Tuesday, 15 May
We've been very busy in the last few weeks. First of all, the Jazz Night we had went very well. The quartet that came played very well. We had a decent sized crowd with folks from the surrounding villages attending as well. And all were very enthusiastic about the music as well. I did not think to make room for people to dance but that's what was happening, shoving tables out of the way to dance around. All in all a very good night.
Then we had the stag party with 45 men of varying ages. They left the place in a shambles but all had a very good time. They enjoyed all the food and drink and then the ladies until just about 5AM. Another late night. Ivan made a delicious chocolate orange cake in the shape of a lady which I still have not yet had the time to load up onto our cakes website. The cakes are a bit shocking to see so I don't want to just put them out there, especially the cake he made for the hen party, the big penis. I want to load them on as thumbnails so one would have to click on the photo to see it better.
Anyway, since then, we have had a political gathering here one evening for the PSOE party, the Spanish socialist party, well, liberal in effect. There are elections all across Spain on 27 May when every town hall in Spain is up for election so one can imagine lots of politicking.
The way the elections seem to work here, the party has their candidates in groups of five, one candidate standing for mayor and then the four various deputies. And apparently one does not need to live in the town where one is running as a couple of the candidates in this village actually live in Ronda, not Juzcar. Anyway, the campaigning is now getting into full swing. We have posters going up around the village; the PSOE held a meeting here one evening recently for the village people to see the candidates and to meet a couple of important people from the Malaga provincial government from the same party (of course). Then the other side held a dinner for the whole village a week or so ago. The mayoral candidate for that party, the PP or the conservatives, paid for the dinner out of his own pocket, we are told. Some were worrying that this would gain votes for him but apparently vote by way of the stomach is not working.
And of course, suddenly there are things happening in the village that should have been done ages ago but are being done now. The town hall is currently controlled by the PP. Our mayor, Diego Fernandez Fernandez, is the oldest serving mayor in Spain having been on seat for more than 33 years and having been appointed by Franco himself. As a result of this, Juzcar is probably one of the only places in Spain where you will still find names of street after Franco and his pals despite the fact that a law was passed in the early 80's requiring these names to be changed.
Change is what is really needed in this village. Thirty-three years of the same people, same party, same policies, same politics..... needs to be flushed away and new blood should be allowed to trickle in and make some much needed change. Everyone knows that when one government is in power for too long, they loose the plot and stop being effective; they are not open to council on what the needs of the town are and that is certainly the case here in Juzcar!
So politics is the big topic of discussion now a days. And we are suddenly getting new lighting in the village, and the fast connection Internet is being held up by the town hall due to this campaigning.
Anyway, we in the hotel, have been very busy lately. Reservations keep rolling in although things are settling down from June. We had our first catering event last weekend. We provided food to the Andalusia Language School for an international event they were holding; then they brought their 45 participants here to the hotel the following day for lunch. And Ivan will be making a cake for this wedding, the same on with the stag parties. A cake for 300 persons... that's a lot of cake! We are also invited to the wedding but won't be able to make it as the Ronda May Feria is the same weekend, this one coming actually. Ivan will be participating in gastronomy demonstration on Saturday evening at 8.00, prime time this year as opposed to last year when he did his demonstration on Thursday and there were hardly any people in the audience.
We received a letter from the Diputacion de Malaga about our solicitation for permission to put our road signs up about where the hotel is. The permission was denied and they fined us 253 Euros. We are hoping not to have to pay that but don't know where we stand on that at this point as someone in Ronda is handling that for us. This just makes us think that the local governments don't have a clue about how tourism works in the province. We took the signs down already and asked for permission to put them up again and still they fine us. They told us if we wanted to put up sign, we could only put up official blue sign with no names, a bit unhelpful actually.
I had a couple of cousins here last week with their husbands... actually my mom's cousins, cousins nonetheless. They were here for four nights and had a very nice time, trying the menu, exploring the area; I went into Ronda with them on their first day to play tour guide for an afternoon. Ivan's Aunt and Uncle were here for a couple nights the week before; it's nice to have family visit every now and then.
We've got some new terrace furniture which should help to spruce up the terraces a bit. We'll be getting some more tables and chairs as well soon. this has come via our neighbor, Paul, owner of the apartments. He bought some furniture and offered to let us hitch on as well as he was getting very good pricing. His pool is just about ready as well. I'll be adding that onto our website as well. Perhaps that will bring more summer guests. It's a very nice pool as well. Ivan's been in it already, I've not yet been in.
The weather last week was glorious, brilliant sunny clear days, nice breeze. But then a cool front must have moved in because these last couple of days have not been as warm, although the sun is brilliant again today with very little cloud in the sky.
We've been very busy in the last few weeks. First of all, the Jazz Night we had went very well. The quartet that came played very well. We had a decent sized crowd with folks from the surrounding villages attending as well. And all were very enthusiastic about the music as well. I did not think to make room for people to dance but that's what was happening, shoving tables out of the way to dance around. All in all a very good night.
Then we had the stag party with 45 men of varying ages. They left the place in a shambles but all had a very good time. They enjoyed all the food and drink and then the ladies until just about 5AM. Another late night. Ivan made a delicious chocolate orange cake in the shape of a lady which I still have not yet had the time to load up onto our cakes website. The cakes are a bit shocking to see so I don't want to just put them out there, especially the cake he made for the hen party, the big penis. I want to load them on as thumbnails so one would have to click on the photo to see it better.
Anyway, since then, we have had a political gathering here one evening for the PSOE party, the Spanish socialist party, well, liberal in effect. There are elections all across Spain on 27 May when every town hall in Spain is up for election so one can imagine lots of politicking.
The way the elections seem to work here, the party has their candidates in groups of five, one candidate standing for mayor and then the four various deputies. And apparently one does not need to live in the town where one is running as a couple of the candidates in this village actually live in Ronda, not Juzcar. Anyway, the campaigning is now getting into full swing. We have posters going up around the village; the PSOE held a meeting here one evening recently for the village people to see the candidates and to meet a couple of important people from the Malaga provincial government from the same party (of course). Then the other side held a dinner for the whole village a week or so ago. The mayoral candidate for that party, the PP or the conservatives, paid for the dinner out of his own pocket, we are told. Some were worrying that this would gain votes for him but apparently vote by way of the stomach is not working.
And of course, suddenly there are things happening in the village that should have been done ages ago but are being done now. The town hall is currently controlled by the PP. Our mayor, Diego Fernandez Fernandez, is the oldest serving mayor in Spain having been on seat for more than 33 years and having been appointed by Franco himself. As a result of this, Juzcar is probably one of the only places in Spain where you will still find names of street after Franco and his pals despite the fact that a law was passed in the early 80's requiring these names to be changed.
Change is what is really needed in this village. Thirty-three years of the same people, same party, same policies, same politics..... needs to be flushed away and new blood should be allowed to trickle in and make some much needed change. Everyone knows that when one government is in power for too long, they loose the plot and stop being effective; they are not open to council on what the needs of the town are and that is certainly the case here in Juzcar!
So politics is the big topic of discussion now a days. And we are suddenly getting new lighting in the village, and the fast connection Internet is being held up by the town hall due to this campaigning.
Anyway, we in the hotel, have been very busy lately. Reservations keep rolling in although things are settling down from June. We had our first catering event last weekend. We provided food to the Andalusia Language School for an international event they were holding; then they brought their 45 participants here to the hotel the following day for lunch. And Ivan will be making a cake for this wedding, the same on with the stag parties. A cake for 300 persons... that's a lot of cake! We are also invited to the wedding but won't be able to make it as the Ronda May Feria is the same weekend, this one coming actually. Ivan will be participating in gastronomy demonstration on Saturday evening at 8.00, prime time this year as opposed to last year when he did his demonstration on Thursday and there were hardly any people in the audience.
We received a letter from the Diputacion de Malaga about our solicitation for permission to put our road signs up about where the hotel is. The permission was denied and they fined us 253 Euros. We are hoping not to have to pay that but don't know where we stand on that at this point as someone in Ronda is handling that for us. This just makes us think that the local governments don't have a clue about how tourism works in the province. We took the signs down already and asked for permission to put them up again and still they fine us. They told us if we wanted to put up sign, we could only put up official blue sign with no names, a bit unhelpful actually.
I had a couple of cousins here last week with their husbands... actually my mom's cousins, cousins nonetheless. They were here for four nights and had a very nice time, trying the menu, exploring the area; I went into Ronda with them on their first day to play tour guide for an afternoon. Ivan's Aunt and Uncle were here for a couple nights the week before; it's nice to have family visit every now and then.
We've got some new terrace furniture which should help to spruce up the terraces a bit. We'll be getting some more tables and chairs as well soon. this has come via our neighbor, Paul, owner of the apartments. He bought some furniture and offered to let us hitch on as well as he was getting very good pricing. His pool is just about ready as well. I'll be adding that onto our website as well. Perhaps that will bring more summer guests. It's a very nice pool as well. Ivan's been in it already, I've not yet been in.
The weather last week was glorious, brilliant sunny clear days, nice breeze. But then a cool front must have moved in because these last couple of days have not been as warm, although the sun is brilliant again today with very little cloud in the sky.
