Prospero Año Nuevo.

Happy New Year.

We hope you are having

a

merry holiday season.

Happy Holidays.

Happy New Year.

rospero Año Nuevo 2009!! on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The leaves of the chestnuts were at their peak about 10 days ago. They are looking very autumnal now as they lay on the ground, accumulating in piles along the road and in the countryside.

We had a bit of rain the other day but not enough to bring in the mushrooms that are sourly lacking this year due to the poor weather. IT has turned colder now though which is about time as it felt like Indian summer for weeks here and it was getting to be a bit too much.

Business has been slow in the week but we have a few rooms tonight including a couple of walkers coming from Ireland for a week. We did have a big lunch on Monday for a German lady who was celebrating birthday 67 with all her friends from their community down there on the Costa del Sol. They were 18 and all had a very nice time. The weather was perfect for what she wanted, a luncheon outside on the pool terrace with all her friends. Ivan made a big Chocolate Volcano Cake which Ingrid said was just perfect. They left happy and all promising to recommend us to their neighbours.

Last weekend was also the big mushroom weekend. While the hotel has an O.K. amount of business, it could have been better. The organised weekend include a cooking demonstration which was organised for here in the hotel restaurant at 13,00 hrs, not good timing for us, I'm sorry to say. We had not thought it through, but with a mushroom cooking demonstration happening from 13.00 hrs, it did not finish until almost 15.00 hrs and so there were people that wanted to eat but did not want to wait around and so we lost that business, at least three table worth. You love and learn and so next time, it will have to be earlier so as not to disrupt our lunch service.

In any event, we were told that 94 types of mushrooms were found that day in the Juzcar countryside including one type that may be a first find in all of Spain, so quite an impressive take of mushrooms, despite the lack of rain. I imagine people want home quite pleased after a weekend find like that.

Of course there had to be one client problem but the problem was the client. She was awfully quick to threaten an official complaint because she could not lock her bedroom door properly. The funny thing was that this was a returning client who was staying here as a guest of the village hall as one of the organisers of the event. But she was just a difficult person, the type that probably goes around most places and gives them a hard for minor things, like she did to us. She even made fun of the way I speak Castilian which is why I thought she was bad mannered and was actually the real problem not what she complained about. Well, I suppose that is the nature of the business we are running and one does not like to disappoint client, lo que sea.

Next weekend is a big one in Spain as there are two national holiday one right after the other. The first one is on 6 December which is the National Constitution Day followed by 8 December which is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. As a result, we have the hotel full for three nights. Ivan's parents are coming to lend a hand as is his brother and perhaps his sister. It will be nice to have them around for a couple of days.

I've started a new activity, writing Ronda restaurant reviews for Andy, the chap has a relatively new website for Ronda tourists and expats living in the Serrania de Ronda. My first review is now on the Ronda Today website|blog at the following page:

http://www.rondatoday.com/808/bar-maestro-calle-espinel-la-bola

More will follow with time; please do have a read.

The hotel has been busy during the weekends of late with a full house again last night; we had a family from Malaga come up for a birthday party last night. It turns out that they have a restaurant in Malaga city and invited Ivan and I to go there to check it out at some point.

We are closing from this afternoon for a couple of nights to go to Madrid to meet our new nephew born last month. Next weekend is the 3rd Annual Juzcar Wild Mushroom Seminar, of course the hotel is fully booked for that already and has been for several weeks. The big question is: will there be any mushrooms?

With the weather we have been having here in the Serrania, and you will note that I have mentioned the weather on several occasions here and in my Tweet account, it has continued to be warm and dry during the day. The temps at night are about where they should be for this time of year having cooled off about two weeks ago. One can smell wood fires going in the late afternoon, early evenings now. But during the day, the temps are still comfortable and there has been no rain to speak of so there are few if any mushrooms growing in the countryside. That will leave many disappointed in the week to come. In fact, we had a booking for a couple to come and stay this weekend for the mushroom package we have on offer and they postponed their stay due to the lack of rain.

We will be closed for Christmas this year. I put a deadline date on for Christmas bookings if any were to be taken and that date was today. We have not received more than one query and so we will be closed for Christmas for the period 15 - 28 December. The hotel is almost fully booked for New Year's Eve, we have two rooms to go and hopefully we will get two more couples to come along and stay for the event.

I had an American friend from Hong Kong come and stay last weekend for the first time since we have been here. Michael lives in San Francisco now and is quite the traveller. In fact he organizes holidays, one of which I would like to go on with him as they always sound so fabulous and fun. He was here in Malaga to take a cruise from Malaga to Miami, a re-positioning cruise, something I previously knew nothing about. These repositioning cruises mean the ship is going to its next home port for the season; as it has to go anyway and it is not a regular cruise, there is a fantastic discount offered for the cruise. I hope to take this cruise next year actually as it is 12 days and very inexpensive; Michael got a great room for USD1,300 which includes room and all food with most beverages... sounds like quite the deal to me! The ship has 14 restaurants on board as well as a spa and many other activities. He said you have to go with your own group but it is lots of fun... sounds like a great idea to me.

We had our inauguration of the art gallery yesterday afternoon. We had a few artists show up from Ronda, Benalauria, Gaucin and Olvera. We had people from Ronda come for a look as well, something unusual and rare for them as we do not get many Rondeños coming here normally. We had lots of cava on flow with tapas and a delicious carrot cake that Ivan prepared for our 5th anniversary here in the hotel.

There are interested parties who would like to come to put their work on exhibit here but the real valid question is, how many people will we get to come here and actually look at the work on display? All good to have an art gallery and a load of artists who are interested in showing their work but if were cannot get the traffic flow of people to come and see the gallery, then it is a waste of time. We will have to see how it goes; artists should direct traffic to us as well. I think we need to develop a list of artist whom we work with and rotate their works, leading to perhaps developing a following of our own. When people realise it is a legitimate space to display interesting art work with reliable viewing times (well, as reliable as that can get in Andalusia), then perhaps we will have a regular traffic flow of viewers.

I found out that we have a reputation in Ronda with non-Spanish people living there, something we found a bit surprising as we don't have a large clientele from Ronda, especially of non-Spaniards. So how they know anything about us must just be from second hand news; it is nevertheless quite interesting to hear that we are worth talking about. Why those people don't come and see HB for themselves is another question but we are not particularly bothered by that.

Juzcar has a new children's playground, just in front of the hotel actually. It is just about finished and I expect that the village hall will be organising some kind of inauguration as well. It is quite colorful with a swing set, a jungle-jim sort of thing for children to climb on and even some exercise equipment for adults which I look forward to trying out. The ground has some thick rubber surface which has been applied to make it safer than hard ground and it is in very bright colors of orange, blue, green, yellow. They have also planted a few trees around the area with some flowers as well as having planted a few trees at the entrance of the village so it is looking better all the time.

It is chestnut harvesting season here in the valley. We sold all the bags of chestnuts we had yesterday and more people are coming through now asking for more. The chestnut trees themselves have not turned color which normally brings people through the valley. As it has been so unseasonably warm here in the last few weeks, the leaves have not really started the autumnal process. It is yet another bright sunny clear day here in Juzcar and the lunch crowd is gathering steam so I need to get out there and do my duty.

I have today revised my layout of this blog, it now includes a music player with a few tracks to enjoy while reading... or not, one can turn it off as well.

We had a few days without bookings last week so we took ourselves for a couple of nights to Seville and stayed at a nice hotel in the old Jewish barrio called Santa Cruz. The hotel was comprised of 18 former private residences connected with many passages and tunnels, very interesting. The hotel also had a lovely spa which I fully enjoyed.

We are now getting quite busy once again as this is a holiday weekend starting this afternoon, I suppose. We have a two couples who are clients of Butterfly Adventures; they have been enjoying the many walks with their guide, Sandrine, in the upper Valley and the Sierra de las Nieves. With this unseasonably warm weather, they have been having very enjoyable days out. We also have another couple here from our Dutch friends at Hannibal Reisen. They are from Amsterdam and I had to take them to the village of Igualeja yesterday morning where they would start their walk from there back to Juzcar.

On the way to Igualeja, we were chatting about Amsterdam which reminded me of a story about something that happened to me while I first stated living there way back in May 1998. I had arrived to work in Amsterdam in early April 1998 and was staying at the Hotel Grand Krasnapolsky initially. I then took a business trip and upon returning to Amsterdam, found I was moved to what is today called the Renaissance Hotel near the Singel canal in the center. I had gone for a drink with a new friend not far from the hotel and when we returned, we stood not far from the hotel entrance continuing to chat. Meanwhile, two cars pulled up in front of the hotel and out stepped a group of rather large men, all appeared to be possible football player and 1998 was the year of the World Cup. I commented on the men to Dan, the guy I was chatting with. He responded that he thought they appeared to be more of the criminal class. They went into the hotel and shortly thereafter exited again and gathered very near to where we were standing in a circle, so close in fact, that one of them bumped into me from behind.

As I had my back to them, I did not notice what was happening but Dan did. At one point, he said, "Let's go! Move!" and we took off running as gun shots rang out from the group. Because Dan was a bit suspicious, he had been watching the group and he saw what was about to happen. Dan had his bike with him and starting running with it into me, knocking me over with it. As I fell, I tried to hold myself up with my right hand which wound up scrapping severally against the bricks on the street, providing a very nice open skin wound. As I ran along the front of the hotel toward the restaurant which had an entrance to the street, shots were ringing around me. I tried to enter the restaurant but they had already locked the door and would not let anyone in (they did not know me so they would not let me in... nice, eh?). So there I am on the street with these gangsters. I ran for cover behind a cement column in front of the hotel covering my head with my arms and hands.

When it was quiet, I looked up toward the hotel main entrance thinking I could get inside the hotel for cover but there was a gun man there holding a pistol aimed across the street. I ducked down and waited a moment or two before deciding to run out of the area completely in the opposite direction from the hotel entrance. I took off toward the corner away from the gunman, around the corner and then toward the Sheraton Hotel in the Nieuwezijds Kolk (now a Goldenb Tulip property) to get off the street. In running away, I passed one of the gunmen who was himself escaping the gunfire but was covered with blood from the waist down. I entered the hotel and went straight to the front desk holding my injured hand and quite distressed. I told them there was a shooting and they thought I had been shot, of course.

After they called for medical assistance and the police, I was accompanied into a meeting room near the reception area where they kindly offered me some coffee while I waited for the paramedics to come. After the paramedics attended me (leaving my wound open was their advice, a raw skin wound treated only with some antiseptic leaving it to become infected later requiring more medical attention at a hospital!!), I was accompanied by a rather handsome Amsterdam detective to the nearby police station where he wanted to take my statement. By this time, it must have been after 1.30AM as the shooting occurred around midnight. I was kept at the station for at least an hour and then was accompanied, on foot, back to the hotel. There, I saw the street was still closed to traffic and there were plenty of little triangles with numbers covering spent bullet shells. The detective told me that over 25 shots had been fired and they thought it was pretty miraculous that only those involved were shot with no injuries (aside from my hand) to innocent by-standers.

One of the gang members was killed on the spot, I was told. He had been shot several times from the waist down and died there on the street in front of the hotel. It seems this group that arrived while Dan and I were there in front of the hotel was a second coming. They had stopped by earlier for a meeting but the other party had not shown up. This was known by watching the CCTV video tape of the hotel entrance. They returned to find the other party; during their discussions, one of the group got nervous and tried to pull out his gun and all hell broke loose as they all started to shoot each other. They were all well known to the police of course and the problem they had involved marijuana sales and prostitution, of course.

So, that is the story of my first weeks in Amsterdam. Me, a New Yorker, who lived in New York City for 26 years including the Bronx, Queens and Manhattan, and had never witnessed a shooting or even had seen a gun on the street except in holsters of street police. I arrive in "quiet, little" Amsterdam and witness a murder. Wow, was that a surprise. Anyway, needless to say that I did not go to work the following day. I checked out of the hotel a 2 days later as I was nervous that I would be a targeted witness; I was later assured by police that I was safe and not to worry; there were more than a couple of dozen witnesses to the shooting so I did not need to worry.

A few weeks later, I was requested to come to the police station on the Marnixstraat to watch a video line-up; fortunately I recognized no one. Even later, I was requested to be a witness at a trial.... for the defense. At this point in time, more than 10 years later, I do not recall specifically what happened when I appeared in court except that I was informed that I would be compensated by the city for my testimony, provided my bank details and the funds, a mere 30 Guilders at that time, never did appear in my bank account, ever.

After court, I ran into Dan, the first time I had seen him since the shooting. He told me he ran down an alley and was dead-ended there for a few minutes. Hidden for a short time, when things went quiet, he managed to get out and bike himself home without any injuries. As for my injury, I had escaped to Brussels the following weekend to get out of town for a couple of days to forget the experience. There, I realised I required further medical attention and went to a local clinic where they dressed and bandaged my wound and told me to keep it covered until it healed a bit more as it was quite raw and should have been dressed and bandaged from the start to prevent infection.

Despite this experience, I would recommend Amsterdam to anyone. It is a lovely city, small and manageable yet international with lots on offer.

Other news, big mushroom weekends coming up here in Juzcar in November as well as a yoga weekend on offer at the end of October. The weather is quite good and the chestnuts are all starting to fall, ripe for the picking. I understand up in Holland, the leaves have changed color already, something we are still waiting to happen in the Genal Valley.

And finally, as for those very adorable puppies, all but one have new homes. The last one is in a shop in Ronda waiting.

Another gorgeous day in Juzcar, warmer than the previous week, good day for a swim after a long walk in the hills.

Two of the pups have now gone with the owner of the daddy so we have a bit of relief as these puppies are a lot of work and require a lot of attention.

We are also quite busy at the moment in the hotel and the restaurant; business has certainly picked up from a low in June/July. We've had a steady flow of customers for lunch on the weekends and the hotel is full at the moment for a week; we've also had a very good flow of clients in the hotel since 12 August. In fact, next week we will have our first days free since then. At the moment, we have a group in from Scotland who are walking and painting; they arrived on Saturday and depart on Saturday.

Speaking painting, our Art Gallery is just about ready for a launch party. Ivan is working with this artist from Ronda named Jose Cabeza. He came by this passed weekend and hung a whole gallery of paintings and set up sculptures on stands around the room. I meant to have some snaps to load here but have not had the time to take any yet. Anyway, it is looking very good. With the new lights we installed last week which highlight the painting in a much better light, we are working towards having the gallery opening with a wine and cheese or cookies sort of thing; we will be inviting the people of the village as well.

The gallery now has a name, the Sheila T. McCabe Galeria de Arte, named in memory of my mother who was an artist and who passed away a couple of years ago. We have several of her work hanging here in the hotel already none of which will be hanging in the gallery. I prefer to have them hung where they are on display permanently to all of guests in one of our dining rooms.

Anyway, this art gallery idea is making me a bit nervous as I'm not sure how this will work out but it is rather exciting to have oiur own art gallery. There is nothing quite like this space anywhere in the whole Ronda area. The room is rather large with plenty of natural light. There is a view of the mountains which Jose said he would love to have for himself out of his studio. With the new lights, it is like a different place, funny to think of this place within the hotel.

This is like the idea of our apartment in the hotel, it is like being in a different place altogether.

Well, it's kind of late and I need some rest so I'm off.

New photos of our French bulldog puppies.
11-09-2009
Am I adorable or what?

Wow, what's this big thing... is it for peeing?

Just ate, can you tell.

Very cute.

And still cute.

All are doing very well, are healthy with good appetites and are ready to be taken to a new friendly loving home... any takers?

The news here is that we unfortunately appeared to have acquired a cat. This kitten appeared abandoned near the hotel a few weeks ago and so Ivan, who takes in strays apparently, started providing food to it. So the cat started to feel more confident about coming to hotel to beg for food. Next thing you know I am finding the cat asleep on my bed in the flat upstairs. Something that did not make me happy, I must say. Yesterday, it was in the ktichen and so I told Ivan the cat has to go!! Not sure what we are going to do about it but I just do not want to have a cat, period - full stop, no changing my mind. More on this next time.


Weather - it has changed a bit in the last couple of days. It is a bit cloudy but no rain... a bit cooler but still quite warm when the sun peaks out from behind the cloud cover. Temperatures are in the upper 20s, centigrade of course. So the weather is actually ideal for walking. the hotel has been fairly busy of late as well and the bookings are just coming in. We had lots of French here last weekend, the most at one time ever actually. And last night, we had four Dutch couples, two English and a German while tonight that has changed to two Dutch couples, three English couples, and two solos - one German and one English, so pretty busy. We are shy one room from full tonight, tomorrow we are full and Sunday we are shy one room from full so all in all, pretty good. Many, well actually most of these people are here for walking, the remainder are friends visiting from London so keeping us busy.


I must now show our new art gallery to one of the Dutch who is an artist and is interested in seeing our small gallery. We have hung the few paintings we have and we have found a local artist from Ronda who is interested in hanging some of his work here including a sculpture or two so all in all good. I will post some photos here of the gallery shortly.

The Fiesta de Ronda starts today. That means that the hotel is full for 3 nights, good business for us. The weather has been quite hot so perfect for a fiesta. This is the fiesta de Pedro Romero and this is when the La Corrida Goyesca happens. There will be three days of bull fighting in the Ronda arena, the only time when there is bull fighting in Ronda during the whole year. Tickets can be quite dear to experience this occasion.

The main part of the Ronda fiesta is held at the Ronda fair grounds which were opened only 3 years ago and is located along the Ronda by-pass road. One could have seen much activity there in recent days as the preparations were under way for the fiesta. Big rides going up, casitas being built, lots of lights being installed, buses and trucks parked along the fair grounds, animal trailers about as well.

Last night was a parade which would have started next to the Ronda bull ring and snaked its way through Ronda eventually ending up at the fair grounds.

The centre of Ronda was abuzz with preparations earlier this week as well. There, too, were tents going up for casitas, as they are called. In the Plaza Socorro, a big structure was being put together and I am curious to see what is the finished structure as it was quite large. There are lots of street parties in Ronda during this time, speakers out in the streets blaring music, lots of people standing around chatting and drinking/eating tapas, all very festive actually. And the principal shopping street, Calle Espinel, was already decked out with colourful balls hanging over the street, people selling balloons and other blown up things for children and other memorabilia.

We are hoping to go into Ronda to check out the fiesta for a couple of hours at least ourselves later today.

Another gorgeous day in Juzcar, oh to be sitting by the Bandolero pool with a cool drink to hand and a wonderful book.

New Puppy Photos from this morning.

2009 Fiesta de Juzcar
2009 Annual Juzcar Festival celebrating the Virgin of Moclon.

The Fiesta de Juzcar began on Thursday. Last night we had Brazilian dancers come though the village and they stopped a the hotel bar for a short dance.

Enjoy the video.

Already way into August.

Well, the big news so far this month is that we have seven new French Bulldog puppies, 3 white with black spots and the remainder black or with some white spots. The pups were born on 04 August, the same birthday as Barack Obama, so they have a big path to follow.

As those of you who have been here know, we have three barrels on our bar terrace. When we arrived in Juzcar in October 2004, the bar terrace was sad. Here is a photo of the terrace then:

October 2004

You can see the three barrels that were there on the terrace when we arrived. Ivan had the idea of using them for something. The barrel in the background is the one that I fell through last summer while fumigating the oleander which is behind it in this photo and quite small so barely noticeable. That barrel has been discarded as rubbish.

The barrel next to the rail and terrace entrance was cut into two pieces with a glass cover over the opening. Ivan filled the barrels with water and placed lotus plants and fish inside them. The both of the barrels are now tables on the terrace that everyone loves; many have said what an original idea and then plan to do the same for their own gardens back home wherever that may be.

The last barrel (which is the one in the middle) was turned into a fountain of sorts. Ivan placed that next to the entrance of the terrace, just to the right as you entered next to the plumbago plant. This one had a water feature in it as well as plants, rocks and fish. Children were quite entertained by it, standing next to it, looking for the fish, putting their little fingers in the water. Even the local cats were entertained by this barrel as there were many a time when I arrived or came out of the bar and found a cat perched on the rim of the barrel looking to get its paws on one of the fish, and perhaps even did so at some point.

The problem with that barrel was that it had been left empty far too long. One of the premises for using a barrel is that it is filled with a liquid which keeps the wood moist which thereby helps to keep the wood swollen and therefore water tight. As these barrels were left for too long with nothing inside them, the wood dried a bit too much. No matter how much time passed, water kept leaking out of the barrels, especially this one, the fountain barrel. So a week or so ago, Ivan drained the fountain barrel thinking we would just get rid of it as it was getting worse and it appeared to really be a waste of water (having to continually refill the water to the proper level, at times it almost emptied itself completely). But one last hurrah to try and salvage it with a plastic liner; we bought the liner but then had to pull the barrel out of its place to install it. That is when we saws there was really no point at all to salvaging this barrel. The wood had dried so much that the rings holding the barrel together had, all but one, fallen to the ground, leaving the barrel to fall open like a petals of a flower, but nothing that pretty.

So that barrel is now in our pile of firewood for the coming winter, at least will be used to its fullest. Ivan is attempting to make something to fill in that space and maintain the idea of a water feature of a sort. Here are some older photos of the changes that have happened on this terrace. In the photo above, you will note that the name of the hotel is not yet in place on the wall where it says"Restaurante".

05 May 2005

New hotel name sign in place, no plants around the bar door as they almost does in Jan 2005 from frost, but new plants along outside of the front of metal railing.

14 May 2005

Newly installed porch on the terrace provides much needed shade from hot Andaluz sun, flowering, smallish oleander behind Bandolero on "my" barrel, very small bougainvillea planted on just outside railing against hotel wall, wires hanging from building.

May 2005
Hotel Main Entrance - Small plants, very stark compared with how it looks now.


May 2006
Maturing plants, growing bougainvillea, still waiting for the ivy to show itself along the railing.


May 2006
Left - Close up of one of the barrel tables with lotus flowers.
Right - Barrel fountain with lotus flowers blooming.


May 2006
Some of Ivan's mouth-watering tapas on the glass top of the barrel table.



April 2008
Hotel entrance, nicely green and maturing.


May 2008
Growing plants, year on year, ivy doing well finally, lavander and rosemary are quite healthy in front of the railing and the bougainvillea is flowering but does not take off until later in 2008.


May 2009
Maturing bougainvillea, very mature plants in front of now hidden railing, roses spilling over wall on right, very green porch, Scottish flags as we had the Scottish Gaelic workshop in May.

We went to Las Navas del Marques last weekend to participate in the first day of the annual fiesta there. Las Navas is a village in Avila province in Castilla y Leon and is Ivan's home town. We drove through the night on 2 July to arrive at 7.30 AM in Las Navas. Slept until about 12PM and then off to have some tapas and see friends, fmaily and acquaintances there.

The big night was Saturday. Our friends who currently live in Madrid came up to pass the evening with us. The children had a good time as there were a few kiddy rides as well as those big blown up balloon play areas for kids without shoes.

After dinner we all got ready and went out starting with the dancing in the plaza. We passed the whole night more or less around the plaza with a couple of paseos up and down the Avenida Principal . Music started at midnight with the first band playing mainly pasa dobles (a popular Spanish dance) and then around 1.30 changed to second group who played more contemporary type music. It was a good night in terms of weather as well so all had a good time. By 6.15 AM I decided it was time to turn in and so retired to bed at 6.30 while those still remaining of the our group straggled one by one off to bed as well, except for Ivan and Antonio who did not see their beds until later that Sunday.

Ivan's cousin Danny is a bullfighter and he was doing a bull fight Sunday afternoon and it was the first time he was doing that in the Las Navas Annual fiesta so all the family went to see (and support) him including Ivan. The tickets were quite expensive for a small village bull fight (more than Madrid so I heard say) so I did not go, I had a nap instead and then a wonder down tha main street, eating sun flower seeds as is a big custom here and waiting for Gabriel and Natalia to turn up (they also missed the bull fight). Sunday evening was a big family gathering on a terrace on the main street which was quite entertaining.

We drove home on Monday afternoon; the drove from Madrid to Juzcar is more or less seven hours. I was pleased to see some roadworks in progress as that Autopista was in dire need of a resurfacing and that's exactly what it was getting.

We were able to head north for the weekend as bookings so far this month are pretty sad; in other words we closed the hotel for the weekend. We have a couple of more bookings this month but nothing to write home about, even with the fantastic offers we have put on.

We have been spending some time organising our new apartment and getting more things moved over from the house.

It is very hot in the sun here. The air temperature is comfortable and there is even a cool breeze at times but the sun... is hot. Hot dry sun, great weather for sitting by the pool and reading a book and sipping a tall cool refreshing drink. Hey, I think I am going to head over the pool right now and finish that book I've been reading.

Fourth of July weekend here in Juzcar and it is quiet and quite hot!! We had a couple of rooms this weekend but otherwise it is too quiet. Took a booking yesterday for late July but we need to have a few more in this month for the month to pay for itself... sabes. July here in the Serrania is always quiet but this is just too quiet... I mean there is quiet and then there is dead and that is what it is like here at the moment. Even with the offers we have on at the moment, we are getting very few inquiries. I know we are in the same boat as many here in the Ronda area but that hardly makes it easier to bear with these slow hot quiet days ("daze!!" actually).

I am trying to not spend so much time working on the hotel website now as well. After almost five years of working on it almost daily, updating, optimizing, it just gets to the point where it should be going solo with some tweaks here and there but not daily... at least that's what I think. Is there someone out there reading this that can advise me otherwise or confirm my own thoughts on that? I know we appear in many Google results which is good and that's what I have been aiming for.

We finally moved into the hotel last week. July first was the day exactly; the first of July was also the anniversary of my accident last year when I fell through a barrel and broke three ribs. Yes, ouch yet again. And they have not fully healed yet either. I have an appointment in Ronda tomorrow for an x-ray to see how they are doing but at times I can still feel them move like they never did before 01 July 2008.

Anyway, the re-location into our newly created apartment was a big highlight of the month... on the first day of the month. I still have to install the handles onto the new closets we bought from Ikea but the bedroom is functional. The lounge area is coming together slowly as we are bringing things over from the house bit by bit... the the entertainment system is in place now, meaning the TV, stereo, DVD players, etc. Even the sofa & lighting are there now so it is all starting to feel like home. And I do not miss the house one bit.

That will be our next project in the coming weeks, furnishing the house, so that we can rent it as a holiday home in addition to the rooms in the hotel. It is a bit of a bummer to have to make that investment but better to have the house ready for letting to someone rather than sit empty and still having to pay for it. Ikea is having a sale soon so that should help.

Meanwhile all the new terrace doors for the hotel rooms have been installed and look great. No more dry wooden doors that leak and are not well insulated. we have to still install this special curtain that will make the rooms a bit more insulated from the heat and the cold in the respective seasons and keep the room darker for those guests wanting a lie-in. We still to install the new door for the bar which we have but have yet to install. We have to purchase the glass blocks which will fill in the space around the door as we are changing that from two doors to one door so the whole bar entrance will have a new look. And when the sun light is coming in during the late afternoon, the bar should be glowing with a lot of colours once those glass blocks are in place.

My recent visit to New York was a nice break but unfortunately, the whole of the north-eastern US was having a very wet spring; it was reported that for the month of June, there were 19 or 20 days of rain. I was in NY for 10 days and it rained for eight of them; the one day I spent in Manhattan on my own, it rained from about from 2PM to about 6PM and at times it was pouring down. Of course I was wet and then sticky as well because NY is a very humid place. Times Square is so completely different today than when I last lived in NY and I really don't like it. Too middle America now (nothing wrong with middle America in middle America, not in mid-town NYC). Packed as well with lots and lots of tourists, some sleeping in those beach loungers Mayor Bloomberg has temporarily installed there... a strange site indeed. And the traffic jams, everywhere I went during the whole week with my sister, we encountered mucho traffic, too much. Everyday, every highway by-way, motorway, packed with cars in every direction, bumper to bumper... it's no wonder there is so much road rage around. In fact my sister informed me that NY is number one for road rage in the country, sadly.

Anyway, back here in quiet Juzcar during my absence, I missed the village's annual romeria, the day festival with horses, picnics, dancing and singing in the countryside. Ivan had a few good days of business with returning clients who missed me. And some lunch trade as well (of which there is none this weekend).

I joined an on-line book club thanks to my friends Dan and Carol who were here in May. They recommended this website where friends can share what they are reading and make comments on and rank books they are reading or are interested in reading. This website is called www.goodreads.com . One must open an account and then one can list books read, or books to read and invite friends and family to share.

Update on the dogs; Bandit, our French bulldog, is going to have more puppies. We are expecting them between 29 July and 5 August. It will most likely still be quiet for us then so a good time to have a few pups around.

And finally, we will be closed from 9 - 13 July as we are going to visit Ivan's village up in Avila for the annual summer fiesta there. It has been more than a couple of years since Ivan last went and he is excited as we are also going with a couple of friends from Ronda so that should be fun and it won't be as hot there as it is here. And it IS hot here, hot, hot, hot!! But it is refreshing to jump into the pool and cool off before lounging poolside with my latest new book which is where I am headed right now.

Hasta la proxima.

This is something new for me, trying out a video in my blog space. This is a clip I made of our waiter one afternoon a few weeks ago.

We went for a drive through the hills the other, something we have not done enough of since we have been here. Exploring the mountains is fun... driving along these narrow dirt tracks trying to find your way somewhere you're not sure of. Here is a photo I took of the view from one of the points we arrived at.

You can see Juzcar to the right of the photo and the village of Farajan to the left. We were in amongst a gorgeous pine forest with summer forest fragrance, pine and orange blossoms. It was quite warm as well as you might see from the photo... to me, it looks hot.

Here is another photo of the chestnut trees now in full flower, a bit later than normal but they are pretty stunning to see. This photo only shows the canopy of the trees in flower but that is what I think looks so impressive.

The weather has gone hot now although there is a bit of cloud today, the temps are still quite warm. Yesterday in Ronda, after we delivered the wedding cake Ivan made, the temperature there in the car registered at 45C!! Not the real temp but close... a hot day yesterday.

Ivan made a three tiered wedding cake for an English wedding which took place a the Hotel Molino del Puente in Ronda. That hotel is run by an English couple and they get a lot of wedding business. Elaine, one half of the couple, is recommending us to her clients for the wedding cakes as she was not impressed with the cakes she has seen in Ronda. We are now waiting the feedback after the event but here is a photo of the cake:

Ivan is now finishing off a couple of communion cakes to be delivered for 1.00-ish today for a couple of families in the village of Farajan. We seem to do a lot of cakes for the people of Farajan and almost nothing for the people of Juzcar! Funny that... the village we live in does not give us much custom at all while the other villages are better patrons to us!

We have a couple from Madrid with us for a few nights as well as a family from Copenhagen. The hotel is almost full tonight which is very good because June is the second worst month of the year... July being the worst (slowest). That said, we have some offers on.... all rooms available in the hotel for only 55 Euros per night including continental breakfast and tax for two!! What an offer, eh?

Then next week, I am taking a few days to go to New York and catch up with a few friends and family. I've not been home since my Mom died a couple of years back (already)! I think I will be busy as I want to see quite a few people and I've only got 10 days. Plus I will be cycling with my nephew down that bike trail along the west side of Manhattan, something I am really looking forward to. Ivan's parents arrive tomorrow to be here to keep him company and help out while I am away... isn't that so very nice of them to come and be here so I could go to NY for a few days. Paz, Ivan's mom, is not a fan of the heat at all but she'll be here for a couple of weeks anyway.

Then in July, as it is the slowest month of the year, we are closing for a long weekend and going to Ivan's town up in Avila for the first couple of nights of the town's annual fiesta! That will be a nice break from here as well and it won't be as hot up there as it is here so another break from the heat for a couple of days. I really enjoy the heat as long as it is dry heat.

Please tell a friend about our offers for June and July as the pool is just perfect now.

I helped Ivan make marmalade yesterday. He's been making strawberry marmalade for the last couple of weeks. He made black cherry marmalade as well and it is very delicious... I had some on toast this morning. Yesterday morning, I was standing there in the kitchen for some 2.5 hours pitting the black cherries while Ivan and Antonio were cleaning up from the painting upstairs on the terraces.

Ivan and Antonio, our waiter, painted the exterior of the hotel in the last couple of weeks , a job that needed to be done and a big one at that. We had the idea of painting the chimney pots different colours matching the rooms that they corresponded to and did... they are now violet, blue, green, yellow and orange and BOY, what a difference it makes. The hotel looks almost like a different place. So here are a couple of photos and a photo of our bougainvillea that has sprung into colour in the last few days and appears to be quite healthy.

The weather has been up and down these last couple of weeks in terms of temps... April and early May were beautiful but these last couple of weeks could have been better; but today it seems like summer has arrived as it is quite warm out there today.

Bookings have slowed right down now; we were quite busy for a few weeks with the hotel continuously having guests. But from 18 May, the reservation booked has a lot of blank pages. We have an English guest at the moment who is a client of our friends from Butterfly Adventures. She is here for walking and relaxation on 5 day relaxing break having booked a couple of massage treatments as well.

Tomorrow the hotel will be full with a group of tour operators looking at promoting the Genal Valley but we don't have much to do with that thanks to the president of our association; I think he forgets that there are members of our association that he should be involving in these kinds of events but he is quite busy promoting the village, he forgets that others might have an interest as well. Not to worry though as the hotel will be full for a night with dinner provided as well.

We recently had a returning group of clients from Malton England; four gentlemen (well 3 from the previous time) who were here a couple of years back; they were here for a week and had a very enjoyable week of walking especially in the Sierra de las Nieves Natural Park Reserve. I think they were a pleasantly surprised at the fantastic walks they had there in the park but they were not surprised at all by the wonderful meals Ivan prepared for them.

We had to replace a hot water heater and deposit a couple of months back unexpectedly. Last night one of the motors on the walk-in frig decided to stop working so now we have another unexpected expense of that to sort out. Francisco got it working provisionally this morning but we need to get a new motor. There is always something that comes up unexpectedly/ un-planned for in running a business like this... there is never a time to just sit back and enjoy and let it roll with no problems arising for some time.

Ivan will be starting flamenco dancing lesson tomorrow in Ronda while I continue with my driving test preparations.... a story for another day. Ciao for now.

The photos will say everything for me this time.

These are a few photos I took of Juzcar yesterday, 07 May 2009. It was a glorious day and the photos say it all, including the wild flowers in the lower village near a picnic area.

Juzcar with Pujerra village in the distance

Juzcar

Juzcar, Hotel Bandolero second to
last building on the right,
(it's long).

Juzcar with glorious big sky above!


Wild flowers

Wild flowers

Scottish Flags flying at the
Hotel Bandolero, 01 May 2009

Things have been moving along here at the Hotel Bandolero. We've been fairly busy since Easter with few days free to rest and do the work around here to keep the place up. So far we have been having a much better spring than we did last year.

For example, this last weekend was a long holiday weekend in Spain as it was in many other European countries for May Day. We had a special offer on because of one of our clients, Fiona Mackenzie of Scotland. As you may know from my website, Fiona is an accomplished Gaelic singer with a few CDs out there in the market; she has performed in concerts in a few countries as well as her own and is a major promoter of the Scottish Gaelic language. We met Fiona last year when she came to Juzcar on holiday with her family and that how the idea evolved for a singing/language workshop her in the Hotel Bandolero.

The workshop started last Wednesday when the sign-ups arrived; Fiona and her colleague, Gillebride MacMillan, arrived on Tuesday. While there were only three sign-ups, Fiona and Gillebride enthusiastically approached this course. Wednesday morning, while awaiting the arrival of the small group, Fiona and Gillebride put up small cards with Gaelic words & English equivalents words all around the hotel, words such as (in English of course) Bar, Restaurant, Kitchen, Men's/Ladies' Toilet, Pay Here, Staff Only, No Smoking, manager, reception, Lounge, Welcome, Good-Bye, Some Gaelic Spoken Here, chair, table, wall, stove, frame, picture, lamp, cabinet, etc. The course included singing so there was Gaelic singing softly wafting about the hotel for 4 days, a beautiful sounds to open your door to in the morning. Singing on the terrace in the afternoon so villagers could hear.

Saturday Evening Ceilihd -
José, Christine, Gillebride & Fiona singing

Then on Saturday evening, there was a Ceilidh, pronounced Kay-Lee. This is an evening of singing and dancing and it was lots of fun. Ivan got his genuine kilt out for the first time along with all the rest of the accessories and appeared very Brave Heart Scottish for the evening. While we did not have as big a turn out as we'd hoped for, there were a few folks in attendance. Fiona and Gillebride sang Gaelic songs, some sad and beautiful, others more up lifting and chirpie! Antonio, our waiter, joined in with a couple of flamenco guitar songs while Ivan danced a couple of Sevillanas with Antonio's fiancée, Maria Angeles. Our friend Daica, visiting for the weekend from Madrid, sang a song with her daughter Audrey, a Scottish friend from the area, Kate, surprised one and all and got up to sing a couple of songs in Gaelic and did a couple of traditional Scottish dances. Everyone got to dance and sing and eat good food prepared by Ivan as well (including home-made genuine Scottish shortbread). It was a great evening and a very different as well from the normal Andaluz night. Here are a couple of photos of the event.

Iván dancing a Sevillana with Maria Angeles, Antonio on the guitar


Group participating in a wawking

So, all in all, a very good weekend of music and dancing. Ivan's brother Carlos and his family came for the weekend in addition to our friends Steven and Daica with their 3 children... lots of fun with all the little ones running around and having a good old time at the Bandolero!!

These are the types of Saturday night events we would like to host more of... we only need the musicians and singers to come along and then the people will come to enjoy and have a great night!!

What else has been happening here, well... we are almost finished with that art gallery. I feel like we are at this last stage and getting through it is proving to be quite difficult. We have installed a hanging system and we have even been provided with some art work to sell by an English artist who lives in the valley. But there is a lot of stuff left from the work of the renovation and we just have not had the time to clean things up and do the final organisation... so it feels like it is dragging on and on. Like our apartment! It is just about done but we are waiting for the big windows to be installed before we can move in otherwise it is not weather proofed. The electrics are just about done but Ivan has decided he is not so happy with its appearance and would like it done over again....! I'm not so fussy about it as I think it will disappear when all our furnishings have been installed and there are things hanging on the walls.

We bought a cloths closet at Ikea in Malaga last week and they delivered it within an incredible 48 hours. Then Steve, who apparently has lots of experience putting Ikea things together, put together our closet which I'm sure will be saving me lots of frustration!! So small steps down that road of moving.. we will be moving the things over slowly but surely as well. In fact, Daica helped to move quite a few things over this weekend as did Steve.

The weather is warming. We had quite a wind blowing through here on Friday and Saturday but today it is sunny and dry, quite clear, a perfect day for cycling. Speaking of cycling, we had a four Canadian cyclists arrive yesterday for the night, staying only one night here on their self-guided a circuit, heading next into Ronda. When chatting upon their arrival, it turns out that two of them live in Hong Kong and have done so for the last 17 years. They arrived in HK, coincidentally, one month before I did way back in 1992. Martin is a pilot and works for Cathy Pacific Airlines and knows someone (named Greg) that I know who lives in Sydney and works for the same company. All of this proves just how small this little old world is.

And on that note, I will say hasta otra dia.

Ivan and I feel pretty naive after being ripped off. We were only trying to be nice and build a cake business. But there are those people out there who take advantage of that and we had to learn a lesson the hard way.

We were approached by a woman called Melissa Harvey a few months ago for a wedding cake. She worked for an outfit called Purple Turtle International, an events organising company based on the Costa del Sol and in Hertfordshire, one of the home counties north of London. They were all excited about the possibility of doing business with us and were looking for a specific wedding cake for an upcoming wedding. We were happy to oblige of course; she came up to meet us here in the hotel one busy evening with her boss, a woman called Joy Gunning, a Scottish woman and partner with her husband in this company called Purple Turtle International.

They showed up bringing lots of gifts of pens, paper, mouse pads, catalogues with their products and were very effervescent in their enthusiasm. They stayed for some tapas and said how our business was so lovely and they would love to send some for their clients our way. They went ahead and ordered the cake with a tasting to start.

To make a long story short, we agreed to provide the wedding cake and deliver it as well to a location on Estepona, which is on the Costa del Sol, about 75 minutes from the hotel down the mountain. When I asked for payment, they said they could pay 50% on delivery and the remainder when their client paid. This should have set off alarm bells for me but it didn't. This is a major sign of just not having the experience required to run a business. Even now, months later this sets my head on fire for being such an amateur. I got half the amount due from Joy who so sweetly promised to get the remainder to us in no time. Her assistant Mel Harvey was just as much a liar as Joy was as she quit her job with them after this wedding and that was that.

Joy claimed that her assistant up and left her without notice nor any transition time and so she did not have our invoice and did not know how much she owed us and everything was in a right mess. I'm sure Mel left in a hurry as her boss is a thief and she did not want to work for any more, no doubt. Next thing, Joy is in Scotland for weeks on end due to family problems that I am supposed to have sympathy for. Being the nice person I am, I did have sympathy for it but I began to think as it was getting to be months later and no payment nor equipment we left as well (without a deposit... another amateur point to be fuming about), how professional was she for not making sure her business obligation were met even if she had family issues.

I asked her about it in an email and she sent me a very nasty response about how she has her priorities and family was first and she could do without an email like mine and in fact, this was my own fault that I was not being paid.

Well, she had a point there, not the way she meant it but the way I saw it. Of course she took advantage of us because she is the type of business person that is the slime of the business world; making all kinds of ridiculous promised not even asked for, kind of OTT, acting always with a nice face and being pleasant right up to the moment of payment. Of course she was not going to pay me the amount due, she most likely never planned to pay me as we were naive enough to leave a cake without getting full payment up front. We could have threatened to the cake back with us if they did not pay and that would have been that... I think we would have had our cash in hand had we done that... but naive is the word here yet again.

It should have set off alarms as well when I checked out their website and it was "under construction"; today, one cannot find an address on their site nor contact telephone numbers, also a warning sign of a shifty outfit. I should have had reservations when their phone numbers kept changing. There were several tell tale signs that I just did not cotton on to.

So all I can do now is put Joy Gunning's name in my blog several times as well as her business name of Purple Turtle International in the hopes that when others check on Google to see if Joy Gunning and Purple Turtle International are legitimate, they will come across this blog entry and realise that Joy Gunning is a liar and a thief; her outfit called Purple Turtle International is also a fraud and they prey upon nice people. They are the types of Brits on the Costa del Sol who give the Brits that bad name that they have, ripping off each other (Brits that is) and non-suspecting innocents like Ivan and I.

Well, we have learned a lesson the hard way and hopefully Purple Turtle International (also known as First Consultants Ltd) and Joy Gunning will soon be seeing my blog entry in Google results and help to protect others that they may be preying upon. All one has to do really is look at their website to know they are a fraudulent outfit. She even said to me a couple of times that they were for real.... should that not have said something to us to beware of these people?

Enough of them now. I am writing this to get it out of my system as every time I think about it, I get hot under the collar.