Thursday, 29 November
This has been a quiet week so far. I've done some work on the website, accounting, paperwork and today I did some marketing to possible workshop providers. I already received one answer in the negative unfortunately. The only way to make things happen is to be persistent so I will just keep plugging away trying to find more people that hold theme holidays and try to get them to come here.
We've been having the hotel painted in the last few days as well. The facade of the hotel is very white now! Looks good and hopefully more water proof now with this paint.
The town has been renovating the fountain where we get our water from. I don't know why they needed to do this renovation project as it seemed to be functioning perfectly fine. Now it is a big alter like thing down this dirt track. Well apparently things are happening in Juzcar. With the new mayor, new projects are being reviewed and implemented. For example, we are told one of the roads will be resurfaced, the name of our street is being changed, a new health care facility for the town, new sidewalks. The new lamps going through the village were already being installed prior to the new mayor so he cannot claim that one. He does want to put all the cables underground which has already been done in a few other villages. The new street lamps are working now and look pretty good actually, very bright.
I got a free report on my website by some service recently and I found something new that I can do to try to improve my search results.... so I have to put some code on my blog, this code in fact...:
Technorati Profile
I want to be profiled by a web service called Technorati, sounds Italian. Anyway, I need to install this code to get some result from them so here it is.
The hotel is full for the holiday weekend starting 6 December, which is good. And my dog, Bandit, is about to have some puppies, due about 6 December, just in time for the holiday weekend.
Exciting times!
That's it for now
Sunday 18 November 2007
18 November 2007
We´ve been busy these last few days. This weekend here in Júzcar, we´ve had a festival of mushrooms. This was organised by the town hall and local hiking club called Pasos Largos. It all started on Friday evening with a seminar about wild mushrooms. There were about90 people here for this including some village people. Yesterday (Saturday), there was also a review in the evening of mushrooms which was held in our restaurant.... it was packed. the road was completely full of cars and this is one of the reasons I did not have a break. Fortunately, we had Iris in the kitchen helping Ivan, Toñi was helping me put plates out in the restaurant and Delia, who used to work here, came in to help out for the day; without this extra help, there would have been no way to make it through the day sanely!!
The hotel was also full both Friday and Saturday nights. So we had all of them for breakfast plus passing traffic waiting to go on the mushroom excursion. Busy busy busy!! The mushroom excursion was up onto Los Riscos and into the countryside in search of mushrooms, "setas" in Spanish. Here in the hotel, we had a special menu of the day that was all about mushrooms, a mushroom soup or risotto to start, dorada (fish) or jamon estufado as a second course and a fantastic mandarin mousse dessert in the form of a mushroom as seen in the photo below... another fantastic creation by Chef Iván Sastre.
We´ve been busy these last few days. This weekend here in Júzcar, we´ve had a festival of mushrooms. This was organised by the town hall and local hiking club called Pasos Largos. It all started on Friday evening with a seminar about wild mushrooms. There were about90 people here for this including some village people. Yesterday (Saturday), there was also a review in the evening of mushrooms which was held in our restaurant.... it was packed. the road was completely full of cars and this is one of the reasons I did not have a break. Fortunately, we had Iris in the kitchen helping Ivan, Toñi was helping me put plates out in the restaurant and Delia, who used to work here, came in to help out for the day; without this extra help, there would have been no way to make it through the day sanely!!
The hotel was also full both Friday and Saturday nights. So we had all of them for breakfast plus passing traffic waiting to go on the mushroom excursion. Busy busy busy!! The mushroom excursion was up onto Los Riscos and into the countryside in search of mushrooms, "setas" in Spanish. Here in the hotel, we had a special menu of the day that was all about mushrooms, a mushroom soup or risotto to start, dorada (fish) or jamon estufado as a second course and a fantastic mandarin mousse dessert in the form of a mushroom as seen in the photo below... another fantastic creation by Chef Iván Sastre.
Mushroom Dessert - Amanita Caesaria - Mandarin Mousse on Baked Merengue with Kiwi Sauce and Chocolate SprinklesLast night, the village held a tostón, a chestnut roast. This year, the chestnut harvest here in the Serranía de Ronda was the best its been in a quite sometime. There was a reported 2 million kilos more chestnuts than last year... that made a total of 5 million kilos of chestnuts harvested this year. So, as one may imagine, lots of people were happier this year than in recent years when the harvest was suffering due to lack of rain. Anyway, the town hall bought 50 kilos of chestnuts to roast for anyone who showed up... it started at11.30 p.m. We did not go because by the time we left the hotel, it was well after midnight (I had been in the hotel since 8.45 a.m. with no break all day). We were just booming yesterday with this mushroom event. In fact, we had 63 people for lunch, Iván´s menu was completely gone by the end and people were still trying to get in at 5.00 for lunch!! A bit late for lunch, even by Spanish standards.
And even now as I write (on my laptop), I am standing in front of a group who are here looking at a mushroom exhibition in the breakfast dining room with a mushroom expert discussing them. There are even mushrooms here that would kill you, dangerous to touch even.
Last weekend, we had a group of English couples here for a two nights from Nerja. They had stayed here before having discovered us when Iván and I were on the radio on the coast a few months back, REM-FM. This group was actually quite surprised that they were the only ones to follow through and book in with us after we were on the radio. They thought we would have been over whelmed with people seeking rooms or food... sadly, that was not the case. Perhaps we should try to get on that radio station again for some more publicity. anyway, they stayed for a couple of nights having booked six rooms, and all were very happy with everything, yet again.
Last week, I also saw a flock of vulture soaring above Júzcar one day on my way into Ronda. Another day, I watched a couple of vulture catching the thermals above the valley, again when I was on my way to Ronda, as I went to Ronda four of five days last week.
The pool project has not advanced at all as the architect we have is quite incompetent, I think. We have to arrange for him to see the pool we want built at a hotel on the north side of Ronda. He can´t make a design change to our project without seeing the pool first. And we´ve now only been waiting more than a month for this to happen.... very frustrating as I was all set to just get this pool built the minute I got back from NY in August. Ah well!
A package arrived a couple of days ago from one of the ladies that were here for the Maggie Price Painting holiday in October. Martha sent us this very thoughtful package from Texas and included some beef jerky, tortillas with hot sauce, peanut butter, music CDs, pecans from Texas which she sells on her website which arrived in a tin can in the shape of the state of Texas (which is very cool!!) and some photos for the resident ladies of the village. How very nice of her to send us this package!!
¡Hasta la proxima!
And even now as I write (on my laptop), I am standing in front of a group who are here looking at a mushroom exhibition in the breakfast dining room with a mushroom expert discussing them. There are even mushrooms here that would kill you, dangerous to touch even.
Last weekend, we had a group of English couples here for a two nights from Nerja. They had stayed here before having discovered us when Iván and I were on the radio on the coast a few months back, REM-FM. This group was actually quite surprised that they were the only ones to follow through and book in with us after we were on the radio. They thought we would have been over whelmed with people seeking rooms or food... sadly, that was not the case. Perhaps we should try to get on that radio station again for some more publicity. anyway, they stayed for a couple of nights having booked six rooms, and all were very happy with everything, yet again.
Last week, I also saw a flock of vulture soaring above Júzcar one day on my way into Ronda. Another day, I watched a couple of vulture catching the thermals above the valley, again when I was on my way to Ronda, as I went to Ronda four of five days last week.
The pool project has not advanced at all as the architect we have is quite incompetent, I think. We have to arrange for him to see the pool we want built at a hotel on the north side of Ronda. He can´t make a design change to our project without seeing the pool first. And we´ve now only been waiting more than a month for this to happen.... very frustrating as I was all set to just get this pool built the minute I got back from NY in August. Ah well!
A package arrived a couple of days ago from one of the ladies that were here for the Maggie Price Painting holiday in October. Martha sent us this very thoughtful package from Texas and included some beef jerky, tortillas with hot sauce, peanut butter, music CDs, pecans from Texas which she sells on her website which arrived in a tin can in the shape of the state of Texas (which is very cool!!) and some photos for the resident ladies of the village. How very nice of her to send us this package!!
¡Hasta la proxima!
Saturday 3 November 2007
JÚZCAR, MÁLAGA
Hotel Bandolero is located in Júzcar, in the Genal Valley in the Serranía de Ronda, Málaga province, Andalucia, España.
Júzcar is correctly pronounced "WHOth-car". I write this now because so many people arrive here asking how to pronounce it; "jew-z-car" is one pronunciation, "jewth-car" is another. Some locals pronounce it "WHO-ca" which sounds as awful as it looks. Of course the correct way is "WHOth-car".
That´s it.
Hotel Bandolero is located in Júzcar, in the Genal Valley in the Serranía de Ronda, Málaga province, Andalucia, España.
Júzcar is correctly pronounced "WHOth-car". I write this now because so many people arrive here asking how to pronounce it; "jew-z-car" is one pronunciation, "jewth-car" is another. Some locals pronounce it "WHO-ca" which sounds as awful as it looks. Of course the correct way is "WHOth-car".
That´s it.
Saturday - 03 November 2007
We are have one more night to go of a holiday weekend here in Spain. We´ve been pretty busy these last few days with lunches for groups and now the hotel is full as well.
The weather is cooling off now and the nights are getting brisk; we had our first fire of the season in the bar stove on Halloween night. And then another nice fire last night. the weather is a bit grey today but the people are out and about, walking, hiking, exploring the mountainsides... generally loving being here in the Genal Valley.
We had two Australian couples arrive yesterday for three nights; last night, one of the ladies in the group was saying how she was in heaven being here. so nice to be away from the crowded city areas where they have been touring and to be here in the quiet countryside with Ivan´s delicious cuisine.
We had two separate groups for lunch on Thursday, one of 33 persons and the other of 15. Both groups left very happy.
In a couple of weeks time, we have a mushroom symposium going on here in the hotel, organised by the town hall and someone else... I´m not really sure. Ivan has been more involved with organising this event than I. We are already getting bookings for this event as some people will stay in the hotel. Unfortunately, it is the same weekend that I had hoped we would be launching our wine tasting weekends but as we have not yet had any takers for that, at least we will have some event happening in the hotel that weekend. Ivan is planning a menu of mushroom dishes which is very appropriate.
Our friend Dan was down last weekend as well with his partner and parents for 3 nights. It was very nice to see a good friend for a few days and just hang and enjoy some company of friends, something we don´t get much of these days.
Looks like our Bandit is going to have another litter of puppies. We figure they should be here about the 6th of December, just in time for another holiday weekend as that is Spanish Constitution Day. We´ve already got interested parties for the pups as well but one guy keeps asking for a gift and that is just not going to happen. they are for sale and anyone interested in lovely little French Bulldog pups for Xmas, just give us a call. As soon as those pups are born, I will be advertising them for sale as I´d like them gone by the time they are 8 weeks as I will be heading off on my holidays then and I don´t want to be held back by young pups hanging around.
No news on the pool project. Just as we were told, this architect we are using is very slow. we´ll have to give him a call next week to push him along.
Let´s see, what else is new here at the Hotel Bandolero? We finally got our telephone lines sorted. I got rid of the second Telefonica telephone line as we no longer need that for Internet hook-up. I had the primary telephone number (952.183.660) converted into a multi-use line so we can take two calls at the same time on the one number. My credit card machines and fax will work through there a lot easier now as well. We still have a second number as we have a telephone line provided by the company giving us the Internet connection (951.166.215). We also have the Wifi set up now and it is working very well. In fact, I am writing this blog entry on my laptop in the bar for the first time. I also recently went back to a call provider as opposed to the line provider which is Telefonica de España. The call provider is a UK company. Not only do they have great rate for long distance form Spain to the UK and US, they have given us a direct dial local number in the UK for our UK friends and clients to call us at only the cost of a UK local call and those calls will ring through to our primary number here in the hotel.... great!!
I also put some nice photos of my Mom put up in the reception area. These were old family photos that I paid a bomb for some reproductions. I have her baby photos hanging in the reception area... she was cute baby.
I also updated the website recently. I am finally caught up with guest comments in the guest comment book as well as all the photos I had to put on that page of clients. I had lots of photos pending for addition since August.... so they are all there now.
Well, that´s about all I have to say for now so it´s hasta luego.
We are have one more night to go of a holiday weekend here in Spain. We´ve been pretty busy these last few days with lunches for groups and now the hotel is full as well.
The weather is cooling off now and the nights are getting brisk; we had our first fire of the season in the bar stove on Halloween night. And then another nice fire last night. the weather is a bit grey today but the people are out and about, walking, hiking, exploring the mountainsides... generally loving being here in the Genal Valley.
We had two Australian couples arrive yesterday for three nights; last night, one of the ladies in the group was saying how she was in heaven being here. so nice to be away from the crowded city areas where they have been touring and to be here in the quiet countryside with Ivan´s delicious cuisine.
We had two separate groups for lunch on Thursday, one of 33 persons and the other of 15. Both groups left very happy.
In a couple of weeks time, we have a mushroom symposium going on here in the hotel, organised by the town hall and someone else... I´m not really sure. Ivan has been more involved with organising this event than I. We are already getting bookings for this event as some people will stay in the hotel. Unfortunately, it is the same weekend that I had hoped we would be launching our wine tasting weekends but as we have not yet had any takers for that, at least we will have some event happening in the hotel that weekend. Ivan is planning a menu of mushroom dishes which is very appropriate.
Our friend Dan was down last weekend as well with his partner and parents for 3 nights. It was very nice to see a good friend for a few days and just hang and enjoy some company of friends, something we don´t get much of these days.
Looks like our Bandit is going to have another litter of puppies. We figure they should be here about the 6th of December, just in time for another holiday weekend as that is Spanish Constitution Day. We´ve already got interested parties for the pups as well but one guy keeps asking for a gift and that is just not going to happen. they are for sale and anyone interested in lovely little French Bulldog pups for Xmas, just give us a call. As soon as those pups are born, I will be advertising them for sale as I´d like them gone by the time they are 8 weeks as I will be heading off on my holidays then and I don´t want to be held back by young pups hanging around.
No news on the pool project. Just as we were told, this architect we are using is very slow. we´ll have to give him a call next week to push him along.
Let´s see, what else is new here at the Hotel Bandolero? We finally got our telephone lines sorted. I got rid of the second Telefonica telephone line as we no longer need that for Internet hook-up. I had the primary telephone number (952.183.660) converted into a multi-use line so we can take two calls at the same time on the one number. My credit card machines and fax will work through there a lot easier now as well. We still have a second number as we have a telephone line provided by the company giving us the Internet connection (951.166.215). We also have the Wifi set up now and it is working very well. In fact, I am writing this blog entry on my laptop in the bar for the first time. I also recently went back to a call provider as opposed to the line provider which is Telefonica de España. The call provider is a UK company. Not only do they have great rate for long distance form Spain to the UK and US, they have given us a direct dial local number in the UK for our UK friends and clients to call us at only the cost of a UK local call and those calls will ring through to our primary number here in the hotel.... great!!
I also put some nice photos of my Mom put up in the reception area. These were old family photos that I paid a bomb for some reproductions. I have her baby photos hanging in the reception area... she was cute baby.
I also updated the website recently. I am finally caught up with guest comments in the guest comment book as well as all the photos I had to put on that page of clients. I had lots of photos pending for addition since August.... so they are all there now.
Well, that´s about all I have to say for now so it´s hasta luego.
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