Today is Saturday 18 November and already it's going on 8PM; we've been pretty busy these last few days. Wednesday we went down to Malaga and picked up Ivan's new vacuum packing machine and did a couple of other things that needed taking care of in Malaga capital.
One of them was to get the hot air oven repaired, a very important utensil in our kitchen. Last week, it started over heating, and one of the fans was making a noise that was not right. We packed that into the back of the car (we have a 4X4) having found via the internet that the local technician was based in Malaga and it would save us a lot of money to bring the oven to him as opposed to him to us. Anyway, it was a good opportunity to get everything that was wrong with that oven fixed. Now it is functioning so much better.
The vacuum packing machine was a lot heavier than we expected and bigger as well. It truly is the top of the line. Of course the instruction manual leaves a lot to be desired as it doesn't really explain, in any language, how it functions. It has several programming options, gas use, various setting for amount of vacuum packing and the like. The manufacturer, an Italian company, won't speak to end users (of course!) so we have to figure out how to get some instruction on all the uses of this machine. Anyway, Ivan has already packed up various things into plastic, i.e. steaks, ox tail, quails, frog's legs, stews.... he's been busy!
We were lucky with the weather this week until Thursday when the rain came back. Again we had leaks in the bar because of the constant rain. I think it rained for about 30 hours straight... clearly we are not in a drought situation!
We didn't have anyone staying in the hotel until Friday. We had a group booking for the whole hotel... a group of Brits from Gaucin, another village in the lower Genal Valley, the last one in fact. They were 16 and came to celebrate a 70th birthday. They were all so happy to be here. They started arriving about 4.oo, had drinks at about 7.30 and went into the restaurant at 8.30. We had a nice big fire going in the fireplace to add warmth and atmosphere. They had sent us their dinner order the day before so it was that much easier to serve them... 8 cochinillos were ordered and many solomillo ibierco relleno (stuffed pork tenderloin with chestnuts and prunes). A very nice group; in fact, the host has been raving about us to all his friends in Gaucin so we've been getting quite a bit of business from there... all Brits and all very happy to have a nice place with good food. Apparently, the restaurants in Gaucin leave a bit to be desired.
Today, we have seven rooms. There were 2 drop-ins and the rest were booked during the week or earlier. We also had a gang busting day in the bar and restaurant... there were several hikers about today as the weather was lovely (although it has started to become cold at night).
We also had a visit from the Guardia Civil. It turns out one of their jobs is to patrol who puts up road signs on the main roads... something so disturbing that it requires the GC to be involved. We have three signs on the roads indicating where we are, two are at or near the junction of the San Pedro - Ronda road and the other is at the junction to the Alto Genal (upper Genal Valley) from the Algeciras- Ronda road. So the GC turned up Saturday morning and asked if we had papers demonstrating permission to put up the signs. When we put up the signs, they were a replacement for the previous signs by the previous owner with the old name of the hotel. He, Antonio, told us when we first arrived, that getting permission was a big hassle (like many bureaucratic things in Spain) so don't bother. He advised that if anyone asked about permission, we should just tel them to go and take the signs down themselves (great advice, huh?). We asked our contact at the Serrania de Ronda tourist office, Alfredo, the same question... how do we get permission to put up sign about the hotel on road. He offered similar advice saying that it took much too long and we should just go ahead and put the signs up. He also told us that if we received permission, the signs would have to be official in appearance and could not contain the name of the hotel. So we took his advice and went ahead and installed the signs... and they do look good, not an eyesore on the road side or anything like that.
So now we have been informed by the GC that it is an offense of sorts and that they are reporting us to the Malaga provincial government who may fine us!! Must speak with Alfredo and get some advice as to what to do next... if anything!
