28 February, today is Andalucia Day, a bank holiday here in Andalucia.
What beautiful weather we've been enjoying these last couple of days. Seems that spring has sprung, not surprisingly as this year is predicted to be the hottest on record for Andalucia and probably Spain and greater Europe. That is not great news but, we have flowers already. Our lavender plants that we cut back in January are already growing nicely. The almonds trees have already lost their blooms and are covered in young new leaves. Our hibiscus plant has flowers on it as well as a few other flowers for which I do not know the names.
We collected three large containers of lemons from our lemon tree yesterday and today... well Ivan did. I helped packed them into bags to sell them, 4 kilos for 2.50 Euros. They are quite nice lemons too, strong scent, firm, and large as well. Ivan is planning to make lemon tarts (which my mom loves!), lemon curd, lemon marmalade, and other things lemon!!
Ivan met with the Juzcar ladies association the other day and we are now waiting for word back from them on how many would like to attend Ivan's cooking course.
Our weekend business was slow as usual. We had a couple of singles which I mentioned in my last entry... they set off early Sunday morning before we arrived in the hotel. And the "drop-in" that was here for one nightset off fairly early as well. We did a few tables for lunch and most sat outside as the weather was so comfortable.
Yesterday afternoon, we went Pujerra to collect pine cones which we were out of. That nice stretch of road on the other side of the mountain from where the village is is convered with pine trees that have lots of pine cones. We prefer the pine cones for starting fires to those fire starters soaked in kerosene and stick of it as well. I'm not too sure how many more fires we will need to be starting with this weather but it's good to have a provision of them around in any case.
I had a call yesterday from Phil and Nicky over in Alpandeire about an upcoming meeting next week. Turns out that the Junta de Andalucia has hired a marketing consultant from London to help promote cultural and tourist related businesses. An American living in the lower valley has apparently arranged for this meeting with business operators such as us and this consultant to hopefully get some (any, PLEASE!!) publicity for the Genal Valley. And it appears that many of the valley businesses are suffering the same as us.... i.e. low business flows which equals low cash flows which equals late bill payments .... oops have I said too much!!? Well that is one of the ugly realities of running your own business, the accounting side of things... never pretty unless of course you are racking them up!! Anyway, the meeting will happen next Tuesday, 06 March.
We also need to now follow up on that possible grant. They told us they hoped to have things sorted by the end of this month and.... that's today. So tomorrow we will ring them to get an update, hopefully!
Other news, the work on the new pool next door has commenced. They have started digging out the side of the hill to make way for the pool. I'll be very happy to see that work completed. We are going to have to buy nice sized bath towels for our guests to take to the pool with them.
Another thing that happens all the time (I receive emails that is) and is kind of annoying as the recipient... that is these fraudulent e-mails that come from "somebody@yahoo.fr" or from someone from Manchester, UK or Edinburgh. Basically they are almost always worded the same, "I am so and so from the Christian organisation so and so and we are planning a religious summit in your country for 8 delegates who will stay at your hotel for 2 weeks (or longer in some cases if you can believe that)." I always wonder why these fraudsters don't look at a map to at least know what town to which they are writing. Anyway, they go on to say that they want to know the total price of the rooms and URGENTLY await this information in order to send their credit card for payment. Always the same wording but always from a different email address and sender. Surprisingly, I recently got one of these from someone who said he was based in Miami, FL. Normally they arrive from the Ivory Coast, the UK, another country in Africa or India. Sometimes they are requesting information related to the wedding reception of their son who wants to have his reception in my hotel.... oh REALLY?? Oh but can we order 10 Nokia mobile phones for them first and do we accept credit cards? I could go on about this subject but won't.
I updated my website in the last couple of days as well. The guest comment page now has photos of the guests making the comment (when I have a good photo of a guest to put onto that page, of course). And I have revised the theme holiday pages to include new paintings by Maggie Price.
We received a request for a proposal for a wedding/baptism in June. Someone from Ronda that found our catering website,
