make a Pizza, so Brenda then said that she fancied one for lunch! Now normally they are not on the menu but we had some Pizza bases in the deep freeze so I then made a Sexton special; The base was smeared with Tomato Frito and herbs and the topping was diced Ham and Chorizo, sliced vine Tomatoes,baby leaf Spinach and crumbled Blue Cheese all sprinkled with a fine Olive Oil ! The result was a big hit and I’m waiting for takeaway orders to come flooding in !!
Yesterday I had to shoot across to pick up a small money transfer and took the opportunity to check out the house and pick up my tablets from the chemists, on the way back I had a engine warning light come on in the Smart car, which is a little worrying and means that we will have to go to a Mercedes garage to be hooked up to the computer,fingers crossed that it is only a service light ! Tomorrow we are going to Estepona to the dentists, we have had to cancel the last couple of appointments due to the weather and circumstances and will then make the arrangements to get the car checked. Watch this space !
Well the first news is that the Sky system came back on of its own accord on Friday evening at 10-pm in the middle of yet another storm; the satellite had been knocked out and it took three days to be realigned! Over the weekend during more bad weather the electricity has also been going off and on all the time and on Monday morning we had also lost all the water pressure, which was fixed by late afternoon; this weather is now the worst in living memory down here on the Costa del Sol and the locals in Manilva just can’t believe how wet it has been, over the weekend next door to Mano and Ann where they live on the side of the hills along side the vine fields there have been landslides and some of the locals residents had to be moved out of their properties for safety reasons ! I have just come off the phone after speaking to Mano and the news is not good; two houses have collapsed and a third is in a bad condition, the family’s are all English and have been put up in the Manilvagreen Aparhotel for the moment. Today we have for the first time no wind or rain and clear blue skies across the Straite to Africa but the seven day forecast is not too good. My thought for the week is “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass … it’s about learning to dance in the rain " !!
""
When I was on the phone to Mano,he was just about to ring us with some very sad news to tell us that the wife of a mutual friend in Manilva had died and the mass and burial was later today in the village; Anna’s husband Andy has looked after her through a long illness and our thoughts and feelings go out to him and all the family; her mother lives in the village and her sister lives just around the corner from our house, she was very much a local girl and there will be a massive turnout from the village as she was very much loved.
The Hake in batter with chips and peas ( sadly not mushy ) on Friday was very nice as was our Minute steak and frits on Saturday, on Sunday morning we always have breakfast as we don’s sit down to our Sunday lunch ( Chicken this week ) until late afternoon; and this week we treated ourselves to Scrambled Eggs and Smoked Salmon, tonight we are having Liver and Bacon with Saute potatoes for supper. On Saturday morning we were watching Saturday Morning Kitchen hosted by James Martin,which is very good, it has all the top chefs on and every week they have to take part in the Ouellette challenge, this week one of the film inserts was of the Celebrity Master Chef semi final and one of their tasks was to make a Pizza, so Brenda then said that she fancied one for lunch! Now normally they are not on the menu but we had some Pizza bases in the deep freeze so I then made a Sexton special; The base was smeared with Tomato Frito and herbs and the topping was diced Ham and Chorizo, sliced vine Tomatoes,baby leaf Spinach and crumbled Blue Cheese all sprinkled with a fine Olive Oil ! The result was a big hit and I’m waiting for takeaway orders to come flooding in !!
Yesterday I had to shoot across to pick up a small money transfer and took the opportunity to check out the house and pick up my tablets from the chemists, on the way back I had a engine warning light come on in the Smart car, which is a little worrying and means that we will have to go to a Mercedes garage to be hooked up to the computer,fingers crossed that it is only a service light ! Tomorrow we are going to Estepona to the dentists, we have had to cancel the last couple of appointments due to the weather and circumstances and will then make the arrangements to get the car checked. Watch this space !
Friday, March 05, 2010
CASA OLIMPIA NEWS UPDATE FOOD FILM AND TV REVIEW.
Friday 5th.March 2010.
This week the weather has still not changed for the best, it is cloudy and overcast and the forecast for the next seven days is rain and wind, over last weekend more storms hit us and above Malaga on the main auto route to Grenada the main carriage way was washed away in a landslide down the mountain ! On Wednesday the storm hit us in the early evening and the Sky TV system was knocked out and has not come back on as I am typing the blog, we are lost without the TV, Joan’s system upstairs is still working OK but we don’t go and watch it as she likes and follows different programmes so we have missed the BBC I murder drama called Five Days which we had been watching ! It looks like we will be reading over the weekend until I sort out the problem with Sky. Out in the Mediterranean a large cruise liner on its way from Venice to Barcelona with over a thousand passengers onboard was hit by 33ft. waves and two people were killed; the pictures on the news showed the main decks being hit. This morning I had to go over to Estepona to pick up a money transfer at the Western Union office on the front and for the first time the sun was out and all the café’s had people sat outside for their morning coffee, I then came back over to the villa and picked Brenda up to go down to Tarifa to do the shopping. We still have not had any more news from Chris over in England about Joan moving back and the possible sale of the villa, its over five weeks since he first told us about his plan which was all going to happen by the end of February !!
The Loin of Pork for Sunday lunch was succulent and lasted us for a cold dinner on Monday and sandwiches on Tuesday; I made a Chicken curry for Wednesday and picked up some Liver from the English butchers this morning for next week, tonight we are having Hake fillets in batter for a change and the roast for Sunday is Chicken. Brenda as usual is going mad with the vegetable selection and of course we have lots of different potatoe dish’s with everything, meanwhile the dogs menu consists of Savory Mince and Chicken Casserole with lots of trimmings and left overs !
The film that we watched at the start of the week was a good old fashioned western featuring Robert Duvall,Kevin Costner and Annette Bening called Open Range; Michael Gambon is a ruthless rancher who shatters the peace of the two free- grazing cattlemen and the shoot out at the end is memorable ! Nothing on the sports front to report on after the excitement of the weekend so far.
I have just started to use “ Wikipedia ” and I am finding my way around the system which is very interesting, I never bothered before to use it so watch out for lots more facts about everything in the future !
This week the weather has still not changed for the best, it is cloudy and overcast and the forecast for the next seven days is rain and wind, over last weekend more storms hit us and above Malaga on the main auto route to Grenada the main carriage way was washed away in a landslide down the mountain ! On Wednesday the storm hit us in the early evening and the Sky TV system was knocked out and has not come back on as I am typing the blog, we are lost without the TV, Joan’s system upstairs is still working OK but we don’t go and watch it as she likes and follows different programmes so we have missed the BBC I murder drama called Five Days which we had been watching ! It looks like we will be reading over the weekend until I sort out the problem with Sky. Out in the Mediterranean a large cruise liner on its way from Venice to Barcelona with over a thousand passengers onboard was hit by 33ft. waves and two people were killed; the pictures on the news showed the main decks being hit. This morning I had to go over to Estepona to pick up a money transfer at the Western Union office on the front and for the first time the sun was out and all the café’s had people sat outside for their morning coffee, I then came back over to the villa and picked Brenda up to go down to Tarifa to do the shopping. We still have not had any more news from Chris over in England about Joan moving back and the possible sale of the villa, its over five weeks since he first told us about his plan which was all going to happen by the end of February !!
The Loin of Pork for Sunday lunch was succulent and lasted us for a cold dinner on Monday and sandwiches on Tuesday; I made a Chicken curry for Wednesday and picked up some Liver from the English butchers this morning for next week, tonight we are having Hake fillets in batter for a change and the roast for Sunday is Chicken. Brenda as usual is going mad with the vegetable selection and of course we have lots of different potatoe dish’s with everything, meanwhile the dogs menu consists of Savory Mince and Chicken Casserole with lots of trimmings and left overs !
The film that we watched at the start of the week was a good old fashioned western featuring Robert Duvall,Kevin Costner and Annette Bening called Open Range; Michael Gambon is a ruthless rancher who shatters the peace of the two free- grazing cattlemen and the shoot out at the end is memorable ! Nothing on the sports front to report on after the excitement of the weekend so far.
I have just started to use “ Wikipedia ” and I am finding my way around the system which is very interesting, I never bothered before to use it so watch out for lots more facts about everything in the future !
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
CASA OLIMPIA.
Tuesday 2nd March 2010.
We have just come off the Skype video as Jack and Lyn called from Australia, they were with some friends and were having a glass or two of Champagne and so they tried out their new PC with built in webcam! Over the weekend we had prepared for the worst as a large Atlantic storm was due to hit the coast but luckily it came in across southern Portugal and then hit north west Spain before going up through France and on towards Belgium and Germany; sadly over 100 people have been killed with falling trees, walls and so on, it reminded us of the time when we where caught in a similar Atlantic hurricane above San Sebastian at the start of our travels in the Winnebago over four years ago.
Still no news on Chris’s plans about Joan and the villa, at the end of last week we received the cash transfer and paid the water bill on Friday morning as we went down to Tarifa for the weekend shopping; fresh Salmon fillets for supper on Friday and Loin of Pork for our Sunday lunch. The two dogs are sat at my feet at the moment as the weather yet again is changing and the forecast for the rest of the week is rain! Last night we watched the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics from Vancouver which was spectacular; my only worry is how we will follow it in 2012 in London! On Sunday evening the final of the Ice Hockey between Canada and the USA was very exciting and went to extra time when the Americans equalized right at the end of normal time; it’s the first to score when they restart and Canada scored a wonder goal, the Canadians went mad! Back on Saturday it was the Six Nations Rugby Union in which England and Wales both lost, England played terrible near the end and gave it away to the Irish. Manchester City beat Chelsea which made Carlos and Mano very happy and Manchester Utd beat Aston Villa at Wembley in the Carling Cup final, I hope that Rooney carries on playing like he is at the moment in the World Cup in South Africa later in the year!
Once again I’m afraid that I am going to go on about another railway programme on BBCFour; The Kalka – Shimla mountain railway is in the foothills of the Himalayas and over its 96kms.it winds its way across 864 bridges and goes through 102 tunnels on its way to the old summer capital of the Raj in Shimla;it is now a Unesco World Heritage site, it was built over a hundred years ago and the people that work and use it now are fascinating, its all very British. The picture below which is not very clear shows one of the trains crossing a viaduct on its way up.
PS; Happy St.Davids Day for yesterday,the first day of Spring !
We have just come off the Skype video as Jack and Lyn called from Australia, they were with some friends and were having a glass or two of Champagne and so they tried out their new PC with built in webcam! Over the weekend we had prepared for the worst as a large Atlantic storm was due to hit the coast but luckily it came in across southern Portugal and then hit north west Spain before going up through France and on towards Belgium and Germany; sadly over 100 people have been killed with falling trees, walls and so on, it reminded us of the time when we where caught in a similar Atlantic hurricane above San Sebastian at the start of our travels in the Winnebago over four years ago.
Still no news on Chris’s plans about Joan and the villa, at the end of last week we received the cash transfer and paid the water bill on Friday morning as we went down to Tarifa for the weekend shopping; fresh Salmon fillets for supper on Friday and Loin of Pork for our Sunday lunch. The two dogs are sat at my feet at the moment as the weather yet again is changing and the forecast for the rest of the week is rain! Last night we watched the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics from Vancouver which was spectacular; my only worry is how we will follow it in 2012 in London! On Sunday evening the final of the Ice Hockey between Canada and the USA was very exciting and went to extra time when the Americans equalized right at the end of normal time; it’s the first to score when they restart and Canada scored a wonder goal, the Canadians went mad! Back on Saturday it was the Six Nations Rugby Union in which England and Wales both lost, England played terrible near the end and gave it away to the Irish. Manchester City beat Chelsea which made Carlos and Mano very happy and Manchester Utd beat Aston Villa at Wembley in the Carling Cup final, I hope that Rooney carries on playing like he is at the moment in the World Cup in South Africa later in the year!
Once again I’m afraid that I am going to go on about another railway programme on BBCFour; The Kalka – Shimla mountain railway is in the foothills of the Himalayas and over its 96kms.it winds its way across 864 bridges and goes through 102 tunnels on its way to the old summer capital of the Raj in Shimla;it is now a Unesco World Heritage site, it was built over a hundred years ago and the people that work and use it now are fascinating, its all very British. The picture below which is not very clear shows one of the trains crossing a viaduct on its way up.
PS; Happy St.Davids Day for yesterday,the first day of Spring !
Thursday, February 25, 2010
NAN'S LETTER.
Thursday 25th February 2010.
On Monday when we went over to the house in Manilva we also picked up the post, which had got wet in our post box on the wall outside, one letter was an Airletter from our very dear friend Nan Horsley,Jane from Chester mom, who we have known since before we were married over 40 years ago; it took us some time to dry out the letter and then open it along the three slits to find that much to our surprise Nan who last year had over nine eye operations and reaches the grand old age of 88 this year is still able to write in her lovely and distinctive way such a nice letter, her personality shines through and her sence of humor has not diminished over the years. It is also a miracle that she is able to write on the very thin Airletter paper any way; hearing from Nan brings back a lot of very happy memories when I went to work for her late husband Burt as resident assistant manager at the Bridge Inn in Port Sunlight on the Wirral,where I met Brenda ! Port Sunlight has featured in our lives ever since over the years, we got married in the church, Fred Mellor, our best man who was a Port Sunlight boy, funeral took place there and sadly the last time we were there was for the funeral of his dear wife Carol, our very dear friend, who died back in 2008.In more happy times we have been to weddings of friends over the years as their children grew up; in the letter Nan says that she still bumps into Curly the Dutch chef from the Bridge in the supermarket!
PS; The picture below taken this morning shows the progress on the new Wine Centre which is due to open later in the year,
On Monday when we went over to the house in Manilva we also picked up the post, which had got wet in our post box on the wall outside, one letter was an Airletter from our very dear friend Nan Horsley,Jane from Chester mom, who we have known since before we were married over 40 years ago; it took us some time to dry out the letter and then open it along the three slits to find that much to our surprise Nan who last year had over nine eye operations and reaches the grand old age of 88 this year is still able to write in her lovely and distinctive way such a nice letter, her personality shines through and her sence of humor has not diminished over the years. It is also a miracle that she is able to write on the very thin Airletter paper any way; hearing from Nan brings back a lot of very happy memories when I went to work for her late husband Burt as resident assistant manager at the Bridge Inn in Port Sunlight on the Wirral,where I met Brenda ! Port Sunlight has featured in our lives ever since over the years, we got married in the church, Fred Mellor, our best man who was a Port Sunlight boy, funeral took place there and sadly the last time we were there was for the funeral of his dear wife Carol, our very dear friend, who died back in 2008.In more happy times we have been to weddings of friends over the years as their children grew up; in the letter Nan says that she still bumps into Curly the Dutch chef from the Bridge in the supermarket!
PS; The picture below taken this morning shows the progress on the new Wine Centre which is due to open later in the year,
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
CASA OLIMPIA NEWS OLYMPIC AND TV UPDATE.
Wednesday 24th February 2010.
Over the weekend we have been on a severe weather warning as the storm that hit Madiera, so catastrophically on Saturday hit us on Sunday and Monday, not as bad as the sting had been taken out of it as it crossed the Atlantic! We once again got caught in the rain on Monday morning as we went over to Manilva to check out the house,pick up the tablets from the chemists and call at the Ferreteria for light bulbs, we then went down to Estepona as Brenda had another appointment at the dentists and at the same time we called into Western Union to pick up a cash transfer but with no luck as the number was wrong ! This money was to pay the water bill which is due by the end of the month, I’ve just had a call with a new number so I will have to go over in the morning to pick it up and then shoot back to Tarifa to pay it!! This weekend is when all the carnivals take place and it is also Andalucia Day on Sunday so it is like a long bank holiday weekend until Tuesday. On the way back we called into the English butchers, as you can see in the picture below of the Steak, Kidney and Mushroom Pie !
We have been watching the winter Olympics from Vancouver which have been very exciting, except for the Curling! Amy Williams winning a gold medal in the Skeleton Bob was terrific, the Canadian commentator got it right again when she talked about how positive she was in the interview before the start and how negative the other English girl favorite was; the Alpine events on the downhill course have been very well covered and the Ski jumping was as usual spectacular, the new sport of Ski Cross with four competitors going down, over and around a steep course in a race to the finish takes your breath away, Yesterday the Ice Dancing was unbelievable with the Canadian couple winning the gold, the only difference being that they do not show the scores individually other wise I am sure they would have done a Torvil and Dean!
On Monday the third episode of the Seven Ages of Britain was very interesting and I found on BBC3 a lovely programme about the Darjeeling mountain railway and the lives of the people that are employed and live with it all their lives; it is only 52 miles long and winds it way through the mountains and along the narrow parts it shares it route with the road, a little jem!
Over the weekend we have been on a severe weather warning as the storm that hit Madiera, so catastrophically on Saturday hit us on Sunday and Monday, not as bad as the sting had been taken out of it as it crossed the Atlantic! We once again got caught in the rain on Monday morning as we went over to Manilva to check out the house,pick up the tablets from the chemists and call at the Ferreteria for light bulbs, we then went down to Estepona as Brenda had another appointment at the dentists and at the same time we called into Western Union to pick up a cash transfer but with no luck as the number was wrong ! This money was to pay the water bill which is due by the end of the month, I’ve just had a call with a new number so I will have to go over in the morning to pick it up and then shoot back to Tarifa to pay it!! This weekend is when all the carnivals take place and it is also Andalucia Day on Sunday so it is like a long bank holiday weekend until Tuesday. On the way back we called into the English butchers, as you can see in the picture below of the Steak, Kidney and Mushroom Pie !
We have been watching the winter Olympics from Vancouver which have been very exciting, except for the Curling! Amy Williams winning a gold medal in the Skeleton Bob was terrific, the Canadian commentator got it right again when she talked about how positive she was in the interview before the start and how negative the other English girl favorite was; the Alpine events on the downhill course have been very well covered and the Ski jumping was as usual spectacular, the new sport of Ski Cross with four competitors going down, over and around a steep course in a race to the finish takes your breath away, Yesterday the Ice Dancing was unbelievable with the Canadian couple winning the gold, the only difference being that they do not show the scores individually other wise I am sure they would have done a Torvil and Dean!
On Monday the third episode of the Seven Ages of Britain was very interesting and I found on BBC3 a lovely programme about the Darjeeling mountain railway and the lives of the people that are employed and live with it all their lives; it is only 52 miles long and winds it way through the mountains and along the narrow parts it shares it route with the road, a little jem!
Friday, February 19, 2010
MARRIOTT'S PLAYA ANDALUZA.
Friday 19th.February 2010.
We have just arrived back at the villa after being over in Estepona today and yesterday at the Marriott’s Playa Andaluza beach resort; yesterday it was raining but today we had the first day of sunshine this year, as you can see in the pictures below! We have been helping on the sales training course for new sales executives, as we have on many occasions before, this time Colin Knowles the sales team leader and trainer looked after us exceptionally well and yesterday Alfredo did very well and today Linda Greenway did a very excellent presentation of the resort and the Marriott Ownership Offer which is a very good way for travel and holidays around the world along with their Reward points system and the Interval exchange system.Thanks and we look forward to doing some more training work in the not to distant future.
PS; The apartments which have two bedrooms are of a very high standard and the grounds and facilities are also tremendous.
We have just arrived back at the villa after being over in Estepona today and yesterday at the Marriott’s Playa Andaluza beach resort; yesterday it was raining but today we had the first day of sunshine this year, as you can see in the pictures below! We have been helping on the sales training course for new sales executives, as we have on many occasions before, this time Colin Knowles the sales team leader and trainer looked after us exceptionally well and yesterday Alfredo did very well and today Linda Greenway did a very excellent presentation of the resort and the Marriott Ownership Offer which is a very good way for travel and holidays around the world along with their Reward points system and the Interval exchange system.Thanks and we look forward to doing some more training work in the not to distant future.
PS; The apartments which have two bedrooms are of a very high standard and the grounds and facilities are also tremendous.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
CASA OLIMPIA.NEWS UPDATE,FILM,TV AND SPORTS UPDATE.
Tuesday 16th February 2010.
Not much news on the villa front; no transfers from England over the weekend and no contact with Chris since Thursday so we have no more information on the “ Plan ” which is now up to Plan C ! And counting down? I managed on the phone to pay the electric bill with his card at the start of last week but need cash to pay the water bill by this Friday or else we will be cut off next week – which is a bit of a joke as we have more water than we can handle due to the ongoing rain storms that are continuing to hit us on a daily basis! Only yesterday we were caught in flash floods in Estepona after we had to go over to the dentists for Brenda to get more work done, things should be finished by next Monday; the roads out of the town where closed by the fishing port and bullring, then the main road along the coast to Sabinillas was very bad with the brown water coming down from the side roads and flooding the main road; the Smart car is not best suitable to the conditions and so I have to drive very slow with the hazard lights on and then get swamped by the heavy lorries and 4 x 4s overtaking us at speed ! When we got to Sabinillas the road was closed as the underpass was flooded so the police directed us to the slip road through the town, we could not get up the road to Manilva as it was like a fast flowing river,Mano who lives near the top on the side of the hill had to go out and stop the rain from flooding their house! We in the meantime had to try and get through the town ,which was gridlocked, the slip road was like a canal and had taken all the rain water from the side roads, the first car that we saw was a Smart car in one of the side roads stuck in 2ft of water, you could not see the wheels !! I set off very slowly with a large black 4x4 behind me and managed to get along to the main road after firstly crossing what could only be described as a river near the end !!
Over the weekend we watched the six nation’s rugby as well as the start of the winter Olympics; the Wales v Scotland match was the most exciting game in the competition’s history as Wales came from behind in the last five mins. and scored 17 points to win! France beat Ireland and England just managed to beat Italy but played terrible. The men’s downhill yesterday, which is the blue riband event of the Olympics was held on a very spectacular course and was very exciting as the surprise winner was the Swiss man Didier Defago.
The roast on Sunday was Loin of Pork with herb crusted roast potatoes, cabbage with smoked bacon, mashed carrots and swede and whole green beans for a change. Today I am making a beef stew and later pancakes as it is Shrove Tuesday. Later on in the week we are having Sausages and mash; we are shopping tomorrow as we are out over in Estepona on sales training at the Marriott resort on Thursday and Friday, they e-mailed and asked us to help again to train the sales executives, they pay us in vouchers which will use later in the year as we are now taking bookings for the house in Manilva, Tim is planning a trip, Jane from Chester is making a return visit, Jeff and Annette from Kuala Lumpur are coming over in June and Norah and Jenny have an open invitation for later in the year! So make your booking soon to visit us in Sunny Manilva, we hope !
Finally over the weekend we have watched two very good films; last night “ Seven ” with Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt,anything with Morgan Freeman is good, we had seen it at the cinema years ago and on Sunday night “ Apocalypto ” which we knew nothing about as it started, it an epic historical adventure tale set against the backdrop of the “ Mayan ”civilsation in South America, it is very gory from the start and it gets worse as it goes on but the tale is very gripping, no stars as the cast are all local and it has English subtitles; the big surprise it that it is written, produced and directed by Mel Gibson !! Oh and the hero wins in the end!!
Not much news on the villa front; no transfers from England over the weekend and no contact with Chris since Thursday so we have no more information on the “ Plan ” which is now up to Plan C ! And counting down? I managed on the phone to pay the electric bill with his card at the start of last week but need cash to pay the water bill by this Friday or else we will be cut off next week – which is a bit of a joke as we have more water than we can handle due to the ongoing rain storms that are continuing to hit us on a daily basis! Only yesterday we were caught in flash floods in Estepona after we had to go over to the dentists for Brenda to get more work done, things should be finished by next Monday; the roads out of the town where closed by the fishing port and bullring, then the main road along the coast to Sabinillas was very bad with the brown water coming down from the side roads and flooding the main road; the Smart car is not best suitable to the conditions and so I have to drive very slow with the hazard lights on and then get swamped by the heavy lorries and 4 x 4s overtaking us at speed ! When we got to Sabinillas the road was closed as the underpass was flooded so the police directed us to the slip road through the town, we could not get up the road to Manilva as it was like a fast flowing river,Mano who lives near the top on the side of the hill had to go out and stop the rain from flooding their house! We in the meantime had to try and get through the town ,which was gridlocked, the slip road was like a canal and had taken all the rain water from the side roads, the first car that we saw was a Smart car in one of the side roads stuck in 2ft of water, you could not see the wheels !! I set off very slowly with a large black 4x4 behind me and managed to get along to the main road after firstly crossing what could only be described as a river near the end !!
Over the weekend we watched the six nation’s rugby as well as the start of the winter Olympics; the Wales v Scotland match was the most exciting game in the competition’s history as Wales came from behind in the last five mins. and scored 17 points to win! France beat Ireland and England just managed to beat Italy but played terrible. The men’s downhill yesterday, which is the blue riband event of the Olympics was held on a very spectacular course and was very exciting as the surprise winner was the Swiss man Didier Defago.
The roast on Sunday was Loin of Pork with herb crusted roast potatoes, cabbage with smoked bacon, mashed carrots and swede and whole green beans for a change. Today I am making a beef stew and later pancakes as it is Shrove Tuesday. Later on in the week we are having Sausages and mash; we are shopping tomorrow as we are out over in Estepona on sales training at the Marriott resort on Thursday and Friday, they e-mailed and asked us to help again to train the sales executives, they pay us in vouchers which will use later in the year as we are now taking bookings for the house in Manilva, Tim is planning a trip, Jane from Chester is making a return visit, Jeff and Annette from Kuala Lumpur are coming over in June and Norah and Jenny have an open invitation for later in the year! So make your booking soon to visit us in Sunny Manilva, we hope !
Finally over the weekend we have watched two very good films; last night “ Seven ” with Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt,anything with Morgan Freeman is good, we had seen it at the cinema years ago and on Sunday night “ Apocalypto ” which we knew nothing about as it started, it an epic historical adventure tale set against the backdrop of the “ Mayan ”civilsation in South America, it is very gory from the start and it gets worse as it goes on but the tale is very gripping, no stars as the cast are all local and it has English subtitles; the big surprise it that it is written, produced and directed by Mel Gibson !! Oh and the hero wins in the end!!
Friday, February 12, 2010
E-MAILS AND FACEBOOK NEWS UPDATE.
Friday 12th February 2010.
Over the last couple of weeks I have been catching up with all the e-mails and messages on Facebook; we missed a couple of cards over Xmas,sorry ! So we have now caught up with the friends that we missed,a very good, regular customer from the Riverside at Branston,Celia Burton sent us a news e-mail, many thanks and kind regards. Another friend, Gordon who we met four years ago at the start of our travels in Le Touquet, France, when he parked his motor home next to the Winnebago and who we have kept in touch with since has just replied to my e-mail to say that he has got married to Carole in December and they are moving down to south west France to Lot et Garonne below Bordeaux to a house that they bought last year and are going to live the good life on their nine acres eventually with the dogs, chickens and horses ! We wish them both all the very best in their new life together and also hope that our paths cross in the not to distant future. Meanwhile on Facebook we have had a lot of friends requests; many thanks to Nigel Roberts over in Llandudno who was a very good customer during the days of the Seventy Degrees in Colwyn Bay, he has followed our travels on the blog and now we are going to keep in touch on Facebook,kind fraternal regards to him and his family. At the same time we had some new friend requests all from Burton on Trent, we have kept in contact with all the staff and now we are joined on Facebook to Matt Peace,Amy McAllister,Julie Morley, Andrea Pilkington,Hannah Tipping,Karen Blair,Craig Sinclair and Amy Reeves ! It is very interesting to see how their lives have evolved over the last few years and we wish them all the very best for the future and many thanks for their hard work over the years at the Riverside.
Over the last couple of weeks I have been catching up with all the e-mails and messages on Facebook; we missed a couple of cards over Xmas,sorry ! So we have now caught up with the friends that we missed,a very good, regular customer from the Riverside at Branston,Celia Burton sent us a news e-mail, many thanks and kind regards. Another friend, Gordon who we met four years ago at the start of our travels in Le Touquet, France, when he parked his motor home next to the Winnebago and who we have kept in touch with since has just replied to my e-mail to say that he has got married to Carole in December and they are moving down to south west France to Lot et Garonne below Bordeaux to a house that they bought last year and are going to live the good life on their nine acres eventually with the dogs, chickens and horses ! We wish them both all the very best in their new life together and also hope that our paths cross in the not to distant future. Meanwhile on Facebook we have had a lot of friends requests; many thanks to Nigel Roberts over in Llandudno who was a very good customer during the days of the Seventy Degrees in Colwyn Bay, he has followed our travels on the blog and now we are going to keep in touch on Facebook,kind fraternal regards to him and his family. At the same time we had some new friend requests all from Burton on Trent, we have kept in contact with all the staff and now we are joined on Facebook to Matt Peace,Amy McAllister,Julie Morley, Andrea Pilkington,Hannah Tipping,Karen Blair,Craig Sinclair and Amy Reeves ! It is very interesting to see how their lives have evolved over the last few years and we wish them all the very best for the future and many thanks for their hard work over the years at the Riverside.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
CASA OLIMPIA AND KUALA LUMPUR
Tuesday 9th February. 2010.
Well it’s been another quiet weekend down here in Tarifa and the sun has also been out for a change. On Friday we had fish pie for supper, last time we had it I made another one and put it in the deep freeze! Over the weekend I watched the rugby, the Six Nations and England beat Wales, and I cheer for Wales! Also Liverpool beat Everton and I cheer for Everton!! On Sunday we had a nice Roast Chicken for lunch with all the trimmings and then settled down to watch Dancing on Ice which is Joan’s favorite at the moment as well as Pop stars to Operastars on a Friday. Sunday evening late on I watched the Superbowl from Miami,my team the New Orleans Saints who have not been in the final for over 42 years beat the favorites the Indianapolis Colts in a very exciting match, the Saints played an audacious gamble by taking a short kick off and retaining the ball, then went on to score a touch down and then right at the end of the game they made a 74 yard interception and scored again, this time I was cheering for the right team ! Last night we watched the Seven Ages of Britain which was once again terrific and it showed a gold crown that was incrusted with all sorts of gem stones and was worn by the Queen of Richard 11 back in the 14 century; it is in a secure volt in a museum in Munich and it is rarely seen in public and is the only surviving medieval crown.
PS; We have just come off the Skype video phone and have seen and spoken to Jeff and Annette in Kuala Lumpur.Jeff had just arrived back from a business trip to Singapore and earlier Annette had shown us around their apartment on the 24th floor with their remote video cam! This weekend is her 50th birthday and they have friends coming over,Jeff celebrated his 50th back in Australia before Xmas. Happy birthday to you Annette we hope that you have a “ Helluva ” day !!
Well it’s been another quiet weekend down here in Tarifa and the sun has also been out for a change. On Friday we had fish pie for supper, last time we had it I made another one and put it in the deep freeze! Over the weekend I watched the rugby, the Six Nations and England beat Wales, and I cheer for Wales! Also Liverpool beat Everton and I cheer for Everton!! On Sunday we had a nice Roast Chicken for lunch with all the trimmings and then settled down to watch Dancing on Ice which is Joan’s favorite at the moment as well as Pop stars to Operastars on a Friday. Sunday evening late on I watched the Superbowl from Miami,my team the New Orleans Saints who have not been in the final for over 42 years beat the favorites the Indianapolis Colts in a very exciting match, the Saints played an audacious gamble by taking a short kick off and retaining the ball, then went on to score a touch down and then right at the end of the game they made a 74 yard interception and scored again, this time I was cheering for the right team ! Last night we watched the Seven Ages of Britain which was once again terrific and it showed a gold crown that was incrusted with all sorts of gem stones and was worn by the Queen of Richard 11 back in the 14 century; it is in a secure volt in a museum in Munich and it is rarely seen in public and is the only surviving medieval crown.
PS; We have just come off the Skype video phone and have seen and spoken to Jeff and Annette in Kuala Lumpur.Jeff had just arrived back from a business trip to Singapore and earlier Annette had shown us around their apartment on the 24th floor with their remote video cam! This weekend is her 50th birthday and they have friends coming over,Jeff celebrated his 50th back in Australia before Xmas. Happy birthday to you Annette we hope that you have a “ Helluva ” day !!
Saturday, February 06, 2010
CASA OLIMPIA.
Saturday 6th February 2010.
Over the last few days the weather has improved; the sun is out and the temperature has risen to over 20 degs.during the day so we have the doors open and the dogs are out all the time, yesterday after coming back from shopping down in Tarifa we washed the Smart car for the first time in ages, as you can see in the picture above! On Thursday we went across to see Vidal and Gissy,we have not caught up with them since November and in the meantime Vidal went over Xmas to Peru and then on to Trinidad to see his mother and family;Gissy also cut,coloured and styled Brenda’s hair as you can see in the other picture below. My hair which is now below my shoulders also has a light trim! It turned out to be rather lucky trip over to Estepona as in the morning as we got up Brenda broke a tooth so we called into the dentists and she was able to get it looked after and fixed by the afternoon on our way back, also I picked up a money transfer from Western Union to keep us going over next week! We have had no more news from Chris over in England about “ Plan A ”so far so watch this space.
Last weekend on Saturday 30th January the night turned into day as the full moon was huge; the moon was the biggest in 133 years as it was height in the sky and closest to Earth, nobody alive today will have ever seen the moon so big and bright! I could not get a good picture to blog as our digi-cam is only a basic one, sorry!
We are watching the TV and catching up with a lot of old series that we never had the time to watch in our past life; Inspector Morse,Midsomer Murders,Heartbeat,The Darling Buds of May,Frost,to name but just a few! Over the last couple of weeks I have been watching Ballykissangel and was very shocked yesterday when Assumpta was electrocuted in the pub cellar after Father Peter had just told her that he loved her!! The BBC as usual has just started to show the new David Dimbleby program “ Seven Ages of Britain ” which is very interesting and very well researched and of course we watch QI with Steven Fry all the time. During the last few weeks Michel Portillo has been on Great Railway journeys around the UK, which as a young boy I spent all my time trainspotting,traveling all over Europe on trains and in my bedroom my bed was in the middle of a very large model railway system !
PS; We have just come off the Skype video phone to Jack and Lyn in Australia and we are going to try and contact Lyn;s son Jeff and his wfe Annette in Kuala Lumpur !
Over the last few days the weather has improved; the sun is out and the temperature has risen to over 20 degs.during the day so we have the doors open and the dogs are out all the time, yesterday after coming back from shopping down in Tarifa we washed the Smart car for the first time in ages, as you can see in the picture above! On Thursday we went across to see Vidal and Gissy,we have not caught up with them since November and in the meantime Vidal went over Xmas to Peru and then on to Trinidad to see his mother and family;Gissy also cut,coloured and styled Brenda’s hair as you can see in the other picture below. My hair which is now below my shoulders also has a light trim! It turned out to be rather lucky trip over to Estepona as in the morning as we got up Brenda broke a tooth so we called into the dentists and she was able to get it looked after and fixed by the afternoon on our way back, also I picked up a money transfer from Western Union to keep us going over next week! We have had no more news from Chris over in England about “ Plan A ”so far so watch this space.
Last weekend on Saturday 30th January the night turned into day as the full moon was huge; the moon was the biggest in 133 years as it was height in the sky and closest to Earth, nobody alive today will have ever seen the moon so big and bright! I could not get a good picture to blog as our digi-cam is only a basic one, sorry!
We are watching the TV and catching up with a lot of old series that we never had the time to watch in our past life; Inspector Morse,Midsomer Murders,Heartbeat,The Darling Buds of May,Frost,to name but just a few! Over the last couple of weeks I have been watching Ballykissangel and was very shocked yesterday when Assumpta was electrocuted in the pub cellar after Father Peter had just told her that he loved her!! The BBC as usual has just started to show the new David Dimbleby program “ Seven Ages of Britain ” which is very interesting and very well researched and of course we watch QI with Steven Fry all the time. During the last few weeks Michel Portillo has been on Great Railway journeys around the UK, which as a young boy I spent all my time trainspotting,traveling all over Europe on trains and in my bedroom my bed was in the middle of a very large model railway system !
PS; We have just come off the Skype video phone to Jack and Lyn in Australia and we are going to try and contact Lyn;s son Jeff and his wfe Annette in Kuala Lumpur !
Friday, February 05, 2010
Monday, February 01, 2010
CASA OLIMPIA.
Monday 1st February 2010.
New month and a new start to our on going saga down here in Tarifa; over the last three weeks of January when we have not been online life in the villa has yet again been interesting and difficult at the same time,we have had very little contact from Chris over in England and the transfers arriving by Money gram and Western Union have been small and infrequent to say the least! The weather has picked up but we are still having very severe rain storms which last for two or three days at a time, the last one gave us a problem as two of the main contact breakers
on the fuse board burnt out and we had no electricity upstairs when we got up in the morning,Mano arranged for Juan to come over later in the day and he managed to fix the fuse board by installing new ones after a difficult re-wireing job, we were very grateful as it was a Friday and we could not get any local help. Joan is keeping well and her new tablets after the doctor’s visit have helped her a lot, she is not in pain from her back problem and is sleeping longer.
Last night Chris phoned at long last to inform us of his plans, he is planning to move Joan back to England by the end of February and he is selling the villa! He has also,hopfully been making arrangements to pay our outstanding large account,so watch this space,we could be back in Manilva in March ! Fingers crossed and the rest !! It is now down to him to make everything happen, we have heard it all before but hopefully this time things will happen.In the meantime I have to pay the electricity bill with a credit card,his and also arrange to pay in cash the water bill over the next few days so tomorrow I am going over to Estepona to collect a cash transfer and to check out our house and do some shopping,later in the week we are trying to go over to see Gissy and Vidal which means that Brenda will be able to get her hair cut,it is the longest that it has ever been since we met over forty years ago!! There are still lots of problems to be resolved back at the villa,we don’t know what is going to be done about the dogs and cats,Boo is a dream and we would have him in a flash but it is just not possible as we do not have a garden and also in our contract there is a no animal clause! The two cars sat on the drive are another problem as they are now both uninsured and with no tax,so it is going to be very interesting month!
New month and a new start to our on going saga down here in Tarifa; over the last three weeks of January when we have not been online life in the villa has yet again been interesting and difficult at the same time,we have had very little contact from Chris over in England and the transfers arriving by Money gram and Western Union have been small and infrequent to say the least! The weather has picked up but we are still having very severe rain storms which last for two or three days at a time, the last one gave us a problem as two of the main contact breakers
on the fuse board burnt out and we had no electricity upstairs when we got up in the morning,Mano arranged for Juan to come over later in the day and he managed to fix the fuse board by installing new ones after a difficult re-wireing job, we were very grateful as it was a Friday and we could not get any local help. Joan is keeping well and her new tablets after the doctor’s visit have helped her a lot, she is not in pain from her back problem and is sleeping longer.
Last night Chris phoned at long last to inform us of his plans, he is planning to move Joan back to England by the end of February and he is selling the villa! He has also,hopfully been making arrangements to pay our outstanding large account,so watch this space,we could be back in Manilva in March ! Fingers crossed and the rest !! It is now down to him to make everything happen, we have heard it all before but hopefully this time things will happen.In the meantime I have to pay the electricity bill with a credit card,his and also arrange to pay in cash the water bill over the next few days so tomorrow I am going over to Estepona to collect a cash transfer and to check out our house and do some shopping,later in the week we are trying to go over to see Gissy and Vidal which means that Brenda will be able to get her hair cut,it is the longest that it has ever been since we met over forty years ago!! There are still lots of problems to be resolved back at the villa,we don’t know what is going to be done about the dogs and cats,Boo is a dream and we would have him in a flash but it is just not possible as we do not have a garden and also in our contract there is a no animal clause! The two cars sat on the drive are another problem as they are now both uninsured and with no tax,so it is going to be very interesting month!
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