I have now disabled "comments" for my blog because I have only been getting spam comments so adios to comments and the bother of deleting spam .
Sunday 28 September 2014
Saturday 27 September 2014
No answer - no hay contesta
Written in August 2012
Si quiere llamar al Hotel Bandolero, llama 64 809 22 42 o 64 809 2243
If you need to call Hotel Bandolero, call on 64 809 2242 or 64 809 2243
Our land telephone is the subject of this post. I decided after looking at many offers for services which include ADSL and international telephone calls to switch phone companies. Telefonica de España (Movistar), our current provider, called one day out of the blue a few weeks ago saying that due to our long standing relationship with them, they would be introducing a new permanent discount on our monthly phone bills. Of course we accepted their offer.
Naturally, when the next bill arrived, I looked for the price differential and saw nothing different. So I waited for the next bill to arrive and again saw the amount was, more or less, the same as before. Conclusion, they called us and lied to us saying we would have a discount and then not delivering the discount. I think it was a ploy to keep us from going to another provider as there are many cheaper offers out there but there is also a question of quality of service that should be considered before making changes.
As I had been getting lots of spam mails from Orange and Jazztel, two other mobile phone operators that apparently now have fixed line phone service as well. They were offering discounts or better pricing than Movistar and as I decided that we had been played by Movistar, I decided why not try a change with a cheaper monthly price. Last week, 26 October to be exact, I called Orange and took up an offer for the ADSL service, national calls and international calls, the overall offer sounded quite good. They indicated we would be receiving a new router from them and we would be able to maintain our current telephone number, a point very important for our business.
Last Friday, 02-November, the phone was working fine in the AM and then at some point after 12:00 PM, the line went dead. I called Orange to ask what was happening. These companies employ non-Spanish people, normally based in some other country such as Peru or Columbia or some other South American country who speak Spanish with a distinctively different accent making it harder for a non-Spaniard like myself to understand them. Furthermore, they just do not understand what the problem is and how un-happy I was. In the end, I got passed around from department to department and no joy was receive. So I said cancel the offer and I will stay with Movistar. Well, to do that, I had to call yet another number.
So I called the number and finally got a Spaniard on the line who told me if I cancelled the offer, I would loose my number. Then he offered me a 40% discount for 3 months due to this problem and he would sort it out to get us some kind of provisional service. I waited on hold. All in all, I was on the line with this number for over 35 minutes. In the end, he told me we already had the service from Orange but the line not functioning due to some technical reason and we should call Movistar to have them fix it.
Basically, long story short, these companies are all full of crap. They steal clients from one another and then put the clients in the worst kind of frustrating situation. So we have no fixed line service and it continues to be the same. Ivan was on the phone with these clowns for over an hour trying to resolve this and got no where except super frustrated.
What a mistake to change .
Our land telephone is the subject of this post. I decided after looking at many offers for services which include ADSL and international telephone calls to switch phone companies. Telefonica de España (Movistar), our current provider, called one day out of the blue a few weeks ago saying that due to our long standing relationship with them, they would be introducing a new permanent discount on our monthly phone bills. Of course we accepted their offer.
Naturally, when the next bill arrived, I looked for the price differential and saw nothing different. So I waited for the next bill to arrive and again saw the amount was, more or less, the same as before. Conclusion, they called us and lied to us saying we would have a discount and then not delivering the discount. I think it was a ploy to keep us from going to another provider as there are many cheaper offers out there but there is also a question of quality of service that should be considered before making changes.
As I had been getting lots of spam mails from Orange and Jazztel, two other mobile phone operators that apparently now have fixed line phone service as well. They were offering discounts or better pricing than Movistar and as I decided that we had been played by Movistar, I decided why not try a change with a cheaper monthly price. Last week, 26 October to be exact, I called Orange and took up an offer for the ADSL service, national calls and international calls, the overall offer sounded quite good. They indicated we would be receiving a new router from them and we would be able to maintain our current telephone number, a point very important for our business.
Last Friday, 02-November, the phone was working fine in the AM and then at some point after 12:00 PM, the line went dead. I called Orange to ask what was happening. These companies employ non-Spanish people, normally based in some other country such as Peru or Columbia or some other South American country who speak Spanish with a distinctively different accent making it harder for a non-Spaniard like myself to understand them. Furthermore, they just do not understand what the problem is and how un-happy I was. In the end, I got passed around from department to department and no joy was receive. So I said cancel the offer and I will stay with Movistar. Well, to do that, I had to call yet another number.
So I called the number and finally got a Spaniard on the line who told me if I cancelled the offer, I would loose my number. Then he offered me a 40% discount for 3 months due to this problem and he would sort it out to get us some kind of provisional service. I waited on hold. All in all, I was on the line with this number for over 35 minutes. In the end, he told me we already had the service from Orange but the line not functioning due to some technical reason and we should call Movistar to have them fix it.
Basically, long story short, these companies are all full of crap. They steal clients from one another and then put the clients in the worst kind of frustrating situation. So we have no fixed line service and it continues to be the same. Ivan was on the phone with these clowns for over an hour trying to resolve this and got no where except super frustrated.
What a mistake to change .
Friday 12 September 2014
It´s been a while....
And so I thought I might write something new.
And even now, it's been quite a few days since I last look at this extranet to write something. Today I will try to set aside some time and write something interesting but right now I have other things to do.
And even now, it's been quite a few days since I last look at this extranet to write something. Today I will try to set aside some time and write something interesting but right now I have other things to do.
Sunday 27 May 2012
Why is the village this blue color?
In the spring
of 2011, Júzcar was selected by Sony Pictures España to be the venue of an
international promotional event for the then upcoming summer film release of
"The Smurfs 3D" which included painting the village Smurf blue. All
the residents of the village had to (and did) agree to have the white facades
of their houses painted Smurf blue. The paint job started on 22 May 2011 and took
about three weeks to complete using over nine thousand liters of Smurf blue
paint.
On 16 June 2011, Sony held an international press event to promote their soon to released block-buster film with children from the Upper Genal Valley participating as well as many members of the press and villages residents from the surrounding areas. During the event, the president of Sony España presented the village of Júzcar with a memorial plaque which was mounted in the village plaza stating "Júzcar, The First Smurf Village of the World"("Júzcar, el Primer Pueblo Pitufo del Mundo"). After the event, Júzcar's residents had all agreed that the village would remain blue through the end of the summer but unbeknownst to them, the theme of a blue village was so unusual that the people started coming and that traffic has, as of April 2012, not yet stopped.
On 16 June 2011, Sony held an international press event to promote their soon to released block-buster film with children from the Upper Genal Valley participating as well as many members of the press and villages residents from the surrounding areas. During the event, the president of Sony España presented the village of Júzcar with a memorial plaque which was mounted in the village plaza stating "Júzcar, The First Smurf Village of the World"("Júzcar, el Primer Pueblo Pitufo del Mundo"). After the event, Júzcar's residents had all agreed that the village would remain blue through the end of the summer but unbeknownst to them, the theme of a blue village was so unusual that the people started coming and that traffic has, as of April 2012, not yet stopped.
In December 2011, a referendum was held by the Júzcar village-hall to determine when the village would revert to white; the outcome of the vote was to remain Smurf blue for the foreseeable future. Sony, meanwhile, has announced a second Smurf film to be released in August 2013, “The Smurfs 2” (Smurfs are called "Pitufos" in Spain).
Prior to
being painted blue, Júzcar was a traditional white village for hundreds of
years and no doubt will revert to being a white village again at some point in
the future (no date set for that). As a typical Andalusian white village, Júzcar had the
traditional offerings of any white village, Easter procession during Holy Week
(“Semana Santa’), annual Andalusian Romería in June, annual festival for their
patron saint in August (the Virgin of Moclón”) as well as being quite a well
placed central location for visiting many interesting sites in Andalusia, both
cultural and natural.
Here in Júzcar,
one can still see eagles soaring on the hunt, vultures swirling in packs high
in the sky, hopping cotton tailed bunny rabbits alongside the roads and
hundreds of spring time wild flowers bursting with color; one can enjoy peaceful
nights with a star filled sky, walks through the countryside on any one of the
trails connecting the area's several villages or across the top of the mountain
through the Riscos. The area is also quite suitable for photography, painting,
mountain cycling caving and wild mushroom hunting.
While it is
true that life in the village of Júzcar has changed since the blue theme
arrived and the village, for the most part, is no longer sleepy, Júzcar and its
environs are still a destination well worth exploring from a nature lover's
perspective. And for those coming
for the Smurfs, at the moment the best time is at the weekends when the Smurf
Market in the village plaza is open with various stalls as well as the village Smurf
Store. There is also a tourist
office in the village plaza with local activity information as well as an
information kiosk across from the hotel which is open during weekends and bank
holidays.
Hotel
Bandolero remains the same lovely and charming hotel it has always been. Eight
spacious double rooms, six with wood-burning stoves and terraces with fantastic
views of the surrounding glorious nature. The restaurant continues to provide
quality food delivered by our in-house Cordon Bleu trained chef.
Friday 10 February 2012
Happy New Year
I don't get around to writing in this blog much these days. So belated happy new year from the Hotel Bandolero blog in early February.
Since my last entry in November 2011, the village hall organised a day in December for all concerned parties to vote on the state of the village's color. Let me tell you how that went.
First of all, the mayor, Sr. David Fernandez, had informed us back in the summer that there would be a referendum to be held on the same day that the national general election was scheduled as he thought it best that the vote should adhere to the norms of a general election to make the outcome "legal". That date was set for 20 November 2011, a Sunday. My reaction to his proposal was "Well, that won't work for me because I can't vote in Spain." I told him so and he said Ivan would have to vote for the both of us, something I thought was a bit unfair as we are co-owners of our properties here in Juzcar and now my opinion would not count as I could not vote. Oh well, what was there to do except accept it and wait to see the results.
The mayor organised a village meeting to inform residents how the referendum would be held. He encountered unexpected anger amongst the meeting attendees. You see, when the proposal first came to us in April 2011 to paint the village blue, someone from the village hall walked around the village and obtained the building owner's signature agreeing to paint their building facades from white to blue and back to white again in due course (no dates indicated). A simple process that appeared to function and keep all happy and satisfied as all owners had a say in the matter. All appeared to be done legally. Now, the village hall had come up with a silly idea that the vote should follow the voting guidelines to make it "legal" and in so doing, there would be local people who previously said yes and now could say nothing as they are not registered to vote in Juzcar. This begs the question was the first time around illegal in one manner or another? No response to that was forthcoming.
So, like me, others in the village were able to say "yes" before but now could not say what would happen to their property in Juzcar as they are registered to vote in another village, something the mayor had not thought of. Also, in this way, there are people who are registered to vote in Juzcar who do not own property, so now there would also be persons from outside the village who would be telling the Juzcar residents who could not vote, whether or not their houses stayed blue or returned to white, another reason to be unhappy with the voting procedures.
In the end, 20 November came and went and there was no referendum announced or held. Eventually, the village hall announced in early December, that the referendum would be held on 18 December; those registered to vote in the village would have one vote each. Property owners who were not registered to vote would receive one vote per building owned in the village. This meant that Ivan would get one vote as he is registered and I would get two votes as we own two buildings in the village, go figure.
Since my last entry in November 2011, the village hall organised a day in December for all concerned parties to vote on the state of the village's color. Let me tell you how that went.
First of all, the mayor, Sr. David Fernandez, had informed us back in the summer that there would be a referendum to be held on the same day that the national general election was scheduled as he thought it best that the vote should adhere to the norms of a general election to make the outcome "legal". That date was set for 20 November 2011, a Sunday. My reaction to his proposal was "Well, that won't work for me because I can't vote in Spain." I told him so and he said Ivan would have to vote for the both of us, something I thought was a bit unfair as we are co-owners of our properties here in Juzcar and now my opinion would not count as I could not vote. Oh well, what was there to do except accept it and wait to see the results.
The mayor organised a village meeting to inform residents how the referendum would be held. He encountered unexpected anger amongst the meeting attendees. You see, when the proposal first came to us in April 2011 to paint the village blue, someone from the village hall walked around the village and obtained the building owner's signature agreeing to paint their building facades from white to blue and back to white again in due course (no dates indicated). A simple process that appeared to function and keep all happy and satisfied as all owners had a say in the matter. All appeared to be done legally. Now, the village hall had come up with a silly idea that the vote should follow the voting guidelines to make it "legal" and in so doing, there would be local people who previously said yes and now could say nothing as they are not registered to vote in Juzcar. This begs the question was the first time around illegal in one manner or another? No response to that was forthcoming.
So, like me, others in the village were able to say "yes" before but now could not say what would happen to their property in Juzcar as they are registered to vote in another village, something the mayor had not thought of. Also, in this way, there are people who are registered to vote in Juzcar who do not own property, so now there would also be persons from outside the village who would be telling the Juzcar residents who could not vote, whether or not their houses stayed blue or returned to white, another reason to be unhappy with the voting procedures.
In the end, 20 November came and went and there was no referendum announced or held. Eventually, the village hall announced in early December, that the referendum would be held on 18 December; those registered to vote in the village would have one vote each. Property owners who were not registered to vote would receive one vote per building owned in the village. This meant that Ivan would get one vote as he is registered and I would get two votes as we own two buildings in the village, go figure.
The results of the vote were 141 in favour of staying blue, 33 in favour of returning to white and 10 blank (or null) votes. The vote counting and results announcement were broadcast on Andalusia TV as well on the national channel TVE1 later that evening. So, we are a blue village for the coming year and longer. I think that the village should stay blue until at least September 2014 as Sony Pictures announced on 9 August 2011 that a sequel film would go into production in 2012 for release in summer 2013. This will hopefully have a continued positive impact on the village. We have even heard that Sony will actually film in the village this time as Juzcar was not in the first film as so many people think. If that happens, the village of Juzcar may have to remain blue perpetually which is not such a bad thing.
Interesting fact, the film "The Smurfs 3D" grossed US$564 million on the box office receipts alone; I'm sure it made more income from merchandising and other things so of course Sony is making a sequel and perhaps more than one. On that note, I say to Sony Pictures and Sony España in particular: where are the trees you promised the residents of Juzcar if they painted their village blue? We were all promised back in the beginning a tree in the name of each resident of Juzcar. So I want to know, where is my tree? And why do I have to request it? Why couldn't they just follow through on their promise to plant a tree per resident? With that level of income from the film which cost them US$ 110 million (a fairly large budget as well) to produce, I think they could have spared a few hundred euros to purchase and plant those tree in the area around the village!! What the Smurf happened to my Smurfing tree!!!? I still want my Smurfing tree planted!!
Interesting fact, the film "The Smurfs 3D" grossed US$564 million on the box office receipts alone; I'm sure it made more income from merchandising and other things so of course Sony is making a sequel and perhaps more than one. On that note, I say to Sony Pictures and Sony España in particular: where are the trees you promised the residents of Juzcar if they painted their village blue? We were all promised back in the beginning a tree in the name of each resident of Juzcar. So I want to know, where is my tree? And why do I have to request it? Why couldn't they just follow through on their promise to plant a tree per resident? With that level of income from the film which cost them US$ 110 million (a fairly large budget as well) to produce, I think they could have spared a few hundred euros to purchase and plant those tree in the area around the village!! What the Smurf happened to my Smurfing tree!!!? I still want my Smurfing tree planted!!
Friday 4 November 2011
What in the Smurf is going on here!?
I have no smurfing time to write smurfy blog entries, nor the desire after the long smurfing days we have been having since June. Yes, now that the weather has changed the traffic has noticeably slowed down, which is not unappreciated, but the weekends have still be quite robust in terms of traffic and the village still has its rented local police enforcing traffic regs and parking norms.
Meanwhile, the valley's chestnut trees have begun to change color and provide that lovely autumnal feeling along with a chill in the air! Soon if not already, it will be time to light the stove or the fire and cuddle up with a lovely book and glass of wine.
Our American painting group came through in October as planned and they all left happy and content. That said, sadly they will not return to the Smurf village in 2012 as it was not quite the same experience in 2011 as in 2010 B.S. ("before Smurfs"...?) when one felt that the village was all for the group only and now it was hard to feel at home in the hotel itself with all the noise generated by the passing trade of the Smurf spectators. Oh Smurf!!
The village has it annual wild mushroom conference planned for a launch on 11 November, 3 days of examining mushrooms, searching for mushrooms, reading about mushrooms, eating mushroom, everything mushroom!! What could be more Smurfy?
I think I will revolt a bit and paint my chimneys in color as before before there is an election which makes it illegal to paint your house or facade anything but Smurf blue!!!
I am going on my break now, more Smurf tales later, have a Smurfy weekend!!
Saturday 30 July 2011
Wow, it has been a while since my last post here in the blog world. We have been very busy as you may have seen from my posts on the HB Facebook page. The amount of people coming to see the blue village is pretty incredible. Who knew that Smurfs would be so popular. We now have four waiters working on the weekends and one during the week which may go up to two for the month of August as we expect the traffic to increase in this very busy month of holidays plus one helper in the kitchen.
As we are in a Saturday almost at lunch so I have little time to create the post I would like to to describe the things that have been happening here since April so I will write again in a couple of days when I might have the time to write all I want to say.
In the meantime, I am happy to say we have been having the best summer ever here in Juzcar, both the hotel and the restaurant. No time for rest for Ivan and I as we are flat-out all week.
And tomorrow Sunday, I have been asked again to participate in the Sacramento morning TV program via a Skype call. So I may be on TV in California, my home state, tomorrow!! They tried to have me on the program on 19 June but we were so busy at the time of the interview, I had to hang up. So let's see if I can make it tomorrow.
Ciao for now from Smurfland (a.k.a. Pitufolandia) !
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