Back to Bite them!

Dominican government "tremendously" concerned over decline in duty-free production . Santo Domingo.- Concerned over the decline experienced during the past months by the duty-free industry, president Leonel Fernandez summed representatives from the sector to analyze the situation in a meeting to take place this upcoming Monday in Santiago. During the announcement of the meeting, Technical minister Temistocles Montas and Duty-Free Council director Luisa Fernandez informed that, during the past six months, this secto had declined production by 8 percent. In this regard, Montas explained that authorities and the sector would embark in thorough discussions as to the problems faced by the sector. . Read the rest of the story:http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=17043 ----------------------------

While this government may be doing a few things right they have screwed the pooch on others. They have been too concerned with building a legacy instead of getting this country in a position to move forward into the future.

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This is just one of the things that has backfired because of a bad government policy and that is manipulating the exchange rate of the Pesos to their own gain. Without balance things do and will come back to haunt them.

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I have always said that I don't care for this government although it is a bit better than the last.

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Peso manipulation

No Gas on Weekends

Restricted hours on serving of Alcohol

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These are just some of the things that they do that effect this economy in a negative manner. If you have read my thoughts here you will notice I like the early hours for a lot of reasons but at the end of the day it is bad for the economy. Everytime they make a change they do it BANG and no one understands a damn thing and it upsets the apple cart.

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Hasta Pronto!

Crowds Panic as Floods threaten Ireland

New York Times Via AP: Crowds Panic as Flood Threatens Ireland !! We've all seen the faces of those ravaged by the floods of Sri Lanka and New Orleans. This award-winning photograph of the recent flood waters rising in Ireland captures the horror and suffering of the victims. Keep these poor wretches in your thoughts and prayers.!!!

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Weather conditions in the US have affected us in the Dominican Republic this week. The Hotel is slow because people haven't been able to make connections caused by Hurricane Ernesto and John. . Thanks Unk for this photo and headline. I laughed and hope to give others the same laugh! . We had 95% of our business from outside the hotel yesterday instead of only 50-70%. I guess you would say business was a bit off considering this is a holiday weekend in the US. . Considering that last week was our busiest week ever I thought it would only get stronger but alas it fell off a bit. Only difference is that now a slow day is 5x the volume that a slow day was a month or two ago. Business is definately on the rise here although sometimes not as fast as I would like it. . We were steady slow during the day and dead at night but then we got a 9:30 pm Rush that made the day. All of a sudden we had 18 dinners going at the same time. Funny how one rush can change the days economy here. . Yesterday my buddy Edd Rellosk arrived in town. It is always good to see him even when he gets off the plane half toasted:) He is headed up to Costambar for a few days and then returns to Sosua for another week. . Edd brought me down a nice bottle of Scotch. Balvenie 12 year old. It was aged in two different woods and this is the nicest 12 year old single malt I have tried. Usually the 12 year old single malts taste like paint thinner to me. My other buddy Herbert who is also in town brought me down a bottle of Macallan 12 year old which I also liked but these are the ONLY 2 I have ever enjoyed. . After drinking the 12 year old Balvenie I poured a small taste of the 21 year old Balvenie which is aged in Port Wood just to see the difference. Funny thing was at first I thought that there wasn't any difference between the two until I switched back to a taste of the 12 year old and then I noticed a big difference. . I also got another Patron Silver in. Now I have 3 in stock. We have a customer who goes by the name of Tequilla Tony put a serious dent in my stockpile a week ago and ran me out of the Silver when he bought 3.5 bottles in one night. I love this guy! If I can get him back the same week I have my other buddies Jack Quontee and Edd I can probably save up enough money to buy the hotel:) These guys can drink! When Jackie was here he polished off the bottle of Don Julio I had which I just got replaced yesterday. . I am pretty sure that Tequilla is our biggest booze here by both dollars and volume. I never knew it was so popular before I went into this business. You never know though. I use to sell a lot of Bombay Saphire but that hasn't sold in a while but I have 3-4 bottles in stock. Go figger, I usually have "Just in time inventory". Thanks Dave for that term:) . Remember guys if you are coming down and can pick something up for me at duty free drop me an email and let me know! I can use all the help I can get always! . Tomorrow night is Taco Tuesday. I had a great time there last week! Great crowd and met a lot of new folks along with a bunch of the old timers! This week we should have a great crowd again. . Herman who is in town is leaving Tuesday. I am sorry to see him go. I can't wait for his return already. His villa has been rented for 1 year and he also bought a condo at Club Residential which is also rented. I took that homeless boy into my house so he didn't have to sleep in the Street:) If he didn't come into the restaurant to eat I don't think I would ever see him although he is in my house. I only ran into him one time when I returned to the restaurant one evening for the Dinner shift. He was so surprised to see me walk out of my bedroom to leave. He was sitting on the sofa using the internet and he said "I didn't even know you were home". I got home at 12:15am last night and he was already sleeping like every other night. . Hasta Pronto! PS>Maryanne I am going to send you a pic to kind of get the ball rolling!