Illora Weekly News
Dateline 06.05.07

Now Booking Online !!

“The rain in Spain falls mainly on..” the roofs of Casa Pilar Alto, Illora, or so it felt at the height of the downpour late last week. In fact, the whole of Spain was subjected to it, whilst the U.K. languished in the weather we should be having. The steeply sloping streets of Illora became fast flowing streams for 24 hours. Aside from the rain finding some weak spots in the building to flood us, it was a good thing, really. Even the endless miles of olive groves that surround us need rain. If the prospects for the crop were to be measured by the amount of rain, we shall have olives the size of apples this year.

To celebrate the imminent changeover, we are spending tonight choosing which appliance we want to run - turn on the light, turn off the heater; make a cup of coffee, turn off the light, and so on. Each addition to the number of boilers reduces the number of other appliances "old" power can run. So, the guests we do not yet have all have hot water but we must choose which single appliance we want to run.

There are stages in the development of Casa Pilar Alto Illora where we experience a form of schizophrenia. Today was an example - Tony, the David Beckham look-alike contractor - and his team set about demolishing the wall of the interior staircase so that it can be widened to comply with EU directives. There was that strange feeling of pleasure in watching a significant part of our home being demolished that alternated with horror at what was disappearing and the prospect of what has to be done to replace lovely old Spanish wooden beams with EU standard concrete lintels, of distinctly non-rustic appearance. If the couple who booked their June honeymoon stay with us today could see the state of their room at this moment, there is absolutely no chance that they would keep the booking. We have every confidence that we shall be more than ready.

One feature around Illora and I am sure many other towns, which I feel sure does not comply with EU regulations are the little shops hidden from casual view. It has taken some weeks to get to know where many of these are. Pass what looks like a normal house and learn from somebody else later that that is a pescaderia (fishmonger's). Inside, they are often quite spacious - a lounge turned into a shop - but outside their existence is known only to locals. I had my hair cut in one such place this week - a single curtained doorway opened into a long hall, which in turn opened into a very spacious area, with enough chairs to take a larger proportion of Illora's male population than the lone barber could possibly cope with.

Semana Santa passed quietly, with the usual impressive processions. We spent a substantial part of Sunday at Tony's home, getting to know our two puppies - Miel (honey) and Carbon (charcoal). Tony's wife Emma runs a refuge for dogs that normally houses around 25 dogs of various ages, some long standing, others just arrived and yet others about to leave - often for new homes in other countries to where Emma and the charity she works with - www.ace-charity.org - ship them. Miel and Carbon were found with their mother and are now just over 7 weeks old, so they will join us in a week, or so.

Whilst we were at Tony's house on Sunday, we at last got to see a programme that seems to be shown around once a week in the U.K. and is often referred to by friends. Tony featured last year in a Channel 5 programme "Property Developing Abroad" and is understandably proud of the fact. We have known about this for sometime and are reassured to have someone with such credentials taking care of our project but we had not seen the programme before.

The kitchen cum lounge project was not under Tony's care and so is only likely to come into use tomorrow. Cathy and I rushed down to the paint shop just before the Semana Santa shut-down and chose a colour for the walls that we would paint on over the Easter weekend. Removing the old paint was an experience - each layer removed brought away the 10 layers or so below it. Painting over what was left only made it worse - not least because what was supposed to be "peach" came out as a sickly pink. So, on Tuesday we had to surrender the task to Tony. It looks very much better and the parts of Illora's huge rock outcrop that stand out in part of the stables walls have become much more of a feature than a nuisance. We will clean up tomorrow evening and we will again start to enjoy cooked meals - six weeks after we got here.

Casa Pilar Alto, Illora, meanwhile, is coming together in many ways, despite the demolition today. Our first bedroom, now shown on our web site at stay@casaillora.com

Click here for details of Casa Pilar Alto, Illora