68. Ready? Go!!

Lavinia, Saturday, May 15, 2021

We now seem to be fully in the starting blocks of the new season. We already made a “false start” a few times, that is to say: we occasionally had guests for a few nights, but after that another time passed without guests. Until now we did not have the feeling that we could make a real restart, but only a run-up to. Time and again that extremely pleasant feeling to have guests around you again, but unfortunately not being able to hold that feeling. But patience is a beautiful virtue – they say anyway – and it pays off. After a lot of calculations and consultation, we decided to offer Sergio, our cleaning man, extra hours, so that we can focus more on new initiatives. He’s been promoted to pool boy and jack of all trades. Last month we gave our cleaning couple a real award: “Equipo de limpieza 2021”, Marta y Sergio. Eventually we were able to use the Bare Compass! Winning the award only thanks to the efforts of everyone who makes Lavinia what she is from far and near. And in the first place that is of course our cleaning team. They are incredibly sweet people we can always count on. We really “fell in love with them”!

Wim turned it – very typically Wim of course – into a real presentation. He asked me to make a trophy similar to ours. He had also put together a powerpoint, so they had no idea what to expect. They only knew that a surprise was coming. They were completely moved, it was also the first time in their lives that they had won a trophy. Wonderful to see! It is therefore a pleasure to work with them. Always in good spirits, with a tremendous work ethic.

Two weeks ago we also decided to offer a half board formula this year. I find that cooking is incredibly happy, especially since the new kitchen, and I want to do more with it. I love the challenge of always finding new surprising dishes. I enjoy the wonderful scents of the fresh herbs and the overwhelming flavors of organic vegetables from the garden. Our tomatoes seem to be even more beautiful, our peppers even fuller, the Peruvian potatoes that my brother once brought from Peru even more exotic, simply because we sowed, planted and cared for them ourselves.

Every day we walk in amazement through our very special garden, which is getting more beautiful and special every day. We currently have an Emperor Agave, which is starting to bloom. Apparently it is quite special, because this Agave species only flowers after it is at least 15 years old. In addition, he would also simply die after flowering. The inflorescence can at least be called special. We didn’t even realize it was starting to bloom. One day we saw a shoot emerge from the plant, which turned out to be growing at lightning speed, straight up. Straight up in the air. I think he grew nearly 4 inches on a daily basis. At the moment it remains very exciting to wait and see when the first real flowers will appear. Since the plant is the first thing we see when we get out of our house, we see the evolution every day. We even linked a competition to it. Who can guess when the first flowers will appear, and as a trick question: how big will the flower eventually become?

To give you an idea: Wim regularly took pictures. Nature is phenomenal, isn’t it? A spectacle that we received completely free of charge and that we can experience from the front row, a gift that we did not know existed. And then just hope that the plant still survives, because I think it is a very beautiful plant, and unfortunately we only have one such specimen ☹.

By the way, last weekend we had a high number of visitors, real BVs, at least in terms of the naturist world. Naked Wanderings, or Nick and Lins, took over our resort, as if it were a real movie set. They wanted to capture a day as it is in Lavinia on film, but this time in moving images. And they certainly became moving images, a drone was used, and they drew up a complete schedule (but in a different word, which I do not think about now. Suddenly there was juggling with words like ‘shots’,… .. We became like it were immersed in another world, or at least in our world through the glasses of a producer. Funny, at least that is. We had a lot of fun, and their enthusiasm is so infectious that we only want to have the new season. Last Wednesday, the first part of the video was already on Youtube, where especially the city of Alicante was highlighted, and next week everything revolves around Lavinia, and what you can experience and experience here as a guest. I keep it exciting, and look forward to it coming online with you. We were pleasantly surprised by what we saw in the first video! A sparkling, cheerful, young couple who also n still works very professionally. It is a golden duo, and we are all happy to work with them. It promises to be a winner! I am very curious!

Hasta Luego!

Ana