The power company called this morning. They wanted to let us know they are cutting the power on Friday from 8.00-16.00 hrs. I couldn't believe that they actually called to let us know. Normally they just turn the power off without warning. And then a few minutes later, someone from the power company actually turned up in the bar to post a notice that the power would be cut and to whom!! Progress. So no power all day Friday, for improvement to their network so it can't be bad.
And yesterday evening, three technician showed up from Iberbanda, the company with the contract to provide all the small villages of Andalucia with broad band access to the internet. This is the second time they've been here. The first was more than a month ago to install some equipment on Francisco's finca... his finac happens to be the ideal location for their antenna which broadcasts their signal for satellite broadband access. So we thought after a short time later we would have our broadband access as this dial-up service that we currently enjoy (!) is so slow (sometimes only 40 kbps). But that was not the case and we have been waiting and waiting...... and now these boys turn up yet again to do some more of whatever it is they do to get it running. Hopefully soon.
The weather we suffered yesterday with all that rain was apparently not as bad as what the coast was suffering. We heard that several cars were washed into the sea in Mijas from all the heavy rain. We went to Igualeja yesterday afternoon to buy some meat and when we were returning, there had been a rock slide on the road we came down only a few minutes earlier and half the road was covered in rubble. Very heavy rain yesterday. Today there is just lots of fog and cloud about but so far no rain.
Ivan made a couple of tarts yesterday afternoon. I have to take them into Ronda now. We sell tarts to a restaurant in Ronda called La Quinta. We've trying to grow a cakes and catering business. We have sold quite a few of Ivan's cakes to the village people. We did a wedding cake in September to a young lady from Ronda who found us on the web.... she has ordered another cake this month for her husband's upcoming birthday. Selling to the restaurants in Ronda has not really taken off for us but we're trying. Have you seen our cake website... www.bandolerocatering.com ... there are plenty of photos of Ivan's products.
I spent all afternoon yesterday catching up on my accounting.... in-putting all those bills ... didn't have time to calculate the revenue yet though. Perhaps this afternoon. I input everything into my system before I hand it over to my gestor (accountant) who does all the official stuff. We actually had a refund last quarter which I was surprised at. We saved it for the next quarter in case we owe.
So last night we wound up with two unexpected rooms for the three technos from the ISP company. They had some tapas for dinner and went to bed early. Ivan got up to give them breakfast at 8.30 this morning. Today we have one room coming in and then the next booking arrives on Friday for two nights. We've also been taking enquiries for New Year's Eve. The first booking for that arrived several weeks ago, in fact I think it was in August... a Norwegian couple. And we also have a UK friend and new husband coming as well. So we still have a few rooms available ... de momento.
The owner of the casa rural next door arrived on Monday to do some work there. His name is Paul and he is from the UK. He and his wife bought the place in April and we have been working with them ever since.... a joint effort to increase both our businesses. Paul's placed a few adverts in UK walking magazines as that is his target market. He's now starting to get some results. I use his space as my overflow space since we have only 8 rooms. His additional 5 rooms gives us a good size for groups. He also has Francisco & his wife working for him! The bungalows, as we refer to them, were built by the same guy we bought the hotel from. He sold them separately and they have changed hands one more time since we arrived.
The US elections were held yesterday. I sent in my absentee ballot to NY. I see that Hilary Clinton won her seat easily. Looks like we finally have a change in Congress... hopefully for the better!
Anyway, it's raining again! Wet, wet wet. I'm off to Ronda.
