Well, we are having a good Easter week so far. The weather is co-operating, warm and sunny, not hot. Clear blue skies, fantastic light and shadows. Ronda is looking pretty good as well; the hills around Ronda are extremely green at the moment, that vivid, rich green that jumps off the hillside and grabs you.
We've had a couple of adventurous kids and their mother go into the pool yesterday and today; the temps are warm-ish but the water in the pool is not...they were just giving their circulatory systems a jump, I think!
The hotel is full tonight and tomorrow with a couple of rooms available for Saturday night... still may get a taker or two for them at the last minute.
We just placed an ad in the latest edition of the "Olive Press", a locally published English language newspaper that I am not all that fond of as it always making Spain look terrible, from an English point of view and I know there are plenty of people who disagree with what's written in it, including many Brits.; it's not the subject, just the presentation. Nevertheless, we got a very nice offer to be in their special edition of restaurants and decided to go ahead and advertise. We have already had a foursome in for lunch who said they came as a result of the ad.... one can never tell what kind of result one will get from print advertising.
We are also currently running some radio ads on Radio Andalucia.es as we got a great offer on that as well for 12 months of adverts, four times daily... we've not seen any results from that yet but one can hope.
We have a very nice French family with us at the moment, spending a week with us. Next Sunday, a couple from Stockholm arrive who were with us last year. They've even written to us in advance saying they are tired of the long winter of Sweden and look forward to their holiday here in Juzcar.
Well, that's it for today, just a short entry for the blog.
Saturday, 28 March 2009
I have asked myself a few times why I have yet to publish the story of Diego in my blog. It is an interesting story and one that is unique to Spain... I think. I have had clients comment on this man many times and even tell me stories of similar men in other places, well one man in England and the place benefited from having him around and publicizing the story. So here it goes, our story of Diego, but I am not telling it to benefit from him, only because it is such an intriguing story.
When we were looking at the purchase contract to buy the hotel way back in September 2004, there was one clause in there about this man called Diego Piña. He had the rights of a room and the right of 3 meals a day; our first reaction was what the heck is this? We certainly did not want something like this and firmly told the lawyer representing the seller. A few weeks went by and eventually we were on the phone speaking with the seller about a a couple of outstanding points to be resolved in the purchase contract including Diego. Antonio, as he is called, told us that Diego was the owner of the land that the hotel is built upon. When he bought the land from him, he made an agreement with him; the agreement was that he, Antonio, would pay some money to Diego and also provide him a place to live and his 3 daily meals for as long as he needed or wanted. Antonio informed us if we agreed to accept this obligation (which is in fact a legal right held by Diego and published for all the world to see in the land registry in Ronda), we would receive ownership to another house (Diego's place) in the purchase without any additional cost.
Does that all sound well and good or does it strike a note of concern? For us, in that moment, we thought that if we were going to receive another house in the deal at no extra cost, then what's the big deal? He would only require feeding 3 times a day and how bothersome would that be??
When we were looking at the purchase contract to buy the hotel way back in September 2004, there was one clause in there about this man called Diego Piña. He had the rights of a room and the right of 3 meals a day; our first reaction was what the heck is this? We certainly did not want something like this and firmly told the lawyer representing the seller. A few weeks went by and eventually we were on the phone speaking with the seller about a a couple of outstanding points to be resolved in the purchase contract including Diego. Antonio, as he is called, told us that Diego was the owner of the land that the hotel is built upon. When he bought the land from him, he made an agreement with him; the agreement was that he, Antonio, would pay some money to Diego and also provide him a place to live and his 3 daily meals for as long as he needed or wanted. Antonio informed us if we agreed to accept this obligation (which is in fact a legal right held by Diego and published for all the world to see in the land registry in Ronda), we would receive ownership to another house (Diego's place) in the purchase without any additional cost.
Does that all sound well and good or does it strike a note of concern? For us, in that moment, we thought that if we were going to receive another house in the deal at no extra cost, then what's the big deal? He would only require feeding 3 times a day and how bothersome would that be??
Well, we did not think about the long term effects of this agreement. Nor did we think to ask the age of this man nor the state of his health. We thought we would get a house for nothing.... well, you get nothing for nothing so you must always pay something to receive a return... that is how life works. Someone must pay! That is the golden rule to life... there is always a fee at the end of the day, nothing is free.
So we have been paying that fee now for almost 5 years.
Diego is a simple man, a village person who does not work nor does he even like to work, or so he recently told Ivan. He lives in this small house that Antonio built for him and that neither Ivan nor I have seen the inside of... our house mind you. The house is located right at the entrance of the village, two buildings up from the hotel. It is more of a bungalow than a house as it has a tilted roof (in fact, the people of Juzcar call his house the cheese wedge as it looks something like that). He owns 2 or 3 other fincas, parcels of land in the countryside, from which he occasionally brings us chestnuts, vegetables, olives or mushrooms.
This simple man was kind of ripped off in this deal as he was paid very little money for land on which a hotel was to be erected, in a prime village location; his house is not where he was lead to believe it would either and he has to rely on a (unwilling at this point) third party for his meals. He has been the butt of many jokes in the village over the years as we have learned. He does not speak all that much but he blows a lot, sort of like whistling but not really. He does that when he is drunk which is normally several times a week. And rightly so I guess as what else is there to do for a single man who never wed, has no children or family to speak of, to do in a village this size? He wonders to his fincas, he hangs out in the village bar drinking a mix of white and sweet wine. He smokes a bit as well but not all that much. Occasionally, Diego helps/assists Francisco with a project he might be working on; Francisco is our maintenance man who lives here in the village and is quite entrepreneurial and so is always busy with one thing or another. On a very rare occasion, he might lend a hand around the hotel but we don't encourage that.
For us, he is mostly an annoyance as he is always there, waiting in front of the hotel first thing in the morning, waiting for his coffee and toast with garlic and olive oil (the traditional Andaluz breakfast). He is not really the first person one wants to see in the morning but there he is. And normally, quite punctually, he will be here at 1.30 PM for his lunch. I recently introduced a new policy where he has to pick up and return his tray to the kitchen himself. Dinner, well dinner is another story.
This man uses the sun as his clock basically. So in summer he will arrive quite late for dinner as the sun sets quite late here in Spain in summer; in winter it is just the opposite, he arrives quite early. Then there are days when he does not turn up at all which we like the best of course. Or he shows at 11 PM or later when we are about to close and retire for the day, expecting to get a meal. On one such occasion, I handed him a piece of fruit and sent him on his way. But to better manage this, I introduced a meal schedule for him which is hanging in the kitchen. It tells him his lunch and dinner times. If he shows later than 10PM, he gets no dinner and I think a two hour window between 8-10 PM is time enough for anyone to show up for a meal.
This is the thorn in our side. As you might be able to tell from this story so far, this man never, well, almost never leaves the village. He has no job so he takes no holiday (and where would he go anyway?). He is always here, 3-6-5 days per year. So what do we do you ask, when we want to escape from here ourselves? Again, Francisco to the rescue... he feeds Diego while we are away. But the rest of the time, it's mainly Ivan who feeds him, but I do as well some times and so does Ivan's father, Mariano, when his parents are visiting.
Diego was only 68 years old when we arrived here and he is in no doubt, better health today than when we arrived as Ivan feeds him well. My dad, Paul, was very friendly with him the two times he's been here and Diego has commented to me on that.
So what else is there to say? Many of our returning clients ask about Diego upon their arrival in the hotel. Those that have not been here before and pass a couple of days here, always inevitably ask, "Who is that man that comes in every day?", no doubt because there is normally little to no conversation between us and him, just a tray of food will be prepared and then he is called to take it away. He eats in the bar, puts his tray away and normally leaves. Sometimes, we have to ask him to bath before he comes into the bar. It is a known fact in Juzcar that Diego thinks that winter time is not the time to bath, it is just too cold outside! I don't believe this is a rule he follows only in winter, in fact, I'm certain. One can imagine that a man who does not bath will stink a bit with time. And on top of this, his cloths are not washed regularly either so add that on top of poor personal hygiene habits and it adds up to a stinky cloud around you that offends most people it comes into contact with. He is a bit indignant when told, "Please bath before you come, you smell" checking his cloths and saying "I just washed this", indicating his cloths.
Mind you, we don't dislike this man, it is just the burden of having to have him around every day. Fortunately, he is not demanding because there are days when we are just out from morning til evening and he gets no lunch as we made no arrangements for it but he does not complain. While he is a simple man, he is not a stupid man so if one tries, one can have a conversation with him, as demonstrated by my dad.
So that is the story of Diego Piña. I have thoughts lots about writing about him but never sat down and actually started the piece so here it is, rolling off the proverbial tongue. Any comments? Everyone who has heard the story tells us to write a book, or comments "only in Spain" or to that effect... but it is humorous, if you are not the one with the obligation to feed him. In fact, making light of it, when asked who this man is, I reply, "He came with the hotel, like a table or another piece of furniture."
So we have been paying that fee now for almost 5 years.
Diego is a simple man, a village person who does not work nor does he even like to work, or so he recently told Ivan. He lives in this small house that Antonio built for him and that neither Ivan nor I have seen the inside of... our house mind you. The house is located right at the entrance of the village, two buildings up from the hotel. It is more of a bungalow than a house as it has a tilted roof (in fact, the people of Juzcar call his house the cheese wedge as it looks something like that). He owns 2 or 3 other fincas, parcels of land in the countryside, from which he occasionally brings us chestnuts, vegetables, olives or mushrooms.
This simple man was kind of ripped off in this deal as he was paid very little money for land on which a hotel was to be erected, in a prime village location; his house is not where he was lead to believe it would either and he has to rely on a (unwilling at this point) third party for his meals. He has been the butt of many jokes in the village over the years as we have learned. He does not speak all that much but he blows a lot, sort of like whistling but not really. He does that when he is drunk which is normally several times a week. And rightly so I guess as what else is there to do for a single man who never wed, has no children or family to speak of, to do in a village this size? He wonders to his fincas, he hangs out in the village bar drinking a mix of white and sweet wine. He smokes a bit as well but not all that much. Occasionally, Diego helps/assists Francisco with a project he might be working on; Francisco is our maintenance man who lives here in the village and is quite entrepreneurial and so is always busy with one thing or another. On a very rare occasion, he might lend a hand around the hotel but we don't encourage that.
For us, he is mostly an annoyance as he is always there, waiting in front of the hotel first thing in the morning, waiting for his coffee and toast with garlic and olive oil (the traditional Andaluz breakfast). He is not really the first person one wants to see in the morning but there he is. And normally, quite punctually, he will be here at 1.30 PM for his lunch. I recently introduced a new policy where he has to pick up and return his tray to the kitchen himself. Dinner, well dinner is another story.
This man uses the sun as his clock basically. So in summer he will arrive quite late for dinner as the sun sets quite late here in Spain in summer; in winter it is just the opposite, he arrives quite early. Then there are days when he does not turn up at all which we like the best of course. Or he shows at 11 PM or later when we are about to close and retire for the day, expecting to get a meal. On one such occasion, I handed him a piece of fruit and sent him on his way. But to better manage this, I introduced a meal schedule for him which is hanging in the kitchen. It tells him his lunch and dinner times. If he shows later than 10PM, he gets no dinner and I think a two hour window between 8-10 PM is time enough for anyone to show up for a meal.
This is the thorn in our side. As you might be able to tell from this story so far, this man never, well, almost never leaves the village. He has no job so he takes no holiday (and where would he go anyway?). He is always here, 3-6-5 days per year. So what do we do you ask, when we want to escape from here ourselves? Again, Francisco to the rescue... he feeds Diego while we are away. But the rest of the time, it's mainly Ivan who feeds him, but I do as well some times and so does Ivan's father, Mariano, when his parents are visiting.
Diego was only 68 years old when we arrived here and he is in no doubt, better health today than when we arrived as Ivan feeds him well. My dad, Paul, was very friendly with him the two times he's been here and Diego has commented to me on that.
So what else is there to say? Many of our returning clients ask about Diego upon their arrival in the hotel. Those that have not been here before and pass a couple of days here, always inevitably ask, "Who is that man that comes in every day?", no doubt because there is normally little to no conversation between us and him, just a tray of food will be prepared and then he is called to take it away. He eats in the bar, puts his tray away and normally leaves. Sometimes, we have to ask him to bath before he comes into the bar. It is a known fact in Juzcar that Diego thinks that winter time is not the time to bath, it is just too cold outside! I don't believe this is a rule he follows only in winter, in fact, I'm certain. One can imagine that a man who does not bath will stink a bit with time. And on top of this, his cloths are not washed regularly either so add that on top of poor personal hygiene habits and it adds up to a stinky cloud around you that offends most people it comes into contact with. He is a bit indignant when told, "Please bath before you come, you smell" checking his cloths and saying "I just washed this", indicating his cloths.
Mind you, we don't dislike this man, it is just the burden of having to have him around every day. Fortunately, he is not demanding because there are days when we are just out from morning til evening and he gets no lunch as we made no arrangements for it but he does not complain. While he is a simple man, he is not a stupid man so if one tries, one can have a conversation with him, as demonstrated by my dad.
So that is the story of Diego Piña. I have thoughts lots about writing about him but never sat down and actually started the piece so here it is, rolling off the proverbial tongue. Any comments? Everyone who has heard the story tells us to write a book, or comments "only in Spain" or to that effect... but it is humorous, if you are not the one with the obligation to feed him. In fact, making light of it, when asked who this man is, I reply, "He came with the hotel, like a table or another piece of furniture."
We had another death in the village this week. This time a younger person who did not take care of himself. In fact, it was discovered that the house he and his brother were living in needed to be torn down as it was falling in on itself. Amazing conditions some people are willing to live in; the people from the village were even surprised at the mess in this house, filled to the ceiling with trash apparently.
The weather has been good and spring like. The temps have warmed and the flowers are sprouting. The forecast for Ronda is not good for today and tomorrow, rain, no sun. But here in Juzcar it is quite nice, sunny, clear, warm. Better to be in Juzcar than Ronda.
Our art gallery is almost there. The new closet is just about finished; now I have to move everything into it and organise it well. Then the place needs to be cleaned as there is a lot of dust around. We have had plenty of time to work on things upstairs these last couple of weeks as this has been the worst March for bookings, sadly.
And now people are arriving in the bar so I must dash... more later.
The weather has been good and spring like. The temps have warmed and the flowers are sprouting. The forecast for Ronda is not good for today and tomorrow, rain, no sun. But here in Juzcar it is quite nice, sunny, clear, warm. Better to be in Juzcar than Ronda.
Our art gallery is almost there. The new closet is just about finished; now I have to move everything into it and organise it well. Then the place needs to be cleaned as there is a lot of dust around. We have had plenty of time to work on things upstairs these last couple of weeks as this has been the worst March for bookings, sadly.
And now people are arriving in the bar so I must dash... more later.
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Today is Father´s Day in Spain. It is also San Jose Day who is the patron saint of carpenters. Things like that, I never knew growing up in New York. Here in Spain, one learns about patron saints. The calendar issued at each year end by Unicaja Bank, the largest in this area, has the names of the saints on each day of the year, so helpful, no?
We had a death in the village last Friday, a neighbour of ours as well. She was called Maria, what a surprise. She lived two houses down the calle from the hotel. She had a small dog that followed her, slowly, every where she went in the village. She was sometimes friendly enough to say ¨buenas dias¨ or ¨buenas tardes¨ to me or Ivan but she never failed to give a salutation to Lolita, one of our French Bulldogs; ¨Oh Lolita, Lolita, ¿que tal?¨ she would say. We would see her pretty much daily, going to take her trash to the bins or going down to the fountain to fill a bottle of water. Stopping at the mirador with another one of the villagers to chat and look at the view, speculate about the weather. On mornings when we were here early enough, we would see her waiting for the baker to arrive (the baker comes from Ronda daily about 9AM with fresh bread and sweets in his van). And once, we were clearing out some of the quantity of boxes full of vinegar and so we put a couple out in front of the hotel for anyone to help themselves to and help herself she did. She came along moments after the boxes were put out and said, ¨Oh, oh!! What´s this? For me? Ah, have you got some string for me to wrap it up to take home?¨ And off she went with all the vinegar, no word of thanks, no good-bye, just off she went, waddling down to her house, vinegar in hand, dog following behind her.
Her son, Javier, came into the bar on Friday a couple of times, also a new experience. Although they lived practically in front of the hotel and he even helped to build our pool, he never came to our bar before and he certainly never spoke. But on Friday, he was not himself as he had discovered his mother that morning. Now he would be all alone here in the village. He spoke to Ivan and explained a couple of things to him and had a couple of drinks. He came back to the bar later in the afternoon with some family relations and men from the village for coffee and copas of pacharan with ice. He came back in the evening with an aunt or someone that looked like that and wanted lots more pacharan for which I was admonished by this aunt as he was getting drunk.
On Saturday morning when I came to the hotel, the area in front of the hotel was full with cars. Just as I arrived at the hotel, the procession was coming up from Maria´s house with the hearse in front followed by Javier and Mª Carmen on his arm, a moody, somewhat deranged widow from the next street over. They were taking her to the village cemetary for internment. When our waiter arrived at 11.00, he saw all these cars and thought the hotel must be packed but no one was here except us as usual and one drunk called Paco from the next village (a whole other blog entry that is).
Friday was a glorious day as was Saturday, warm, sunny, clear. We had a table of four for lunch on the terrace of people from Ronda, called Rondeños, which does not happen nearly often enough. We had a lovely American couple staying with us for the weekend as well. They live in Cadiz where they have a business. We also had an English couple stay Saturday evening who publish a local English language monthly magazine called ¨Andalucia Life¨. They are doing a story about Bandoleros and this area and so planned to feature the hotel in the article.
We have a new waiter who started the weekend before; his name is Antonio like our previous waiter but that is where the similarities end. He is a very nice regular guy who also has a business which is struggling at the moment given the economics of the times. He and his fiancé, Mª Angeles, run a butcher business in Ronda but as business is down he is supplementing his income by coming to us on the weekends. They are both quite nice people, Sevillanos living in this area. We are now getting some of our meat supplies from him to help him out. In fact, I´m off to Ronda now to go and collect some suckling pig from them.
So I must be off. Another beautiful day here in Juzcar and warm as well. It had cooled a bit earlier in the week but it´s fantastic now. Ciao for now.
We had a death in the village last Friday, a neighbour of ours as well. She was called Maria, what a surprise. She lived two houses down the calle from the hotel. She had a small dog that followed her, slowly, every where she went in the village. She was sometimes friendly enough to say ¨buenas dias¨ or ¨buenas tardes¨ to me or Ivan but she never failed to give a salutation to Lolita, one of our French Bulldogs; ¨Oh Lolita, Lolita, ¿que tal?¨ she would say. We would see her pretty much daily, going to take her trash to the bins or going down to the fountain to fill a bottle of water. Stopping at the mirador with another one of the villagers to chat and look at the view, speculate about the weather. On mornings when we were here early enough, we would see her waiting for the baker to arrive (the baker comes from Ronda daily about 9AM with fresh bread and sweets in his van). And once, we were clearing out some of the quantity of boxes full of vinegar and so we put a couple out in front of the hotel for anyone to help themselves to and help herself she did. She came along moments after the boxes were put out and said, ¨Oh, oh!! What´s this? For me? Ah, have you got some string for me to wrap it up to take home?¨ And off she went with all the vinegar, no word of thanks, no good-bye, just off she went, waddling down to her house, vinegar in hand, dog following behind her.
Her son, Javier, came into the bar on Friday a couple of times, also a new experience. Although they lived practically in front of the hotel and he even helped to build our pool, he never came to our bar before and he certainly never spoke. But on Friday, he was not himself as he had discovered his mother that morning. Now he would be all alone here in the village. He spoke to Ivan and explained a couple of things to him and had a couple of drinks. He came back to the bar later in the afternoon with some family relations and men from the village for coffee and copas of pacharan with ice. He came back in the evening with an aunt or someone that looked like that and wanted lots more pacharan for which I was admonished by this aunt as he was getting drunk.
On Saturday morning when I came to the hotel, the area in front of the hotel was full with cars. Just as I arrived at the hotel, the procession was coming up from Maria´s house with the hearse in front followed by Javier and Mª Carmen on his arm, a moody, somewhat deranged widow from the next street over. They were taking her to the village cemetary for internment. When our waiter arrived at 11.00, he saw all these cars and thought the hotel must be packed but no one was here except us as usual and one drunk called Paco from the next village (a whole other blog entry that is).
Friday was a glorious day as was Saturday, warm, sunny, clear. We had a table of four for lunch on the terrace of people from Ronda, called Rondeños, which does not happen nearly often enough. We had a lovely American couple staying with us for the weekend as well. They live in Cadiz where they have a business. We also had an English couple stay Saturday evening who publish a local English language monthly magazine called ¨Andalucia Life¨. They are doing a story about Bandoleros and this area and so planned to feature the hotel in the article.
We have a new waiter who started the weekend before; his name is Antonio like our previous waiter but that is where the similarities end. He is a very nice regular guy who also has a business which is struggling at the moment given the economics of the times. He and his fiancé, Mª Angeles, run a butcher business in Ronda but as business is down he is supplementing his income by coming to us on the weekends. They are both quite nice people, Sevillanos living in this area. We are now getting some of our meat supplies from him to help him out. In fact, I´m off to Ronda now to go and collect some suckling pig from them.
So I must be off. Another beautiful day here in Juzcar and warm as well. It had cooled a bit earlier in the week but it´s fantastic now. Ciao for now.
Saturday, 7 March 2009
Today it is sunny, clear, bright blue and warm; the first spring-like day here in the Genal Valley and it is truly glorious outside. The temperature must be at least 20C. We have a group of Belgians coming for lunch shortly and one of them just arrived in shorts.
The strange thing though is that there is no passing traffic, things look very quiet and deserted actually which is a bit of a let down as one would expect cars passing through on a day like today.
I'm sure our Finnish clients who currently staying with us are out enjoying the weather on their bikes. They arrived on Thursday and went to the La Sierra de las Nieves Natural Park yesterday for a ride and found lots of mist and fog about the park. The park is at a higher altitude than Juzcar so of course it gets worse weather than here when the weather is not good. They had some cool photos of the mist and some ruins around there. It was too windy for them to stay too long but they informed me they saw lots of other bikers about so the park is a good destination for that.
The strange thing though is that there is no passing traffic, things look very quiet and deserted actually which is a bit of a let down as one would expect cars passing through on a day like today.
I'm sure our Finnish clients who currently staying with us are out enjoying the weather on their bikes. They arrived on Thursday and went to the La Sierra de las Nieves Natural Park yesterday for a ride and found lots of mist and fog about the park. The park is at a higher altitude than Juzcar so of course it gets worse weather than here when the weather is not good. They had some cool photos of the mist and some ruins around there. It was too windy for them to stay too long but they informed me they saw lots of other bikers about so the park is a good destination for that.
Friday, 6 March 2009
We've been having pretty bad weather these last few days. Lots of wind and rain and cloud cover and power cuts!! It's the power cuts that are the most annoying. Last night for example, we were home watching a DVD and the power kept going off for 2 minutes every 15-20 minutes. So annoying as we had to restart the film from the beginning every time. And the wind has been quite strong too which reminds me a of wind storm we had last year about this time which completely destroyed a cover we had in the pool terrace and blew everything out of shape.
When I went into Ronda this morning, I left Juzcar which was in the sun, windy but in the sun at least. Ronda, on the other hand, was grey and cold. No rain today but just not a very nice day. Coming back to the Genal Valley, it was quite a beautiful sight actually. As I came down the hair-pin turn (there is a slope downwards at this point and the whole valley is lower than where the entrance is) at the entrance to the valley near the village of Parauta (pronounced "Pa-RAU-ta"), the whole valley was just under the cloud/fog and in the distance the cloud/fog thinned out and the sun was shining through. Cartajima was basking in the light with white puffs of cloud behind in and fog coming down off the mountain in front of it. It was quite a sight.
And then there are all the cherry trees which are now in bloom and are spectacular!! White or pink puffs of flowers adorn these individual branches from the tree's trunk up to the tip of the branches which are reaching skywards.
There is supposed to be lots of sun tomorrow and Sunday and then more clouds next week but the NOAA weather site says no rain for the next few days which is good. Temperatures up to 18 degrees... wwwweeee, happy times when the weather improves!
Our art gallery is coming along. We finally got that wall up to create a closet for the extra beds and cleaning items. It needs to be rendered and a door installed and then it will be almost finished. A couple of coats of white paint and then it will be done. Then we need to install the hanging system for the art work and then finally we can get some things hung there. I have a few items to hang already as we have been fortunate to have some gifts of paintings left here by a few of our clients. We are also speaking with some local artists to exhibit some of their work here. I hope this will be done by Easter as this whole project is taking a lot longer than I had anticipated. But given the fact that we have few booking so far this month, we will be able to spend more time working on this project as well as the flat and move it along faster!!
I have redesigned my website as mentioned in the last blog entry but I have now also included a new page which will be about the art gallery. A little history of what it is, why we have it and what is currently on exhibition. Hopefully this will draw more business. All very exciting stuff.
In the flat, the windows are finished as is the frame of the new terrace door and picture window. Now we just need the door to be hung and the glass installed. Still plenty of things to work on here.
The hotel is almost fully booked for Easter and Holy Week so if there are people wanting to come then, book now.
When I went into Ronda this morning, I left Juzcar which was in the sun, windy but in the sun at least. Ronda, on the other hand, was grey and cold. No rain today but just not a very nice day. Coming back to the Genal Valley, it was quite a beautiful sight actually. As I came down the hair-pin turn (there is a slope downwards at this point and the whole valley is lower than where the entrance is) at the entrance to the valley near the village of Parauta (pronounced "Pa-RAU-ta"), the whole valley was just under the cloud/fog and in the distance the cloud/fog thinned out and the sun was shining through. Cartajima was basking in the light with white puffs of cloud behind in and fog coming down off the mountain in front of it. It was quite a sight.
And then there are all the cherry trees which are now in bloom and are spectacular!! White or pink puffs of flowers adorn these individual branches from the tree's trunk up to the tip of the branches which are reaching skywards.
There is supposed to be lots of sun tomorrow and Sunday and then more clouds next week but the NOAA weather site says no rain for the next few days which is good. Temperatures up to 18 degrees... wwwweeee, happy times when the weather improves!
Our art gallery is coming along. We finally got that wall up to create a closet for the extra beds and cleaning items. It needs to be rendered and a door installed and then it will be almost finished. A couple of coats of white paint and then it will be done. Then we need to install the hanging system for the art work and then finally we can get some things hung there. I have a few items to hang already as we have been fortunate to have some gifts of paintings left here by a few of our clients. We are also speaking with some local artists to exhibit some of their work here. I hope this will be done by Easter as this whole project is taking a lot longer than I had anticipated. But given the fact that we have few booking so far this month, we will be able to spend more time working on this project as well as the flat and move it along faster!!
I have redesigned my website as mentioned in the last blog entry but I have now also included a new page which will be about the art gallery. A little history of what it is, why we have it and what is currently on exhibition. Hopefully this will draw more business. All very exciting stuff.
In the flat, the windows are finished as is the frame of the new terrace door and picture window. Now we just need the door to be hung and the glass installed. Still plenty of things to work on here.
The hotel is almost fully booked for Easter and Holy Week so if there are people wanting to come then, book now.
Saturday, 28 February 2009
Today is the last day of the best February I think we have had, in terms of our business. We had a group booking in the first weekend of the month for two nights which filled the hotel. Then we were full for Valentine's day, for the first time. Last weekend was the only one (this month) where we had no clients staying in the hotel and little to no passing trade for lunch. But this weekend, there were 3 rooms last night (2 were Finnish couples) and 6 rooms today; we had a group of Danes that booked in for lunch today and we have another group booking for lunch tomorrow, technically, a different month. So all in all, we are happy with our flow of business and it continues to improve, despite this economic climate.
We were written up in a Costa del Sol based Finnish newspaper this month and so we have started receiving queries and reservations from Finnish people. We have previously had many Swedes and Danes and been included in a couple of issues of coastal Danish magazines as well. This is the photo of us published in the article in which we are told there is a good review of Ivan's cooking and the hotel.
Espanjan Sanomat - Febrero 2009 - Nº107
We had the windows finished in our new apartment last week. One of the new doors was installed as well, without the large piece of glass which will be installed when the second door is in place. We started painting the flat as well so it is really starting to take good shape. I'm hoping to be sleeping in there by the end of March!! The complete move of all our belonging may take longer than that as we will not have the benefit of a moving company to assist with that so "poco a poco" as they say here.
The weather has been bright and warm of late although today it is cloudy and raining. We're hoping that the cold weather has relatively little time left to run as we are ready for the milder temps of spring and the blossoms of wild flowers bursting with colour everywhere. Already the cherry blossoms are out in spectacular pink as usual and there are several other small flowers appearing in the countryside, yellows, purples, blues, whites, it is very lovely and should be gearing up very shortly as we move into the month of March.
We have a new bird cage that Ivan built, it is rather large and red and has 3 birds in it. Fred and Ginger have been relocated to this cage and a new male canary which Ivan would like to breed. He bought a new female canary but she was not very well from the start and died a couple of days later so we are now waiting for a new one.
We are expecting Ivan's parents to come for a visit for Semana Santa. Semana Santa starts this year on 3 April. We already have several booking for this week but still have plenty of availability so if you're interested in booking, now is the time to do so as the queries will increase in the coming days as people have a eye to arranging a break from all the bad news about these days.
I'm working on revising the website a wee bit. I have finally decided on the new format of the website making a wider which is more suitable to the contemporary sizes of computer screen. It will be more or less the same, the content will remain the same but the format will change. I still have not figured out how to incorporate PHP into my website as I am not sure how it functions and I am not a professional webmaster so I do not have lots of literature at my finger tips to do some research, even with the internet available. I know PHP would help me in reducing the amount of time I have to change some things on my website. When I've finished revising it, it will look nicer and be a bit easier to navigate. This will definitely take some time to do as I have so many pages in my site now and want to add one or two more.
I'm also trying to get a brochure for the rooms completed but I have been working on that for more than a year now and it is still not finished. I'm not a big procrastinator like my friend Andy in Los Angeles (sorry Andy) but it is just a slow process, deciding on the content, the form, and then putting it together.
I can say that I have procrastinated like my friend Andy in LA in terms of getting a disk of photos of my wedding to my sisters. The wedding was in May and here we are in March and still no disk. I have at least finished compiling the photos which I want to include and they are in the proper order but yet to be burned to a disk. This week I hope as I am not being held down to doing any accounting this week!!! I finished that last week.
Well more later. Ta ta amigos.
Thursday, 19 February 2009
We had a very bad and extremely sad experience on Sunday evening. Ivan and I went for walk in the countryside to collect pine cones; we like using pine cones to start the fires in the wood-burning stoves instead of fire starters which tend to smell too much of gas for guest rooms. There is a particular location we found which is full of conifers that have lots of cones. We took the three dogs with us as usual.
While searching for cones, the dogs run up and down the road following us. Well they came across a piece of raw meat that some evil dark hearted person left with poison in it. Ivan caught the dogs sniffing it but unbeknownst to him, Pasky, our German Shepherd had consumed something of it for a few minutes after we got in the car to return to the hotel, there was some odour coming from the back of the car where the dogs were. We stopped to check what was happening and Ivan knew immediately that Pasky was reacting to the poison he was afraid the meat had; Pasky was vomiting, frothing at the mouth, having convulsions, muscle spasms and diarrhoea. We called the vet on call right away and then rushed to the hotel and then on Ronda but the poison was very strong and fast acting. Poor Pasky was dead on arrival at the vet. He attempted to revive him but without success, he was gone, just like that. This all happened in the space of an hour.
The vet said he had not seen a poison kill that fast before and he has seen several dog poisonings of late in Ronda. Some horrible person leaves poisoned meat in the street for dogs to find and kill themselves with, nice eh? He urged us to report this event to the police as there is an on-going investigation into these occurrences. We reported it to the Forest Services as we found out that the land where we were is actually owned by the Junta de Andalusia, the regional Andalusian government and that the area is open to hunters. They think that it is just mean spirited people that leave meat around to kill the hunters dogs; it could also be local shepherds attempting to kill off any predators of sheep and goats. Whoever it is, they are breaking the law as the Spanish central government realised that poison should not be just left lying around for anyone to consume because some beings become unintended victims like our Pasky!! We heard that the Guardia Civil are out questioning people in that area now and the rangers are searching for more poisoned meat with trained dogs.
Noble Pasky
We miss our Pasky very, very much; we only had him for four years, since he was 7 weeks old. He was a beautiful, loving, affectionate dog who was never aggressive, always gentle, sometimes (well, a lot of the times) seeking attention and jumping up on his owners and anyone else around which was too much. But it was all in search of love and attention, which I think he got a lot of. He now lies not far from where we will be living inside the hotel.
Sunday, 1 February 2009
IT's been raining all night and most of the day since I got up. Not a nice day for walks with the dogs. The weather was springlike Thursday and Friday so this rain again is a disappointment.
Next weekend is Valentine's Day. We have an offer on our website and I have taken a couple of bookings for it already and have received several queries. Hopefully we will be half full at least for the night.
The village has installed speed bumps throughout the village on the main street as traffic did pass too fast though here. It's a pretty significant "bump"; it was completed in November. This week it changed color. Yes, it was painted red and then Friday, white lines were painted onto it. This is a classic Zebra crossing, only thing is you can't use this "cross-walk" to get to the other side as there is a fence there and a 10-20 foot drop. Funny, the speed bump was required, but then the rules for speed bumps require the thing to be painted like a cross walk even though you can not cross it on foot as it were. Well, this should not surprise you.
Hey, I got some good news on Friday. After waiting for four years, having originally applied in January 2005, I now have a Spanish residency card, finally... picked it up on Friday and then I immediately applied for my Spanish driving license. As I have a Dutch one, I should not have to take a written exam or a driving road test but my Dutch license expires in April so I needed to get the process rolling ASAP. My advisor told me the process could be "lengthy" as "they" (ESP DMV I presume) will send my original Dutch license to Holland for verification of validity (no surprise with that as nothing happens fast here). In the meantime I have no European driving license so hopefully I won't get stopped by a traffic cop (that is to say I still have a US driving license but it would be nuisance to be stopped). Ah, the novelties of Spanish paperwork and bureaucracy.
So the almond flowers have finally started to arrive. This year they are quite late in arrival as normally we see them in December and it is now February. I guess all this rain will help.
Next weekend is Valentine's Day. We have an offer on our website and I have taken a couple of bookings for it already and have received several queries. Hopefully we will be half full at least for the night.
The village has installed speed bumps throughout the village on the main street as traffic did pass too fast though here. It's a pretty significant "bump"; it was completed in November. This week it changed color. Yes, it was painted red and then Friday, white lines were painted onto it. This is a classic Zebra crossing, only thing is you can't use this "cross-walk" to get to the other side as there is a fence there and a 10-20 foot drop. Funny, the speed bump was required, but then the rules for speed bumps require the thing to be painted like a cross walk even though you can not cross it on foot as it were. Well, this should not surprise you.
Hey, I got some good news on Friday. After waiting for four years, having originally applied in January 2005, I now have a Spanish residency card, finally... picked it up on Friday and then I immediately applied for my Spanish driving license. As I have a Dutch one, I should not have to take a written exam or a driving road test but my Dutch license expires in April so I needed to get the process rolling ASAP. My advisor told me the process could be "lengthy" as "they" (ESP DMV I presume) will send my original Dutch license to Holland for verification of validity (no surprise with that as nothing happens fast here). In the meantime I have no European driving license so hopefully I won't get stopped by a traffic cop (that is to say I still have a US driving license but it would be nuisance to be stopped). Ah, the novelties of Spanish paperwork and bureaucracy.
So the almond flowers have finally started to arrive. This year they are quite late in arrival as normally we see them in December and it is now February. I guess all this rain will help.
Friday, 30 January 2009
We're on holiday at the moment. Started from 18 January through next week. We went to Morocco last week for a few nights. we drove to Algeciras in Cadiz and then took the ferry across to Ceuta,the Spanish enclave on the coast of North Africa before crossing the border into Morocco. Unfortunately it was quite cold and damp there in Chefchaouen where we headed.
We stayed in a friend's flat the first night but it was not really equipped for cold weather and we basically froze during the night. So the next morning, we went wondering around the medina to see what digs we would happen upon. Shortly, we found the Hotel Barcelona which was in a good location not far from the main plaza and they said they had a double with heat, TV & hot shower. The TV was not really necessary but it was offered, all for the price of 250 dirham per night (roughly 25 Euros); we thought not bad, we checked out the room and decided to move there. When we got all our things installed and turned on the heat, we found that the heater only had a fan, cool and dry function mode that worked...no heat. But there were fantastic blankets available and lots of them so we stayed. However, by morning we decided we could not spend one more night in that cold and thought we would try yet another accommodation in this small town.
When we spoke with the guy at the reception desk, he said we could move to another if we wanted as the room we were in was probably the coldest in the hotel (of course(!) and the other guy from reception is to blame for showing us this room to begin with). Anyway, we happily relocated to another room, slightly bigger, same fantastic blankets and, oh low and behold, the guy from reception came running into the room with an electric oil radiator to hand which he quickly plugged in and turned on, all while holding his toothbrush in between his teeth. Before he could say anything to us, he turned and went into OUR bathroom and finished brushing his teeth!! We looked at each other and thought, no big deal, these people are like this. He had given us a story which I have already recounted a few times to howls of laughter, so it was worth it!!
We stayed there one more night and then made the return journey. I filled the car with diesel in Ceuta and paid an amazing 65 cents per litre, SO cheap.
The French have a big influence in Morocco; French is the second language they teach in school in Morocco. Which brings me to the subject I want to mention here in my blog. This is something I have noticed about French drivers, a habit which I find very annoying whilst driving on a motorway.... perhaps a reader here can explain this annoying habit the French drivers have.
When a French tagged vehicle is travelling in the inside lane (the overtake lane), they tend to leave their left signal indicator flashing as if they are going to make a left hand turn. I noticed this on the way to Morocco because on the Spanish highways near Algeciras, there are lots of cars with French plates as they are heading to/from Morocco. Anyway, this behaviour is something I also noticed when I lived in France about 11 years ago and I found it annoying then too. I did ask my secretary in Paris about this at that time and she was stumped. I asked her if this was something that was taught in French driving schools as a requirement of some kind (you know the French had those yellow headlights on their cars for decades while the entire rest of the planet did not) and she replied "Non." So it is something they pick up from each other driving around on their own.
What does it mean? Why do they do it? Do they realise how annoying they are being to other drivers who have no idea why these cars are zipping along with their left indicator flashing? Where did they learn this from if it is not a driving requirement in France?
Well, I digress from my topic of holiday. But I do want an answer to that query if someone would be so kind!
We are still on holiday; Ivan went to visit his family up north this morning and I stayed here to as I wanted to relax at home for a few more days before we start work again. I have to go and clean the house now so I will say ciao for now. I do have a couple of more stories to recount and will do so this weekend.
One more thing, while we were away, the hotel bookings keep on a coming!! All good!!
We stayed in a friend's flat the first night but it was not really equipped for cold weather and we basically froze during the night. So the next morning, we went wondering around the medina to see what digs we would happen upon. Shortly, we found the Hotel Barcelona which was in a good location not far from the main plaza and they said they had a double with heat, TV & hot shower. The TV was not really necessary but it was offered, all for the price of 250 dirham per night (roughly 25 Euros); we thought not bad, we checked out the room and decided to move there. When we got all our things installed and turned on the heat, we found that the heater only had a fan, cool and dry function mode that worked...no heat. But there were fantastic blankets available and lots of them so we stayed. However, by morning we decided we could not spend one more night in that cold and thought we would try yet another accommodation in this small town.
When we spoke with the guy at the reception desk, he said we could move to another if we wanted as the room we were in was probably the coldest in the hotel (of course(!) and the other guy from reception is to blame for showing us this room to begin with). Anyway, we happily relocated to another room, slightly bigger, same fantastic blankets and, oh low and behold, the guy from reception came running into the room with an electric oil radiator to hand which he quickly plugged in and turned on, all while holding his toothbrush in between his teeth. Before he could say anything to us, he turned and went into OUR bathroom and finished brushing his teeth!! We looked at each other and thought, no big deal, these people are like this. He had given us a story which I have already recounted a few times to howls of laughter, so it was worth it!!
We stayed there one more night and then made the return journey. I filled the car with diesel in Ceuta and paid an amazing 65 cents per litre, SO cheap.
The French have a big influence in Morocco; French is the second language they teach in school in Morocco. Which brings me to the subject I want to mention here in my blog. This is something I have noticed about French drivers, a habit which I find very annoying whilst driving on a motorway.... perhaps a reader here can explain this annoying habit the French drivers have.
When a French tagged vehicle is travelling in the inside lane (the overtake lane), they tend to leave their left signal indicator flashing as if they are going to make a left hand turn. I noticed this on the way to Morocco because on the Spanish highways near Algeciras, there are lots of cars with French plates as they are heading to/from Morocco. Anyway, this behaviour is something I also noticed when I lived in France about 11 years ago and I found it annoying then too. I did ask my secretary in Paris about this at that time and she was stumped. I asked her if this was something that was taught in French driving schools as a requirement of some kind (you know the French had those yellow headlights on their cars for decades while the entire rest of the planet did not) and she replied "Non." So it is something they pick up from each other driving around on their own.
What does it mean? Why do they do it? Do they realise how annoying they are being to other drivers who have no idea why these cars are zipping along with their left indicator flashing? Where did they learn this from if it is not a driving requirement in France?
Well, I digress from my topic of holiday. But I do want an answer to that query if someone would be so kind!
We are still on holiday; Ivan went to visit his family up north this morning and I stayed here to as I wanted to relax at home for a few more days before we start work again. I have to go and clean the house now so I will say ciao for now. I do have a couple of more stories to recount and will do so this weekend.
One more thing, while we were away, the hotel bookings keep on a coming!! All good!!
Sunday, 18 January 2009
Happy New Year a wee bit into the new one already.
The purple flowers on the mountain have been out for a few weeks already. Surprising I have not seen the flowers on the almond trees yet as they normally appear by this time of year.
We have been having a couple of fairly quiet weeks buy things are going O.K. for us at the moment. We have a group bookings for the first and last weekends in February and I must get our Valentines Day offer onto the website as well as that will be happening very soon.
We have started working with a Dutch couple who send Dutch walkers to us. We have already received two bookings for them. We have a double group lunch happening today, one of the groups was here for New Year's Eve and they were so happy with everything, they are back already. And they are recommending us to their friends as well as we have already heard back from some of them.
I am pleased to say we will soon start offering another painting workshop with an artist in Ronda who sought us out last week looking to start working with us.
Our art gallery project is slowly starting to take shape as well. We have the new doors ordered and the bricks to put up a new wall in the gallery for a store room for the beds and things we have in that room now. All very exciting stuff. And we may have some art works already as well from an English painter we met recently who was having an exhibition in Ronda, very colourful work!!
For those of the readers here that look at my website, you will have seen a new addition to our Theme Holidays page, an offer of a Scottish Gaelic Singing/Language Workshop in late April 2009. Fiona Mackenzie of Dingwall Scotland is coming with another colleague to conduct this workshop and she already has one sign-up which is very positive! Something new and another cultural item in our list of activities.
We are going on holiday as well so the hotel will be closed for a couple of weeks from this afternoon, re-opening on 3 February. We will spend part of that time catching up with other business owners in the area, a few days a way and working on our gallery project.
And we have one more bird in our collection now, a love-bird, a type of small parrot. It was a gift to Ivan for the Reyes; it is very smaller and does not yet have all its feathers but still quite cute.
The weather here at the moment has been quite fine actually, the last few days. We have had lots of sun and clear skies making it springlike weather for sitting on the terrace to sip a beer. Last week was quite cold as in the rest of Spain and even now it is quite chilly at night but comfortable in the day.
Must dash now as the group will be arriving for lunch soon and still a few preparations to do so Cheerio for now!
The purple flowers on the mountain have been out for a few weeks already. Surprising I have not seen the flowers on the almond trees yet as they normally appear by this time of year.
We have been having a couple of fairly quiet weeks buy things are going O.K. for us at the moment. We have a group bookings for the first and last weekends in February and I must get our Valentines Day offer onto the website as well as that will be happening very soon.
We have started working with a Dutch couple who send Dutch walkers to us. We have already received two bookings for them. We have a double group lunch happening today, one of the groups was here for New Year's Eve and they were so happy with everything, they are back already. And they are recommending us to their friends as well as we have already heard back from some of them.
I am pleased to say we will soon start offering another painting workshop with an artist in Ronda who sought us out last week looking to start working with us.
Our art gallery project is slowly starting to take shape as well. We have the new doors ordered and the bricks to put up a new wall in the gallery for a store room for the beds and things we have in that room now. All very exciting stuff. And we may have some art works already as well from an English painter we met recently who was having an exhibition in Ronda, very colourful work!!
For those of the readers here that look at my website, you will have seen a new addition to our Theme Holidays page, an offer of a Scottish Gaelic Singing/Language Workshop in late April 2009. Fiona Mackenzie of Dingwall Scotland is coming with another colleague to conduct this workshop and she already has one sign-up which is very positive! Something new and another cultural item in our list of activities.
We are going on holiday as well so the hotel will be closed for a couple of weeks from this afternoon, re-opening on 3 February. We will spend part of that time catching up with other business owners in the area, a few days a way and working on our gallery project.
And we have one more bird in our collection now, a love-bird, a type of small parrot. It was a gift to Ivan for the Reyes; it is very smaller and does not yet have all its feathers but still quite cute.
The weather here at the moment has been quite fine actually, the last few days. We have had lots of sun and clear skies making it springlike weather for sitting on the terrace to sip a beer. Last week was quite cold as in the rest of Spain and even now it is quite chilly at night but comfortable in the day.
Must dash now as the group will be arriving for lunch soon and still a few preparations to do so Cheerio for now!
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
Happy New Year to all my readers.
Our Christmas was spent working here in the hotel for the first time. This year, apart from all others, we had 5 enquires for Christmas, a first and in the year of a recession, perhaps heading toward depression!
Well, we were pleased to work with the hotel full with this family from Algeciras, Cadiz. They were all very nice people, as usual. They brought a guitar and a karaoke machine which we heard them singing with into the late hours on the night of 23 December. Ivan prepared a lovely Christmas eve dinner for them of grilled shrimp with rock salt, boiled langoustines, plates of Spanish cured meats, Manchego cheese, baked stuff mushroom caps, pisto on toast with baked pork tenderloin, consume of langoustine, all followed by roasted leg of baby lamb with rosemary sauce and a roasted turkey with mashed potatoes. Dessert was a baba au rum, OH so yum yum!!, with whipped cream.
This family was so nice and unassuming, they asked before dinner if we were dining with them! Very nice but of course we could not even though our new waiter, Tony, was here with us. WE were busy getting those plates out there, dirty ones in and cleaned. After dinner though, we sat with them and sang and Ivan danced with one of the girls. We were with them until 4AM.
All in all, a good Christmas. While we did not spend the holiday with our families, it was a good Christmas all the same because we spent it with very nice people.
Now we are in the midst of preparing for the big New Year's Eve Dinner. Ivan has been preparing food in the kitchen since yesterday already. We are serving our usual eight course dinner with wine, cava and grapes at midnight (as per the Spanish tradition, one grape with each gong of the bell it strikes midnight). Ivan is making consume of langoustines, terrine of fresh cheese with brazed vegetables with a sauce, grilled scallops with sweet potato, quail with dates, lemon sorbet, fillets of monk fish with an aubergine alioli and finally sucking pig confitado with a spiced honey sauce. Dessert is a 3 chocolate brownie with red fruit sauce and whipped cream. WOW, that's sounds yumilicous to me and is making me hungry as I have yet to have some lunch.
I have been busy setting the table, preparing the packets of grapes and helping in the kitchen as well. We have the bar closed today as is our custom on this day because the kitchen is quite busy with all these plates of food coming.
We plan to take some holiday in January, closing from 19 January until 3 February. Bookings for 2009 are starting to roll in as well. We have a booking for 2 January and then a group in February, and bookings in March and May already as well. Our group bookings are improving as well so things are looking up for us these days. Hopefully the first few months of this new year will not look anything like 2008 as this was a pretty miserable time for us, Jan to July that is.
The weather here is cooperating as well as it is dry and cool but not cold. We just had a wood delivery yesterday of 3,000 kilos; that should last a few months. Good burning wood as well, encima and olive.
Well, it's time for me to put some food in my belly so I will sign off here with my last entry of 2008. Oh, one more thing, I have enable a counter on this blog page as I was curious to see what kind of traffic I get here. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I have some very interested readers, some who come back and check me out here once a week. To those dedicated readers, I saw sorry for the long break without new entries, I was recuperating from my fall and then lost my momentum here. But now it's back and and I am in full swing with a couple of entries a month, at least. So, keep on reading.... and thank you for reading.
Happy New Year everyone!! Let's all hope it's better than 2007 and 2008. (Well, any year WITHOUT George W. Bush as President of the United States of America has GOT to be a good year!!!)
Ciao.
Our Christmas was spent working here in the hotel for the first time. This year, apart from all others, we had 5 enquires for Christmas, a first and in the year of a recession, perhaps heading toward depression!
Well, we were pleased to work with the hotel full with this family from Algeciras, Cadiz. They were all very nice people, as usual. They brought a guitar and a karaoke machine which we heard them singing with into the late hours on the night of 23 December. Ivan prepared a lovely Christmas eve dinner for them of grilled shrimp with rock salt, boiled langoustines, plates of Spanish cured meats, Manchego cheese, baked stuff mushroom caps, pisto on toast with baked pork tenderloin, consume of langoustine, all followed by roasted leg of baby lamb with rosemary sauce and a roasted turkey with mashed potatoes. Dessert was a baba au rum, OH so yum yum!!, with whipped cream.
This family was so nice and unassuming, they asked before dinner if we were dining with them! Very nice but of course we could not even though our new waiter, Tony, was here with us. WE were busy getting those plates out there, dirty ones in and cleaned. After dinner though, we sat with them and sang and Ivan danced with one of the girls. We were with them until 4AM.
All in all, a good Christmas. While we did not spend the holiday with our families, it was a good Christmas all the same because we spent it with very nice people.
Now we are in the midst of preparing for the big New Year's Eve Dinner. Ivan has been preparing food in the kitchen since yesterday already. We are serving our usual eight course dinner with wine, cava and grapes at midnight (as per the Spanish tradition, one grape with each gong of the bell it strikes midnight). Ivan is making consume of langoustines, terrine of fresh cheese with brazed vegetables with a sauce, grilled scallops with sweet potato, quail with dates, lemon sorbet, fillets of monk fish with an aubergine alioli and finally sucking pig confitado with a spiced honey sauce. Dessert is a 3 chocolate brownie with red fruit sauce and whipped cream. WOW, that's sounds yumilicous to me and is making me hungry as I have yet to have some lunch.
I have been busy setting the table, preparing the packets of grapes and helping in the kitchen as well. We have the bar closed today as is our custom on this day because the kitchen is quite busy with all these plates of food coming.
We plan to take some holiday in January, closing from 19 January until 3 February. Bookings for 2009 are starting to roll in as well. We have a booking for 2 January and then a group in February, and bookings in March and May already as well. Our group bookings are improving as well so things are looking up for us these days. Hopefully the first few months of this new year will not look anything like 2008 as this was a pretty miserable time for us, Jan to July that is.
The weather here is cooperating as well as it is dry and cool but not cold. We just had a wood delivery yesterday of 3,000 kilos; that should last a few months. Good burning wood as well, encima and olive.
Well, it's time for me to put some food in my belly so I will sign off here with my last entry of 2008. Oh, one more thing, I have enable a counter on this blog page as I was curious to see what kind of traffic I get here. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I have some very interested readers, some who come back and check me out here once a week. To those dedicated readers, I saw sorry for the long break without new entries, I was recuperating from my fall and then lost my momentum here. But now it's back and and I am in full swing with a couple of entries a month, at least. So, keep on reading.... and thank you for reading.
Happy New Year everyone!! Let's all hope it's better than 2007 and 2008. (Well, any year WITHOUT George W. Bush as President of the United States of America has GOT to be a good year!!!)
Ciao.
Saturday, 20 December 2008
Today is another quiet Saturday. Last weekend was kind of slow to dead as well. 'Tis the season they say but not much happens in this part of the Serrania at this time of year.
We do have a family coming for Christmas, a first for us. This year of all years with the economic problems around, we have received the miost enquires for Christmas than ever before. Normally we are closed for this time and spend the holdiay with our families, either in NY or in Avila. This year, we decided that if the business was sufficient, we would stay and it has worked out that way. And today we receoived another booking as well for the same time. This family that is coming has seven rooms booked. So we took a booking today for the same period and filled the hotel, a bit of Christmas cheer for us then!!
For New Year's Eve, we have six rooms booked for far and hopefully the last two will fill as well. We are offering our usual festive dinner with drinks and a bit of a party afterwards. And of course the party people of Juzcar will be out and about celebrating the new year as usual, all night in the pub, dancing, drinking, partying!!
We are in the midst of preparing our new living space in the hotel. We have put up a couple of new walls making two bedrooms, we've got some windows going in shortly and a completely renovated bathroom. All should be quite nice, much better than living in the house we have. I'm not so sure what is going to happen to the house as it is for sale but there is no market for houses now, like everywhere else in the world it seems.
We decorated the bar last week and put up our Christmas lights outside the hotel. We decided to skip then outside tree this year for environmental reasons... so just lights which look as good. Ivan has been busy making Christmas cakes and Turron. The turron is so delicious, all kinds, almonds, egg yoke, crispy rice, etc... all so good!
We do have a family coming for Christmas, a first for us. This year of all years with the economic problems around, we have received the miost enquires for Christmas than ever before. Normally we are closed for this time and spend the holdiay with our families, either in NY or in Avila. This year, we decided that if the business was sufficient, we would stay and it has worked out that way. And today we receoived another booking as well for the same time. This family that is coming has seven rooms booked. So we took a booking today for the same period and filled the hotel, a bit of Christmas cheer for us then!!
For New Year's Eve, we have six rooms booked for far and hopefully the last two will fill as well. We are offering our usual festive dinner with drinks and a bit of a party afterwards. And of course the party people of Juzcar will be out and about celebrating the new year as usual, all night in the pub, dancing, drinking, partying!!
We are in the midst of preparing our new living space in the hotel. We have put up a couple of new walls making two bedrooms, we've got some windows going in shortly and a completely renovated bathroom. All should be quite nice, much better than living in the house we have. I'm not so sure what is going to happen to the house as it is for sale but there is no market for houses now, like everywhere else in the world it seems.
We decorated the bar last week and put up our Christmas lights outside the hotel. We decided to skip then outside tree this year for environmental reasons... so just lights which look as good. Ivan has been busy making Christmas cakes and Turron. The turron is so delicious, all kinds, almonds, egg yoke, crispy rice, etc... all so good!
Friday, 5 December 2008
Can you believe that Christmas is just around the corner? Time to get out that box of decorations and start decorating the bar and the hotel for that festive of all seasons.
It has been way too long since my last entry here. So what's happened since July? Well, we've had a pretty good August, September and October. We have seen that given the current economic climate, guests are waiting to make booking to the last minute. But we've had a good steady flow of business since then. Things were very bleak in the first half of the year and have gotten better since summer.
Our American artist group was here in October for the 4th workshop with the largest group yet. Some were not actually painters so they found that there are plenty of things to do here even if not painting. They went on walks across the mountains with Sandrine, mushroom hunting one afternoon as October is a good month for that (if the weather cooperates) and even had a cooking class with Ivan, his first.
Ivan discovered that he really does enjoy instructing people how to cook which was a good first step in offering cooking classes. So the cook book is still in the offing but we hope to have more takers of our cooking offer meanwhile.
We had a couple of takers for the relaxation package we have on line, which came as a surprise actually. One puts these things on line hoping people read them and act upon them but when it actually happens, it is a surprise, a pleasant one of course.
We are preparing to move house which is something I am looking forward to. We are now in the process of building a flat for ourselves here in the hotel; the hotel will now have a proper owner's unit of its own. We have ordered new windows and doors for this and are building walls, so real DIY work!! Not sure when that will be ready but soon I hope. The bathroom is nearly there as the plumbing has been done which is key in a bathroom.
In the same project, we are making a few changes to the large room located next to the flat space where we are planning to install an art gallery. This is an idea I am especially excited about as we have artists that come here to paint already and now we will be able to have their art work on display here as well going forward. We are also working with someone in Ronda who has been searching for such a space in the Serrania for local artists to display their work as well. We hope to have a permanent exhibit as well.
This weekend here in Spain is a 3 day holiday weekend so we have a full hotel tomorrow and Sunday... always good news. And then we have a family coming for Christmas as well, our first time staying here for Navidad. And then there will be the Fin de Año celebrations. I think we are going on holiday in January so the hotel will be closed for a couple of weeks.
So that's my short update. I'll tell you about the big mushroom weekend we had here in early November next time.
It has been way too long since my last entry here. So what's happened since July? Well, we've had a pretty good August, September and October. We have seen that given the current economic climate, guests are waiting to make booking to the last minute. But we've had a good steady flow of business since then. Things were very bleak in the first half of the year and have gotten better since summer.
Our American artist group was here in October for the 4th workshop with the largest group yet. Some were not actually painters so they found that there are plenty of things to do here even if not painting. They went on walks across the mountains with Sandrine, mushroom hunting one afternoon as October is a good month for that (if the weather cooperates) and even had a cooking class with Ivan, his first.
Ivan discovered that he really does enjoy instructing people how to cook which was a good first step in offering cooking classes. So the cook book is still in the offing but we hope to have more takers of our cooking offer meanwhile.
We had a couple of takers for the relaxation package we have on line, which came as a surprise actually. One puts these things on line hoping people read them and act upon them but when it actually happens, it is a surprise, a pleasant one of course.
We are preparing to move house which is something I am looking forward to. We are now in the process of building a flat for ourselves here in the hotel; the hotel will now have a proper owner's unit of its own. We have ordered new windows and doors for this and are building walls, so real DIY work!! Not sure when that will be ready but soon I hope. The bathroom is nearly there as the plumbing has been done which is key in a bathroom.
In the same project, we are making a few changes to the large room located next to the flat space where we are planning to install an art gallery. This is an idea I am especially excited about as we have artists that come here to paint already and now we will be able to have their art work on display here as well going forward. We are also working with someone in Ronda who has been searching for such a space in the Serrania for local artists to display their work as well. We hope to have a permanent exhibit as well.
This weekend here in Spain is a 3 day holiday weekend so we have a full hotel tomorrow and Sunday... always good news. And then we have a family coming for Christmas as well, our first time staying here for Navidad. And then there will be the Fin de Año celebrations. I think we are going on holiday in January so the hotel will be closed for a couple of weeks.
So that's my short update. I'll tell you about the big mushroom weekend we had here in early November next time.
Sunday, 13 July 2008
After a bit of a delay due to my accident on 1 July, I have now finished preparing and installing a couple of new package ideas for our hotel website. I have added Ivan's Cooking Class offer, a Relaxation Offer and added the English Language courses being offered by an American woman living here in the Genal Valley. Perhaps we will get more bookings this way as having a nice variety of offers should entice some bookings out of the travelling public. I myself would take up the relaxation package, a face massage poolside sounds heavenly to me.
Have a look:
www.hotelbandolero.com/themes/home-emg.htm - English
www.hotelbandolero.es/themes/home-esp.htm - Castellano
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
It has been more than one month since my last posting to this blog. So what's been happening at Hotel Bandolero recently? June was a quiet month in terms of bookings.
The Spanish travelling public needs a bit of education about what their own native land has to offer as they seem to only consider . Here in the mountains, it is hot during the day and very cool and comfortable in the evenings. Great for swimming in the rivers, lakes or pools available nearby. There are plenty of activities to undertake as well even if you are on a budget; one can still enjoy the nature surrounding the area. There are plenty of birds to see, paths to follow, white villages all distinctly different. There is history here worth investigating.
I recently bought some print advertising in an English language locally published paper of which I am not all that impressed in an attempt to increase our traffic. That did not work as we have not had one query as a result of that advertisement. How can I be so sure you ask. I can be so sure because the ad offered a complimentary bottle of wine with the meal if the advert was mentioned. Not only has no one mentioned it that has dined here recently, we have not had many diners at all in fact recently.
Our painting workshop booked in October has not only confirmed, but has paid a deposit as well. Unfortunately, our September workshop has also cancelled, maybe next year. But we have received a few more bookings for this month and a couple of new ones for the Juzcar fiesta in August as well as a couple of new bookings in September. "Think Positive" is the meaning here, perhaps more business will come our way. We still have plenty of availability during the first two weeks of August available so make your bookings now. We have an offer on until the end of July, all rooms at the same price of 60 Euros per night plus VAT. A pretty good offer I think.
Júzcar had its annual Romeria during the last weekend in June. Ivan prepared the food for them which was a ham stew with carrots, peas, onions and potatoes. Delicious was what the people said when they brought back the empty pots. He also made litres and litres of traditional gazpacho of which none remained, in fact it was finished before the event was and some did not get to have any. Many people have told Ivan that he makes the best gazpacho they have ever had. It is quite good and healthy for you too.
It was on the 1st of July that I had an accident, a week ago today in fact. We have this beautiful big oleander tree on the bar terrace. It has pink flowers. All of the oleanders that I see in the last couple of months are full of flowers, white, burgundy, pink, yellow. But not ours. Our has suffered from an annual infestation of small yellow bugs that eat all the new growth on it. This has been the case for the last couple of years up to mid to late July when the bugs disappear and the flowers can finally bloom. This year, I decided that I needed to kill those bugs and let my plant flower. We bought some insecticide and spray bottle. As the plant is quite high, about 3 M high, I could not reach the upper levels of the plant. So I climbed up in this barrel that has been on the terrace since we arrived here almost 4 years ago. I stood there happily applying this liquid for a few minutes actually. I even took photos with my mobile of my dogs from up there.
Then it happened; the top of the barrel gave way under my weight and I went crashing through, smashing my back against the rim of the barrel in the process. Ivan was on the terrace heard this loud noise and then me, screaming in pain. Together, we some how managed to get me out of there fairly quickly. Neither of us remember exactly how we did that as I was in such agony, that was what all the focus was on. I quickly stretched myself upon the terrace breathing fast and feeling lots and lots of pain in my back. Neighbours started arriving, enquiring what was wrong. Ivan called for an ambulance as there was no way I could sit down to go to hospital. Then we waited. Forty five minutes later, the ambulance arrived. Ivan was quite anxious waiting for them and let them know he was unhappy about the length of time it took for their arrival.
I would venture to say that they get that kind of reaction to their arrival quite a lot because the first thing the medic said to Ivan was he would call the police. I think there have been many angry family members waiting for an ambulance that does not come fast enough and someone is suffering. Anyway, I didn't care, I just wanted them to take care of me. Clearly I was not dying but I felt terrible. They managed to get me onto a stretcher and into the ambulance. They administered oxygen and some pain meds and got me to Ronda. Ivan followed in our car.
The hospital staff were actually quite attentive. I was seen right away and taken into radiology. I had many x-rays taken of my back and side. Then we waited. Then more x-rays on the next floor and a sonogram. Then more waiting. Finally the doctor came in and told me I had not one, not two but three broken ribs. Everything else was checked such as liver, kidney, spine and other functions. All checked out fine. I only had three broken bones. Two other doctors came in to consult, as they say. They told us that when there are 3 or more broken ribs, they advise a stay of 3-4 nights in hospital. But in my case, as it was a clean break and nothing else was affected, I could decide whether I wanted to stay or recuperate at home. Naturally I chose home with pain meds.
So for the last week, Ivan has been taking care of everything and I have been prone on the sofa watching old movies, reading, sleeping and getting to know my new mobile phone. Today, I am doing some work here at the computer as sitting straight up does not hurt so. I can now get up and lie down without assistance... already. The doctors said it would take up to 40 days for this to heal. "Poco a poco" as they say here in España. Having had time to reflect on what happened to me, I can now say that I was very lucky to have only broken 3 ribs. A more serious injury would have been a bigger drag, an unfortunate event. But as luck would have it, it is only 3 ribs. And a week later here I sit able to work again on the PC. Ivan has been very supportive and patient, I am lucky to have such a wonderful spouse.
The Spanish travelling public needs a bit of education about what their own native land has to offer as they seem to only consider . Here in the mountains, it is hot during the day and very cool and comfortable in the evenings. Great for swimming in the rivers, lakes or pools available nearby. There are plenty of activities to undertake as well even if you are on a budget; one can still enjoy the nature surrounding the area. There are plenty of birds to see, paths to follow, white villages all distinctly different. There is history here worth investigating.
I recently bought some print advertising in an English language locally published paper of which I am not all that impressed in an attempt to increase our traffic. That did not work as we have not had one query as a result of that advertisement. How can I be so sure you ask. I can be so sure because the ad offered a complimentary bottle of wine with the meal if the advert was mentioned. Not only has no one mentioned it that has dined here recently, we have not had many diners at all in fact recently.
Our painting workshop booked in October has not only confirmed, but has paid a deposit as well. Unfortunately, our September workshop has also cancelled, maybe next year. But we have received a few more bookings for this month and a couple of new ones for the Juzcar fiesta in August as well as a couple of new bookings in September. "Think Positive" is the meaning here, perhaps more business will come our way. We still have plenty of availability during the first two weeks of August available so make your bookings now. We have an offer on until the end of July, all rooms at the same price of 60 Euros per night plus VAT. A pretty good offer I think.
Júzcar had its annual Romeria during the last weekend in June. Ivan prepared the food for them which was a ham stew with carrots, peas, onions and potatoes. Delicious was what the people said when they brought back the empty pots. He also made litres and litres of traditional gazpacho of which none remained, in fact it was finished before the event was and some did not get to have any. Many people have told Ivan that he makes the best gazpacho they have ever had. It is quite good and healthy for you too.
It was on the 1st of July that I had an accident, a week ago today in fact. We have this beautiful big oleander tree on the bar terrace. It has pink flowers. All of the oleanders that I see in the last couple of months are full of flowers, white, burgundy, pink, yellow. But not ours. Our has suffered from an annual infestation of small yellow bugs that eat all the new growth on it. This has been the case for the last couple of years up to mid to late July when the bugs disappear and the flowers can finally bloom. This year, I decided that I needed to kill those bugs and let my plant flower. We bought some insecticide and spray bottle. As the plant is quite high, about 3 M high, I could not reach the upper levels of the plant. So I climbed up in this barrel that has been on the terrace since we arrived here almost 4 years ago. I stood there happily applying this liquid for a few minutes actually. I even took photos with my mobile of my dogs from up there.
Then it happened; the top of the barrel gave way under my weight and I went crashing through, smashing my back against the rim of the barrel in the process. Ivan was on the terrace heard this loud noise and then me, screaming in pain. Together, we some how managed to get me out of there fairly quickly. Neither of us remember exactly how we did that as I was in such agony, that was what all the focus was on. I quickly stretched myself upon the terrace breathing fast and feeling lots and lots of pain in my back. Neighbours started arriving, enquiring what was wrong. Ivan called for an ambulance as there was no way I could sit down to go to hospital. Then we waited. Forty five minutes later, the ambulance arrived. Ivan was quite anxious waiting for them and let them know he was unhappy about the length of time it took for their arrival.
I would venture to say that they get that kind of reaction to their arrival quite a lot because the first thing the medic said to Ivan was he would call the police. I think there have been many angry family members waiting for an ambulance that does not come fast enough and someone is suffering. Anyway, I didn't care, I just wanted them to take care of me. Clearly I was not dying but I felt terrible. They managed to get me onto a stretcher and into the ambulance. They administered oxygen and some pain meds and got me to Ronda. Ivan followed in our car.
The hospital staff were actually quite attentive. I was seen right away and taken into radiology. I had many x-rays taken of my back and side. Then we waited. Then more x-rays on the next floor and a sonogram. Then more waiting. Finally the doctor came in and told me I had not one, not two but three broken ribs. Everything else was checked such as liver, kidney, spine and other functions. All checked out fine. I only had three broken bones. Two other doctors came in to consult, as they say. They told us that when there are 3 or more broken ribs, they advise a stay of 3-4 nights in hospital. But in my case, as it was a clean break and nothing else was affected, I could decide whether I wanted to stay or recuperate at home. Naturally I chose home with pain meds.
So for the last week, Ivan has been taking care of everything and I have been prone on the sofa watching old movies, reading, sleeping and getting to know my new mobile phone. Today, I am doing some work here at the computer as sitting straight up does not hurt so. I can now get up and lie down without assistance... already. The doctors said it would take up to 40 days for this to heal. "Poco a poco" as they say here in España. Having had time to reflect on what happened to me, I can now say that I was very lucky to have only broken 3 ribs. A more serious injury would have been a bigger drag, an unfortunate event. But as luck would have it, it is only 3 ribs. And a week later here I sit able to work again on the PC. Ivan has been very supportive and patient, I am lucky to have such a wonderful spouse.
Sunday, 1 June 2008
The weather has not been cooperating of late. The temperature in the last few days has been well below normal... and Dutch & English clients have said how the weather here has been just about the same as theirs at home. So most uncooperative of the weather to be this chilly in late May. I just checked with a weather service on-line and it shows that we will have no rain for the next week which is good news. While rain is always welcome, normally, it is not now as I am a bit fed up with this cool weather. It should be warmer already. Come on!! Move in you warm air from where ever.
We have a couple of English couples staying with us who've been here since last Tuesday and will be here for a couple more nights. They're here for a week exploring the area and perhaps buying something in the village, a new holiday home. They like the dogs and have taken Pasky out for a few walks as one of the couples used to have a German Shepherd themselves. We also had Nicky here for a few days with her friend Helen. Nicky is one of our artists who had planned to be here now with a group of painters and walkers and wine tasters but that did not materialise as there was no interest. Just as our American friends had to cancel the painting workshop they had scheduled with us for the first full week of May due to lack of interest. I think the lack of interest is really lack of funds at this point.
Many people here in Spain are suffering as a result of the high interest rate on the Euro. Many people discovered new found freedom (of the wallet) when Spanish banks made qualifying for loans so easy over the last few years. So many people went out and bought new cars and apartments/homes with these loans and now they are paying for them. And with higher interest rates, more of their disposable incomes are going toward their monthly payments leaving less money to spend on weekends away in Hotel Bandolero. Now, of course, all that lending has come to a grinding halt with this credit crisis created by American bankers and their London friends in the UK banking community as well. Spanish bankers are no less guilty in my view as they are still offering low interest credit card specials. I personally receive a solicitation every few weeks from a bank here in Spain. In general, monthly salaries have not increased but expenses certainly have... we all feel the negative effects of the price of fuel, whether you are a air traveller or a driver on the packed roads, one has to pay for fuel.
We have a couple of English couples staying with us who've been here since last Tuesday and will be here for a couple more nights. They're here for a week exploring the area and perhaps buying something in the village, a new holiday home. They like the dogs and have taken Pasky out for a few walks as one of the couples used to have a German Shepherd themselves. We also had Nicky here for a few days with her friend Helen. Nicky is one of our artists who had planned to be here now with a group of painters and walkers and wine tasters but that did not materialise as there was no interest. Just as our American friends had to cancel the painting workshop they had scheduled with us for the first full week of May due to lack of interest. I think the lack of interest is really lack of funds at this point.
Many people here in Spain are suffering as a result of the high interest rate on the Euro. Many people discovered new found freedom (of the wallet) when Spanish banks made qualifying for loans so easy over the last few years. So many people went out and bought new cars and apartments/homes with these loans and now they are paying for them. And with higher interest rates, more of their disposable incomes are going toward their monthly payments leaving less money to spend on weekends away in Hotel Bandolero. Now, of course, all that lending has come to a grinding halt with this credit crisis created by American bankers and their London friends in the UK banking community as well. Spanish bankers are no less guilty in my view as they are still offering low interest credit card specials. I personally receive a solicitation every few weeks from a bank here in Spain. In general, monthly salaries have not increased but expenses certainly have... we all feel the negative effects of the price of fuel, whether you are a air traveller or a driver on the packed roads, one has to pay for fuel.
Saturday, 31 May 2008
I can’t believe it’s been two weeks already since we had our first wedding here in the hotel; that was on Saturday 17 May, two weeks to the day already. The hotel was full of family and friends that came as far away as Amsterdam and New York City to attend the nuptials. It was a special wedding being performed by the mayor of Juzcar in Ronda at the Palacio Mondragon.
It all began with the arrival of the parents a few days before the actual day. Soon after, other family members and close friends began arriving. On Friday evening, there was a delicious paella prepared by Ivan’s mother, made by special request of the guests. On Saturday morning, after the remainder of the guests arrived from central Spain, Mojitos cocktails were prepared and quickly consumed as the group all sat on the pool terrace, children in the pool and a b-b-q in the making. There were pork brochettes, grilled big shrimp, filets of panga in tomato sauce, a huge pasta salad, grilled pork filets and more Mojitos. Ivan had decorated the terrace for the event so it was very festive with coloured lanterns and flags waving over head in the light spring breeze, bright and sunny as well.
After the meal, things quieted down as they all went to prepare for the early evening ceremony. The bus arrived at 5.15 to take the group off to Ronda. The Juzcar mayor arrived at 5.30 and then they began coming down in their fancy dress. The groom was wearing a black suit with a gold vest, cravat and shiny black shoes. The other groom (yes indeed, it was two grooms marrying) was wearing a double breasted black diner suit, burgundy hounds tooth bow tie with braces showing the Statue of Liberty; both had a white flower in their lapels. The cameras were flashing away and then they all headed into the bus which someone in the village had decorated with white and pink streamers looking very festive and wedding-like.
When they arrived at the Plaza Duquesa de Parcent in Ronda’s historic old town, there were preparations for the Romeria which was happening that evening as well; this meant girls in Sevillana dresses, horse drawn carts, bulls, and a full Spanish procession in the making. Cameras were flashing again as the group headed to Carmen la de Ronda, a Tapas bar, a for a quick drink before heading to the Palacio Mondragon for the ceremony. Upon arrival there, the photographer started doing his thing. The flowers they ordered were there on a table in front of four chairs for the bridal couple and their respective witnesses in the Patio Mujudare. The ceremony began, by Don David, the Mayor of Juzcar. He read a nice piece he had prepared and then the commitment part of the ceremony. While this was going, tourists started accumulating off to the side. And then there was the exchange of rings and the pronouncement of a wedded couple and the cheers and applauds from the invited guests and tourists was very cheerful. Again the cameras were flashing. Off to the gardens for photos and then off they went to the bus to then head to the restaurant with breathtaking views of Ronda as the backdrop.
A festive dinner ensued and then they returned to the hotel on the bus. Ivan had made the wedding cake, chocolate orange covered in white chocolate and sugar flowers. Here’s a photo:
Dancing and drinks followed until they had to go to bed at about 4AM. Some of the guests were to head out on a train from Ronda at 10Am the next morning and so wanted at least a couple of hours sleep before heading out. The others all got a good lie in. The following day was not nearly as nice in terms of the weather. Cloudy, windy, a bit wet and cool. But the next day, after another one of the guests departed, the rest of them went off to Seville for the day, a wet cloudy day to start but turned into a bright sunny day in Seville.
All in all, it was a memorable and special wedding party. All danced, ate, drank, toasted, and merrily celebrated a very festive and special event.
We have another wedding scheduled for September as well, a mixed couple, English & Spanish. Ivan is making their cake as well and they have guests coming from the UK so it should be another festive and happy event.
It all began with the arrival of the parents a few days before the actual day. Soon after, other family members and close friends began arriving. On Friday evening, there was a delicious paella prepared by Ivan’s mother, made by special request of the guests. On Saturday morning, after the remainder of the guests arrived from central Spain, Mojitos cocktails were prepared and quickly consumed as the group all sat on the pool terrace, children in the pool and a b-b-q in the making. There were pork brochettes, grilled big shrimp, filets of panga in tomato sauce, a huge pasta salad, grilled pork filets and more Mojitos. Ivan had decorated the terrace for the event so it was very festive with coloured lanterns and flags waving over head in the light spring breeze, bright and sunny as well.
After the meal, things quieted down as they all went to prepare for the early evening ceremony. The bus arrived at 5.15 to take the group off to Ronda. The Juzcar mayor arrived at 5.30 and then they began coming down in their fancy dress. The groom was wearing a black suit with a gold vest, cravat and shiny black shoes. The other groom (yes indeed, it was two grooms marrying) was wearing a double breasted black diner suit, burgundy hounds tooth bow tie with braces showing the Statue of Liberty; both had a white flower in their lapels. The cameras were flashing away and then they all headed into the bus which someone in the village had decorated with white and pink streamers looking very festive and wedding-like.
When they arrived at the Plaza Duquesa de Parcent in Ronda’s historic old town, there were preparations for the Romeria which was happening that evening as well; this meant girls in Sevillana dresses, horse drawn carts, bulls, and a full Spanish procession in the making. Cameras were flashing again as the group headed to Carmen la de Ronda, a Tapas bar, a for a quick drink before heading to the Palacio Mondragon for the ceremony. Upon arrival there, the photographer started doing his thing. The flowers they ordered were there on a table in front of four chairs for the bridal couple and their respective witnesses in the Patio Mujudare. The ceremony began, by Don David, the Mayor of Juzcar. He read a nice piece he had prepared and then the commitment part of the ceremony. While this was going, tourists started accumulating off to the side. And then there was the exchange of rings and the pronouncement of a wedded couple and the cheers and applauds from the invited guests and tourists was very cheerful. Again the cameras were flashing. Off to the gardens for photos and then off they went to the bus to then head to the restaurant with breathtaking views of Ronda as the backdrop.
A festive dinner ensued and then they returned to the hotel on the bus. Ivan had made the wedding cake, chocolate orange covered in white chocolate and sugar flowers. Here’s a photo:
Dancing and drinks followed until they had to go to bed at about 4AM. Some of the guests were to head out on a train from Ronda at 10Am the next morning and so wanted at least a couple of hours sleep before heading out. The others all got a good lie in. The following day was not nearly as nice in terms of the weather. Cloudy, windy, a bit wet and cool. But the next day, after another one of the guests departed, the rest of them went off to Seville for the day, a wet cloudy day to start but turned into a bright sunny day in Seville.
All in all, it was a memorable and special wedding party. All danced, ate, drank, toasted, and merrily celebrated a very festive and special event.
We have another wedding scheduled for September as well, a mixed couple, English & Spanish. Ivan is making their cake as well and they have guests coming from the UK so it should be another festive and happy event.
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
I promised myself I would not let a lot of time go by before writing again but here it is more than a month later since my last entry. We've had a few things happen here since the 8th of April.
In April, the Juzcar village hall organised a weekend seminar about the history of the Ronda mountains. We had speakers come from Morocco and Madrid and interested participants from Malaga city and Juzcar. It was a successful event, like the wild mushroom weekend held here back in November.
We had a lovely couple from Stockholm that stayed with us for a few days. They had a very nice stay here from all that they said. They went on a guided bird watching tour with Peter from Spanish Birds. They went for a guided tour of vultures in their nests and soaring off for the morning up into the thermals with Frank in Cadiz. They had a very nice long walk across the Riscos with Sandrine checking out all the wild flowers along the way. They had a very nice day in Ronda after Ivan and I helped them change a flat tyre (for which they were so grateful they gave us a gift each upon their return to the hotel).
We also had the return of a guest from Germany who stayed with us a couple of years back.... nice to have return business.
Then there was the long holiday weekend from the 1st of May. For some, it was not a long weekend as some schools were open on the Friday; but for others it was indeed a long weekend so the hotel was fully booked. We had a lovely family from the Netherlands here, all of whom enjoyed having a swim in the pool. That was nice to see... guests enjoying the pool, even though the weather was not the warmest. And a couple of families from Murcia who also enjoyed the pool.
Last weekend we had a group from Marbella stay with us for a night. They came to have a walk through the area but the weather was not cooperating so instead, they went tapas hopping and made the best of the time they had here. They all seemed to enjoy very much their dinner and then they were singing until the wee hours in the restaurant.
It was this last group of guests who left this morning, that left us with a bad taste in our mouths. I'll keep this short as I could go on about this one. Yesterday at mid-day, a group of women from England, well, most from England and one eastern European with a UK passport, arrived from the coast for a two night stay. The eastern European was the one who caused a problem last night, too much drink in her and not enough sense to know when to stop. Then becoming belligerent, aggressive, violent, damaging hotel property and worse because she was a woman.
All this because I, yes, me, David, had suggested to her after she spilt her 9th or 10th drink (beers, then wine, then brandy then rum.... just a few drinks) that perhaps she was at her limit. That lit her fuse, setting off a bomb. Consoling her with an apology and offering her a drink was just not enough. She said I had humiliated like no one had in her whole 32 years, ever. She told us how she is a big entertainment executive and that she could handle her drink, that she was not out of control, knew her limit and how could I suggest she was a loose woman? Ah, no one said anything about a loose woman, those were her own words. All her actions pointed to the contrary about control including her crying and on-going irrational anger, no matter what anyone said, her friend, included; my apology fell on deaf ears. Talk about humiliation... her own behaviour did that quite well actually as everyone watched her throw herself at the village mayor, pawing him. And she became insulting to me and threaten to write bad things about us on the web. All this after a couple of her companions slipped out of the bar to their room giving the appearance that perhaps they knew what was coming?
Later (after everyone left the bar due to this outragious behaviour), on her way up to their room, Miss Aggression Herself pushed over some plant pots smashing them to the floor below and so I had to go up to their room and ask them to leave. Having guests in the hotel who are belligerent towards you, do not respect you and make irrational, unreasonable accusations makes everyone uncomfortable, including those travelling with her, I would imagine.
So this morning, after they had their breakfast and paid their bill including covering the damage they caused, they left, without a word of apology, of thanks or even good-bye. Apparently, we were the bad guys in the end (although they had said earlier that they really enjoyed their dinner and the whole area). Guests like her don't come this way too often... well, never actually and hopefully never again. We do not need this type of aggregation from a crazed 32 year old big hotel entertainment executive. Shame on you woman for your behaviour and your friends for putting up with it; you are the one who should have known better, your behaviour was out of control and way O.T.T.
Moving on, we have friends and family arriving from Madrid, NY and Amsterdam later this week which should help make this a pleasant week despite last night, so a party is in order.
The weather is trying to warm up as we just had a bit of cold weather come our way, unexpectedly, along with some rain. But that is May for you, unstable weather and possible rain which is good for all those gorgeous wild flowers out there. In fact, the whole countryside is just choka full of wild flowers at the moment, reds, yellows, deep purples, blues, pinks, greens, etc.... all just so amazing to see.
The Juzcar mayor informs us that there will be a book fair held here in the hotel in June so another up tick, as they say on the stock market. Juzcar is now becoming a cultural location in the Upper Genal Valley and this bookfair in addition to history and mushroom seminars are positive steps toward that objective.
The Juzcar Romeria is at the end of June while the Romeria in Cartajima, our neighboring village, is on 07 June, somethings to plan for.
In April, the Juzcar village hall organised a weekend seminar about the history of the Ronda mountains. We had speakers come from Morocco and Madrid and interested participants from Malaga city and Juzcar. It was a successful event, like the wild mushroom weekend held here back in November.
We had a lovely couple from Stockholm that stayed with us for a few days. They had a very nice stay here from all that they said. They went on a guided bird watching tour with Peter from Spanish Birds. They went for a guided tour of vultures in their nests and soaring off for the morning up into the thermals with Frank in Cadiz. They had a very nice long walk across the Riscos with Sandrine checking out all the wild flowers along the way. They had a very nice day in Ronda after Ivan and I helped them change a flat tyre (for which they were so grateful they gave us a gift each upon their return to the hotel).
We also had the return of a guest from Germany who stayed with us a couple of years back.... nice to have return business.
Then there was the long holiday weekend from the 1st of May. For some, it was not a long weekend as some schools were open on the Friday; but for others it was indeed a long weekend so the hotel was fully booked. We had a lovely family from the Netherlands here, all of whom enjoyed having a swim in the pool. That was nice to see... guests enjoying the pool, even though the weather was not the warmest. And a couple of families from Murcia who also enjoyed the pool.
Last weekend we had a group from Marbella stay with us for a night. They came to have a walk through the area but the weather was not cooperating so instead, they went tapas hopping and made the best of the time they had here. They all seemed to enjoy very much their dinner and then they were singing until the wee hours in the restaurant.
It was this last group of guests who left this morning, that left us with a bad taste in our mouths. I'll keep this short as I could go on about this one. Yesterday at mid-day, a group of women from England, well, most from England and one eastern European with a UK passport, arrived from the coast for a two night stay. The eastern European was the one who caused a problem last night, too much drink in her and not enough sense to know when to stop. Then becoming belligerent, aggressive, violent, damaging hotel property and worse because she was a woman.
All this because I, yes, me, David, had suggested to her after she spilt her 9th or 10th drink (beers, then wine, then brandy then rum.... just a few drinks) that perhaps she was at her limit. That lit her fuse, setting off a bomb. Consoling her with an apology and offering her a drink was just not enough. She said I had humiliated like no one had in her whole 32 years, ever. She told us how she is a big entertainment executive and that she could handle her drink, that she was not out of control, knew her limit and how could I suggest she was a loose woman? Ah, no one said anything about a loose woman, those were her own words. All her actions pointed to the contrary about control including her crying and on-going irrational anger, no matter what anyone said, her friend, included; my apology fell on deaf ears. Talk about humiliation... her own behaviour did that quite well actually as everyone watched her throw herself at the village mayor, pawing him. And she became insulting to me and threaten to write bad things about us on the web. All this after a couple of her companions slipped out of the bar to their room giving the appearance that perhaps they knew what was coming?
Later (after everyone left the bar due to this outragious behaviour), on her way up to their room, Miss Aggression Herself pushed over some plant pots smashing them to the floor below and so I had to go up to their room and ask them to leave. Having guests in the hotel who are belligerent towards you, do not respect you and make irrational, unreasonable accusations makes everyone uncomfortable, including those travelling with her, I would imagine.
So this morning, after they had their breakfast and paid their bill including covering the damage they caused, they left, without a word of apology, of thanks or even good-bye. Apparently, we were the bad guys in the end (although they had said earlier that they really enjoyed their dinner and the whole area). Guests like her don't come this way too often... well, never actually and hopefully never again. We do not need this type of aggregation from a crazed 32 year old big hotel entertainment executive. Shame on you woman for your behaviour and your friends for putting up with it; you are the one who should have known better, your behaviour was out of control and way O.T.T.
Moving on, we have friends and family arriving from Madrid, NY and Amsterdam later this week which should help make this a pleasant week despite last night, so a party is in order.
The weather is trying to warm up as we just had a bit of cold weather come our way, unexpectedly, along with some rain. But that is May for you, unstable weather and possible rain which is good for all those gorgeous wild flowers out there. In fact, the whole countryside is just choka full of wild flowers at the moment, reds, yellows, deep purples, blues, pinks, greens, etc.... all just so amazing to see.
The Juzcar mayor informs us that there will be a book fair held here in the hotel in June so another up tick, as they say on the stock market. Juzcar is now becoming a cultural location in the Upper Genal Valley and this bookfair in addition to history and mushroom seminars are positive steps toward that objective.
The Juzcar Romeria is at the end of June while the Romeria in Cartajima, our neighboring village, is on 07 June, somethings to plan for.
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