29 March - A busy day for me trying to catch up on my back logs of invoices and revenue before I send everything off to the accountant for the formal accounting. I received a tax refund today which was a pleasant surprise... I had forgotten that it was coming. I was able to pay some outstanding bills with that!!
The pool next door is moving along nicely. It should be ready before the end of April.... I am looking forward to jumping in there.
We had a few tables for dinner last night which was unexpected... all English as well. We had no guests in the hotel last night; we'd had a young Belgium couple here for a couple of nights earlier in the week and today we have a Spanish couple in for a couple of nights. On Sunday, the first of the Semana Santa guests arrive and they will be here for the whole week. They are returning clients of ours from Barcelona; they've stayed with us three times already so quite loyal.
We've now got some art on display in the bar and reception. The artist Jaime who lives in Parauta, two village over from here, is a wood sculpture. We've been getting to know some other people in the area better via these meetings we've been having for the Valley promotion. At the last meeting on Tuesday, we agreed with Jaime to allow him to display his art for sale. We don't expect any commission either as we are happy to help sell locally made products of any kind here. Plus the art work is interesting looking and improves the bar as well. They are interesting statues, mirrors and plant pot & coat holders. It would be nice to sell some of his work for him.
And Ian and Sandrine stopped by for some tapas today. They are the couple living in Cartajima with a rug business (Andalucian rugs that is) and offering walking guide services. They offered to give us a rug or two to display in the hotel for possible sales as well. In fact, they sold several rugs to our clients in one of the art groups last fall. We are looking forward to that.
And it is going to be busy next week so Ivan's parents arrive on Sunday from Avila to lend a hand. Ivan's mother makes some nice desserts for Semana Santa and helps Ivan out in the kitchen.
Well, the Genal Valley group's last meeting was a bit disorganised and started late. The woman who organises them changed the venue at the last minute without much notification to the members. Still not sure how this will progress, there are obvious reservations by many of the participants at this point. We need to make some firm decisions at the next meeting as this is just not going anywhere.
And that's about all the time I have for now. We are almost full for Easter. We still have one double available for Thurs through Saturday nights and I sure hope it sells as I would be very happy to be full for at least two nights of the big weekend!!
one more thing, I got some new business cards made recently and picked them up yesterday. They now feature our names as everyone always asked that and wrote it on the cards and they have a slightly nicer look about them.
Weather of course.... we heard the weather for next week is not supposed to be very nice, unfortunately. We'll wait and see what happens ... it's been rather fresh since early March, cooler than in January and February. Yesterday and today though have been bright and sunny, just cool. And I have some lovely flowers to pot for the terrace now before the sun goes so I'm off.
More later. Bye for now.
