This weekend has set the bar high for the parties of the future

I watched as the excitement for Halloween mounted in my family. Extravagant costumes, make up and Halloween routes were discussed and reworked for days. Not to mention the sleepovers watching scary movies. The parents were very involved in the planning, they just wanted all the children to have the best time.

Celebrations next few months

I am sure this attitude is with us for all the celebrations of the next few months. Christmas and all the treats will have an extra special significance this year. So many are planning their getaways and Florida is hitting the jackpot with many now that the USA is opening up. Majorca will be filled with many visiting family here and an equal number will leave to see worldwide families. This is a most unusual time and the repercussions will be felt.
There is no doubt that many have found this separation from family too hard to bear at their time in life.

This is causing some to visit at Christmas with a view to making their move more permanent to the UK next year. Mallorca only worked for them if friends and family could visit often or the same in reverse.

Any chance of future lockdowns or complications is not something they can even contemplate. The goodbyes of 2022 are already on the calendar.

Fixing up Soller Valley

The works of the Soller Valley are huge this year. The winter is usually the time when building speeds up as the noise and inconvenience is allowed once again after ‘the season’. This year we have major works in the Gran via, Soller Market Place and in the centre of Fornalutx.

Parking will be a problem and extra time will be needed to negotiate normal journeys. We are very excited about all the improvements this will bring ready for next year. We are also conscious of the moans and groans about the inconvenience.

Hotel season

The Hotels are rolling with the punches and most are saying they will be reopening for 2022 in February. This will mean extra hotels this year joining the 10 month season bandwagon. The Soller Valley needs to capitalise now on their great PR successes of this year and spread it round the full season.

In amongst all this hope for the future the angst continues as more and more staff from the hotels and restaurants return ‘home’ for the winter. Some of them because they want to and others because they can’t afford to stay. They haven’t been here long enough for unemployment benefit and they have no wish to run up debts for rent and exist from food banks. The culture which rarely pays ‘year round’ salaries will always have this problem every year.

This works if you still get the enthusiastic young returning each year for their Balearic summers, but that is not how it is. Many European countries have upped their game when it comes to pay and conditions and not so many want to leave. Things have fundamentally changed with no date yet if or when the pendulum will swing back the other way.

Soller Valley in winter

The Soller Valley in winter is glorious when the rain stops it reveals a beautiful washed mountain valley. All waiting for the walks and activities to do with the ‘off season’. Amongst this, is time to chat, for those who have extended time off in the winter months. The chattering becomes more intense and we can lurch from politically serious to soap opera life in the course of an hour. Weekend trippers from all over the island join us for walks, shopping and lunch.

Our increased bus services have brought a whole new crowd of visitors especially as now, they can change buses in Soller and continue up to Fornalutx. The Soller train closes for 3 months from November 15  2021. Every other improvement from transport and infrastructure will be to the benefit of residents and visitors, and is all to be applauded.