Today is Wednesday again, already!! 29 November.... so what's been happening?
We had only one booking for the weekend and that was on Saturday, a couple from Malaga. They arrived right around the time we were also invited to a baptism. One of our village people, Raul, had a son not too long ago... well his girlfriend, not him. Raul is the brother of Auxi who, together with her husband, run the bar here in Juzcar called Torrecelli's. So Raul invited the whole village of course and that includes us. You see, not all the village people are mean or bad tempered or dislike us. We have a few that come in fairly regularly and Raul is one of them.
Well our clients were arriving right around the time of the mass and then the party so we had to wait until they arrived, had dinner and then went off to bed. By that time, around midnight, the party at the school was over. But everyone had gone to the club. Yes, Juzcar has a club as well. It is called the Teleclub and it run by David, Raul's brother-in-law, and his girlfriend Ellie. The club is attached to the church, Santa Catalina, so it is a town building.
Here's a typical story of Spanish bureaucracy. The club is owned by the village hall. Back in August when all the villages have fiestas, there was a fight one night outside the club in the town plaza. It turns out that those who were fighting were all from another village, the one with the bad reputation in the Upper Genal Valley.... which I shall not name. Anyway, it was cause for the friendly Guardia Civil ('GC') to step in. The story goes that one of the chiefs from Malaga heard of the fight and asked why the Teleclub was still opened because apparently they, the GC, knew that the Teleclub did not have an operating license. This is the part that confuses me because the village hall owns and rents out the club; why in the world would they not simply issue an operating license to their tenant? Pedro, our local GC, was in a little bit of poo-poo because of this because he should have made sure they had papers or that they were closed. In the end, after the club was closed for a short while, word is that the village hall issued a temporary operating license to the club and it is opened again. Fun story that says an awful lot about the ridiculous red tape in this country!
Anyway, we went to the club on Saturday for a couple of drinks. Raul's dad, Juan, was there and was very generously offering his water deposit to us if we were ever in a crunch and without water with the hotel occupied. His finca is above the hotel's and he has a 6000 liter water deposit. I hope we never have to take him up on his offer but that was very nice of him.
I got a bit drunk as I had not had much dinner and someone is always buying us drinks when we go out there. Sunday morning was a bit difficult to say the least.
On Sunday we had a few tables for lunch but only enough to have them sit in the bar or on the terrace as Sunday was a beautiful day. A couple we know from Seville who stayed with us in April showed up unannounced, a pleasant surprise.
Monday, we had a late sleep in as this is a pretty quiet week. Our new door is finished and looks good. Francisco finished that on Friday.... painting around the door and whatever else it needed.
Here's a photo of the new door...
We had only one booking for the weekend and that was on Saturday, a couple from Malaga. They arrived right around the time we were also invited to a baptism. One of our village people, Raul, had a son not too long ago... well his girlfriend, not him. Raul is the brother of Auxi who, together with her husband, run the bar here in Juzcar called Torrecelli's. So Raul invited the whole village of course and that includes us. You see, not all the village people are mean or bad tempered or dislike us. We have a few that come in fairly regularly and Raul is one of them.
Well our clients were arriving right around the time of the mass and then the party so we had to wait until they arrived, had dinner and then went off to bed. By that time, around midnight, the party at the school was over. But everyone had gone to the club. Yes, Juzcar has a club as well. It is called the Teleclub and it run by David, Raul's brother-in-law, and his girlfriend Ellie. The club is attached to the church, Santa Catalina, so it is a town building.
Here's a typical story of Spanish bureaucracy. The club is owned by the village hall. Back in August when all the villages have fiestas, there was a fight one night outside the club in the town plaza. It turns out that those who were fighting were all from another village, the one with the bad reputation in the Upper Genal Valley.... which I shall not name. Anyway, it was cause for the friendly Guardia Civil ('GC') to step in. The story goes that one of the chiefs from Malaga heard of the fight and asked why the Teleclub was still opened because apparently they, the GC, knew that the Teleclub did not have an operating license. This is the part that confuses me because the village hall owns and rents out the club; why in the world would they not simply issue an operating license to their tenant? Pedro, our local GC, was in a little bit of poo-poo because of this because he should have made sure they had papers or that they were closed. In the end, after the club was closed for a short while, word is that the village hall issued a temporary operating license to the club and it is opened again. Fun story that says an awful lot about the ridiculous red tape in this country!
Anyway, we went to the club on Saturday for a couple of drinks. Raul's dad, Juan, was there and was very generously offering his water deposit to us if we were ever in a crunch and without water with the hotel occupied. His finca is above the hotel's and he has a 6000 liter water deposit. I hope we never have to take him up on his offer but that was very nice of him.
I got a bit drunk as I had not had much dinner and someone is always buying us drinks when we go out there. Sunday morning was a bit difficult to say the least.
On Sunday we had a few tables for lunch but only enough to have them sit in the bar or on the terrace as Sunday was a beautiful day. A couple we know from Seville who stayed with us in April showed up unannounced, a pleasant surprise.
Monday, we had a late sleep in as this is a pretty quiet week. Our new door is finished and looks good. Francisco finished that on Friday.... painting around the door and whatever else it needed.
Here's a photo of the new door...
It does make the house look so much more welcoming. Turns out the old door was too wide as well... extra wide; I order this door with a normal measurement so we had to have the extra space closed off with bricks and to us it is very noticeable. Anyway, nice to have a new door.
On Monday I started chasing up the printers who are in the process of making new brochures for us.... I changed printers because the service we got from the first one was too slow and unresponsive. So we changed to another one and low and behold, we have waited for over three weeks just to get the first proof. When I called them on Monday, naturally they said come in tomorrow to see the proof. So I picked it up last night and made a few corrections, dropped it off again today and need to have one more look at it before it goes to print. At this point, we have no brochures in Spanish nor English so we are using the old ones which have no photos.... but hey, better something than nothing, right.
Today we had a couple of tables for lunch. One of them was the owner of the hotel in the next village. In an earlier blog I wrote about the GC coming in and telling us they were going to denounce us for the road signs we installed without permission from the provincial government. Well, the owner of the other hotel today asked me if we were ever denounced for our signs. I told her about our recent experience with the GC regarding this. She told me that she recently received a letter from the Diputacion de Malaga, the provincial government with a fine for the signs she used to have on the road.... a fine of a whopping 900 Euros!! She said she was denounced in February 2005 so it's been almost two years but nevertheless the letter arrived. Her lawyer said he would see if he could do something but doubted it! So perhaps we will get a letter in 18-20 months with notification of a fine for our signs... something fun to look forward to. And yet another thing highlighting the difficult and frustrating bureaucracy in this country, especially for a small business.
Weather report.... it's cool in the evening, still not cold but quite cool. During the day with the sun, it is very nice, both tables sat on the terrace for lunch today, 29 November!! The leaves are falling now, lots of different hues of yellow and other falls colors. No rain to speak of in the last few days.
On Monday I started chasing up the printers who are in the process of making new brochures for us.... I changed printers because the service we got from the first one was too slow and unresponsive. So we changed to another one and low and behold, we have waited for over three weeks just to get the first proof. When I called them on Monday, naturally they said come in tomorrow to see the proof. So I picked it up last night and made a few corrections, dropped it off again today and need to have one more look at it before it goes to print. At this point, we have no brochures in Spanish nor English so we are using the old ones which have no photos.... but hey, better something than nothing, right.
Today we had a couple of tables for lunch. One of them was the owner of the hotel in the next village. In an earlier blog I wrote about the GC coming in and telling us they were going to denounce us for the road signs we installed without permission from the provincial government. Well, the owner of the other hotel today asked me if we were ever denounced for our signs. I told her about our recent experience with the GC regarding this. She told me that she recently received a letter from the Diputacion de Malaga, the provincial government with a fine for the signs she used to have on the road.... a fine of a whopping 900 Euros!! She said she was denounced in February 2005 so it's been almost two years but nevertheless the letter arrived. Her lawyer said he would see if he could do something but doubted it! So perhaps we will get a letter in 18-20 months with notification of a fine for our signs... something fun to look forward to. And yet another thing highlighting the difficult and frustrating bureaucracy in this country, especially for a small business.
Weather report.... it's cool in the evening, still not cold but quite cool. During the day with the sun, it is very nice, both tables sat on the terrace for lunch today, 29 November!! The leaves are falling now, lots of different hues of yellow and other falls colors. No rain to speak of in the last few days.
