Yet another warm, bright, sunny day. Yesterday, the temperatures were around 20C here in the valley, a bit lower in Ronda. Very unseasonably warm.
All the wild almond trees are now in bloom, which is about the right timing. Every year since we have been here, these trees have started to bloom in January, so now is about the time. There are small purple crocuses as well dotting the mountainsides; quite lovely.
The renovation work across the road from the hotel on the lookout is just about finished. I'll have to snap a photo and install here for readers to see.
We have been busy redecorating a bit in the last few days. Ivan has painted a couple of the rooms; one wall in each room with a different color than the plain white which we've had since day one. Yes, the white is traditional and perhaps rustic, but a splash of color will make the rooms more distinctive and hopefully more cosy. I've been finishing the shelves we bought to put in the rooms and also am re-painting the hanging sign we had with the name of the hotel. The sign had become very difficult to read the hotel name, defeating the whole point of having a sign out there.
Once we have our pool completed, which we are hoping will be in early April, we will also install the name of the hotel above the pool, in tiles that we had made quite a while back. These tiles were just sitting in a box for the longest time so I finally removed them to have a look. There was some minor adjustments we wanted to make which we've now done. Once the pool is completed, the tiles will go up adding more color on the building than has been there. The whole hotel is white WHITE and it is a bit too much.... we were trying to find a way to make it less so and colors and plants will make the difference. I have to get some geraniums in early March as the ones I had have dried up and died so there is no color there, just empty pots hanging in the walls (I've now removed them). Anyway, many things to keep us occupied in these quiet times with no clients.
Saturday, 19 January 2008
Today is yet another bright clear day. Yesterday, the temperature here in the valley was about 19C while in Ronda it was more like 13C so much more comfortable weather here in Juzcar.
We have been trying to keep ourselves busy with "things" as it is very quiet here at the moment so it is a bit boring. We've changed our operating hours for the month as there is no one around after lunch. We are closed after lunch until at least mid-February.... that's not to say that there are a who;e lot of folks around for lunch either but IF there are people around, it's more likely during the day than after lunch into the evening.
We ordered a big Yucca to plant by the pool once that's completed. Our pool should be underway in the next few weeks. We've agreed all aspects of it with the contractor and the town hall inspector who had to agree the project. Now I am just waiting for the final paper approvals to arrive and then we can hopefully get the project underway. We expect it to be completed by mid-April which will be just perfect timing, if that works out. We had to change the project from what we originally envisioned as that was going to cost too much money and the architect did not really like our idea... he kept coming up with obstacles. We took care of that by firing the architect (no point in having a consultant work for you that tells you "not possible" all the time without providing an alternative idea, eh?) and changed the plan in the end anyway more related to the cost than the "could not" factor, if you will. Anyway, we think we will be very happy with the end result and we will have our own pool for our own clients on our property (instead of having to send them next door). We will also have a new exterior wall built, a terrace, a fountain (we think) and then have a new garden area around the back of the hotel. The back end of the hotel will also finally get a finished facade on it which will complete the hotel.
The village is also undertaking some works. Across the road from the hotel, the mirador (look-out point) is getting a face lift. The ugly chain-link fence has been removed and a brick wall with brick columns and iron railings is being installed; the bricks are in place now and only the fencing needs to be installed which is sitting there waiting to be installed. Then the ugly iron green fence across from the hotel is also going to be replaced with the same sort of brick/iron wall. It should be a great improvement to the entrance of the village.
The village is also installing a sidewalk and wall on the other side of the village from where we are and that is looking pretty good; that project has been underway for months but it is only being done by the part-time village workers so it is slow going where as the project across from the hotel is being done by a contractor.
We sold one of our puppies the other day..... good news. So we have three left to go (we have five but two are fro the male dog owner). They are getting big and will soon be escaping from the box where we keep them which is going to be a headache so I hope to sell a couple more this coming week.
We will be closing the hotel for our holiday at the end of the month for a couple of weeks. We are thinking of going to Amsterdam again this year to visit our friends there who may be leaving Europe this year. Alternatively, we may go to Morocco as it is near-by and inexpensive. We'll see where we go but I am definitely looking forward to a holiday away from here.
My PC went down again this week. Suddenly in the middle of doing something, the PC froze. I had no choice but to re-boot and when I did so, it would not restart as there was a "corrupt or missing file in the system registry. This is something I just don't understand.... this PC technology... my clock does not do this to me, nor my TV, radio, telephone. All these things just continue working normally if handled correctly. But the PC, for no given reason, will all of a sudden decide it is not going to function for you and BOOM, you're done. I had to take it into Ronda to have a technician fix it for me. Then he did not bother to reconfigure the PC the way it was before so I am still re-installing all the stuff that I had on here including MS XP Service Pack 2. Oh what a pain and it will function fine until the next time whenever that will be!! Oh the horror of modern technology.... it is so helpful and so frustrating at the same time. Now I have to restart the PC after having installed SP2 so adios for now amigos.
We have been trying to keep ourselves busy with "things" as it is very quiet here at the moment so it is a bit boring. We've changed our operating hours for the month as there is no one around after lunch. We are closed after lunch until at least mid-February.... that's not to say that there are a who;e lot of folks around for lunch either but IF there are people around, it's more likely during the day than after lunch into the evening.
We ordered a big Yucca to plant by the pool once that's completed. Our pool should be underway in the next few weeks. We've agreed all aspects of it with the contractor and the town hall inspector who had to agree the project. Now I am just waiting for the final paper approvals to arrive and then we can hopefully get the project underway. We expect it to be completed by mid-April which will be just perfect timing, if that works out. We had to change the project from what we originally envisioned as that was going to cost too much money and the architect did not really like our idea... he kept coming up with obstacles. We took care of that by firing the architect (no point in having a consultant work for you that tells you "not possible" all the time without providing an alternative idea, eh?) and changed the plan in the end anyway more related to the cost than the "could not" factor, if you will. Anyway, we think we will be very happy with the end result and we will have our own pool for our own clients on our property (instead of having to send them next door). We will also have a new exterior wall built, a terrace, a fountain (we think) and then have a new garden area around the back of the hotel. The back end of the hotel will also finally get a finished facade on it which will complete the hotel.
The village is also undertaking some works. Across the road from the hotel, the mirador (look-out point) is getting a face lift. The ugly chain-link fence has been removed and a brick wall with brick columns and iron railings is being installed; the bricks are in place now and only the fencing needs to be installed which is sitting there waiting to be installed. Then the ugly iron green fence across from the hotel is also going to be replaced with the same sort of brick/iron wall. It should be a great improvement to the entrance of the village.
The village is also installing a sidewalk and wall on the other side of the village from where we are and that is looking pretty good; that project has been underway for months but it is only being done by the part-time village workers so it is slow going where as the project across from the hotel is being done by a contractor.
We sold one of our puppies the other day..... good news. So we have three left to go (we have five but two are fro the male dog owner). They are getting big and will soon be escaping from the box where we keep them which is going to be a headache so I hope to sell a couple more this coming week.
We will be closing the hotel for our holiday at the end of the month for a couple of weeks. We are thinking of going to Amsterdam again this year to visit our friends there who may be leaving Europe this year. Alternatively, we may go to Morocco as it is near-by and inexpensive. We'll see where we go but I am definitely looking forward to a holiday away from here.
My PC went down again this week. Suddenly in the middle of doing something, the PC froze. I had no choice but to re-boot and when I did so, it would not restart as there was a "corrupt or missing file in the system registry. This is something I just don't understand.... this PC technology... my clock does not do this to me, nor my TV, radio, telephone. All these things just continue working normally if handled correctly. But the PC, for no given reason, will all of a sudden decide it is not going to function for you and BOOM, you're done. I had to take it into Ronda to have a technician fix it for me. Then he did not bother to reconfigure the PC the way it was before so I am still re-installing all the stuff that I had on here including MS XP Service Pack 2. Oh what a pain and it will function fine until the next time whenever that will be!! Oh the horror of modern technology.... it is so helpful and so frustrating at the same time. Now I have to restart the PC after having installed SP2 so adios for now amigos.
Friday, 28 December 2007
Tuesday, 25 December 2007
Friday, 14 December 2007
The weather has turned to winterish. It's been foggy and cool here in Juzcar. Today, Ronda was quite nice, sunny and clear. Here in Juzcar, it was kind of sunny this afternoon but it is now definitely December weather.
Our French Bulldog had six puppies last week. Today, they are a week old and are all doing nicely.
Juzcar is getting a bit of a face lift. New iron benches are being installed around the village, the fountain near the hotel has had a complete face lift in the last couple of weeks. The mirador across the road from the hotel is about to be redone eliminating the ugly chain link fence and installing a nice brick one with the new bench for sitting and enjoying the view. The green iron fence across the road from the hotel is also being removed in favor of a brick one which should be a big improvement.
We had a very busy weekend for the holiday weekend last week. The hotel was full for 3 nights and we had some trade for lunch as well. We had a nice group from Cordoba here for 3 nights. Now, we are in a very quiet period and have few bookings at all. The wine weekend is not really taking off like I was hoping. Perhaps it's just the wrong time of the year. WE have noticed that Spaniards are not out and about so much of late and we think this is due to the increased interest rate on the Euro increasing everyone's monthly payments to the bank. I know our house payment has gone up considerably in the last couple of years so everyone must be feeling the pinch and cutting back on recreational expenditures.
We went down to Malaga yesterday to do a bit of shopping and have a day out of the mountains as well. It was brilliant weather there too.
We also decorated the bar and terrace for Christmas. We have a big tree on the terrace and we have put all the lights on it in the last couple of days. The bar is very Christmas-ie, lots of decorations including a Santa Claus suit pegged to the front of the cigarette machine, finally a good use for that machine (which has not worked in over a year). Looks good too! We have a small tree in the bar with blue lights and lots of gold trimmings which Ivan did... also looking quite festive!!
Happy Holidays!
Our French Bulldog had six puppies last week. Today, they are a week old and are all doing nicely.
Juzcar is getting a bit of a face lift. New iron benches are being installed around the village, the fountain near the hotel has had a complete face lift in the last couple of weeks. The mirador across the road from the hotel is about to be redone eliminating the ugly chain link fence and installing a nice brick one with the new bench for sitting and enjoying the view. The green iron fence across the road from the hotel is also being removed in favor of a brick one which should be a big improvement.
We had a very busy weekend for the holiday weekend last week. The hotel was full for 3 nights and we had some trade for lunch as well. We had a nice group from Cordoba here for 3 nights. Now, we are in a very quiet period and have few bookings at all. The wine weekend is not really taking off like I was hoping. Perhaps it's just the wrong time of the year. WE have noticed that Spaniards are not out and about so much of late and we think this is due to the increased interest rate on the Euro increasing everyone's monthly payments to the bank. I know our house payment has gone up considerably in the last couple of years so everyone must be feeling the pinch and cutting back on recreational expenditures.
We went down to Malaga yesterday to do a bit of shopping and have a day out of the mountains as well. It was brilliant weather there too.
We also decorated the bar and terrace for Christmas. We have a big tree on the terrace and we have put all the lights on it in the last couple of days. The bar is very Christmas-ie, lots of decorations including a Santa Claus suit pegged to the front of the cigarette machine, finally a good use for that machine (which has not worked in over a year). Looks good too! We have a small tree in the bar with blue lights and lots of gold trimmings which Ivan did... also looking quite festive!!
Happy Holidays!
Thursday, 29 November 2007
Thursday, 29 November
This has been a quiet week so far. I've done some work on the website, accounting, paperwork and today I did some marketing to possible workshop providers. I already received one answer in the negative unfortunately. The only way to make things happen is to be persistent so I will just keep plugging away trying to find more people that hold theme holidays and try to get them to come here.
We've been having the hotel painted in the last few days as well. The facade of the hotel is very white now! Looks good and hopefully more water proof now with this paint.
The town has been renovating the fountain where we get our water from. I don't know why they needed to do this renovation project as it seemed to be functioning perfectly fine. Now it is a big alter like thing down this dirt track. Well apparently things are happening in Juzcar. With the new mayor, new projects are being reviewed and implemented. For example, we are told one of the roads will be resurfaced, the name of our street is being changed, a new health care facility for the town, new sidewalks. The new lamps going through the village were already being installed prior to the new mayor so he cannot claim that one. He does want to put all the cables underground which has already been done in a few other villages. The new street lamps are working now and look pretty good actually, very bright.
I got a free report on my website by some service recently and I found something new that I can do to try to improve my search results.... so I have to put some code on my blog, this code in fact...:
Technorati Profile
I want to be profiled by a web service called Technorati, sounds Italian. Anyway, I need to install this code to get some result from them so here it is.
The hotel is full for the holiday weekend starting 6 December, which is good. And my dog, Bandit, is about to have some puppies, due about 6 December, just in time for the holiday weekend.
Exciting times!
That's it for now
This has been a quiet week so far. I've done some work on the website, accounting, paperwork and today I did some marketing to possible workshop providers. I already received one answer in the negative unfortunately. The only way to make things happen is to be persistent so I will just keep plugging away trying to find more people that hold theme holidays and try to get them to come here.
We've been having the hotel painted in the last few days as well. The facade of the hotel is very white now! Looks good and hopefully more water proof now with this paint.
The town has been renovating the fountain where we get our water from. I don't know why they needed to do this renovation project as it seemed to be functioning perfectly fine. Now it is a big alter like thing down this dirt track. Well apparently things are happening in Juzcar. With the new mayor, new projects are being reviewed and implemented. For example, we are told one of the roads will be resurfaced, the name of our street is being changed, a new health care facility for the town, new sidewalks. The new lamps going through the village were already being installed prior to the new mayor so he cannot claim that one. He does want to put all the cables underground which has already been done in a few other villages. The new street lamps are working now and look pretty good actually, very bright.
I got a free report on my website by some service recently and I found something new that I can do to try to improve my search results.... so I have to put some code on my blog, this code in fact...:
Technorati Profile
I want to be profiled by a web service called Technorati, sounds Italian. Anyway, I need to install this code to get some result from them so here it is.
The hotel is full for the holiday weekend starting 6 December, which is good. And my dog, Bandit, is about to have some puppies, due about 6 December, just in time for the holiday weekend.
Exciting times!
That's it for now
Sunday, 18 November 2007
18 November 2007
We´ve been busy these last few days. This weekend here in Júzcar, we´ve had a festival of mushrooms. This was organised by the town hall and local hiking club called Pasos Largos. It all started on Friday evening with a seminar about wild mushrooms. There were about90 people here for this including some village people. Yesterday (Saturday), there was also a review in the evening of mushrooms which was held in our restaurant.... it was packed. the road was completely full of cars and this is one of the reasons I did not have a break. Fortunately, we had Iris in the kitchen helping Ivan, Toñi was helping me put plates out in the restaurant and Delia, who used to work here, came in to help out for the day; without this extra help, there would have been no way to make it through the day sanely!!
The hotel was also full both Friday and Saturday nights. So we had all of them for breakfast plus passing traffic waiting to go on the mushroom excursion. Busy busy busy!! The mushroom excursion was up onto Los Riscos and into the countryside in search of mushrooms, "setas" in Spanish. Here in the hotel, we had a special menu of the day that was all about mushrooms, a mushroom soup or risotto to start, dorada (fish) or jamon estufado as a second course and a fantastic mandarin mousse dessert in the form of a mushroom as seen in the photo below... another fantastic creation by Chef Iván Sastre.
We´ve been busy these last few days. This weekend here in Júzcar, we´ve had a festival of mushrooms. This was organised by the town hall and local hiking club called Pasos Largos. It all started on Friday evening with a seminar about wild mushrooms. There were about90 people here for this including some village people. Yesterday (Saturday), there was also a review in the evening of mushrooms which was held in our restaurant.... it was packed. the road was completely full of cars and this is one of the reasons I did not have a break. Fortunately, we had Iris in the kitchen helping Ivan, Toñi was helping me put plates out in the restaurant and Delia, who used to work here, came in to help out for the day; without this extra help, there would have been no way to make it through the day sanely!!
The hotel was also full both Friday and Saturday nights. So we had all of them for breakfast plus passing traffic waiting to go on the mushroom excursion. Busy busy busy!! The mushroom excursion was up onto Los Riscos and into the countryside in search of mushrooms, "setas" in Spanish. Here in the hotel, we had a special menu of the day that was all about mushrooms, a mushroom soup or risotto to start, dorada (fish) or jamon estufado as a second course and a fantastic mandarin mousse dessert in the form of a mushroom as seen in the photo below... another fantastic creation by Chef Iván Sastre.
Mushroom Dessert - Amanita Caesaria - Mandarin Mousse on Baked Merengue with Kiwi Sauce and Chocolate SprinklesLast night, the village held a tostón, a chestnut roast. This year, the chestnut harvest here in the Serranía de Ronda was the best its been in a quite sometime. There was a reported 2 million kilos more chestnuts than last year... that made a total of 5 million kilos of chestnuts harvested this year. So, as one may imagine, lots of people were happier this year than in recent years when the harvest was suffering due to lack of rain. Anyway, the town hall bought 50 kilos of chestnuts to roast for anyone who showed up... it started at11.30 p.m. We did not go because by the time we left the hotel, it was well after midnight (I had been in the hotel since 8.45 a.m. with no break all day). We were just booming yesterday with this mushroom event. In fact, we had 63 people for lunch, Iván´s menu was completely gone by the end and people were still trying to get in at 5.00 for lunch!! A bit late for lunch, even by Spanish standards.
And even now as I write (on my laptop), I am standing in front of a group who are here looking at a mushroom exhibition in the breakfast dining room with a mushroom expert discussing them. There are even mushrooms here that would kill you, dangerous to touch even.
Last weekend, we had a group of English couples here for a two nights from Nerja. They had stayed here before having discovered us when Iván and I were on the radio on the coast a few months back, REM-FM. This group was actually quite surprised that they were the only ones to follow through and book in with us after we were on the radio. They thought we would have been over whelmed with people seeking rooms or food... sadly, that was not the case. Perhaps we should try to get on that radio station again for some more publicity. anyway, they stayed for a couple of nights having booked six rooms, and all were very happy with everything, yet again.
Last week, I also saw a flock of vulture soaring above Júzcar one day on my way into Ronda. Another day, I watched a couple of vulture catching the thermals above the valley, again when I was on my way to Ronda, as I went to Ronda four of five days last week.
The pool project has not advanced at all as the architect we have is quite incompetent, I think. We have to arrange for him to see the pool we want built at a hotel on the north side of Ronda. He can´t make a design change to our project without seeing the pool first. And we´ve now only been waiting more than a month for this to happen.... very frustrating as I was all set to just get this pool built the minute I got back from NY in August. Ah well!
A package arrived a couple of days ago from one of the ladies that were here for the Maggie Price Painting holiday in October. Martha sent us this very thoughtful package from Texas and included some beef jerky, tortillas with hot sauce, peanut butter, music CDs, pecans from Texas which she sells on her website which arrived in a tin can in the shape of the state of Texas (which is very cool!!) and some photos for the resident ladies of the village. How very nice of her to send us this package!!
¡Hasta la proxima!
And even now as I write (on my laptop), I am standing in front of a group who are here looking at a mushroom exhibition in the breakfast dining room with a mushroom expert discussing them. There are even mushrooms here that would kill you, dangerous to touch even.
Last weekend, we had a group of English couples here for a two nights from Nerja. They had stayed here before having discovered us when Iván and I were on the radio on the coast a few months back, REM-FM. This group was actually quite surprised that they were the only ones to follow through and book in with us after we were on the radio. They thought we would have been over whelmed with people seeking rooms or food... sadly, that was not the case. Perhaps we should try to get on that radio station again for some more publicity. anyway, they stayed for a couple of nights having booked six rooms, and all were very happy with everything, yet again.
Last week, I also saw a flock of vulture soaring above Júzcar one day on my way into Ronda. Another day, I watched a couple of vulture catching the thermals above the valley, again when I was on my way to Ronda, as I went to Ronda four of five days last week.
The pool project has not advanced at all as the architect we have is quite incompetent, I think. We have to arrange for him to see the pool we want built at a hotel on the north side of Ronda. He can´t make a design change to our project without seeing the pool first. And we´ve now only been waiting more than a month for this to happen.... very frustrating as I was all set to just get this pool built the minute I got back from NY in August. Ah well!
A package arrived a couple of days ago from one of the ladies that were here for the Maggie Price Painting holiday in October. Martha sent us this very thoughtful package from Texas and included some beef jerky, tortillas with hot sauce, peanut butter, music CDs, pecans from Texas which she sells on her website which arrived in a tin can in the shape of the state of Texas (which is very cool!!) and some photos for the resident ladies of the village. How very nice of her to send us this package!!
¡Hasta la proxima!
Saturday, 3 November 2007
JÚZCAR, MÁLAGA
Hotel Bandolero is located in Júzcar, in the Genal Valley in the Serranía de Ronda, Málaga province, Andalucia, España.
Júzcar is correctly pronounced "WHOth-car". I write this now because so many people arrive here asking how to pronounce it; "jew-z-car" is one pronunciation, "jewth-car" is another. Some locals pronounce it "WHO-ca" which sounds as awful as it looks. Of course the correct way is "WHOth-car".
That´s it.
Hotel Bandolero is located in Júzcar, in the Genal Valley in the Serranía de Ronda, Málaga province, Andalucia, España.
Júzcar is correctly pronounced "WHOth-car". I write this now because so many people arrive here asking how to pronounce it; "jew-z-car" is one pronunciation, "jewth-car" is another. Some locals pronounce it "WHO-ca" which sounds as awful as it looks. Of course the correct way is "WHOth-car".
That´s it.
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.
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
Bandolero Wine Tasting Weekends
Now offering the following:
Our two night weekend package comprises:-
Two nights half board basis in Hotel Bandolero; Tasting of Ronda wines by sommelier Paula MacLean; Tour and tasting at a top Ronda Bodega, including return transport to the bodega and Ronda itself; A tapas lunch in charming Ronda; Free time to explore the fascinating and historic old town; Learn about the art of Spanish ham curing and cutting from a Ronda-based Spanish national champion; Marriage of wines of Andalucía with classic dishes prepared by our Cordon Bleu Chef, Iván Sastre.
Not included: flights, airport transfers, beverages at tapas lunch, more than two drinks at dinner.
Only 250 Euros per person !!
Our 2007 Dates:
16 - 18 November 2007
23 - 25 November 2007
14 - 16 December 2007
NOW ACCEPTING RESERVATIONS
If you don't see a date that suits your requirements, please contact us as we can prepare a package that suits your specific needs including dates for 2008.
More on Ronda Wines
Now offering the following:
Our two night weekend package comprises:-
Not included: flights, airport transfers, beverages at tapas lunch, more than two drinks at dinner.
Only 250 Euros per person !!
Our 2007 Dates:
NOW ACCEPTING RESERVATIONS
If you don't see a date that suits your requirements, please contact us as we can prepare a package that suits your specific needs including dates for 2008.
More on Ronda Wines
23 October 2007
Back in early September, we had a group of painters here for 7 nights from Edinburgh. The same group organiser, Nicky, was here last year as well and she has booked in for three more weeks next year doing various things including a wine tasting week.
At the end of September, the Americans started arriving creating a busy first three weeks of October. Our first group was mainly from Texas although there were a couple of folks from Oregon. The second group was from various locations including Oregon, California, Washington DC, Colorado and Vermont. The instructors, Maggie and Bill, are from New Mexico, same as last year.
The first group was slightly larger than the second one so I had organised bus transportation for them with a driver but with the second group, being a bit smaller, I was the driver. With the second group, I managed to get a bit of painting time in as well, my first attempt at pastel painting. Maggie wanted to show me how to get started with pastels and I have a copy of her recently published book as well ("Painting with Pastels") which is written for those with little to no experience in pastels. I also have plenty of pastels to experiment with as I inherited them from my Mom who was quite accomplished in pastels.
So we travelled around the area painting white villages, distant valleys and mountains, rooftops, churches, trees, clouds, my hotel and other subjects. All appeared quite content with the area for subjects and of course all were happy with Ivan´s cooking at the end of each day. He dazzled them on the final night of each workshop with a medley of tapas and then one of his delicious desserts.
We been quite busy all in all since my return from NY in early August. We still got bookings through early November and into January already. This is not counting the booked weekend for the upcoming workshops next year. If you´d like more info on those workshops, please go to my Theme Holidays page for details at
http://www.hotelbandolero.com/themes/home-eng .
Something new, we are now offering Wine Tasting weekends. We have a package deal on offer currently for two nights in the hotel on a Half-board basis including a lunch in Ronda after a visit to one of Ronda´s fantastic local vineyards, a wine tasting of local Ronda wines and regional Spanish wines lead by our local sommilier, Paula McLean, a marriage of wines and food instruction at dinner in the hotel as well as a seminar on the art of Spanish hams, curing and the art of slicing `provided by a Spanish national champion based in Ronda. All in all, quite a good package, now all we need are some punters to take up the offer.
We´re still working on getting our own swimming pool built but that project moves slowly ahead, something like an ice berg floating along in the sea. Our architect needs to make a couple of revisions to the plan he´s already prepared and he is the one slowing everything down and his has quite a reputation for being that slow, unfortunately for us. I would really lover to have that pool ready for just after Easter which is arriving early next year. so that would mean it would be open for April.
We are also putting our house up for sale so if there are any punter interested in buying a house in Júzcar, just give us a quick ring. the idea of selling the house materialised back in May. Why do we want to sell the house you wonder? Well it has everything to do with monthly mortgage payments... the interest rate has gone no where but up since we first bought the house and since we have a variable rate, our payments have risen along with it and I would just love to put those funds to better use than in a house that we really only sleep in. We have sufficient space in the hotel to create an owner´s apartment, in fact, I think we would have more space in the hotel than what we have in the house so it is going on the market officially in the coming days. We´ve already spoken with an estate agent in Ronda to sell it and so if you´re interested in viewing the photos, I´ll post here the details of where to find the listing so you can have a look for anyone interested in having a lovely house in Júzcar.
There are quite a few things happening in the village of late as well. At the moment, there are road works in front of Bar Torrechelli´s where the town is installing new pipes for sewage. The new village street lamps are still going in, that project was started in early May and does not appear to be making any headway toward getting it finished anytime soon, but ah, that´s how things happen here in Júzcar, perhaps all of Málaga interior in fact. The lamp posts are now standing in place but do not have actual lamps on them, they are just the posts. In fact, this new sewage project seems to be moving along at a faster pace than the lamp project and it only started a week or so ago, so that is very fast in relative terms for Júzcar. Maybe that project will be completed before Christmas. I think it may have priority over the others because there is a road detour and no one seems to be able to read or under stand signs; I know this because the detour is in front of the hotel and many that sees it, stop their car to come in and ask me or Ivan how to get through the village, even though there are these signs with arrows pointing which way to go. Go figure, I guess people are so used to signs that lead to no where that they would rather check with a real person first before driving down a road that may wind up being too narrow for their car to pass through (I had an experience like that in Genalguácil and boy did it ever stress me out!!).
Another big step forward made here recently is that we in the hotel now have wireless available. In fact, I am writing this blog entry on my new laptop and I am standing in the breakfast dining room doing so while Ivan is working in front of me on his new bandolera statue made of paper maché to be a companion to our bandolero. We now have a second PC available for our clients in the salon to access their emails and check the weather and look for their next accommodation, etc. And for those who are very techie advanced and travel with their own laptops, they can hook into my wifi network, which is password protected. I must add all this info to my website to alert the travelling public about another advantage to staying at Hotel Bandolero.
I also now have my website available in Dutch, thanks to the translations provided to me by my good Dutch friend, Edwin. Dutch is the last language that I am adding to the site and this is due to the high volume of clients that come from either the Netherlands or Belgium, keep on coming!!
We´ve also recently added a new double bed to one of the Suites and we are told it is quite comfortable. I have therefore added the other existing double bed to one of the double rooms and now only need to get one more new double bed for the other suite and a new mattress for the existing double bed.
We´ve also changed our cleaning help recently. That was due to her, Maria, deciding to take on other work, not bothering to tell us about it, and then showing up late for work here all the time, all at the time that the hotel was full of guests. when I asked her about it, the first thing out of her mouth was, well if you want to get someone else, go ahead. That was something the Spanish would say was "sin vergüenza", no shame. We thought she was our best employee, we were quite happy with her work, quality of work and attitude... until this happened (after 3 years) and she could not be bothered to give us the courtesy of telling us what was happening with her. Very disappointing behavior but symptomatic of the attitude people here have toward work... if they can get out of working and still get paid, they are done in a NY minute. She informed us after our asking that she got a contract with this program from the Junta de Andalucia which pays 600€ a month for only 15 days of work and then the remainder of the month free. So why would anyone want to work for private enterprise and have to bust a gut when they can work for a couple of weeks, get the same amount of money or more and have lots of free time? It is a program provided by the government which does nothing to promote private enterprise and growth of new work for the people. The people just don´t care as long as they can go and party when they want... that mañana attitude which Iván tells me is typical of Andalucia, not all of Spain but only here in the south. And no wonder when the regional government does nothing to make the people help themselves, maintaining programs from Franco´s days when Spain was still a poor southern European nation... absolutely not the case today!! So now we have Toñi on a full-time basis... she was with us a year a go but left to run her own bar which in the end she decided was not worth the amount of hours she had to put in (7AM to 11PM, way too many hours). She was very happy when we offered her a spot back here and then to take up the cleaning role more fully, she works with a smile and actually speask to our clients which Maria did not do.
Next weekend, we have a couple of friends from London coming to spend the weekend in Júzcar with parents as well from Florida which will be quite nice. And then we have a busy holiday weekend the following week as 1st November is a national holiday in Spain.
I have some other work to catch up with now so I have to say hasta la proxima. I must try to get the next blog entry done sometime next week but in the meantime, I have left quite a bit here for you all to read.
Back in early September, we had a group of painters here for 7 nights from Edinburgh. The same group organiser, Nicky, was here last year as well and she has booked in for three more weeks next year doing various things including a wine tasting week.
At the end of September, the Americans started arriving creating a busy first three weeks of October. Our first group was mainly from Texas although there were a couple of folks from Oregon. The second group was from various locations including Oregon, California, Washington DC, Colorado and Vermont. The instructors, Maggie and Bill, are from New Mexico, same as last year.
The first group was slightly larger than the second one so I had organised bus transportation for them with a driver but with the second group, being a bit smaller, I was the driver. With the second group, I managed to get a bit of painting time in as well, my first attempt at pastel painting. Maggie wanted to show me how to get started with pastels and I have a copy of her recently published book as well ("Painting with Pastels") which is written for those with little to no experience in pastels. I also have plenty of pastels to experiment with as I inherited them from my Mom who was quite accomplished in pastels.
So we travelled around the area painting white villages, distant valleys and mountains, rooftops, churches, trees, clouds, my hotel and other subjects. All appeared quite content with the area for subjects and of course all were happy with Ivan´s cooking at the end of each day. He dazzled them on the final night of each workshop with a medley of tapas and then one of his delicious desserts.
We been quite busy all in all since my return from NY in early August. We still got bookings through early November and into January already. This is not counting the booked weekend for the upcoming workshops next year. If you´d like more info on those workshops, please go to my Theme Holidays page for details at
http://www.hotelbandolero.com/themes/home-eng .
Something new, we are now offering Wine Tasting weekends. We have a package deal on offer currently for two nights in the hotel on a Half-board basis including a lunch in Ronda after a visit to one of Ronda´s fantastic local vineyards, a wine tasting of local Ronda wines and regional Spanish wines lead by our local sommilier, Paula McLean, a marriage of wines and food instruction at dinner in the hotel as well as a seminar on the art of Spanish hams, curing and the art of slicing `provided by a Spanish national champion based in Ronda. All in all, quite a good package, now all we need are some punters to take up the offer.
We´re still working on getting our own swimming pool built but that project moves slowly ahead, something like an ice berg floating along in the sea. Our architect needs to make a couple of revisions to the plan he´s already prepared and he is the one slowing everything down and his has quite a reputation for being that slow, unfortunately for us. I would really lover to have that pool ready for just after Easter which is arriving early next year. so that would mean it would be open for April.
We are also putting our house up for sale so if there are any punter interested in buying a house in Júzcar, just give us a quick ring. the idea of selling the house materialised back in May. Why do we want to sell the house you wonder? Well it has everything to do with monthly mortgage payments... the interest rate has gone no where but up since we first bought the house and since we have a variable rate, our payments have risen along with it and I would just love to put those funds to better use than in a house that we really only sleep in. We have sufficient space in the hotel to create an owner´s apartment, in fact, I think we would have more space in the hotel than what we have in the house so it is going on the market officially in the coming days. We´ve already spoken with an estate agent in Ronda to sell it and so if you´re interested in viewing the photos, I´ll post here the details of where to find the listing so you can have a look for anyone interested in having a lovely house in Júzcar.
There are quite a few things happening in the village of late as well. At the moment, there are road works in front of Bar Torrechelli´s where the town is installing new pipes for sewage. The new village street lamps are still going in, that project was started in early May and does not appear to be making any headway toward getting it finished anytime soon, but ah, that´s how things happen here in Júzcar, perhaps all of Málaga interior in fact. The lamp posts are now standing in place but do not have actual lamps on them, they are just the posts. In fact, this new sewage project seems to be moving along at a faster pace than the lamp project and it only started a week or so ago, so that is very fast in relative terms for Júzcar. Maybe that project will be completed before Christmas. I think it may have priority over the others because there is a road detour and no one seems to be able to read or under stand signs; I know this because the detour is in front of the hotel and many that sees it, stop their car to come in and ask me or Ivan how to get through the village, even though there are these signs with arrows pointing which way to go. Go figure, I guess people are so used to signs that lead to no where that they would rather check with a real person first before driving down a road that may wind up being too narrow for their car to pass through (I had an experience like that in Genalguácil and boy did it ever stress me out!!).
Another big step forward made here recently is that we in the hotel now have wireless available. In fact, I am writing this blog entry on my new laptop and I am standing in the breakfast dining room doing so while Ivan is working in front of me on his new bandolera statue made of paper maché to be a companion to our bandolero. We now have a second PC available for our clients in the salon to access their emails and check the weather and look for their next accommodation, etc. And for those who are very techie advanced and travel with their own laptops, they can hook into my wifi network, which is password protected. I must add all this info to my website to alert the travelling public about another advantage to staying at Hotel Bandolero.
I also now have my website available in Dutch, thanks to the translations provided to me by my good Dutch friend, Edwin. Dutch is the last language that I am adding to the site and this is due to the high volume of clients that come from either the Netherlands or Belgium, keep on coming!!
We´ve also recently added a new double bed to one of the Suites and we are told it is quite comfortable. I have therefore added the other existing double bed to one of the double rooms and now only need to get one more new double bed for the other suite and a new mattress for the existing double bed.
We´ve also changed our cleaning help recently. That was due to her, Maria, deciding to take on other work, not bothering to tell us about it, and then showing up late for work here all the time, all at the time that the hotel was full of guests. when I asked her about it, the first thing out of her mouth was, well if you want to get someone else, go ahead. That was something the Spanish would say was "sin vergüenza", no shame. We thought she was our best employee, we were quite happy with her work, quality of work and attitude... until this happened (after 3 years) and she could not be bothered to give us the courtesy of telling us what was happening with her. Very disappointing behavior but symptomatic of the attitude people here have toward work... if they can get out of working and still get paid, they are done in a NY minute. She informed us after our asking that she got a contract with this program from the Junta de Andalucia which pays 600€ a month for only 15 days of work and then the remainder of the month free. So why would anyone want to work for private enterprise and have to bust a gut when they can work for a couple of weeks, get the same amount of money or more and have lots of free time? It is a program provided by the government which does nothing to promote private enterprise and growth of new work for the people. The people just don´t care as long as they can go and party when they want... that mañana attitude which Iván tells me is typical of Andalucia, not all of Spain but only here in the south. And no wonder when the regional government does nothing to make the people help themselves, maintaining programs from Franco´s days when Spain was still a poor southern European nation... absolutely not the case today!! So now we have Toñi on a full-time basis... she was with us a year a go but left to run her own bar which in the end she decided was not worth the amount of hours she had to put in (7AM to 11PM, way too many hours). She was very happy when we offered her a spot back here and then to take up the cleaning role more fully, she works with a smile and actually speask to our clients which Maria did not do.
Next weekend, we have a couple of friends from London coming to spend the weekend in Júzcar with parents as well from Florida which will be quite nice. And then we have a busy holiday weekend the following week as 1st November is a national holiday in Spain.
I have some other work to catch up with now so I have to say hasta la proxima. I must try to get the next blog entry done sometime next week but in the meantime, I have left quite a bit here for you all to read.
Saturday, 15 September 2007
15 September 2007
Well it's been almost three months since my last entry. I was in New York from 19 June until 6 August as my mom was quite ill from cancer; she eventually succumbed to it on 22 July. When I returned to Juzcar, there was a lot to catch up on. Ivan had been virtually running the place on his own.... he had very little help from our "waiter". Fortunately (or unfortunately as it were), June & July are fairly quiet months for us so Ivan was just able to manage on his own. That said, I continued to manage any email booking requests and all the accounting got backed up as that is one of my responsibilities. So I have been quite busy since my return, not only trying to catch up but dealing with on-going things like guests in the hotel, serving food, organising the construction of a new swimming pool, preparing for the art groups which have now started arriving, installing a new on-line booking system on our website and updating the website amongst other things
Upon my return, I found Maria and Inocencio already here. They are our clients from Barcelona who have now spent quite a bit of time with us. As was the case last year, they were here for the month of August; very nice couple. We also had the upcoming fiestas in the valley; August in general the best month of summer for us.
While I was away, one day when Ivan was returning from Ronda, he saw a snake eagle flying over the valley between Cartajima and Juzcar. It was holding a large snake in its talons; as it was hanging over the valley but quite close to the road, Ivan stopped the car to have a closer look. He keeps telling me how fantastic this view was as the eagle was quite close to where he stood. Then the eagle dropped the snake into the valley below, no doubt preparing to consume it. This is just one of the quite exciting sites one can see here in the Genal Valley. I myself have seen eagles soaring above, screeching while searching for prey. Groups of Griffin vultures swirling around obviously preparing to have some kind of meal. And many other smaller birds such as bee eaters and rock buntings swooping around the road between here and the A397, the Ronda San Pedro road.
There is quite a lot for bird watchers to see here but I don't think the bird watchers have any real idea of the quantity and quality of the birds they can see in the Genal Valley as we have had very few bird watchers come and stay with us. for those of you interested in the types of birds you can see here, a major north/south corridor for bird during the migration season, please go to the bird page on my website at Bandolero Birds.
I have also been pushing to get our Wine Weekends moving ahead. This was something I was working on before I left in June and as I was away and then busy for the whole summer, we only recently went to meet the owners of three local wineries here in the Ronda area. We also had a wine tasting "dry run" as it were, only yesterday. Our local wine expert, Paula, was here to undertake this exercise so we could see how it would go and we were all pleased with the results. Now all I have to do is get some pricing in order, create a new web page about the wine tasting offerings and away we go!
Any takers out there.... for wine or birds???
Well, this is it for now.... more later, but not so much as this last time. Now that I am back in the saddle, I'd like to have at least one entry as week for this blog so we'll see how successful I am at achieving that
Well it's been almost three months since my last entry. I was in New York from 19 June until 6 August as my mom was quite ill from cancer; she eventually succumbed to it on 22 July. When I returned to Juzcar, there was a lot to catch up on. Ivan had been virtually running the place on his own.... he had very little help from our "waiter". Fortunately (or unfortunately as it were), June & July are fairly quiet months for us so Ivan was just able to manage on his own. That said, I continued to manage any email booking requests and all the accounting got backed up as that is one of my responsibilities. So I have been quite busy since my return, not only trying to catch up but dealing with on-going things like guests in the hotel, serving food, organising the construction of a new swimming pool, preparing for the art groups which have now started arriving, installing a new on-line booking system on our website and updating the website amongst other things
Upon my return, I found Maria and Inocencio already here. They are our clients from Barcelona who have now spent quite a bit of time with us. As was the case last year, they were here for the month of August; very nice couple. We also had the upcoming fiestas in the valley; August in general the best month of summer for us.
While I was away, one day when Ivan was returning from Ronda, he saw a snake eagle flying over the valley between Cartajima and Juzcar. It was holding a large snake in its talons; as it was hanging over the valley but quite close to the road, Ivan stopped the car to have a closer look. He keeps telling me how fantastic this view was as the eagle was quite close to where he stood. Then the eagle dropped the snake into the valley below, no doubt preparing to consume it. This is just one of the quite exciting sites one can see here in the Genal Valley. I myself have seen eagles soaring above, screeching while searching for prey. Groups of Griffin vultures swirling around obviously preparing to have some kind of meal. And many other smaller birds such as bee eaters and rock buntings swooping around the road between here and the A397, the Ronda San Pedro road.
There is quite a lot for bird watchers to see here but I don't think the bird watchers have any real idea of the quantity and quality of the birds they can see in the Genal Valley as we have had very few bird watchers come and stay with us. for those of you interested in the types of birds you can see here, a major north/south corridor for bird during the migration season, please go to the bird page on my website at Bandolero Birds.
I have also been pushing to get our Wine Weekends moving ahead. This was something I was working on before I left in June and as I was away and then busy for the whole summer, we only recently went to meet the owners of three local wineries here in the Ronda area. We also had a wine tasting "dry run" as it were, only yesterday. Our local wine expert, Paula, was here to undertake this exercise so we could see how it would go and we were all pleased with the results. Now all I have to do is get some pricing in order, create a new web page about the wine tasting offerings and away we go!
Any takers out there.... for wine or birds???
Well, this is it for now.... more later, but not so much as this last time. Now that I am back in the saddle, I'd like to have at least one entry as week for this blog so we'll see how successful I am at achieving that
Monday, 25 June 2007
We now have a lovely pool for our guests to lounge by when they are not out enjoying the local area. Completed in May, there are comfortable loungers from which one can enjoy views of the surrounding valley and mountains.
Here are a couple of photos:
Here are a couple of photos:
Come and enjoy a swim in the cool pool or enjoy a swim down in the Genal River. It has already been prepared for summer.
The swimming hole in the River Genal in Juzcar is in an area covered with poplar trees with a snack stand that has very refreshing cold beers. The water is crisp and refreshing as well. While one needs to drive down to the river spot (one could walk down but then one would need to walk back!), it is well worth it as it is quite peaceful and tranquil, especially during the week when there is practically no one there. One can spend the entire day reading, napping, eating>, and, of course, swimming.
There are also the ruins of the oldest factory in Spain just a short meander up a track from the snack stand. So one may even enjoy a wee bit of history while taking in the pleasures of nature in this secluded little spot.
Yet another reason to come to the Genal Valley... fabulous food at the Hotel Bandolero, cool swimming opportunities, rest and relaxation... what more does one need to disconnect from one's heavy daily routine?
The swimming hole in the River Genal in Juzcar is in an area covered with poplar trees with a snack stand that has very refreshing cold beers. The water is crisp and refreshing as well. While one needs to drive down to the river spot (one could walk down but then one would need to walk back!), it is well worth it as it is quite peaceful and tranquil, especially during the week when there is practically no one there. One can spend the entire day reading, napping, eating>, and, of course, swimming.
There are also the ruins of the oldest factory in Spain just a short meander up a track from the snack stand. So one may even enjoy a wee bit of history while taking in the pleasures of nature in this secluded little spot.
Yet another reason to come to the Genal Valley... fabulous food at the Hotel Bandolero, cool swimming opportunities, rest and relaxation... what more does one need to disconnect from one's heavy daily routine?
Thursday, 21 June 2007
21 June 2007
Since early May, we had the wedding cake for 350 persons to prepare. We got that done and dusted and the cake was loved by one and all, including the servers at the wedding or so we were told. It was a strawberry mousse with white chocolate and fresh strawberries. Ivan made a five level cake with a decoration on the top and then three large sheets of cake. We had to deliver it the restaurant where the wedding reception was held, about 12 KM from Hotel Bandolero. The whole village plus some attended the wedding. We were unable to attend because we had the Ronda Feria event to attend.
That was on the same day, Saturday 19 May. Iván and I were once again invited to participate in a restaurant culinary demonstration at the feria. Iván decided to do something related to sweets. Our (and I say 'our' because my name was posted on the poster as well although all I did was stand around and clean while Ivan did the demo) time was 8PM that evening, a prime time slot. Iván prepared strawberry ravioli filled with sweet lemon mascarpone cream, strawberry and cava soup and a praline tart. This was indeed a hit.
As May is a big month for first communions, we received orders for three big cakes for people in the neighboring village of Faraján. Again all was well.
Then there was the election on 27 May. It was finally determined that I could definitely not vote as I am not from a European member country (which did not surprise me at all). Anyway, the campaigning finally got into full swing in Júzcar three weeks before election day when posters of the various candidates went up around the village. The candidates themselves went around under the cover of night (or so it seemed) to install thee posters, whether it be sticking them onto a wall, trash bins, houses or hanging them across a road. The PSOE candidates had an event which included some food and drinks but also gave a presentation on what their platform is... an impressive event as something like that had never ever been held before in Júzcar. We were all very pleased to see this as it was a very positive thing for all.
The PP candidates (the conservatives) also had an event, a meal for the whole village, gratis. Ivan and I were not sure if this would really win votes for them, basically saying that they should be elected because they provided some free food. There was no presentation of their platform. Not knowing the people of the village all that well, we were not sure if that would win a vote. Later we were told by our neighbours that it would indeed not win votes but.... hey, free food is free food so the entire village turned up, and why not? A party is a party after all.
The swimming pool installed by our neighbour Paul was completed and filled in with water in May as well. Iván was the first one in the pool; it´s a very nice pool, a modest size but adequate for the need. Again here I say 'our' because Paul has very generously allowed us to send out clients to his pool as we do not actually have our own pool... yet. He is also allowing us to use the pool ourselves and we have. Paul also invited us to participate in his purchase of outdoor furniture for our terraces as he was getting such a great deal on his. Some of that has already arrived and has made a big improvement of the appearance of our room terraces. Once I have the remaining new furniture in place, I must get some updated photos on our website.
Website news as well.... I've now bought the Spanish domain of our website, www.hotelbandolero.es . I have converted the http://www.hotelbandolero.com/ website into an English language homepage and the hotelbandolero.es page is now the Spanish language homepage. This was all done to improve our search results in Google and other search engines. The .es domain only cost 2 Euros for the whole year, quite a good deal.
Business has slowed right down now which was not unexpected. I think for the whole month of June, we've had a whole of four room bookings.... maybe, and passing trade for food has dropped right off as well. July does not look much better either... this even with that pool on the website for about 4 weeks now. I was hoping that a pool would improve booking queries but that has not really happened thus far. Makes me wonder whether it would be folly for us to bother spending any cash on a pool of our own... especially when the one next door is so nice.
I am actually now in NYC visiting with my Mom. The day I left, David Fernandez, the new Júzcar mayor, asked Ivan to prepare food for 200 people at the Juzcar annual Romeria on 30 June. I won't be there for that as I arrive from NYC on 1 July, but in any case, that would be good business for us. The Júzcar Romeria is an annual event which takes place down by the river where there is a camp-site and the river swimming area. There are horses, singing, dancing, food and drinks.....an all day event in the campo which I wouldn't have minded attending, especially as we may be doing the food. The romeria starts off with a procession of the Virgin of Moclón, Júzcar's patron, from the village down to the campo. Iván will have some help from Iris and Danny, our weekend workers if we does actually prepare all the food.
So, the story of Diego... I must post that here, perhaps tomorrow but this entry is now getting too long so I will say Adios for today.
Since early May, we had the wedding cake for 350 persons to prepare. We got that done and dusted and the cake was loved by one and all, including the servers at the wedding or so we were told. It was a strawberry mousse with white chocolate and fresh strawberries. Ivan made a five level cake with a decoration on the top and then three large sheets of cake. We had to deliver it the restaurant where the wedding reception was held, about 12 KM from Hotel Bandolero. The whole village plus some attended the wedding. We were unable to attend because we had the Ronda Feria event to attend.
That was on the same day, Saturday 19 May. Iván and I were once again invited to participate in a restaurant culinary demonstration at the feria. Iván decided to do something related to sweets. Our (and I say 'our' because my name was posted on the poster as well although all I did was stand around and clean while Ivan did the demo) time was 8PM that evening, a prime time slot. Iván prepared strawberry ravioli filled with sweet lemon mascarpone cream, strawberry and cava soup and a praline tart. This was indeed a hit.
As May is a big month for first communions, we received orders for three big cakes for people in the neighboring village of Faraján. Again all was well.
Then there was the election on 27 May. It was finally determined that I could definitely not vote as I am not from a European member country (which did not surprise me at all). Anyway, the campaigning finally got into full swing in Júzcar three weeks before election day when posters of the various candidates went up around the village. The candidates themselves went around under the cover of night (or so it seemed) to install thee posters, whether it be sticking them onto a wall, trash bins, houses or hanging them across a road. The PSOE candidates had an event which included some food and drinks but also gave a presentation on what their platform is... an impressive event as something like that had never ever been held before in Júzcar. We were all very pleased to see this as it was a very positive thing for all.
The PP candidates (the conservatives) also had an event, a meal for the whole village, gratis. Ivan and I were not sure if this would really win votes for them, basically saying that they should be elected because they provided some free food. There was no presentation of their platform. Not knowing the people of the village all that well, we were not sure if that would win a vote. Later we were told by our neighbours that it would indeed not win votes but.... hey, free food is free food so the entire village turned up, and why not? A party is a party after all.
The swimming pool installed by our neighbour Paul was completed and filled in with water in May as well. Iván was the first one in the pool; it´s a very nice pool, a modest size but adequate for the need. Again here I say 'our' because Paul has very generously allowed us to send out clients to his pool as we do not actually have our own pool... yet. He is also allowing us to use the pool ourselves and we have. Paul also invited us to participate in his purchase of outdoor furniture for our terraces as he was getting such a great deal on his. Some of that has already arrived and has made a big improvement of the appearance of our room terraces. Once I have the remaining new furniture in place, I must get some updated photos on our website.
Website news as well.... I've now bought the Spanish domain of our website, www.hotelbandolero.es . I have converted the http://www.hotelbandolero.com/ website into an English language homepage and the hotelbandolero.es page is now the Spanish language homepage. This was all done to improve our search results in Google and other search engines. The .es domain only cost 2 Euros for the whole year, quite a good deal.
Business has slowed right down now which was not unexpected. I think for the whole month of June, we've had a whole of four room bookings.... maybe, and passing trade for food has dropped right off as well. July does not look much better either... this even with that pool on the website for about 4 weeks now. I was hoping that a pool would improve booking queries but that has not really happened thus far. Makes me wonder whether it would be folly for us to bother spending any cash on a pool of our own... especially when the one next door is so nice.
I am actually now in NYC visiting with my Mom. The day I left, David Fernandez, the new Júzcar mayor, asked Ivan to prepare food for 200 people at the Juzcar annual Romeria on 30 June. I won't be there for that as I arrive from NYC on 1 July, but in any case, that would be good business for us. The Júzcar Romeria is an annual event which takes place down by the river where there is a camp-site and the river swimming area. There are horses, singing, dancing, food and drinks.....an all day event in the campo which I wouldn't have minded attending, especially as we may be doing the food. The romeria starts off with a procession of the Virgin of Moclón, Júzcar's patron, from the village down to the campo. Iván will have some help from Iris and Danny, our weekend workers if we does actually prepare all the food.
So, the story of Diego... I must post that here, perhaps tomorrow but this entry is now getting too long so I will say Adios for today.
21 June, Thursday
Boy!! Time has flown by since the last time I made an entry here. We've had a lot of things going on including the break down of my PC (again!)preventing me from doing my normal work as well as from making entries here.
I don't have a lot of time at the minute but I do want a new entry to be posted so I am going to close this one saying that we have a new mayor in Juzcar, the one we wanted to win and voted for.... well at least Ivan did as I can't vote in Spain. His name is David Fernandez, a 33 year old resident of the village who we believe will make a big difference not only for the village but for us as a business in the village. He took up his office last Saturday at 5PM. So, more on this and other news hopefully later today if not, tomorrow.
Hasta pronto!
Boy!! Time has flown by since the last time I made an entry here. We've had a lot of things going on including the break down of my PC (again!)preventing me from doing my normal work as well as from making entries here.
I don't have a lot of time at the minute but I do want a new entry to be posted so I am going to close this one saying that we have a new mayor in Juzcar, the one we wanted to win and voted for.... well at least Ivan did as I can't vote in Spain. His name is David Fernandez, a 33 year old resident of the village who we believe will make a big difference not only for the village but for us as a business in the village. He took up his office last Saturday at 5PM. So, more on this and other news hopefully later today if not, tomorrow.
Hasta pronto!
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
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.
Tuesday, 24 April 2007
24 April - Tuesday
Well, it's been a busy week since I last wrote. We had a German couple in for 4 nights last week and then John and Rose came up from Alhaurin for Rose's birthday. John and Rose spent their honeymoon with us a couple of years back already and have stayed a few times more since. We had a couple of late nights with them and then we had the hen party.... and 6 rooms of guests on the same night!
The hen party was last Saturday night starting at 10.30. There were 34 women from the village in the end, quite a good crowd. It was a lot of fun actually. They were all calling me... "David!!! David!!" Later they a couple of them said they would have liked me and/or Ivan to do the dancer stripper bit but we don't do that! They had a very nice young Argentinian man in for that from Malaga... we left them to their fun when he was in there performing for them! Before I knew it, it was 3.00 AM. We were all dancing in the restaurant by then and several of the ladies wanted to dance with me and Ivan. In fact, one of them was teaching me how to dance Sevillana and Flamenco. I need to practice for sure but I did learn that one grabs the apple reaching very high from the tree, elegantly, bites it and then tosses it away behind you, curving/spinning the fingers. I asked if it was always an apple and the answer was yes! It was fun.
I found out that there are many people in the village that think I am very serious but was told that it was obviously not true and I should relax more, enjoy life, not worry about tomorrow (typical Andaluz approach to life, I must say and nothing wrong with that either). They do like us and think we’re very nice and (modestly I say this) handsome! The whole event was quite good for us as we got to interact with the village ladies in a different way than before. In fact, this party was probably the best one we’re had in the hotel so far! Ivan made a special cake to order for them that was a rather large, orange-chocolate penis with caramelized sugar for hair which was delicious. Of course the cake was a smash hit. I will be loading it up on our cakes website shortly along with the female version we had for Rob's stag party last month!
After the party wound down, we were asked to come down to the Tele-club, you know the one next to the Juzcar church, which we did. By this time it was after 4.00. When we walked in to find a good crowd, I was immediately called over to where few of the guys were. I looked over at them and said “Who, me?” “Si, si, ven aqui David!”, they said. So I walked over and was immediately picked up and tossed in the air by about five of the guys including the groom to be! It was very nice and fun as well. Ivan got the same treatment after me. After sipping one drink for a while and watching a few of the boys doing that flamenco clapping, fast and hard to the rhythm, we headed home as it was about 5.oo by then and we had breakfast at 09.30 for the hotel guests.
Actually we didn’t make it to the hotel until 10AM but they were all fine with that, no one was waiting outside the dining room door when we arrived. We decided to be closed after they all left as we were absolutely wrecked and it was raining anyway so we didn’t think we would be disappointing anyone passing by. We were also told that this party was a very good thing for the village; I guess they mean that a lot of the people are coming together for this and any bad blood, so to speak, has been put aside so it is all good for us as well in our relations with the village folk.
The bar and restaurant were cleaned up Monday although I did clean up the restaurant Sunday morning, clearing tables of glasses and bottles and dirty ashtrays & table cloths.
Yesterday afternoon we were asked if the boys could have the stag party here for the groom this coming Saturday. They will be more participants, 40-50 men, and they will no doubt drink more. This coming weekend is a long one as 01 May is a national holiday in many European countries. So far we only have two rooms booked for Saturday night. I don't think having the stag event will be a problem for our guests either. I must say though, a male event is very different to the female event as the boys tend to drink heavier than the ladies so we shall see.
Next Friday is also our first music night in the bar / restaurant as well so we have been very busy these last few days preparing, advertising, etc.
The radio interview this morning on REM-FM in San Pedro went quite well I think. I suppose we shall know how well it went depending on how much business, if any, comes our way as a result of it.
The weather yesterday and today has finally become spring like. The ambient temperature is quite comfortable while being in the sun is the same as always... hot!
Hasta la proxima.
Well, it's been a busy week since I last wrote. We had a German couple in for 4 nights last week and then John and Rose came up from Alhaurin for Rose's birthday. John and Rose spent their honeymoon with us a couple of years back already and have stayed a few times more since. We had a couple of late nights with them and then we had the hen party.... and 6 rooms of guests on the same night!
The hen party was last Saturday night starting at 10.30. There were 34 women from the village in the end, quite a good crowd. It was a lot of fun actually. They were all calling me... "David!!! David!!" Later they a couple of them said they would have liked me and/or Ivan to do the dancer stripper bit but we don't do that! They had a very nice young Argentinian man in for that from Malaga... we left them to their fun when he was in there performing for them! Before I knew it, it was 3.00 AM. We were all dancing in the restaurant by then and several of the ladies wanted to dance with me and Ivan. In fact, one of them was teaching me how to dance Sevillana and Flamenco. I need to practice for sure but I did learn that one grabs the apple reaching very high from the tree, elegantly, bites it and then tosses it away behind you, curving/spinning the fingers. I asked if it was always an apple and the answer was yes! It was fun.
I found out that there are many people in the village that think I am very serious but was told that it was obviously not true and I should relax more, enjoy life, not worry about tomorrow (typical Andaluz approach to life, I must say and nothing wrong with that either). They do like us and think we’re very nice and (modestly I say this) handsome! The whole event was quite good for us as we got to interact with the village ladies in a different way than before. In fact, this party was probably the best one we’re had in the hotel so far! Ivan made a special cake to order for them that was a rather large, orange-chocolate penis with caramelized sugar for hair which was delicious. Of course the cake was a smash hit. I will be loading it up on our cakes website shortly along with the female version we had for Rob's stag party last month!
After the party wound down, we were asked to come down to the Tele-club, you know the one next to the Juzcar church, which we did. By this time it was after 4.00. When we walked in to find a good crowd, I was immediately called over to where few of the guys were. I looked over at them and said “Who, me?” “Si, si, ven aqui David!”, they said. So I walked over and was immediately picked up and tossed in the air by about five of the guys including the groom to be! It was very nice and fun as well. Ivan got the same treatment after me. After sipping one drink for a while and watching a few of the boys doing that flamenco clapping, fast and hard to the rhythm, we headed home as it was about 5.oo by then and we had breakfast at 09.30 for the hotel guests.
Actually we didn’t make it to the hotel until 10AM but they were all fine with that, no one was waiting outside the dining room door when we arrived. We decided to be closed after they all left as we were absolutely wrecked and it was raining anyway so we didn’t think we would be disappointing anyone passing by. We were also told that this party was a very good thing for the village; I guess they mean that a lot of the people are coming together for this and any bad blood, so to speak, has been put aside so it is all good for us as well in our relations with the village folk.
The bar and restaurant were cleaned up Monday although I did clean up the restaurant Sunday morning, clearing tables of glasses and bottles and dirty ashtrays & table cloths.
Yesterday afternoon we were asked if the boys could have the stag party here for the groom this coming Saturday. They will be more participants, 40-50 men, and they will no doubt drink more. This coming weekend is a long one as 01 May is a national holiday in many European countries. So far we only have two rooms booked for Saturday night. I don't think having the stag event will be a problem for our guests either. I must say though, a male event is very different to the female event as the boys tend to drink heavier than the ladies so we shall see.
Next Friday is also our first music night in the bar / restaurant as well so we have been very busy these last few days preparing, advertising, etc.
The radio interview this morning on REM-FM in San Pedro went quite well I think. I suppose we shall know how well it went depending on how much business, if any, comes our way as a result of it.
The weather yesterday and today has finally become spring like. The ambient temperature is quite comfortable while being in the sun is the same as always... hot!
Hasta la proxima.
Sunday, 15 April 2007
Sunday - 15 April
Today is tax day in the USA, the final day to get your annual tax return submitted. I suppose it will be tomorrow as today is Sunday.
Well, it is finally beautiful weather again, no chill in the air as has been the case up until two days ago. Today there is bright sunny skies, light clouds, light breeze and very comfortable.
Our three rooms all had breakfast promptly this morning and then departed, having had a good meal last night with us and then a restful evening. Today we have three new rooms staying one, two and three nights respectively. We also had a few tables for lunch so not a bad day.
Then we had some of the village people come in and request to have a hen night here next weekend. Ivan is making a wedding cake for this couple who are getting married on 19 May and who have booked Suite 11 for the night. The wedding cake will be for 300 people; we are also invited to the wedding. Well, the ladies that came into this afternoon are looking to have a despedido soltera, as we say in Spanish, for 25 women next Saturday night. That should be a loud night, I would expect. Ivan will make a cake appropriate for the occasion as well and they said they were going to have a male dancer come in too, a first for us in this hotel! I like first time things.
I was hoping to have a first time thing on 27 April with a music group but I have not yet heard back from the musician after waiting for 3 days and having left two messages and one SMS. I think I will have to change that date as I don't think I will have enough time to publicize the event to get enough of an audience. oh well.
Anyway, just a short entry for the moment to cover the weekend's activities.
Ciao for now.
Today is tax day in the USA, the final day to get your annual tax return submitted. I suppose it will be tomorrow as today is Sunday.
Well, it is finally beautiful weather again, no chill in the air as has been the case up until two days ago. Today there is bright sunny skies, light clouds, light breeze and very comfortable.
Our three rooms all had breakfast promptly this morning and then departed, having had a good meal last night with us and then a restful evening. Today we have three new rooms staying one, two and three nights respectively. We also had a few tables for lunch so not a bad day.
Then we had some of the village people come in and request to have a hen night here next weekend. Ivan is making a wedding cake for this couple who are getting married on 19 May and who have booked Suite 11 for the night. The wedding cake will be for 300 people; we are also invited to the wedding. Well, the ladies that came into this afternoon are looking to have a despedido soltera, as we say in Spanish, for 25 women next Saturday night. That should be a loud night, I would expect. Ivan will make a cake appropriate for the occasion as well and they said they were going to have a male dancer come in too, a first for us in this hotel! I like first time things.
I was hoping to have a first time thing on 27 April with a music group but I have not yet heard back from the musician after waiting for 3 days and having left two messages and one SMS. I think I will have to change that date as I don't think I will have enough time to publicize the event to get enough of an audience. oh well.
Anyway, just a short entry for the moment to cover the weekend's activities.
Ciao for now.
Friday, 13 April 2007
13 April Friday
Today we had another meeting of the Genal Valley group at the hotel in Benarraba. We had about 15 attendees. Again there was confusion on when the meeting was supposed to begin, some having arrived at 10 and the rest at 11 or later.
When we got under way, I suggested that we needed to make a decision on the group name and the form sooner rather than later. A small committee was agreed to complete the form creating an association. We also agreed to close the door to new members until this was settled, hopefully by the next meeting. We agreed the monthly dues to be paid and that would give a vote to the member. So all members now need to pay their monthly dues in order to be able to vote at the next meeting. We will also need to vote on a president, vice president and treasurer.... I think I will stand for the treasurer as I already opened the bank account for the group.
So we are making a bit of headway but it sure is slow going.
Today we had another meeting of the Genal Valley group at the hotel in Benarraba. We had about 15 attendees. Again there was confusion on when the meeting was supposed to begin, some having arrived at 10 and the rest at 11 or later.
When we got under way, I suggested that we needed to make a decision on the group name and the form sooner rather than later. A small committee was agreed to complete the form creating an association. We also agreed to close the door to new members until this was settled, hopefully by the next meeting. We agreed the monthly dues to be paid and that would give a vote to the member. So all members now need to pay their monthly dues in order to be able to vote at the next meeting. We will also need to vote on a president, vice president and treasurer.... I think I will stand for the treasurer as I already opened the bank account for the group.
So we are making a bit of headway but it sure is slow going.
Friday, 13 April
Well, busy we have been for the last few days. It's been a while since my last post so let me tell you about the bookings we have had in the last week or so.
First, our guests from Barcelona arrived on Sunday and stayed for eight nights; they plan to return for the month of August as well. Then we had a foursome from Belgium arrive on Monday for 3 nights, four very nice ladies. A German family of four arrived on Tuesday for four nights so Monday through Wednesday, the hotel was half full. Then another three rooms arrived on Thursday bringing us up to 7 rooms, almost full and for Friday and Saturday, the hotel was complete. It did not stop there either as we had five rooms for Sunday including a threesome from Madrid in addition to a Dutch couple that stayed four night through Tuesday.
On Friday, we had a group of 21 motorcyclists arrive at 2.00 for lunch which we were expecting. Thursday was a disappointing day for lunch but the weather was not cooperating at all with cloud, fog and rain. We also had a bad experience on Friday with a Spanish couple that came through right at the height of lunch. As I told everyone that day, no one could order anything that was not on the menu. This woman however insisted on ordering fried eggs with manteca. Actually, this story is starting to bore me because this couple reeked havoc with us this afternoon and I've already recounted it a few times. Basically long story short, I told her she could only order things on the menu but she insisted on her fried eggs. I tried to make her happy but there was just no doing that! In the end I lost my cool and told her and her husband that if they passed through this village again in the future, please pass the hotel!
She asked to speak with someone who understood Spanish (a bit of a slap in the face for me, no?). I told her I was the owner and we were doing the best we could for her which obviously was not good enough. After I told them not to come back, she asked for the complaints book, a first for us!! Of course I did not know where the book was and was so busy in the restaurant that I did not have time to spare to look for it (although I did try to find it and gave up). I thought they will have to wait as my diners were more important than her complaint. Meanwhile, her husband decided to call the police because we did not have the complaints books available, a requirement!! This couple was just completely unreasonable, no. Everyone around them saw what was happening and were very supportive of us. Ivan came out of the kitchen to speak with this woman after having told me that I should not be telling guests not to come back. He was with her for a few minutes apologising and trying to make things better but when he returned to the kitchen, he said he wanted to wring her neck!! She and her husband were just intent on making trouble for us no matter what anyone said or did.
Eventually I found the complaints book (an official form from the Junta de Andalusia) and she completed her form which neither one of us signed. She took all copies with her and then paid her bill willingly even after Ivan told them he did not want their money. Ivan refused to sign the form because she did not write what actually happened. Some of the other people around told us not to worry as we did not sign it and she did not give a copy so we had nothing to worry about. Meanwhile, this couple had sat around waiting more than two hours to complete this form on a holiday weekend. We all thought they should get a life. Anyway, that's behind us now.
Well, busy we have been for the last few days. It's been a while since my last post so let me tell you about the bookings we have had in the last week or so.
First, our guests from Barcelona arrived on Sunday and stayed for eight nights; they plan to return for the month of August as well. Then we had a foursome from Belgium arrive on Monday for 3 nights, four very nice ladies. A German family of four arrived on Tuesday for four nights so Monday through Wednesday, the hotel was half full. Then another three rooms arrived on Thursday bringing us up to 7 rooms, almost full and for Friday and Saturday, the hotel was complete. It did not stop there either as we had five rooms for Sunday including a threesome from Madrid in addition to a Dutch couple that stayed four night through Tuesday.
On Friday, we had a group of 21 motorcyclists arrive at 2.00 for lunch which we were expecting. Thursday was a disappointing day for lunch but the weather was not cooperating at all with cloud, fog and rain. We also had a bad experience on Friday with a Spanish couple that came through right at the height of lunch. As I told everyone that day, no one could order anything that was not on the menu. This woman however insisted on ordering fried eggs with manteca. Actually, this story is starting to bore me because this couple reeked havoc with us this afternoon and I've already recounted it a few times. Basically long story short, I told her she could only order things on the menu but she insisted on her fried eggs. I tried to make her happy but there was just no doing that! In the end I lost my cool and told her and her husband that if they passed through this village again in the future, please pass the hotel!
She asked to speak with someone who understood Spanish (a bit of a slap in the face for me, no?). I told her I was the owner and we were doing the best we could for her which obviously was not good enough. After I told them not to come back, she asked for the complaints book, a first for us!! Of course I did not know where the book was and was so busy in the restaurant that I did not have time to spare to look for it (although I did try to find it and gave up). I thought they will have to wait as my diners were more important than her complaint. Meanwhile, her husband decided to call the police because we did not have the complaints books available, a requirement!! This couple was just completely unreasonable, no. Everyone around them saw what was happening and were very supportive of us. Ivan came out of the kitchen to speak with this woman after having told me that I should not be telling guests not to come back. He was with her for a few minutes apologising and trying to make things better but when he returned to the kitchen, he said he wanted to wring her neck!! She and her husband were just intent on making trouble for us no matter what anyone said or did.
Eventually I found the complaints book (an official form from the Junta de Andalusia) and she completed her form which neither one of us signed. She took all copies with her and then paid her bill willingly even after Ivan told them he did not want their money. Ivan refused to sign the form because she did not write what actually happened. Some of the other people around told us not to worry as we did not sign it and she did not give a copy so we had nothing to worry about. Meanwhile, this couple had sat around waiting more than two hours to complete this form on a holiday weekend. We all thought they should get a life. Anyway, that's behind us now.
So Easter in Juzcar... they have a tradition here of cutting down trees in the countryside to decorate the whole village, kind of cool actually. Branches adorning all types of surfaces, a creche of sorts by the town hall for the Virgin of Moclon (the patron saint) and Jesus. There are things happening thorugh the week with lots of drinking, another tradition. Unfortunately some of the village festivities during the week were somewhat rained out, not as lively as in the passed two years. There was dancing on Sunday afternoon though in the school with a music group playing. And we had a bigger procession this year than in the past I think because this is an election year; a big band arrived at 10.40 on Sunday morning, some of them dropping into the bar for a cafe or juice. They accompanied the virgin and Jesus through the village on its way to the creche. In the past, the band was comprised of people from the village and the valley... this year, I'm not sure where they were from but certainly not here.
The weather is still not so great; it's like winter arrived when spring was supposed to start. It's been raining here on and off all week and there is more forecasted for the coming week. We had water in the bar of course with this amount of rain. And to top that, a hole appeared in the yard a couple of mornings ago. Francisco is repairing it today, the result of the rain and low quality work of the previous owner, yet again!
I've been taking more bookings which is good. We had two Danish couples stay one night this week who had tried to stay with us in the fall when we were full. They promised they would come back as they enjoyed themselves but want to return when we have better werther. Last night we had three rooms including Diana and Francisco from Cadiz with their loud daughter. They've been to see us a few times now and will be back for sure.
Tonight we have no one in the hotel but we are looking forward to sleeping in a bit tomorrow as we have had little rest in the last couple of weeks, a good thing actually but tiring nevertheless!
Hey, readers, I have a request of you.... my mom asked me if anyone ever comments on my blog. Now I know that I have some readers as I have been told by some that they do read my blog and enjoy it. So my request is please make one or two remarks if you will. Do you enjoy my writing, am I boring, do I write too much... not covering something you'd like to know? Mentioned something once and never mentioned it again. Any questions.... really, anything, please!
Speaking of parents, Ivan's were here for 10 days along with his grandma, and we really appreciated their help. Paz made a few dishes which we sold as well such as veggie soup, a fried milk dessert (yummy) and torrijas, Spanish sweet toast.
Well, that's it for now. Tomorrow we have three rooms and then on Sunday two new rooms for a couple of nights each. In fact, we have some bookings every week through June. And I received another group enquiry for October 2008 thanks to my friend JoAnn in Colorado. I'm waiting to confirm that booking; it is a group with a different theme than painting which is fantastic as I would like to branch out into other areas besides painting!! When that booking is confirmed (thinking positively here) I will add it to the theme holiday index page and you all can see who and what that will be about!! In the meantime, I await some of your comments, please.
Hasta luego!
I've been taking more bookings which is good. We had two Danish couples stay one night this week who had tried to stay with us in the fall when we were full. They promised they would come back as they enjoyed themselves but want to return when we have better werther. Last night we had three rooms including Diana and Francisco from Cadiz with their loud daughter. They've been to see us a few times now and will be back for sure.
Tonight we have no one in the hotel but we are looking forward to sleeping in a bit tomorrow as we have had little rest in the last couple of weeks, a good thing actually but tiring nevertheless!
Hey, readers, I have a request of you.... my mom asked me if anyone ever comments on my blog. Now I know that I have some readers as I have been told by some that they do read my blog and enjoy it. So my request is please make one or two remarks if you will. Do you enjoy my writing, am I boring, do I write too much... not covering something you'd like to know? Mentioned something once and never mentioned it again. Any questions.... really, anything, please!
Speaking of parents, Ivan's were here for 10 days along with his grandma, and we really appreciated their help. Paz made a few dishes which we sold as well such as veggie soup, a fried milk dessert (yummy) and torrijas, Spanish sweet toast.
Well, that's it for now. Tomorrow we have three rooms and then on Sunday two new rooms for a couple of nights each. In fact, we have some bookings every week through June. And I received another group enquiry for October 2008 thanks to my friend JoAnn in Colorado. I'm waiting to confirm that booking; it is a group with a different theme than painting which is fantastic as I would like to branch out into other areas besides painting!! When that booking is confirmed (thinking positively here) I will add it to the theme holiday index page and you all can see who and what that will be about!! In the meantime, I await some of your comments, please.
Hasta luego!
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