Bandolero, my hotel - taking it day-by-day

Friday, 23 February - another week gone. This week has gone by fairly quickly.

We had Becky and Mark, a very nice English couple, here for eight nights up to Wednesday. They arrived Tuesday, last week, after getting lost on their way. They had found us last year passing one day and promised themselves to come back and that they did indeed. They brought their bikes; Mark is training for an event back in the UK. They had a very nice week with us and are looking forward to coming back next year for perhaps a bit longer.

Today we had two guests arrive who are looking for a finca. Well, one is looking and the other is a friend along for the ride, so to speak. They told me that their wives are dedicated readers of this blog!! How flattering that was to hear. They discuss our problems and are quite interested in what happens here. So a big HELLO to Shirley and Hillary. Hope you are enjoying your holiday in South Africa, Hillary!!

Last Saturday, we had seven couples from Marbella come and spend the night with us. They had dinner and a grand old time. Ivan put on some Sevillana music and before you knew it, they were on the stage in the restaurant dancing and singing. One of them is a chef an so he spent some time chatting with Ivan in the kitchen. Another was an art instructor and he took some time on Sunday morning to give some instruction to Ivan who enjoys painting as well. They said that they all had a great time and really enjoyed our place, food and service. I, unfortunately, misunderstood when they were leaving and thought that they had put an entry into my guest comment book which they did not but oh well.

I was down on the coast yesterday to go to the US consulate's office in Fuengirola. My passport expires in July so now is a good time to get that done. I gave the American women in the office a brochure and invited her to come up and visit us sometime (nothing like a bit of self-promotion). I also stopped off at the Asian goods shop we know there to buy a few things for ourselves. Ivan and I like to prepare Asian food for ourselves but it is hard to find the ingredients in this area. This shop in Fuengirola is the only one we have found so far.... and it is not cheap either but so be it.

The weather has been wet and dreary the last few days. Lots of fog as well... driving down to the coast yesterday was not so much fun with fog so heavy in both directions. The weather on the coast was considerably more dry and comfortable.

I had to take Lolita in for removal of her stitches today... she was neutered last week. Pasky, our German shepherd, was done a couple of weeks ago. I have not mentioned our dogs much in this blog but most people that spend time here come to love our dogs. They are all (all three of them) well behaved, only in search of food or attention, like most dogs I guess. Here are photos of them.

I keep meaning to get an owner's meal going... I mentioned this idea a while ago to other hotel & restaurant owners in the valley. A social gathering of sorts to get to know one another better and to perhaps talk about common issues. I wrote the email in Spanish with Ivan's assistance but have yet to send it out. I just don't know all that I would like to invite. I intend it to be a pot luck sort of deal so no one person has to bare the costs for feeding a group. And I would like the meeting to rotate from business to business... this way we all get to see one another's business. I'm thinking that perhaps this can lead to a business association of some kind.

Francisco was here today. He made some changes in the kitchen that Ivan requested to improve his work space. Very good actually... makes one wonder, "why didn't we do that sooner?" Ivan has also started working on the cooking course the Juzcar women's club asked for; he has put together a synopsis and a list of things to make. These ladies are mainly interested in a pastry course. So Ivan is devising something for that. Later, I'm planning on offering these courses on our website for potential guests to come and learn something while enjoying a stay here at the Bandolero.

I also had an email from Maggie this week, my American artist/instructor. She has confirmed the painting workshop in October, it is full already. This good news leads to the next one. Maggie wants to see if she can get enough participants for another workshop shortly after the first one in October! That would be good news for us. And I finally had contact from another recommendation by Maggie, a friend of hers in California who is now interested in doing a workshop in April 2008. i am waiting to here more back from him but I will be adding that workshop onto the website as well to help promote it.


So, it is now 21.30 and there are people in the bar so I have to move. I just took one more booking for a suite for tomorrow so we will have 3 rooms tomorrow evening. Hopefully we will have some good lunch traffic as we could use the income!!

Buen fin de semana y hast luego folks!