I promised myself I would not let a lot of time go by before writing again but here it is more than a month later since my last entry. We've had a few things happen here since the 8th of April.
In April, the Juzcar village hall organised a weekend seminar about the history of the Ronda mountains. We had speakers come from Morocco and Madrid and interested participants from Malaga city and Juzcar. It was a successful event, like the wild mushroom weekend held here back in November.
We had a lovely couple from Stockholm that stayed with us for a few days. They had a very nice stay here from all that they said. They went on a guided bird watching tour with Peter from Spanish Birds. They went for a guided tour of vultures in their nests and soaring off for the morning up into the thermals with Frank in Cadiz. They had a very nice long walk across the Riscos with Sandrine checking out all the wild flowers along the way. They had a very nice day in Ronda after Ivan and I helped them change a flat tyre (for which they were so grateful they gave us a gift each upon their return to the hotel).
We also had the return of a guest from Germany who stayed with us a couple of years back.... nice to have return business.
Then there was the long holiday weekend from the 1st of May. For some, it was not a long weekend as some schools were open on the Friday; but for others it was indeed a long weekend so the hotel was fully booked. We had a lovely family from the Netherlands here, all of whom enjoyed having a swim in the pool. That was nice to see... guests enjoying the pool, even though the weather was not the warmest. And a couple of families from Murcia who also enjoyed the pool.
Last weekend we had a group from Marbella stay with us for a night. They came to have a walk through the area but the weather was not cooperating so instead, they went tapas hopping and made the best of the time they had here. They all seemed to enjoy very much their dinner and then they were singing until the wee hours in the restaurant.
It was this last group of guests who left this morning, that left us with a bad taste in our mouths. I'll keep this short as I could go on about this one. Yesterday at mid-day, a group of women from England, well, most from England and one eastern European with a UK passport, arrived from the coast for a two night stay. The eastern European was the one who caused a problem last night, too much drink in her and not enough sense to know when to stop. Then becoming belligerent, aggressive, violent, damaging hotel property and worse because she was a woman.
All this because I, yes, me, David, had suggested to her after she spilt her 9th or 10th drink (beers, then wine, then brandy then rum.... just a few drinks) that perhaps she was at her limit. That lit her fuse, setting off a bomb. Consoling her with an apology and offering her a drink was just not enough. She said I had humiliated like no one had in her whole 32 years, ever. She told us how she is a big entertainment executive and that she could handle her drink, that she was not out of control, knew her limit and how could I suggest she was a loose woman? Ah, no one said anything about a loose woman, those were her own words. All her actions pointed to the contrary about control including her crying and on-going irrational anger, no matter what anyone said, her friend, included; my apology fell on deaf ears. Talk about humiliation... her own behaviour did that quite well actually as everyone watched her throw herself at the village mayor, pawing him. And she became insulting to me and threaten to write bad things about us on the web. All this after a couple of her companions slipped out of the bar to their room giving the appearance that perhaps they knew what was coming?
Later (after everyone left the bar due to this outragious behaviour), on her way up to their room, Miss Aggression Herself pushed over some plant pots smashing them to the floor below and so I had to go up to their room and ask them to leave. Having guests in the hotel who are belligerent towards you, do not respect you and make irrational, unreasonable accusations makes everyone uncomfortable, including those travelling with her, I would imagine.
So this morning, after they had their breakfast and paid their bill including covering the damage they caused, they left, without a word of apology, of thanks or even good-bye. Apparently, we were the bad guys in the end (although they had said earlier that they really enjoyed their dinner and the whole area). Guests like her don't come this way too often... well, never actually and hopefully never again. We do not need this type of aggregation from a crazed 32 year old big hotel entertainment executive. Shame on you woman for your behaviour and your friends for putting up with it; you are the one who should have known better, your behaviour was out of control and way O.T.T.
Moving on, we have friends and family arriving from Madrid, NY and Amsterdam later this week which should help make this a pleasant week despite last night, so a party is in order.
The weather is trying to warm up as we just had a bit of cold weather come our way, unexpectedly, along with some rain. But that is May for you, unstable weather and possible rain which is good for all those gorgeous wild flowers out there. In fact, the whole countryside is just choka full of wild flowers at the moment, reds, yellows, deep purples, blues, pinks, greens, etc.... all just so amazing to see.
The Juzcar mayor informs us that there will be a book fair held here in the hotel in June so another up tick, as they say on the stock market. Juzcar is now becoming a cultural location in the Upper Genal Valley and this bookfair in addition to history and mushroom seminars are positive steps toward that objective.
The Juzcar Romeria is at the end of June while the Romeria in Cartajima, our neighboring village, is on 07 June, somethings to plan for.
