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.
Saturday, 19 January 2008
Today is yet another bright clear day. Yesterday, the temperature here in the valley was about 19C while in Ronda it was more like 13C so much more comfortable weather here in Juzcar.
We have been trying to keep ourselves busy with "things" as it is very quiet here at the moment so it is a bit boring. We've changed our operating hours for the month as there is no one around after lunch. We are closed after lunch until at least mid-February.... that's not to say that there are a who;e lot of folks around for lunch either but IF there are people around, it's more likely during the day than after lunch into the evening.
We ordered a big Yucca to plant by the pool once that's completed. Our pool should be underway in the next few weeks. We've agreed all aspects of it with the contractor and the town hall inspector who had to agree the project. Now I am just waiting for the final paper approvals to arrive and then we can hopefully get the project underway. We expect it to be completed by mid-April which will be just perfect timing, if that works out. We had to change the project from what we originally envisioned as that was going to cost too much money and the architect did not really like our idea... he kept coming up with obstacles. We took care of that by firing the architect (no point in having a consultant work for you that tells you "not possible" all the time without providing an alternative idea, eh?) and changed the plan in the end anyway more related to the cost than the "could not" factor, if you will. Anyway, we think we will be very happy with the end result and we will have our own pool for our own clients on our property (instead of having to send them next door). We will also have a new exterior wall built, a terrace, a fountain (we think) and then have a new garden area around the back of the hotel. The back end of the hotel will also finally get a finished facade on it which will complete the hotel.
The village is also undertaking some works. Across the road from the hotel, the mirador (look-out point) is getting a face lift. The ugly chain-link fence has been removed and a brick wall with brick columns and iron railings is being installed; the bricks are in place now and only the fencing needs to be installed which is sitting there waiting to be installed. Then the ugly iron green fence across from the hotel is also going to be replaced with the same sort of brick/iron wall. It should be a great improvement to the entrance of the village.
The village is also installing a sidewalk and wall on the other side of the village from where we are and that is looking pretty good; that project has been underway for months but it is only being done by the part-time village workers so it is slow going where as the project across from the hotel is being done by a contractor.
We sold one of our puppies the other day..... good news. So we have three left to go (we have five but two are fro the male dog owner). They are getting big and will soon be escaping from the box where we keep them which is going to be a headache so I hope to sell a couple more this coming week.
We will be closing the hotel for our holiday at the end of the month for a couple of weeks. We are thinking of going to Amsterdam again this year to visit our friends there who may be leaving Europe this year. Alternatively, we may go to Morocco as it is near-by and inexpensive. We'll see where we go but I am definitely looking forward to a holiday away from here.
My PC went down again this week. Suddenly in the middle of doing something, the PC froze. I had no choice but to re-boot and when I did so, it would not restart as there was a "corrupt or missing file in the system registry. This is something I just don't understand.... this PC technology... my clock does not do this to me, nor my TV, radio, telephone. All these things just continue working normally if handled correctly. But the PC, for no given reason, will all of a sudden decide it is not going to function for you and BOOM, you're done. I had to take it into Ronda to have a technician fix it for me. Then he did not bother to reconfigure the PC the way it was before so I am still re-installing all the stuff that I had on here including MS XP Service Pack 2. Oh what a pain and it will function fine until the next time whenever that will be!! Oh the horror of modern technology.... it is so helpful and so frustrating at the same time. Now I have to restart the PC after having installed SP2 so adios for now amigos.
We have been trying to keep ourselves busy with "things" as it is very quiet here at the moment so it is a bit boring. We've changed our operating hours for the month as there is no one around after lunch. We are closed after lunch until at least mid-February.... that's not to say that there are a who;e lot of folks around for lunch either but IF there are people around, it's more likely during the day than after lunch into the evening.
We ordered a big Yucca to plant by the pool once that's completed. Our pool should be underway in the next few weeks. We've agreed all aspects of it with the contractor and the town hall inspector who had to agree the project. Now I am just waiting for the final paper approvals to arrive and then we can hopefully get the project underway. We expect it to be completed by mid-April which will be just perfect timing, if that works out. We had to change the project from what we originally envisioned as that was going to cost too much money and the architect did not really like our idea... he kept coming up with obstacles. We took care of that by firing the architect (no point in having a consultant work for you that tells you "not possible" all the time without providing an alternative idea, eh?) and changed the plan in the end anyway more related to the cost than the "could not" factor, if you will. Anyway, we think we will be very happy with the end result and we will have our own pool for our own clients on our property (instead of having to send them next door). We will also have a new exterior wall built, a terrace, a fountain (we think) and then have a new garden area around the back of the hotel. The back end of the hotel will also finally get a finished facade on it which will complete the hotel.
The village is also undertaking some works. Across the road from the hotel, the mirador (look-out point) is getting a face lift. The ugly chain-link fence has been removed and a brick wall with brick columns and iron railings is being installed; the bricks are in place now and only the fencing needs to be installed which is sitting there waiting to be installed. Then the ugly iron green fence across from the hotel is also going to be replaced with the same sort of brick/iron wall. It should be a great improvement to the entrance of the village.
The village is also installing a sidewalk and wall on the other side of the village from where we are and that is looking pretty good; that project has been underway for months but it is only being done by the part-time village workers so it is slow going where as the project across from the hotel is being done by a contractor.
We sold one of our puppies the other day..... good news. So we have three left to go (we have five but two are fro the male dog owner). They are getting big and will soon be escaping from the box where we keep them which is going to be a headache so I hope to sell a couple more this coming week.
We will be closing the hotel for our holiday at the end of the month for a couple of weeks. We are thinking of going to Amsterdam again this year to visit our friends there who may be leaving Europe this year. Alternatively, we may go to Morocco as it is near-by and inexpensive. We'll see where we go but I am definitely looking forward to a holiday away from here.
My PC went down again this week. Suddenly in the middle of doing something, the PC froze. I had no choice but to re-boot and when I did so, it would not restart as there was a "corrupt or missing file in the system registry. This is something I just don't understand.... this PC technology... my clock does not do this to me, nor my TV, radio, telephone. All these things just continue working normally if handled correctly. But the PC, for no given reason, will all of a sudden decide it is not going to function for you and BOOM, you're done. I had to take it into Ronda to have a technician fix it for me. Then he did not bother to reconfigure the PC the way it was before so I am still re-installing all the stuff that I had on here including MS XP Service Pack 2. Oh what a pain and it will function fine until the next time whenever that will be!! Oh the horror of modern technology.... it is so helpful and so frustrating at the same time. Now I have to restart the PC after having installed SP2 so adios for now amigos.
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