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I ran the pub for 2 ½ years with lots of help from Philip and Geraldine. None of us new anything about pubs or catering, other than they were great places to get merry, play darts, meet people and spend loads of money in, but Geraldine was a good cook and taught me a lot about producing good home made food quickly, whilst Philip taught me all the people skills I needed to be able to handle any type of customer.
I had met a girl Chilean girlfriend who made bikinis for the family shop in Fuengirola. (The shop is called Christina and is on the main road witch runs down from the bus station to the port and their range of swimwear is first class.)
Inés and I fell in love and she eventually left her job to come and work with us in the busy pub. About 1 year later we sold the business to Philip and Geraldine and bought a wonderful corner bar restaurant in west Marbella, where people have a lot more money to spend.
We used a lot of recipes from the pub, but also learned how to make pizzas from the owners of the bar we had bought. The business was a success from day one. We treated our customers well, with respect and quickly built up a strong client base. We were very happy working in the new bar, as people were so friendly towards us and very quickly our bar became and has always remained a well-known meeting place for people from miles around.
We have always worked hard, but at the same time have had at least a months holiday every Christmas and been able to visit Chile and the Dominican Republic regularly. If you go to the Dominican Republic you’ll have a great holiday in a 5 star hotel, but please take loads of school equipment with you and take a day trip from your hotel to a local school, where you’ll be able to give out all your colouring books and felt tip pens directly to the children who often have nothing like this at all.
What’s it like, living in Spain?
This is a question I have been asked more than once, so today I am going to give you a quick overview of the both the good and the not so good life on the Costa del Sol, particularly for someone running a catering business.
Generally life here is much better than in the UK. Here are a few examples:
- You are working with colleges and customers who may be either residents Spanish/British who are happy and the simple reason that they’re all happy 95% of the time is that the sun shines 300 days a year and you have a clear blue sky above you.
- Taxes are much lower than in the UK. I remember how diminished my pay-packet used to be, once the Inland Revenue had creamed their chunk off the top. Here wage workers pay tax when they spend and not when they earn and when they spend like they do in UK.
- It’s an outdoor life here. You can sit or walk on the beach. Take your dogs to play on remote beaches or picnic in the open countryside. There are no fences and it’s all free.
- Parking is easy to find and nearly always free (except in business areas of big towns/cities.)
We work hard, but we work with friendly people who are usually not in a hurry. Most people have time to look around and enjoy life.
Waking Up
We get up at abut 9 or 10am (it doesn’t really matter) and it’s easy to get out of bed, as even in winter it’s about 14oC-16oC at that time in the morning. We go and get our daily shopping for the bar in neighbouring San Pedro and then sit on a sunny terrace to have breakfast and catch a bit of a tan at the same time.
Work itself is as hard as anywhere, except we rarely get unhappy customers. We charge fair prices in our bar and nobody ever moans about them. Most tourists don’t care what things cost, just as long as they get good service and can soak up some sun.
Eating Out
There’s a good variety and you can choose between very reasonable all the way up to expensive if you want to eat in Puerto Romano or Puerto Banus.
Schools
There are loads of schools and it’s easy to get your child in to the school nearest you. The standard is very good, but if you have an academic child, I would advise Private schooling from the age of 12, by which time he/she will be bilingual. Some parents send their children back to live with relatives in the UK and do their GCSEs for free.
When we have some time off, we usually drive up into the mountains to walk and picnic with our Yorkshire terriers, drive to an isolated beach with golden sands and clear blue water or go to one of the big leisure ports to sit and sup with a view of the million pound pleasure craft, whilst we are served by well dressed waiters/waitresses.
