I promised myself I would not let a lot of time go by before writing again but here it is more than a month later since my last entry. We've had a few things happen here since the 8th of April.

In April, the Juzcar village hall organised a weekend seminar about the history of the Ronda mountains. We had speakers come from Morocco and Madrid and interested participants from Malaga city and Juzcar. It was a successful event, like the wild mushroom weekend held here back in November.

We had a lovely couple from Stockholm that stayed with us for a few days. They had a very nice stay here from all that they said. They went on a guided bird watching tour with Peter from Spanish Birds. They went for a guided tour of vultures in their nests and soaring off for the morning up into the thermals with Frank in Cadiz. They had a very nice long walk across the Riscos with Sandrine checking out all the wild flowers along the way. They had a very nice day in Ronda after Ivan and I helped them change a flat tyre (for which they were so grateful they gave us a gift each upon their return to the hotel).

We also had the return of a guest from Germany who stayed with us a couple of years back.... nice to have return business.

Then there was the long holiday weekend from the 1st of May. For some, it was not a long weekend as some schools were open on the Friday; but for others it was indeed a long weekend so the hotel was fully booked. We had a lovely family from the Netherlands here, all of whom enjoyed having a swim in the pool. That was nice to see... guests enjoying the pool, even though the weather was not the warmest. And a couple of families from Murcia who also enjoyed the pool.

Last weekend we had a group from Marbella stay with us for a night. They came to have a walk through the area but the weather was not cooperating so instead, they went tapas hopping and made the best of the time they had here. They all seemed to enjoy very much their dinner and then they were singing until the wee hours in the restaurant.

It was this last group of guests who left this morning, that left us with a bad taste in our mouths. I'll keep this short as I could go on about this one. Yesterday at mid-day, a group of women from England, well, most from England and one eastern European with a UK passport, arrived from the coast for a two night stay. The eastern European was the one who caused a problem last night, too much drink in her and not enough sense to know when to stop. Then becoming belligerent, aggressive, violent, damaging hotel property and worse because she was a woman.

All this because I, yes, me, David, had suggested to her after she spilt her 9th or 10th drink (beers, then wine, then brandy then rum.... just a few drinks) that perhaps she was at her limit. That lit her fuse, setting off a bomb. Consoling her with an apology and offering her a drink was just not enough. She said I had humiliated like no one had in her whole 32 years, ever. She told us how she is a big entertainment executive and that she could handle her drink, that she was not out of control, knew her limit and how could I suggest she was a loose woman? Ah, no one said anything about a loose woman, those were her own words. All her actions pointed to the contrary about control including her crying and on-going irrational anger, no matter what anyone said, her friend, included; my apology fell on deaf ears. Talk about humiliation... her own behaviour did that quite well actually as everyone watched her throw herself at the village mayor, pawing him. And she became insulting to me and threaten to write bad things about us on the web. All this after a couple of her companions slipped out of the bar to their room giving the appearance that perhaps they knew what was coming?

Later (after everyone left the bar due to this outragious behaviour), on her way up to their room, Miss Aggression Herself pushed over some plant pots smashing them to the floor below and so I had to go up to their room and ask them to leave. Having guests in the hotel who are belligerent towards you, do not respect you and make irrational, unreasonable accusations makes everyone uncomfortable, including those travelling with her, I would imagine.

So this morning, after they had their breakfast and paid their bill including covering the damage they caused, they left, without a word of apology, of thanks or even good-bye. Apparently, we were the bad guys in the end (although they had said earlier that they really enjoyed their dinner and the whole area). Guests like her don't come this way too often... well, never actually and hopefully never again. We do not need this type of aggregation from a crazed 32 year old big hotel entertainment executive. Shame on you woman for your behaviour and your friends for putting up with it; you are the one who should have known better, your behaviour was out of control and way O.T.T.

Moving on, we have friends and family arriving from Madrid, NY and Amsterdam later this week which should help make this a pleasant week despite last night, so a party is in order.

The weather is trying to warm up as we just had a bit of cold weather come our way, unexpectedly, along with some rain. But that is May for you, unstable weather and possible rain which is good for all those gorgeous wild flowers out there. In fact, the whole countryside is just choka full of wild flowers at the moment, reds, yellows, deep purples, blues, pinks, greens, etc.... all just so amazing to see.

The Juzcar mayor informs us that there will be a book fair held here in the hotel in June so another up tick, as they say on the stock market. Juzcar is now becoming a cultural location in the Upper Genal Valley and this bookfair in addition to history and mushroom seminars are positive steps toward that objective.

The Juzcar Romeria is at the end of June while the Romeria in Cartajima, our neighboring village, is on 07 June, somethings to plan for.

It is cool, wet and raining in Júzcar today. No playing poolside.

Just got my PC tower back yesterday from the IT shop; the tech told me I had a virus that caused the meltdown this time. He was unable to save anything and had to reinstall everything. Yet another nail in the coffin of the PC tower I think. With all these troubles one can encounter with a PC, I am becoming inclined to beleive that an Apple computer would be the better choice... I´m informed by MAC users that Apple products do not get infections and do not crash nearly as much as PCs do. No more MS windows would be nice. So I am looking into getting one of those now.

My ACER laptop is finally in working order with all the original softeware from the manufacturer which I had to buy extra and load myself to resolve all the problems caused by the IT store where I bought it. Fantastic, only 8 months after buying it, it finally works well.

We had a nice couple from Belgium here for 4 nights over the weekend and we also have an American guest who is spending a couple of weeks with us. She is doing some walking with the tour guide from the next village and so is exploring the area quite well. A bird watcher as well, she has recorded more than 25 varieties of bird seen already, some only heard.

Yesterday, Ivan and I saw a couple of Griffon vultures flying toward Júzcar very close to the fog that was lingering near the mountain tops. And a couple of days before that on my way to Ronda, I saw a couple of those vultures again near Cartajima, the next village. Hanging there looking for something and then shortly after that it was an eagle soaring around the mountain tops as well. The European Bee-Eater has already returned as well as all the swallows and other small birds.

The wild flowers are springing out now as well and today´s rain will help to rouse more flowers into bloom. The thistle is coming out in full force so Ineed to go out cut some to put on display in the bar.

We sold the last of the puppies this passed weekend to a young couple from Ronda. The pen-ultimate puppy went during Easter weekend to a young couple from Antequerra, here in Málaga province. They all appeared very happy and I was happy to see the little Chico heading out, now having a nice home of his own. Here is one of the last photos of the two together:

So adorable but lots of work. Ivan thinks perhaps one more litter but I am less sure about that.

Well this is it for this entry. Ciao.

Photos of our new Bandolero swimming pool are here.

Have look and do tell what you think.

The pool is finished... now all we need are some guests to use it and a bit warmer weather. It´s still quite fresh here and in the evenings, quite cool. Last night, however was more comfortable.

We had a good Easter with many guests from Sevilla staying with us who were quite nice and really enjoying themselves. My dad was visiting from NYC as well for a week; he wanted to be here for my birthday which was on Easter this year. As Ivan´s parents were here as well, we were full in the house. My dad was very popular with all the townsfolks too. He was taken around one day by a hotel guest to all the village events which included free food by the river and then the loud festivities of the townsfolks in the village center.

The weather this year was better than last as we had less rain, although rain it did a couple of the days. Last year, Semana Santa was a wash out for the bigger celebrations such as Sevilla due to a lot of rain.

We´ve planted lots of flowers and plants in the pool area, the filter finally arrived on Wednesday and has been busy cleaning the water ever since. It´s almost there, ready for a few photos. I´ll be taking some shots in a day or so when I can set up a good scenario, poolside.

We´ve got a couple from Switzerland staying with us now; there was another Swiss couple who were here earlier in the week for a night.

We also have one French Bulldog puppy left for sale. We sold the pen-ultimate one last weekend to a Spaniard from Antequerra. Honestly, I can´t wait to be rid of the last pup.... too much work now with the other dogs. And Lolita has a rash and has been to the vet three times in the last couple of weeks so we have enough work with the dogs without having to care for a pup. Any one interested locally?

Another spectacular day in the Upper Genal Valley. Brilliant sun, blue skies, birds singing!

The pool is finished being built and so is just about ready for use. We began to fill it this passed week but we are still awaiting the arrival of our filtration system and until that is here, we cannot fill the pool completely. Here is a photo of the area early last week:

It's a bit more full than this now but not complete.... and it's not big pool.... one of my sisters said in an email, "looks small, how many people does it fit?" I thought, "not so many actually" but we are small hotel and I really doubt we will have the hotel full with everyone wanting to be in the pool at the same moment so not to worry.

We have bought a whole bunch of plants and flowers and one can see the Yucca tree we already planted in the rear between the lemon tree and the wall. We've also planted some bambu and all the plants and flowers are laid out waiting to be planted. It is taking shape. In one of the photos, one can see the fountain on the wall side edge of the pool. It now has a mosaic on it that Ivan made in blue and white tiles.

Ivan also recently installed a couple of mosaics in the lavatories of the bar. Here are a couple of photos of that work:

The Blue Dragon is in the men's while....

the warm sun is in the ladies.

Ivan has recently also painted all of the rooms. One wall in each room has been painted in primary colors. I'll put some photos in the coming days.

The wild flowers are already coming into bloom. The weather had been quite comfortable but then went cold. Yesterday it was the first warm day in a few and then today it is cold once again.

The pool is coming along nicely. The team of tile workers installing the tiles inside the pool completed the sides and steps but were unable to complete the bottom due to an eye injury of one of them. We are waiting for them come and finish the bottom tiling now to fill the pool with water.

I have photos but they are not prepared to load on-line yet. I'll do that this week.

The almond flowers in Juzcar are still in bloom and, as you can see below, are just gorgeous.

We returned from our holiday on Monday, 11 February. We had a nice break away from small town Juzcar in small city Amsterdam. We stayed with our very close friends Steve and Daica in the city centre. We enjoyed a few current films in version original (films in Spanish cinemas are all dubbed over original performances and we prefer original), we ate a lot, walked around a bit, took a boat tour (Ivan had never done that before) and just rested in general. The weather was unseasonably warm and dry (only one day of rain) which also help to make it a nice holiday.

When we arrived back in Juzcar, we were pleasantly surprised to see the hole had been dug for our very own swimming pool. It is well underway now. The hole had already been prepared for the concrete base t5o be poured which happened on Tuesday. The rest of this week has been spent preparing the sides of the pool and the piping inside the walls. We also had the back wall of the hotel rendered as that had never been finished when the hotel was built. Boy! What a difference that makes in appearance. We will also have a new exterior wall built so the pool will be enclosed and private. We now expect the pool to be ready for late March.

Here is a photo of the hole as it was last Tuesday morning (12-02-2008):

I'll put some other photos on this site when I have them prepared of the pool construction as well as the new look of the rooms Ivan painted before we went on holiday. I have not photographed the rooms yet but I think they look quite nice. Our current guests also appreciate the work Ivan has done.

The weather is not that bad but not so great either since we returned. The levante which has kept many fishing boats in port is having an affect up here in the mountains as well. Last night, it was very blustery and damp cold, the worst cold. But today it is a bit more mild, temperature-wise but one can see the misty clouds coming over the mountain tops from the coast. The air has a dirty look about it.

More later.

Yet another warm, bright, sunny day. Yesterday, the temperatures were around 20C here in the valley, a bit lower in Ronda. Very unseasonably warm.

All the wild almond trees are now in bloom, which is about the right timing. Every year since we have been here, these trees have started to bloom in January, so now is about the time. There are small purple crocuses as well dotting the mountainsides; quite lovely.

The renovation work across the road from the hotel on the lookout is just about finished. I'll have to snap a photo and install here for readers to see.

We have been busy redecorating a bit in the last few days. Ivan has painted a couple of the rooms; one wall in each room with a different color than the plain white which we've had since day one. Yes, the white is traditional and perhaps rustic, but a splash of color will make the rooms more distinctive and hopefully more cosy. I've been finishing the shelves we bought to put in the rooms and also am re-painting the hanging sign we had with the name of the hotel. The sign had become very difficult to read the hotel name, defeating the whole point of having a sign out there.

Once we have our pool completed, which we are hoping will be in early April, we will also install the name of the hotel above the pool, in tiles that we had made quite a while back. These tiles were just sitting in a box for the longest time so I finally removed them to have a look. There was some minor adjustments we wanted to make which we've now done. Once the pool is completed, the tiles will go up adding more color on the building than has been there. The whole hotel is white WHITE and it is a bit too much.... we were trying to find a way to make it less so and colors and plants will make the difference. I have to get some geraniums in early March as the ones I had have dried up and died so there is no color there, just empty pots hanging in the walls (I've now removed them). Anyway, many things to keep us occupied in these quiet times with no clients.