Let's make music
Saturday, March 30, 2013
So were we all doomed ? No, of course not.
Let me describe Gwen and her family for you.
Gwen is a larger than life character, very in your face, big, not as in fat, but tall and broad. As mentioned before she has the assets that men like and because she is taller then most of our male customers so her assets were right at eye level. In lots of respects she was good for the bar, she is pretty and the men liked her.
However she has a hot Scottish temper and is very very opinionated. This proved to be slightly difficult, as long as she agreed with us, no problem. Luckily for the most part she did.
She lived with her mother in a tiny village about 8km out our Serón. The village I find to be very depressing, it's like the land of the living dead. Serón itself managed to avoid much of Franco cruelty, however this tiny village did not and the cloud hangs over it to this day. I find it very difficult to be in that tiny village, I avoid going.
Gwen's Mother is very like Gwen apart from very negative , although in quite an amusing way, hence the 'we're doomed' One of her favorite sayings. She lived in that tiny village, her husband living in the UK and they rarely saw each other, it must have been difficult and money was always tight. She is an excellent cook and baked for the expat community around here, pasties, pies and cakes. The financial situation was not helped by the 13 dogs they had living in their house. Sorry but I do find that strange, they live in a town house, why would you have so many dogs, when feeding yourself is a uphill struggle. But hey ho, each to their own.
Gwen worked hard and helped me a lot with my Spanish the first few months she worked for us. We had a laugh and it was fun.
Bar gets a life of its own
Not long after the big event, something amazing and totally unexpected happened. We had started to get more and more customers and they kept coming back. This mad venture was starting to prove it was well worth the effort.
I was working on my own that night and was laughing and joking with a few customers. When Pepe turned to me and asked do you like Mexican music. I replied I like all music, because I do. He said I've got some in the car and off he went. I thought he would come back with a CD, but he came back with a guitar and started to play. It was such a great night, me and by this time a handful of customers and a live jamming session. We danced he played the others sang, I didn't know the words so they where saved from my singing. This went on until the very small hours, it was just magical.
This was the first live music we had in the bar and it gave me an idea, everyone loves live music, right ?
I came across this video yesterday Pepe is playing the guitar on the right, it was taken this week in the church but it shows you how good he is and you can imagine what that night must have been like.
This wasn't the only jamming session in our bar, but it was the first and because of that has a special place in my heart.
Although for dancing and singing, along with many of our customers we did not need an excuse and often in the small hours would be found dancing, to any type of music. Spanish folk, Spanish rock, Moroccan and of course English rock.
We had so much fun, running a Spanish bar really is a eye opening experience and one I am so grateful I have had.
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900 people ?
Thursday, March 28, 2013
It was here, our first big event !
Saturday night, we were ready, we had enough staff to keep the whole valley served, but where were the people, the customers ?
We had after four weeks customers who had already become regulars, they were in but no more strangers. I hate seeing staff I am paying for standing around, but they had nothing to do. Slowly we let them one by one leave, still no 900 people filling their boots for a big hike tomorrow.
Ok we just had to accept it and hope tomorrow would be better.
Sunday I am flapping like a broken arm in the wind, yesterday hadn't boded well for today.
My heart sank when the paella arrived, brilliant free food, when we have 500 burgers for sale, luckily we hadn't started to cook them yet, we would pre-cook a smaller amount and keep them hot and do more as and when.
Again, have a shed full of staff, hanging around. Please God, we really need this to go well.
The 900 people did turn up and they did keep us busy for the whole hour they were there.
We did sell some burgers, about 70 out of 500, oh, pants !
Water we sold a grand total of 3 bottles all day and two of them weren't for the walkers.
I felt so sorry for the delivery man, as he packed the cases back into the truck. I felt so sorry for him I helped and we kept a load more than we needed, as we figured we would sell it in the end, which of course we did.
Although we had expected more, we gained hugely on this event. Mainly we knew we could do it, the town hall saw we could do it and we wouldn't need to buy burgers, rolls or water for a long time.
Now where do you put all the burgers and rolls? Basically every staff member with a freezer was sent home with as much as they could fit in their freezers to store for us. Then we moved onto the customers, that amount of food takes up a hell of a lot of space.
We had employed a 28 year old expat lady, for the event, she was looking for more permeant work. She was fairly pretty and had assets that I just don't have, if you know what I mean ! She spoke fluent Spanish and had proven to be a good barmaid.
Joe had been loyal and trustworthy, however we all, him included, were finding the travel arrangements difficult, also he sometimes found the Maths hard work. Some of our male customers objected to having two men behind the bar. We all sat down and agreed he would better if he found work closer to home, he had had a few interviews for garages (remember he was a trained mechanic). As luck would have it he was offered a job the very next day.
We took Gwen (name changed, but she is Scottish) on. That would turn out to be both fantastic and a total nightmare.
Are we all doomed ...........????
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Draw a line
Sunday, March 24, 2013
The big event is looming.
Questions
The questions are being asked, are we really ready for 900 people ?
All we could find out from the town hall was they were starting and finishing in the sports centre area (our bar), we had no idea if others would be with them and hang around, if they would need feeding. Basically we knew nothing.
We ordered 200 cases of water, we got outside bars from the suppliers. We ordered 500 burgers, 500 burger buns, were given a old cooker, so we could keep the cooked meat hot and cook more out the front as needed. Decided to cook onions there to in order to tempt customers. Everyone fancies a burger when they smell onions cooking, even me and I haven't eaten meat for twenty years.
We had our own little burger bar attachment.
We ordered enough beer for the whole of southern Spain to be merry and crossed our fingers that would be enough.
We drafted in everyone we knew and a few we didn't to work, but we didn't even know what time the 900 people would arrive.
Looking back we really didn't have the information we needed and it didn't matter how many times I asked, I just couldn't get it. To be fair I don't think they knew.
We now had been told that the hikers were coming on Saturday night as well, ok fingers crossed.
Sorting out
All this is going on whilst we a trying to sort out the mess the weekends events have brought up.
The car being the biggest and most pressing problem. However Barry and Joe did the most amazing job. I can hardly believe how easily and quickly they managed to get us a new car and get it legal to drive. Bear in mind that our first car had taken us two months to sort out. It was all done and dusted in two days. For Spain that is just amazing and shows it can be done, if you leave it to the dealer to sort out.
Delivery
I almost died when the supplier turned up with the water, maybe we have over ordered here.
He reversed the truck into the pool area to store in the changing rooms, as the pool wasn't open yet. When you say 200 cases of water it doesn't seem like a lot, when you see it, it seems like an awful lot! It filled half the entrance of the changing room, OMG. We really had no idea what we were doing. It is official we are stark raving mad !
Nervous
This was a really difficult week, I was totally paranoid about the girls and 'Mr Bigs' threats. Also it was crystal clear we were out of our depth with the event. By the time Saturday night came around I had started to relax. Mr Big had not reappeared, so maybe that was that. We still had to sort out the legal side and at that point the false report against Barry hadn't been dropped. However you find a way to get past these things and just put your head down and get on with it.
What happened with Mr Big ?
Ok, so to draw a line under the sorry events with Mr Big, this is what happened. A month later he dropped the allegations against Barry, mainly because they were false and he was advised to so by the Justice of the Peace. Around this time our tyre was slashed on the car outside our house. I of course reported it and the Guardia Civil told me it must be Mr Big and to denuncia him, I explained I had no proof it was him, so how could I. They went round and warned him off. We have not had any other trouble since then.
However we are still waiting four years on for the court case, although my lawyer has told me it is now close. I would still be prepared to drop all the legal action, if we got an apology and our costs were covered. I know an apology is very unlikely, so I guess it's court for us !
Onwards and upwards for the bar, we were very lucky that those events didn't give as a bad name and we went from strength to strength.
Burgers
Saturday morning and all the burgers had arrived along with the rolls, how we managed to move for all the booze and food I do not know, every spare space was filled with something.
Saturday night is on us and we are staffed and waiting.
To be continued ......
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OMG !
Friday, March 22, 2013
OMG !
We are reasonable people and because of this we thought that Mr Big, after his last outing, where he had smashed the windows of the bar, would have gone home to sleep of the excesses of the night before. How wrong we were. Barry and Joe had gone to the bar with Guardia Civil and stopped the alarm.
When I got down there I called Manola the local glacier, who bless him came straight out on a Sunday morning to sort us out. He charged us no extra for this great service.
Barry and Joe went to the Guardia Civil office to do the denuncia (complaint/statement), only to find that Mr Big had been up there before them, he must have smashed the windows and gone straight up to the office. He had made a complaint against Barry, why, he was the drunk one who had smashed up my car and then my bar. He said Barry had beaten him up, we are told he did have injures at that time, which were the same as you would sustain from driving into a parked car, without a seat belt on, funny that. He did later drop the charges after being told he would have to have a medical report carried out and being warned that it is an offense to make a false denuncia.
.jpg) Ok, let's give Mr Big the benefit of the doubt and say he was still drunk when he filed his false report. Now he would go home sleep it off and then wake with a cracking head and think 'oh, what have I done', when the headache passed, come down to apologize for his behavior and offer to pay for any damage caused. You would think that this is what would happen, wouldn't you ? Or am I just naive.
Well actually I am naive, because of course that didn't happen.
Sunday passed, cleaning up glass from the car and the bar. Smashed glass gets everywhere, it is just like the needles of a Christmas tree, just when you think your done, there's more.
We now have another problem, the car. It was unroadworthy and we had this big event at the weekend, we needed to go to Baza (30kms away) to buy stock. We knew that it was a write off.
Monday Barry and Joe spent most of the day with our Lawyer because Mr Big had made a report against Barry, it was now not straight forward case of reporting the events of Saturday night, it was now report the events of Saturday night and defend yourself against the report against you.
They managed some how to get to the only car dealership in our tiny village and start to purchase a car, basically, the dealer had two cars and only one we could afford, so not a hard decision.
I had been worried about the girls after the threats and events that had followed them, not knowing if it had just been the drink or if he was unhinged or both. I wasn't taking any chances. I spoke to the bus driver, the teachers and wrote to the headgear her. I just said we have had trouble at the bar and not let the girls leave school with anyone English. How terrible is that. They already knew what had happened, but it made me feel better telling them.
Tuesday, Joe and I had no option than drive to Baza, you've seen the pictures, it was draughts. Also illegal but I had no choice we had to be ready for the weekend and that was that.
Half way back the phone rang, it was Barry, Joe answered as I was driving. Mr Big was at the bar. Great I would have rather not have known, now I had pictures running through my head of bodies and blood all over the floor. Ok, maybe a little extreme, but you know what, after the three days I had had anything was possible.
As I parked the car, Mr Big got out of his. I couldn't look at him. He said 'so your not talking to me either' I saw red, I flew 'of course I am not talking to you' all the time I am moving towards him, Barry and Jose Maria (town hall) were both at the door, they both shouted at me as did Joe, who also took my arm. If they hadn't he may have got a little more than he bargained for, thankfully they were there, so we will never know.
.jpg)
Turns out Mr Big, had walked into the bar shouting 'we need to talk' in an aggressive manner. Why do that? If he had walked in with his hands up saying 'I am so sorry, please let's talk about how we can put this right' it would have been an end to it, but no. Four years on I am still waiting for the apology, he still he could sort it out if he wanted too, I would drop all court action. Don't get me wrong we don't want him in our lives, but to close a chapter would be good, as I am sure it would be for him also, no one wants a court case hanging over them, do they ?
Bruce Lee said the following quote which I think sums things up well
'Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them'
The saga continues ......
All the information in this blog is true, however it is told from my view point.
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What if ?
Thursday, March 21, 2013
What if ?
I am safely at home with our daughters but what if the following events occurred when I was alone at the bar ?
One of two things could have happened, maybe Mr Big would have just gone home or maybe I wouldn't be here to tell the story, but thankfully I wasn't there and this is what happened.
Barry and Joe were sorting out for the end of the night, everyone had left apart from Mr Big. He was terribly drunk and as we know when we have had a few, our views on life change and we lose a lot of our powers of reason. That said some things are unacceptable no matter what state you are in.
Mr Big decided that it was Barry fault that Mrs Big had been taken home and he should have told him, which of course he had. Then he started telling Barry all the things he was doing wrong and Barry asked him to leave. It was very late and he was the last customer, not an unreasonable request, you would think. But for Mr Big this was totally unreasonable, Barry should stay open until he was ready to leave. Barry asked him once more and Mr Big started getting more and more aggressive, Barry told him enough was a enough, 'leave now or I will have no choice I will bar you'.
Barry and Joe were now leading Mr. big outside into the car park so they could lock the bar.
Mr. Big was on a roll 'you can't bar me, you can't bar me'. Barry now fed up with the whole episode told him he was now barred.
"Why Barry? Why Barry?".
Mr Big lunged towards Barry, Joe now by his side put his hands out to stop Mr Big, in the state of total drunkenness Mr Big fell backwards on to the floor. Barry thought that would be the end of it, but it turned out to be the start.
Mr Big got up, was he going to walk towards his car, oh, yes he was driving home in that state. As Barry and Joe turned to walk into the bar they saw a flash of white as Mr Big reversed his car turning slightly until it was facing the other side of the car park, they were both now staring at Mr Big, he smiled and then put his foot down.
BANG !
Straight into the back of our parked car. What the hell was going on. For heavens sake this is totally insane behavior even when there is more alcohol than blood running through your veins.
Mr Big drove off, Barry pressed the panic button on the bar alarm and waited for the Guardia Civil(police) to arrive.
Barry and Joe were in shock, well who wouldn't be, they were in the bar having a drink to try and process what had just happened and calm down. The Guardia Civil arrived and told them they would have to go the station and make a statement in the morning. Then left.
About an hour later, Barry and Joe were having a drink to calm their nerves, they heard a car, who could it be at this time of night, they went outside to see Mr Big coming towards them, shouting threats to Barry about how he needed to watch out for Sam and the girls. Barry pressed the panic button again and waited for the Guardia Civil to reappear, they had a look around, but Mr Big had gone and repeated that needed to report this in the morning also. (Some facts here have been left out for legal reasons.)
Barry and Joe got back to our house around 3.30, they woke me, they were both in a state of shear disbelief and shock. When they told me what had happened I couldn't believe anyone could behave in that way, in fact even four years on I can't believe that one person however drunk could act like that.
I was fast asleep, what was that noise ? Am I dreaming ? There it is again, oh, not a dream the door bell. Up I got I'd only been back in bed about an hour, I opened the door, the Guardia Civil. To be fair my speech in any language when I have just been woken up is not great, but my Spanish must have been dismal that morning. They clarified I was me and then informed me that the windows had been broken, so I told them 'yes I know the window of the car had been broken', they said 'no the windows of the bar', sleepily 'no,no, the car'. 'We need someone to come to the bar because the alarm is going off, because the windows have been smashed'.
For heaven sake this guy had really lost the plot, not only had he written my car off, he now has smashed up my bar.
I got Barry and Joe up to go with them.
What must the Guardia Civil have thought we had only been open four weeks and they had come out to us three times in one night.
In fact our relationship with the local Guardia was made strong by this horrific night, we know most by first names and they supported the bar well through our time there. They would drive by at least twice a day, every day for the whole four years. I even get invited to the fiesta and church service for 'Guardia Civil Day'. Every cloud has a silver lining.
Joe was fantastic through out this sorry situation and we really appreciate the continuing support he has given us.
To be continued .....
(Some facts have been left out for legal reasons.)
All the content of this blog is true, it is of course written from my view point.
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There may be trouble ahead.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
There may be trouble ahead.
We are now at the weekend before the big event. We have just been told that we will be busy the Saturday night, as well as the 900 people on the Sunday. Fantastic, scary but fantastic.
The Friday night had been good, nothing much to report. Customers having fun, but no big parties. Saturday however was a very different thing, we had a large group with Jose Maria (you met him in past blogs) he works for the town hall and had helped us so much when we were setting up. He had been in a few times with his wife Encarna and youngest son Mario, who is the same age and in the same class at school, as our eldest Loreena.
They came in with extended family and friends on this night to celebrate Jose Maria's birthday, fab, our first Birthday party and they are Spanish, even better. This was a huge turning point for us with the family, we had always got on, Encarna had always spoken to me at the school gate from day one. Now that friendliness changed into a lasting friendship.
This was only the first of a huge number of Fiestas they were involved at the bar. That weekend is also the Fiesta of the 'Virgin de la Cabeza'. Remember I told you about the first Fiesta we saw, well it's that one. Saturday is Romany dress and trailers decked out and carrying 'The Virgins' round churches and houses, whilst getting nicely merry on the 'summer wine' more like a punch, for these sort of event, Carnival is the same. The 'summer wine' has everything alcoholic they have to hand in it, it does not resemble the 'Tinto Verano'(A very light, wine based drink) you would expect to get in a bar or when you pop round to a neighbors for a drink.
Sunday is the big picnic in the rambler (dry river bed), to recap, 10am-10pm, eating and drinking and drinking and eating. Jose Maria and his family invited us to go with them that year but we declined, because we were still finding our feet in the bar and had the event to sort out. As it turned out we wouldn't have been able to go anyway.
Back to Saturday night, we were really busy, we had a group of local expats in including Mr Big. Also had a number of other Spanish customers, this was what we needed and wanted, a packed bar and everyone involved with each other having fun.
But that was all about to change. Some of the expats were getting nicely merry, they were having fun. Apart from Mr Bigs wife, she was becoming more and more distressed. Mr Big was acting up to his name and playing the big I am with Jose Maria family. But more importantly Jose Maria's wife, he was starting to become a really pain. Encarna was feeling awkward and Jose Maria and other family members were starting to stand between Encarna and Mr Big. This is not what I want to be happening. We really didn't want to reputation for being a bar where you get hassle from drunk expats.
Mrs Big was the other end of the bar, with her expat friends and then before we knew it she was in floods of tears. Mr Big had gone over and she had asked him to stay with her. He had flown of the handle and walked away, leaving her in floods of tears.
Barry suggested that Mr Big may want to take his wife home, which was greeted by 'why, and what's it got to do with you ?'
Mrs Big's friends took her home. Barry told Mr Big they were taking her home, his reply was 'so'. Later on Mr Big wanted to know where Mrs Big was and got really moody when Barry explained that she had been taken home. Mr Big had had more than his fair share of drink and was now very, very drunk.
The bar had quieted down, so I took the girls home. What happened next is unbelievable, what if I had been on my own ? Thank God I wasn't.
Tomorrow find out what happened ....
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I want my BED
Monday, March 18, 2013
Three weeks and counting
We are now only three weeks away from the big event and planning is well under way.
Normal bar life
Whilst all this was going on we still had normal bar life to contend with. Namely Jose Maria (you met him in an earlier blog) he was our first customer and had now taken to coming in twice a day. Lunch 1pm as the years went on if we hadn't seen him by 2pm I would worry. Then again at about 8pm.
Jose Maria lives with his father and shares his bed with three dogs and two cats, in the height of summer you can smell that that is true!
He has the strength of ten men, yet doesn't know it. It took only three occasions of him holding my hand, before I wised up, he bloody well hurt. He would squeeze the life out of it, he was being affectionate, not intending to hurt, but gee it hurt. Then there was the back tapping, this could easily have sent me flying, the power behind is hand was that of 'Superman', just incredible. Again all done with the intention of love and respect. New customers would give me a really strange look as I ducked to avoid his flying hand, but really it was the only way not to get hurt.
Go Home
That first year he was a real pain, in a nice way, I have a real soft spot for him, but until I worked out how to control him, he was a pain.
Felipe had warned us that as the day drew on he would drink slower and slower and getting him to leave may prove difficult. All true.
During the day was never a problem, he would drink his two or maybe three 'Meows'. He only drank Mahou bottled beer, which he called 'Meow', I think for our benefit because our Spanish was so dismal. He would only ever have a maximin of three because he had to go back to work. Sorting the animals out or any odd jobs he was doing for his nephew. Antonio another fantastic person and drop dead gorgeous (sorry Barry, but he is).
But the night, he would start on the 'Meow' maybe have three or four, by the fourth it was taking an hour a bottle. Move on to a calagio (coffee with brandy), after half an hour with that, move on to the Ballentines(whiskey) and coke, averaging drinking time 1 1/2 hours.
Okay when you have other customers doesn't matter how long it takes someone to drink, but when you are still waiting at 2am or 3am and he hasn't even raised the glass to his month for half an hour, it starts to grate.
Plan
I can't even tell you how many times I had everything, apart from the front door locked up. My coat on and the lights off, doing a little 'come on it time to go home' dance with him, my hands on his shoulders or arms encouraging him to move towards the door. Many times with the glass still in his hand, no problem there where tables out the front, he could stay there all night if he liked, I just wanted my bed !
Often at the beginning I would get him all the way to the door, then as quick as the 'Tasmanian Devil' you would swing round and be at the bar again. This dance could last anywhere from half an hour to an hour.
I had a plan and you know what it worked. If other customers were inthe bar no problem. If the other customers looked as though they where going soon, I would give Jose Maria notice. We are closing in half an hour, no more today, tomorrow is another day. On the whole this worked like a dream and I could go home to my bed, without a nightly dance.
You will be hearing loads more about Jose Maria and his antics, there are many.
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Colorful Characters
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Thought I would tell you about a few of the colorful characters we came across in the first weeks in the bar.
We had the expert expats, as discussed in earlier blogs.
Now they are expert in running a bar, I find this an interesting concept as most haven't even worked in a bar. They may however be expert from the customer side of the bar, we do live in Spain after all, with its huge bar culture.
Observation can be helpful and as I have said before it is well worth listening too, you just might pick something useful up !
People
Over the years of working in many different forms of public service, I have come across the weirdest people and here in Serón it has been no exception.
Some people are easier for me to cope with then others, some are a shear delight and turn into the most amazing friends.
Then on the other side of the coin, you have the people who you never ever want to see again.
Sometimes this is after the first meeting. Sometimes it takes a while to see through the fake facade and get to the real person. I find this the hardest, you make a judgement on someone, then their face starts to slip and you see something you really don't like.
Other side of the coin
Of course there is an upside to this and it happens the other way round too.
Let me tell you about how this happened in those early days, one was a very positive experience and the other was not.
Face
We had known this expat for a while, his face had already started to slip before we got the bar, but when we opened it totally fell off!
We will call him Mr. Big just to protect the identity of the guilty.
So here Mr Big is sitting at the bar, telling anyone who is willing to listen how he was the first Expat to live in Serón, ok no harm in that. Turns out not to be even close to true, but that is really unimportant, if that's what he wants to believe, let him carry on.
I find it very sad that someone is so unsure of themselves that they make up things to make themselves feel important.
I am pretty sure that he is trying to put out to the expats here that he is the English Mayor, ok, again no crime there, but then he got carried away with himself and I had to put my foot down.
Unbelievable
He offered someone a job in my bar ! MY BAR ! Let me clarify that, he didn't suggest someone, or suggest I may have a job for them and they should come and speak to me, oh,no. He told them they had a job in my bar. Someone I had never meet. I had to walk away, this was just such a liberty, who did he think he was ?
Our business, we decide who works for us, end of.
I did after calming down point this out to him.
He also a few other ideas. He made it sound, his way or no way. It got to the point I would serve him and make sure I didn't engage in conversation. I didn't want to hear it and I didn't trust myself not to tell him to go forth and multiply.
I didn't like what was under the mask, one little bit, in fact it was starting to show through as controlling, aggressive and threatening. He had done nothing wrong, so I couldn't stop him coming into the bar if he wanted to, so I had to find away of coping with it.
The other side of the coin
On the other side of the coin we meet Lohou (real name!). Lohou scared me, I am not easily scared but he scared me. He is Moroccan at the time living and working here illegally (now he is legal). He was very in your face, boosting the number of languages he speaks, five fluently and another two a little, English being his weakest language.
He is a stocky chap, with scars on his face and so looks at first sight intimidating. Then he talked at me, not to me. I would refuse to be left alone in the bar with him. That now seems totally neurotic. I do tend to do things in the extreme (had you noticed?), so why being neurotic should be a surprise to me I have no idea.
True Friend
Turns out he is really shy and over compensates when you first meet him.
He has turned into a true friend to all of us, we would not want be without such a bright, intelligent, genuine and loyal friend in our lives. I know Barry and the girls share that feeling a 100%.
What happened was his mask slipped when he became comfortable with me ! To the point he calls me his English Sister! Barry and I have had many good nights out with him, together and separately!
He has rented a friends house because I recommended him and he never let me down !
He truly treats us as family and I believe we treat him the same! One year he had Christmas dinner with us. This year he was unable to join us to see the New Year in and the we all feel the gap, we of course phoned him.
You will hear loads more about this truly remarkable man and wild party's he was part of in the bar ! The Moroccan music and the dancing, just you wait (think I have a video!).
Dealing with people is always interesting !
I feel truly blessed to have been able to see through these masks, although in both cases wish it had happened a little earlier.
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The First Big Event !
Friday, March 15, 2013
The first big Event !
How lucky are we ! After the amazing first weekend the customers kept coming!
I now had all the certificates needed to be legally running the bar !
We where moving forward !
But now we had a staff problem, no Spanish speaker !
How can we over come this ? Think !
Bar staff
Joe ! Joe a young but mature guy, who lived in Albox, fluent in both languages, nice guy, good looking in a rugged way (not my type Barry!). He had lived here since childhood, was a trained mechanic but needed a job ! He couldn't drive, which was a huge problem, because Albox is a half an hours drive away ! The solution was we had a spare room, he could stay with us and on his days off we would drive him home !
Not ideal, but short term it may just work !
Kitchen staff
We still had Mrs W in the kitchen, lets tell you about her !
She is a Middle Aged house wife, short and slightly round ! This caused a few issues as having a small kitchen and myself being tallish I had used all available space and she struggled to reach some of the utensils, but this was easily overcome ! She had no interest in bar work, in fact could hardly see over the top of it ! She spoke limited Spanish, so was never going to be on her own, so whoever was working could get what she needed down for her !
Mrs W is great at what she does, she is a fabulous home cook ! But that doesn't always translate into a great bar cook, we were very lucky, she pulled it off.
Yes a few minor issues arouse, but that's what happens when you work with anyone else.
She worked on and off for us over the first few years and her help was invaluable, she was flexible and friendly ! She got the job done and you can't ask for more than that !
I have given her a reference in the past and if asked I would again ! Thank you Mrs W for being such a large part of our bar and such a great help !
Bedding in
As we bedded in, things become a slight blur !
We were busier than we had expected, fab !
News
Then we were told by the town hall that a big event was going to be taking place at the sports centre !
Big was not the word, huge would be more describe it better !
Senderismo de Seron would be over 900 people starting a walk and ending the said walk at our bar!
The five P's
We had three weeks to sort it all out, we had no idea, what stock we would need !
How much do you buy ?
Stock can be sent back if not sold, but food can't !
What staff did we need ?
As they say the fives P's
Preparation Prevents Pi** Poor Performance
All these questions and we are still newbies !
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The first weekend was amazing !
Thursday, March 14, 2013
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That first weekend was just amazing !
We really couldn't have asked for more !
Of course there was the normal teething problems ! The biggest one was that we realised that even with all the work we had put in on the Spanish language, we didn't know anywhere near enough !
Some people are so much easier to understand, others you have no hope ! When you hear family members and friends in a conversation asking the person they are talking to 'como or que' basically meaning what, repeat, what (that is not a dictionary definition, but what they intend it to mean !)
You start to understand that here in our little village, even the locals don't always understand each other !
Great, if they don't understand each other what chance have we got !!!!!!
Under the post code of Serón is a tiny place called Los Zoilos, it is a ten minute walk from there to the main village square, yet right from that first weekend it became clear that they spoke a slightly different dialect, I find that amazing, just so amazing !
We just had to get on with it and do the best we could ! Steve's language skills were invaluable but his work not at the same level, but you already know that !
Coffees, OMG how many ways can you have a cup of coffee ?
Seven come straight to mind ! But think i have missed a few !
Then of course we can't just have one word for each, have to at least two !
Then they add little bits on the end of the name! What is that all about ? Although I came to love the 'cafeto' when they wanted a small coffee, thinking it sounded cute !
Have just looked it up in the dictionary and the direct translation is 'coffee tree' how cool is that !
Even after a few years people from different areas of Spain would come in and ask for coffee, I wouldn't have a clue what they meant and they would have to explain it, just because of local dialect !
The locals were so unbelievably patient with us, in the main, of course you always get one or two !
At the beginning we listened to all feedback, all ideas and it has to be said although like every nationality the Spanish have an opinion, they seem to be more keen to share it!
Somedays we would be told by ten different people 'you don't want to do that, you want to do this' but each was a different thing that we should be doing !
We ended up just going 'ok, we will just do it our way' politely thanking the person for there input and doing what we felt was right, whilst making them think we were doing it their way !!
We worked very hard at getting a good mix of tapas, from our research, we had found that this was a key point to make a Spanish bar work !
We mixed in local dishes like 'Tortilla de patata' potato omelette, 'carne en salsa' meat in sauce, 'caretta en salsa' pigs face in sauce. With more Typically English tapas like 'cheddar cheese','chilli con carne', 'curry', okay not that typically English, but more typically English than Spanish ! Why because no where else was doing those tapas, the locals didn't know what they were ! Did they like them, oh, yes, did they keep coming back for them, oh, yes !
Result the plan was coming together, always love it when a plan comes together !
We knew we where different, we knew we had to maximise these differences to stand out from the crowd in a good way ! We managed it on the whole, most people here embraced us and we suffered from very little racism ! Well I hardly noticed anyway !
Weekend one successfully completed and we were flying high !
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Would have been our Fourth Anniversary !
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
The first weekend ! It would have been our fourth anniversary today !
Can hardly believe it ! The time in so many ways has gone so fast and in other ways so slowly ! We have learned an incredible amount, not only basics like the Spanish language, but also how we react to sleep deprivation ! How to interact with people better, although not alway succeeding with that one, as you will find out as time goes by !
Most importantly we have found that we can overcome even the greatest challenges when we put our minds to it ! We choose to do an extremely difficult thing, verging on the insane, but you know, what it paid off !
What an amazing four years we had !
We really wanted a great first weekend, we thought we would have locals rubber necking, seeing what the mad English were up to !
But instead what we got was kind, loving support and encouragement, not just idle curiosity !
Jesus had been a local bar owner, until the unfortunate break down of his relationship, meant that his ex ran the bar and now paid him a rent ! He was so kind, he came in with boxes of glasses for us, wouldn't take any money for them !
He offered to help in anyway he could and he meant it !
He became a great customer and friend, he would pop in for his brandy as he pasted (our bar was impossible to pass, as you have to drive into the sports centre !, but he was always just passing !).
He would bring his new girlfriend down for dinner and late at night when no one else was about they would spend hours playing on the bouncy castle !!
He loved life and had a wicked sense of humour ! Well you can tell that just by the fact that he would come down to bounce on the bouncy castle !
Jesus was a very sick man, he had liver disease and kidney failure, due to the amount of alcohol he had consumed during his life, a landlords worst enemy if you like a drink !
His mother turned out to be the old lady I had tried to help when we first arrived with the devil children that harassed her ! Villages like ours it seems that most people are related to everyone else in one way or another, but I like that !
We had been in the bar about two years when on my way to the bar, I noticed huge amount of cars going up to the cemetery, this always gives me a uneasy feeling !
Barry was already at the bar, as we're a few regulars. Then Checker (works for the town hall, funnily enough his job is checking everyone's work !) told me Jesus had died.
I ran to the toilet, I just couldn't stop the tears running down my face. He was only 46 years old and he had the kindest heart, but now he was gone, he had so much more he could have offered to life and he had robbed himself of that chance, just so sad.
Now what do I do, I want to go to the funeral to show our respects, but how does it work, I had no idea ! It was summer so a great friend of our and someone who knew Jesus well, was over from the UK. Pete and I decided that the cemetery must be for close family and friends, so we would just go to the church.
That turns out to be totally wrong. When someone dies here, everyone, even if you hardly know the deceased, go to the ceremony to show your support for the family. Somewhere down the line I will explain the first time I went to the cemetery and the feeling of total despair that goes hand in hand with it !
So Pete and I are waiting outside the church the street is full of people, I think that the whole village turned out. We stayed far back and just watched, we didn't want to impose ! The people here didn't make us wrong for being there, in fact after the hearse had arrived and before the coffin was carried in, a few people, said come on, it's time to go in !
It was totally unbelievable, the church was not only packed, every chair full, every extra chair full, hardly space to stand, the side aisles full, the back full ! Outside still the street was full ! Our church is not small I guess seating about 300 ish people !
How much this man had been loved, did he even know that he was loved that much ?
The service was lovely, what I could understand, difficult to considerate when you are in that environment, right at the back and not being Catholic myself, I have no idea how these things work !
This was my first funeral here, but unfortunately not my last, with an ageing community and the amount of people we know, I guess we are lucky it didn't come sooner !
Sorry I have digressed again, but Jesus was a big part of the success that first weekend, so only seemed right to honer his memory at this point !
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The joy of staff !
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Here we are, it's started !
We are in, our feet are on the floor and we a running and falling, a lot !!
Let me tell you a bit about our staff and how they have come to be with us and as time ticks on, how they do, how we rub along and the best way to go through a huge amount of different staff, in a short space of time !
In the four years we had the bar we managed to go through a Grand total of 14 different staff members, my god, counting them up is scary !! That's not including the extra help called in from time to time, when a big event was happening, or the amazing friends that jumped in when we were snowed under ! These were Fourteen people we employed to be mainly part time help, but on a long term basics !
The reasons they didn't stand the test of time are varied !
Sometimes we just didn't have the hours they wanted, some lied, some let us down big time!
Others didn't want to the work, people's situation changed. Others just couldn't do the job !
I am embarrassed that we managed to get through so many staff members ! I like to think that I am a good boss and fair, but maybe I am deluded when you look at those sort of numbers. Maybe I just had to have the (not always pleasurable) experience of working with these people to grow as a person and learn more about me ! Yes, we'll go with that one !
Steve was the first one to bite the dust, this is his story and I know he will not mind me sharing it, as we are still on talking terms and have got over the problems we had all that time ago ! We can even manage to laugh about it now, but I really wasn't laughing at the time !
So Steve at this point in time four years ago when we opened the bar, was an eighteen year old, typical teenager ! He had been in Serón for about fours and was fluent in both Spanish and English, he needed a job, we needed help and were prepared to make allowances for the teenager ness !
It started well, he got on with translating for us with the suppliers and did most of the jobs we asked him to with a small amount of fuss !!
Then the bar opened and he had some sort of change ! He got complacent and starting acting like it was his business, not ours ! Okay not a huge problem, just explained that he needed to wind his neck in a bit and do it our way ! He spent a bit to much time talking and not working, but again this could be ironed out ! What was about to happen couldn't be ironed over !
To run a bar in Spain you need a few things in place, one of which is anyone touching food needs a health and hygiene certificate. Okay, not a big problem you do the one day course and take a test and bingo have the certificate.
But of course it all in Spanish, so not that straight forward ! The decision was made for Mrs W, Steve and I to travel down to Vera about an hours drive, take the course and get the certificate.
Steve main function was to translate what we didn't understand, bad move !
It turns out that Steve is not great in a learning environment!
We arrived, signed in, took our places and then spent the first two hours listening to the tutor speaking the fastest Spanish I have ever heard in my life, even to this day !
Steve had no chance of translating all of that, I am not stupid and within the first two minutes knew, that she didn't stop to draw breath, so he just wouldn't be able to translate. Okay I listened carefully, got as much as I could with my very limited Spanish, then he started, tapping, tapping, tapping ! I told him to stop, he was right next to me and I was trying, under very difficult circumstances to concentrate.
The room was a theatre and we were seated a long way back, this was not a small course about 400 people from all sorts of businesses in the food industry, we were the only English that I saw !
The break came, I ran, I had to get away from Steve, i just had to ! I went outside, I couldn't trust myself to be near him, did he not understand, if I didn't get this certificate, we could be shut down at any point, it was that important !
We could fail before we started and I had to do all in my power to get that certificate !
Breathe, Breathe, Breathe ! I know most was not his fault, but the bloody tapping, he could control ! I explained as calmly as I could, that I knew he wouldn't be able to translate, so he had to pay attention, so when it was time to take the exam, he could at least help us to complete it. I thought that was fair enough and please stop tapping !!
Back in we go and what happens, tap, tap, tap,tap !! How I didn't smack him I will never know !
The exam approached, result, they had the test paper in English, the work book was in Spanish, but we might just get away with the common sense questions !
Luckily I knew a lot of the answers, I had working in catering a little in the UK, but some of the questions where history of the Spanish industry and Spanish protocol, I had no idea ! I asked our Spanish speaker what he thought the answers were !
"Don't know " what do you mean you don't know, did you not listen ! Where is it in the work book ? I found it, what does that mean ? "Don't know" if you look you might. I have no problem if someone doesn't know, but at least look !!
The three of us, sat trying to work out what was going on, no, that's not right, Mrs W and I tried to work out the answers, Steve had gone into his own little World ! Now I was really angry ! We had paid for the course and where paying him an hourly rate !
Results came in ! Please, please let at least me get enough to pass, remember this is a legal requirement in Spain !
I passed, I do not know how, but I passed ! So did Mrs W and by the skin of his teeth Steve ! The only Spanish speaker out of all of us, got the lowest mark ! My blood was boiling.
As we left, I walked ahead, trying to calm down. I had over an hour in the car with him !
We piled in, then he said something like, what's your problem we all passed !
Red rag to a bull, I went, I told him he had the attention span of a nat and he would never work for us again ! It was the attitude that got me, nothing else ! Mrs W is his Mum, how awful that I told him in front of her ! Sorry Steve for that but you have got the attention span of a nat !!
When we got back, he didn't have a job, although to his credit, he has since apologised to us and told me I was right to fire him ! Also to his credit he has grown up a lot and help us out on a few occasions, when we needed an extra hand !
Thanks Steve for my lesson in patients, not sure I past that test though !!
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The Grand Opening at last !
Monday, March 11, 2013
Grand opening is on us ! Oh, God help us, not really much into praying, but today I was !
Shaking with excitement and nerves !
Had we ordered enough stock ? Would the three of us behind the bar be enough ? Would anyone come ?
Glad rags on, wanted to look amazing for the opening night, well the best I could !
Everything looked as good as I could possibly make it, clean tidy, painted, as new as we could ! It had cost us a lot of money, a lot of time and a lot of blood, sweat and even a few tears ! But we were here now and time to really start our new life in the most massive way !
The doors opened on that fateful night, a warm March evening, in this amazingly beautiful white Spanish village. The air was heavy with the suspense of the night ahead !
Waiting, no crowds at the doors as they opened, why did I think at 7pm on a Friday night there would be a queue round the sports centre and the mile into the village, ok maybe a little ambitions, but then so was what we were doing !!
No I am so nervous, my heart is jumping out of my chest, I am pacing and pacing, sweating and shaking, doesn't really go with my Diva Landlady image I wanted to put across!
7.30 pm no customers, oh God, no one is coming ! What have we done ! Busy myself moving things that don't need to be moved !
7.40pm thank you, thank you, thank you our first customers arrive ! A car full of people who have travelled 25kms to get to our opening night. Our friends from Albox, Barry had met these people through his passion for Cricket and although we didn't spend a lot of time with them, we got on ! Rory had a bar in Albox at the time and his help had been priceless. Mas had the Indian restaurant in Albox and again help had been priceless. But the really amazing thing was that they had put staff in to cover their businesses to come and support us ! You just can't buy that sort of genuine kindness and friendship !
That was it we were off, now people were coming slowly but surely. The local expats and then as time ticked by the Spanish, yes they had come !
Spanish people unlike us Brits go out late, hardly ever before 9.30 for a night out !
And they came !
The local shop keepers, the mayor all there to support us mad Brits.
I was relaxing into the swing now, calming down, first hurdle over, people were here and even better we were coping!
Everyone was mixing Expats and locals, talking the best they could, people were even dancing, along with me of course. It is totally impossible for me to not take up an opportunity to dance, don't get me wrong, I am no Ginger Rogers, but I love it !
I am famous around the village for my fiesta dancing, not sure if that is for the right reasons or wrong ! But hey who cares, I have fun !!
The Grand Opening went well, better than I could have dreamed or hoped. We ended up having more Spanish locals than expats and everyone had fun ! Had they had enough fun to return, looked like it, but you never can be sure. We finally shut the doors at 2.30am.
The nerves had gone, we might just pull this off ! Tired, aching, excited and flying high on the adrenaline of what we had achieved so far we closed the doors and went home to our much needed bed with huge smiles running ear to ear on our faces !
What would day two hold ?
Exciting times for me, find out why, by reading my latest blog and/or take a look at this video, see why I am so excited I can hardly sit still !!
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Research is key !
Sunday, March 10, 2013
We felt research was key, although a hard job, having to go to loads of different bars, seeing what they were doing, what their customer base was, what tapas they had, what their beer and wine tasted like !!! What a pain ! Such a hard job but someone had to do it !
We spent from the time we first decided to go for the bar until the day we closed, using every opportunity to learn, what worked and what didn't.
One of the key points were children, every bar we went in had customers with children. What was the main out point, the kids were bored ! Okay, a plan, we already had a park behind the bar, fantastic, great start ! But what about the small kids who's parents would need to keep an eye on them or if it was raining !
Kids corner ! This idea came from a restaurant in an airport, soft play area. Happy kids, happy parents = more sales, because the parents aren't being bothered to leave.
Another bonus was that we had two very social able little girls who now where fluent in English and Spanish ready to play !
We set up a tv with videos and a carpenter friend gave me some off cuts of wood that his children used as building blocks. All aged kids love to build !
We set up a table, put plastic draw system with art material from home next to it, colouring books, crafty stuff. Books !
We really needed a sofa, which came along a bit later, to begin with chairs would have to do !
Then we really lucked out, we saw a bouncy castle for sale, we had the outdoor space, when the pool was closed, so why not ! It was an amazing price and became worth its weight in gold ! Kids wanted to come to the bar to bounce and what did the parents do spend, it worked like a dream and led to birthday party's, which I tell you all about later !!
We would be the only English run bar for about 25kms each way, we needed to make ourselves standout, but include the traditional Spanish culture.
What are the things we see in most bars that we didn't like ?
Problem Solution
------- --------
Tv on Tv on with sport and no sound (unless big game) music playing
Not being acknowledged. Greet everyone, even if busy, make sure they know, you know
they are waiting !
Slow service, talking not
Serving. Politely apologise for break in conversation, serve new
customer and return to conversation.
Things we did like about other bars ?
Being greeted
Good tapas
Staff wanting to talk to us
Staff talking to our kids
Staff ready to serve us, when we wanted something
These turned into the base of our business, keep the customer happy whenever possible, of course can't keep everyone happy all the time, as you will see as my blog continues. Some people will just never be happy even if you walk hot coals for them !
These decisions happened before we opened the door and to the best of our ability we kept to those key commitments until that last day and the teary farewell to our final customer!
Sorry I got side lined, you will hear about the Grand Opening I promise ! I am loving writing this blog, but as I didn't keep notes, think of things a little out sequence.
Thank you for your support and all your comments.
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Anticipation of the Grand Opening !
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Let me just explain my blog is about past events and not what is happening now ! I love receiving all your comments, but it seems that a few people have misunderstood and think it is all happening now ! This is some of my memories of the first five years we lived here in Spain ! Enjoy !
So after much anticipation the opening night was finally on us !
Beer stocked, spirits stocked, free buffet cooked and laid out !
Staff in place, Mrs W in the kitchen Steve, Barry and I behind the bar!
Were we ready, no ! Would we ever be as ready as I would have liked, No ! Remember I am someone who fighting my inner perfectionist, slowly getting there !!!!
But here we go the next part of the adventure well and truly was to begin ready or not !
The stress was at fever pitch, you can not believe !
We knew for sure that are the really good friends from out of the village, would travel from Albox to support us. However they were never going to be our main stay customer base, just because of the distance they needed to travel to get to us. We needed to have not just the hand full of local expats. We needed local Spanish, we needed to catch the imagination of the born and bred people of Serón, some how, some way to make it through the first year and beyond !
Had we done enough to get them to come ?
Would they come to see what these mad English were up to or would they boycott because we were English ?
We were about to find out !
This is a special post for Gerald, tomorrow comes the next one !!
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Thank goodness, we didn't know !!
Friday, March 8, 2013
If we had know the history of the bar we wouldn't have touched it with a barge pole !
It only started to come out as we were do it up and working hard.
Lets start at the beginning, not all this information had come out to us before opening but by the time we closed, we had been told the same story, many times from many different people !
It all started as an ancient olive grove, with one lonely fig tree in it ! The town hall was given the land by a local gentleman in the small hamlet of Los Zoilos to build a road from the hamlet to Serón village. What had happened was the road was built in a slightly different place and the town hall used the land to build the swimming pool, they also managed to get the adjoining land and built a football pitch and sports centre, making it a really lovely area. Although the family of the former land owner are still slightly miffed by what happened over thirty years before !
The pool itself started off much as it is today, a large pool and a small pool, with changing rooms. I am told it was one of the first, if not the first municipal pool in the Almanzora Valley. The bar however had started life for the first year or so, as little more than a small kiosks.
They rebuilt the bar to pretty much how it remains today.
What we hadn't known was that a string of people over the years had the bar, also it was only opened for the two months the pool was open. The most successful bar and night bar owners in the village had only kept it open for one season because it didn't make enough money !
It had been a steak house, and for many years had had to be opened by town hall staff because no one else would take it on. The last people to have it had not helped the reputation. Maria and Antonio who we would later get to meet and would leave a unique impression on us, had not been the cleanest of people ! The ladies toilet by the end of the summer had a knee high pile of fag butts behind the door, I never saw this but it doesn't surprise me !
They also had a drink problem and would often not turn up at all. People never knew if they would be able to get tapas ( sure if they had seen the kitchen when we went in,they wouldn't have wanted any !) or even if they would be open! All in all they left the pool bar with a really bad reputation.
Oh, great, now we find out !
Along with all of this we were told the area flooded every 25 years and was due a big flood ! Great !
We are opening a bar in a country we don't speak the language, which will only survive if we have local support and Spanish holiday makers support and we choose a bar with this sort of reputation !!
On the other side of the coin we had been told by a few that during the pool opening it had been a gold mine and one guy said the summer he ran it, it had taken a lot of money. We now had to work towards bring that period back and carrying the good times through to the rest of the year. As determined people, with a vision, we would be going to all out to make it work !
We changed the bars name to 'Sam's Bar' after much discussion, we thought as I was already well known in the town, people would know it was us if we used my name, it worked to a degree !
We had redecorated and planted flowers, so hopefully people could easily see it was different.
We advertised and put posters everywhere!
All that was left to do was to do our best and how all would turn out right !
Fingers crossed for the Grand Opening !!!
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Heading towards the big night !
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
One problem found and resolved and another would appear !
The electrics turned out to be rubbish ! If we plugged too much in the whole lot went ! We called in our Christmas angel to sort it out, fingers crossed !
The gas cooker had to be moved, not much, but thought it best to speak to the town hall before we touched gas, but they said didn't know a gas fitter and to do it ourselves. We brought the piping and Mr W fitted it, the piping seemed to be a little longer than we needed, but sure it would be fine, wouldn't it ?
We now had a kitchen, a fridge with shelves and all the things you need in a kitchen.
We had put up shelves and base units in the bar area so we had somewhere to put the spirits and glasses.
The suppliers kindly gave us fridges, freezers, glasses, serviette holders. We brought a glass washer from one of our suppliers, it was second hand but the payments where spread and it would do the job ! We had brought two tables and chairs but still needed more, the beer supplier said we could have some closer to summer !
We started to look for a till, the one I really wanted was a high text computer one but it was almost five thousand euros, out of the question. We found this odd little shop in Baza, full of fridges and odd second business stuff, they sold anything you could want new and a few odds and sods second hand. I saw a till in the window so we went in, it was old and the till receipt bit didn't work but for 50€ who cares, it would more than do what we needed !
The tobacconist put in a cigarette machine, we didn't want people going to a different bar to get fags and not coming back, once they were in ! Especially as you could still smoke in bars in Spain at that time.
We were moving towards opening quickly, I made up posters, with the help of Steve. For the Grand Opening night, we would put on food. Barry has always had a passion for music, so we brought a computer system and speakers that would fill the bar with music.
We also put a TV in, mainly for the football.
I put the posters all over the town, in every shop and on every tree on the tree lined street running through town ! We advertised in the English free papers and already had a crowd coming !
Fingers crossed our opening would be a success, we really wanted to start with a Big Bang!
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Plumbing !
Sunday, March 3, 2013
The bar was being whipped into shape slowly but surely !
It was lovely that the town hall guys (workers), Juan and Jose Luis kept popping in to see if we needed any help, which we normally did !
We didn't even have any beer to offer them !
Jose Luis sorted the boiler out as that hadn't been working either.
Then disaster struck, we walked in and found that a fairly large part of the bar was underwater, this was taking having a swimming pool bar to the extreme ! Thank God we hadn't built the store room yet, as that would have been underwater too !
Juan and Jose Luis came to the recuse and helped clear it all up ! The water had been off for so long that the pipe from the mains to the taps in the toilets had rusted and bust, showering the whole area with water, it was like a sprinkler going off. Mr W sorted it out. But the the next day same again ! And then another, my god three times and we still hadn't got to opening night. We decided to replace all the piping and also to descale the working of the toilets just in case and also hoped that this would sort out the really vial smell of toilet, which was over powering. Bleach, toilet cleaner, air fresher and joss sticks hadn't sorted yet !
Two trips to Murcia and Ikea saw all the basics purchased from curtains to cutlery and everything in between !
We were starting to win, the store room was now up, the painting was done, the lighting all changed, the toilets cleaned (always my favourite job !!!!!). New lights where purchased and fitted on the front terrace, none had been there before, so the electrics took some sorting. Mr W kindly took care of that side of things.
We had started to contact suppliers with the help of Felipe and Rocia, also we were lucky to have friends in Albox with a bar, they also helped!
Steve had to make all the calls as he was the only one who was fluent Spanish speaker.
Jose Maria was our first ever customer and had already became a regular, even before opening ! A medium height man, who works the land, lives in the campo with his Father and a whole range of animals. He the hardest person to understand, he seems to talk his own language, as time went on and I understood him more, it turned out to be better not to understand him as he talks total rubbish 50% of the time ! He always is dressed for work, his weather beaten features tell a tale of hard times past. His rugged hands show a man who has spent a life time working hard and his rotten stubbed teeth show the years of alcohol abuse and lack of personal hygiene! He drives a little blue car, which even on first meeting him worried me, as even before we opened, on many occasions he could hardly stand up, let alone drive ! But he has a good heart and I can't help have a soft spot for him. Looking at him I thought he was in his late sixty's, early seventy's, turns out he was only 54 years old. Unbelievable how Spanish people either age really well or really badly! Although I guess you can say that about any nation, it just struck me as being very extreme.
Jose Maria will be featuring heavily in future blogs, as he really is the most loveable character who does some of the most outrageous things, I can't count the times he has had me rolling round with laughter !
Heading towards opening what else would we encounter ?
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Published at 3:27 PM Comments (1)
We must be MAD !
Saturday, March 2, 2013
We must be mad !!
Here we are opening a bar in rural Spain, where 99% of our customers are going to be Spanish and even after a year of living here, classes almost everyday, CD and computer discs our Spanish was still well below basic !
Add to that the fact the bar was little more than a shell and to get anything like we wanted was going to take a lot of hard work and we would have to rely heavily on expats who could not just speak a bit of Spain but were fluent !
I am fussy, which proves to be an issue from time to time, I am learning however you can't always have perfect and sometimes have to make do for a bit ! So with our vision for what we wanted implanted in my head we started to make headway, slowly be surely, as the Spanish say to me almost everyday 'poca y poco' 'little by little'. In an ideal world I would have loved to speak Spanish fluently and just thrown money at the bar until it was just how I wanted, but neither of these things were possible !
The bar had a peach flower border which really wasn't to my taste, luckily it came off easily and removing the matching curtains wasn't an issue either.
We decided to paint two tones of purple, mainly as that's my favour colour ! We would need to buy matching curtains as it looked so bear without curtains, outside needed to be painted too. We painted behind the bar, the skirting board tiles and the three posts that were in the centre of the bar area a dark purple, the rest of the walls a very light purple. Outside darker purple across the bottom but not as dark as behind the bar and the top the very light purple.
The outside space with this bar is amazing at the front you have a covered porch area and the back a huge terrace overlooking the swimming pool ! I have not seen an inland bar with such incredible outside space, it was and is the bars unique selling point !
The next issue was there was no store room, not a problem in the winter as the town hall kindly said we could use the swimming pools changing rooms, but what about the rest of the time ? We talked about it and an area of the bar seemed to be dead space, between the toilet doors and entrance to behind the bar. Okay, could we make that a store room ? After speaking to Mr W it was decided that some wooden batons and plaster board would do that and he also managed to find a door from somewhere, can't remember where now ! After a few days we had a new store room !
Now for the kitchen, well at this point the word kitchen is slightly ambitious ! It had a very small corner wash hand basin, dishwasher, fridge without shelves, a old industrial gas cooker, a stainless steel work bench and two old metal tables. Oh and a deep fat fryer with no basket or lid, that went straight away. The town hall kindly took the extractor fan down and away to be cleaned, I am told it took two full days of power hosing to get it clean, thank god I didn't have to do that !
Mrs W and I set about cleaning it up, but it was clear from the start that we needed a kitchen putting in, with a sink and draining board !
Mrs W and I worked tirelessly to get the walls and floor clean and that cooker ! We used everything you can imagine to get that clean, it wasn't as perfect as I would have liked it to be but we ran out of ideas when the acid didn't work !
Friends of ours had a kitchen business so we where able to get a old display model kitchen at a good price. The only problem with it was the hole for the sink was in the wrong place but we over came that with tin foil seal with marble block on top ! We now had a kitchen ! Shelves were made for the fridge, one of the metal tables was covered with sticky back plastic, several times, to make a home for the new deep fat fryer and the microwaves. The stainless steel work bench was,once cleaned, perfect it had a shelf underneath for pots and pans, which we would have to purchase.
Along with the deep fat fryer the town hall took a way a chicken spit roast machine, it was huge, I have no idea if it worked or not but the thought of cleaning it was to much for me. So they too it away !
The bar itself seemed fairly new a nice wooden surface with a crazy paving style front, that sounds awful but really it is nice !
The bar came with a large fireplace which was to prove a huge asset, a sink behind the bar and a big stainless steel fridge, which made a great work top, although when we went in the town hall had to get it fixed as it didn't work ! There was also a coffee machine again not the most reliable, but at least it saved us buying one !
The fluorescent lighting didn't really do it for me, so that was something else we would have to look into and change !
What else would we encounter before opening ?
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Published at 4:53 PM Comments (10)
We have the keys !!
Friday, March 1, 2013
Finally I asked the question to the Mayor, how many other people want to take the bar ?
Oh, no one ! Then isn't the decision easy ? You have a bar you want to rent out and I want to rent it and you have no one else interested, what is the problem ?
The next day the contract was waiting for me ! I was right we had three days to get it back !
We took it to the lawyer to be checked over, paid the deposit into the bank. We also had to pay an additional security that had to be signed by the notaria, that would be held in a separate account that the town hall could only get to if we signed authority and we could only get to if they signed authority. Not an easy thing to get done, the bank manager had to come with us, we were told not to speak to the notaria, just let them sign it. Sitting in the office was interesting, all these people milling around, not that I could understand what was going on.
We were so excited, to be finally at this point, we had no idea how much work would need to be done before we could open, but we did know that it needed painting inside and out ! We had already spoken to Mr and Mrs W who had kindly agreed to help, it would also help them out as their B&B was very quite, so any extra cash would help them also, win, win ! Their son Steve was Fluent in both English and Spanish, and also looking for work, so he agreed to be our barman, we were not sure how busy we would be or not, but knew our Spanish wasn't good enough to do it alone.
From the bars inventory which was very basic, we knew a few shopping trips would be order. We would only have to wait a few more days to find out exactly what we needed to do and buy !
The long awaited day arrived we were to meet Antonio from the town hall at the bar with the signed contract and to get the keys.
He arrived at exactly the moment we did ! We were so excited and terrified at the same time, remember we had not been in before, would we be able to pull this off ?
The contracts where signed and the keys handed over, somewhere along the line the keys for the metal security grids on the outside of the windows had got lost. The bar was in a bit of a state needing some TLC but we had knew that !
We where now standing alone in our bar !
It turned out to be an amazing adventure and a lot of blood, sweat and tears and that was before we opened !!
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Published at 6:06 PM Comments (2)
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