Saturday - 03 November 2007
We are have one more night to go of a holiday weekend here in Spain. We´ve been pretty busy these last few days with lunches for groups and now the hotel is full as well.
The weather is cooling off now and the nights are getting brisk; we had our first fire of the season in the bar stove on Halloween night. And then another nice fire last night. the weather is a bit grey today but the people are out and about, walking, hiking, exploring the mountainsides... generally loving being here in the Genal Valley.
We had two Australian couples arrive yesterday for three nights; last night, one of the ladies in the group was saying how she was in heaven being here. so nice to be away from the crowded city areas where they have been touring and to be here in the quiet countryside with Ivan´s delicious cuisine.
We had two separate groups for lunch on Thursday, one of 33 persons and the other of 15. Both groups left very happy.
In a couple of weeks time, we have a mushroom symposium going on here in the hotel, organised by the town hall and someone else... I´m not really sure. Ivan has been more involved with organising this event than I. We are already getting bookings for this event as some people will stay in the hotel. Unfortunately, it is the same weekend that I had hoped we would be launching our wine tasting weekends but as we have not yet had any takers for that, at least we will have some event happening in the hotel that weekend. Ivan is planning a menu of mushroom dishes which is very appropriate.
Our friend Dan was down last weekend as well with his partner and parents for 3 nights. It was very nice to see a good friend for a few days and just hang and enjoy some company of friends, something we don´t get much of these days.
Looks like our Bandit is going to have another litter of puppies. We figure they should be here about the 6th of December, just in time for another holiday weekend as that is Spanish Constitution Day. We´ve already got interested parties for the pups as well but one guy keeps asking for a gift and that is just not going to happen. they are for sale and anyone interested in lovely little French Bulldog pups for Xmas, just give us a call. As soon as those pups are born, I will be advertising them for sale as I´d like them gone by the time they are 8 weeks as I will be heading off on my holidays then and I don´t want to be held back by young pups hanging around.
No news on the pool project. Just as we were told, this architect we are using is very slow. we´ll have to give him a call next week to push him along.
Let´s see, what else is new here at the Hotel Bandolero? We finally got our telephone lines sorted. I got rid of the second Telefonica telephone line as we no longer need that for Internet hook-up. I had the primary telephone number (952.183.660) converted into a multi-use line so we can take two calls at the same time on the one number. My credit card machines and fax will work through there a lot easier now as well. We still have a second number as we have a telephone line provided by the company giving us the Internet connection (951.166.215). We also have the Wifi set up now and it is working very well. In fact, I am writing this blog entry on my laptop in the bar for the first time. I also recently went back to a call provider as opposed to the line provider which is Telefonica de España. The call provider is a UK company. Not only do they have great rate for long distance form Spain to the UK and US, they have given us a direct dial local number in the UK for our UK friends and clients to call us at only the cost of a UK local call and those calls will ring through to our primary number here in the hotel.... great!!
I also put some nice photos of my Mom put up in the reception area. These were old family photos that I paid a bomb for some reproductions. I have her baby photos hanging in the reception area... she was cute baby.
I also updated the website recently. I am finally caught up with guest comments in the guest comment book as well as all the photos I had to put on that page of clients. I had lots of photos pending for addition since August.... so they are all there now.
Well, that´s about all I have to say for now so it´s hasta luego.
We are have one more night to go of a holiday weekend here in Spain. We´ve been pretty busy these last few days with lunches for groups and now the hotel is full as well.
The weather is cooling off now and the nights are getting brisk; we had our first fire of the season in the bar stove on Halloween night. And then another nice fire last night. the weather is a bit grey today but the people are out and about, walking, hiking, exploring the mountainsides... generally loving being here in the Genal Valley.
We had two Australian couples arrive yesterday for three nights; last night, one of the ladies in the group was saying how she was in heaven being here. so nice to be away from the crowded city areas where they have been touring and to be here in the quiet countryside with Ivan´s delicious cuisine.
We had two separate groups for lunch on Thursday, one of 33 persons and the other of 15. Both groups left very happy.
In a couple of weeks time, we have a mushroom symposium going on here in the hotel, organised by the town hall and someone else... I´m not really sure. Ivan has been more involved with organising this event than I. We are already getting bookings for this event as some people will stay in the hotel. Unfortunately, it is the same weekend that I had hoped we would be launching our wine tasting weekends but as we have not yet had any takers for that, at least we will have some event happening in the hotel that weekend. Ivan is planning a menu of mushroom dishes which is very appropriate.
Our friend Dan was down last weekend as well with his partner and parents for 3 nights. It was very nice to see a good friend for a few days and just hang and enjoy some company of friends, something we don´t get much of these days.
Looks like our Bandit is going to have another litter of puppies. We figure they should be here about the 6th of December, just in time for another holiday weekend as that is Spanish Constitution Day. We´ve already got interested parties for the pups as well but one guy keeps asking for a gift and that is just not going to happen. they are for sale and anyone interested in lovely little French Bulldog pups for Xmas, just give us a call. As soon as those pups are born, I will be advertising them for sale as I´d like them gone by the time they are 8 weeks as I will be heading off on my holidays then and I don´t want to be held back by young pups hanging around.
No news on the pool project. Just as we were told, this architect we are using is very slow. we´ll have to give him a call next week to push him along.
Let´s see, what else is new here at the Hotel Bandolero? We finally got our telephone lines sorted. I got rid of the second Telefonica telephone line as we no longer need that for Internet hook-up. I had the primary telephone number (952.183.660) converted into a multi-use line so we can take two calls at the same time on the one number. My credit card machines and fax will work through there a lot easier now as well. We still have a second number as we have a telephone line provided by the company giving us the Internet connection (951.166.215). We also have the Wifi set up now and it is working very well. In fact, I am writing this blog entry on my laptop in the bar for the first time. I also recently went back to a call provider as opposed to the line provider which is Telefonica de España. The call provider is a UK company. Not only do they have great rate for long distance form Spain to the UK and US, they have given us a direct dial local number in the UK for our UK friends and clients to call us at only the cost of a UK local call and those calls will ring through to our primary number here in the hotel.... great!!
I also put some nice photos of my Mom put up in the reception area. These were old family photos that I paid a bomb for some reproductions. I have her baby photos hanging in the reception area... she was cute baby.
I also updated the website recently. I am finally caught up with guest comments in the guest comment book as well as all the photos I had to put on that page of clients. I had lots of photos pending for addition since August.... so they are all there now.
Well, that´s about all I have to say for now so it´s hasta luego.
