As we approach the end of the Quinta’s High Season it’s always a sad time as we have to say goodbye to so many hard workers, some of whom invariably became close friends.
This year is no exception, as in a few days’ time we see the passing of the second half of this year’s Dream Team. The latter was made up of Jake, aka “Caramel Camel,” and Luke, aka “Brown Bear.” Luke left us earlier on to continue his travels, but returned from Barcelona a few weeks ago to help us out with a big party we held for Ceci and Teddy Golding. He’s now gone back there and has landed a job managing two bars, so our congratulations to him.
Jake, on the other hand, is still with us, but sadly leaves in three days time to continue his career. He will be training to become a civil engineer and is enrolled at Nottingham Trent University.
The two of them have not only made our lives easier here since April, but have also made being at the Quinta a huge amount of fun both for their co-workers and the Quinta’s guests. The picture above was taken during the party a couple of weeks ago. Luke is on the left and Jake is next to him. We all wish them every success with their future lives and thank them sincerely for the fun times they have given us.
On another matter entirely, I am pleased to announce that for the first time ever, we have a primary winner of the Birdfair Raffle. Congratulations Helen Franklin! We look forward to giving you a holiday you will never forget. Unfortunately, the two runner-up prizes were not claimed, so we have drawn them again, and if either Denise Lievesley or Rick Lockwood gets in touch with us before September 14th we will be pleased to confirm your prize of three free midweek nights accommodation.

Just as Jake and Luke having new beginnings, so also does the Quinta. The last week has seen two vast improvements. The first was the replacement of our old fridge by a new one. It is state-of-the-art and double the size of the old one but uses half the electricity. Daniela has instantly fallen in love with it and has dubbed it Super Mario.

Frank, on the other hand, has fallen in love with the Quinta´s new solar water heating system that went officially on-line today. This has been four years in the planning and a year in construction – you can see him building it in the July 2011 blog entry – and, not surprisingly, he is over the moon that it is all finally up and running. These two improvements have once again significantly reduced the Quinta´s carbon footprint and make us even more eco-friendly and efficient than we were before.