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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