March 4, 2013

I noticed again that I have let several weeks go by since posting anything.  That i because I am sure everyone must get tired of hearing how wonderful everything is here.

It has been so long since I last posted that I have no idea how to catch everyone up on what is happening here, but we have had lots of visitors which is terrific for us, especially since all of our guests cook! Besides the Bontempos, the Guadalajara friends, we have had Gene’s son Mark with Micah here for 5 days, and Robin and Laura were just here for 3 days.  In every case we take our visitors to Tlaquepaque which they all love, and to a restaurant there called El Patio where there is not only excellent food but also some great entertainment (female mariachis who are excellent!).

We have our new golf cart which is licensed to drive on the main road so we can go more places in Ajijic.  We are still waiting to find someone to buy our other golf cart, although we used both of them yesterday when Laura and Robin were here.  I have attached some pictures of our recent visitors .

Gene and son at the Chili Cook-Off

 

Dinner at our home with Laura and Robin!
                                                   Guess who cooked!

 

 

 

 

 

January 24, 2013

I can’t believe it has been so long since I have posted anything! It isn’t that I am too busy, but that we simply do things every day and don’t think about posting anything.  I think the last time I wrote about anything was spending the New Year with our friends from Guadalajara.

Since that time Gene and I have made a trip to the States. Gene went to California first to see the showing of his son’s film at a film festival. The film is a documentary about his last trip with his boy and girl rugby team to New Zealand and it came in lst of over 100 documentary films.  He will enter it in other film festivals and it is such an inspiring film I am sure it will continue to do well and help raise money for him to take more of the kids on these trips. This year they will be going to several cities in China!

After that Gene met me in Phoenix and we went to Scottsdale to spend three wonderful days visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Scottsdale.  It was such an enjoyable time for all of us and I have included a picture below of the four of us.

While everyone is freezing north of the border we are still enjoying wonderful weather.  It is chilly in the mornings but always warms up to the mid-70’s or 80’s in the middle of the day,

Someone pulled out into Gene when he was driving on the main road thru Ajijic and damaged our headlight (an American, by the way, who at the time admitted responsibility but when it came time to make a claim he denied being responsible). So we took it to a body shop recommended by our friends and they did a beautiful job of not only installing a new light but also fixing the many dents and scratches so the car looks brand new.  Of course the first day we drove it I was driving down the road and someone opened his truck door against the side of our car so we have a new scratch! Oh well, this is Mexico!
We are probably going to sell our little golf cart and get a golf cart with a Hummer body that will have 10 HP and a license so we can actually drive it on the main road (carreterra) and not have to always stay on the cobblestone roads in Ajijic.  This way we will probably only use our car when we have to go to Guadalajara once a month or so.

So all is well with us both and we send everyone who bothers to read our blog our love!

January 3, 2013

Happy New Year everyone! Hard to believe that so much time has gone by and that we have been here for 7 months!

I hope your holiday season was as wonderful as ours; Christmas Ever was spent at a friend’s house with two other couples from the States, so it was a party of 8 in total.  We had way too much food – turkey, ham, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, vegetables, and three marvelous desserts. We had a wonderful time together, although I must add that we missed our families at home!

Shortly after Christmas, the Bontempos (our Mexican friends from Guadalajara) came and spent 5 nights with us, including New  Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Mari-Jose does all the cooking when she is here (imagine that!) and she is truly a marvelous cook. She seems to love to do it and they do so many nice things for us it is unbelievable. For example, one of our “no-flat” tires went flat on Christmas Eve and we limped from our friends’ home to a Pemex station where the attendant (you never fill your own car with gas here) filled the tire with enough air to get home.

The day after Christmas we took the car to a local shop where they put a patch on and then we called our friends in Guadalajara who located the best tire shop in town (sort of like Discount Tire at home); Mari negotiated a great price and we took the car there to have 4 new tires put on. We would never have been able to do that on our own.

A picture of them is below, taken on New Year’s Day getting ready to sit down for dinner. Mexicans eat their main meal around 2-3:00 PM and then have a light meal around 7-8:00 PM (not as light a meal as we would have, for sure). So this picture is the two of them standing together at the dinner table with the table-cloth that they gave us! Sorry the picture is so bd – the iPhone does not do well with indoor photos!

December 20, 2012

Just realized that it has been a really long time since I have updated my blog! That either means there is not a lot new to report or that we have been so busy I have not had the time! I think it is a combination of both.

We just got back from taking our good friends from Scottsdale, Robert and Annetta Chester, to the airport after having a wonderful time with them staying here for about five days. We were able to go to Tlaquepaque one day for shopping and sight-seeing.  As a break we went to The Patio for lunch which was highlighted by the female mariachi players who come every day at 3:00.I have included a picture of them below which Robert took with his mini iPad. I managed to find something in Tlaquepaque that I really have wanted since we moved here, and that is a Mexican bedspread (actually they are made in Guatemala) to brighten up our bedroom   We also went to the local market, called the tiangis, and did some minor shopping there.  Robert introduced us to the tasting of good tequila and it is too bad we did not have time to take a tour of one of the tequila growers in the area.

So today we took them to the airport and waited at least an hour for Robert to get all of the paperwork done (The Mexicans love to stamp everything – the nation would not function without those stamps!). While parked in a holding area we inadvertently left our key in the ignition which meant our lights were on the whole time; so when it came time for us to leave, the car would not start.  Thankfully some Mexicans in the area had jumper cables and we were on our way home!

We are spending Christmas Eve at a good friend’s home and ringing in the New Year with our friends from Guadalajara.  Holidays are the hardest for us, for sure, as we miss seeing and being with friends and family back home.  But we are both happy and well and loving every special day that we spend here!

 

 

 

November 21, 2012

Just finished having our first American guests – my sister, Barb, and her old friend, Lynn (from grade school), and what a success! It just wasn’t long enough for Gene and me; but it was encouraging when Barb said she would keep her pesos (instead of selling them back to us) for her next visit! So I guess she had as wonderful a time being here as we had having her.

They arrived late on Friday afternoon so we drove home from the airport and then went out to dinner to one of our favorite restaurants that specializes in steak.  The next morning we headed for Tlaquepaque (many, many, boutique-type stores in Guadalajara, and spent the whole day there browsing the stores (and buying a few things).  We met our good friends from Guadalajara for lunch (dinner by Mexican standards) at a lovely restaurant called Casa Fuerte and had a wonderful time visiting with them. Then we headed home and had a very light dinner at home (chicken salad). The next day we went to the local breakfast club, which is an excellent donut shop in Ajijic and is where many of the ex-pats meet to solve the world’s problems. Then we were off to the Art Fair where over 70 artists from all over Mexico show off their works (and of course sell them to us!).

Monday was the beginning of a 9 day holiday celebrating the patron saint of Ajijic so, unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) almost all of the stores were closed.  I did get to show Barb a couple of clothing stores and the fine embroidery work they do here on blouses, skirts and dresses. And we spent some time driving around the town, having an icecream cone at the Plaza and people watching, and then going to the malecon (like a boardwalk) along the lake where hundreds of Mexican families were enjoying themselves.  That night we had a “farewell dinner” at a lovely restaurant with wonderful views of the sunset on the lake.

Needless to say it was a very sad time for us to say goodbye to them early Tuesday morning (at 5:30 AM – we arranged for a driver to take them to the airport!).

I have included a couple of pictures of our activities below.

Lynn, Barb and Gene at the Tlaquapaque main plazaLunch with the Bonafontes at Casa Fuerte in Tlaquepaque

November 14, 2012

Can’t say that much new and exciting has happened here since my last post. Still having perfect weather which is one of the main reasons we have moved here and love it so much. Getting our lawn to where we want it has been our major project – several applications of weed killer (actually grub killer) and fertilizer and it is slowly improving.

Took the dogs to have a bath in preparation for my sister Barb’s visit,  Pictures of them are below. They did a wonderful job and both of them bathed and trimmed for only $24!

Should have more news after Barb and Lynn are here as we are going to enjoy a visit to Tlaquapaque and the big Art Fair here in Ajijic, where artists from all over Mexico come to display and sell their wares. We will have fun taking turns driving them around the town in our golf cart!

 

November 3, 2012

Been a while once again, I know, but I have to wait until something new happens!

Well, it did.  We bought a golf cart to “tool around” Ajijic in! It was built in 1993 but is totally reconditioned and we have named it our “Bumper Thumper.” It is not licensed so we cannot drive it on the carreterra, but we can cross it and drive on all of the streets in Ajijic.  We have already used it quite a lot. There is only room for two people unfortunately but we have tied a waste basket to the back to use if we go to Walmart to do some major grocery shopping. It is so much fun to drive along and see the Mexicans laugh and race us on foot, and the Americans (many of whom own them themselves) just smile and hay “hi.”

We had our friends down last week-end from Guadalajara which is always fun for us.  We have learned so much from them about the history and the culture of Mexico and they refer to us as their “amigos Americanos.” They really are the only non-service type Mexicans we have met but we hope to meet more as time goes on. They always bring Mexican dishes to fix which is fun, and we do a little (very little) American cooking. The customs here are interesting. For example, you always refer to the service people in “formal” Spanish (Usted)  and reserve “informal”(tu)  uses for friends and family. The reverse is obviously also true, and our gardener calls me “Senora Judy.”

Gene and I went to the doctor last week for our annual physical and what a physical it was (as thorough as Mayo).  The total cost for me, including all of the lab work, pap smear, physical examination of my entire body, checking my balance, etc., was $168! Gene’s was a little less as he did not have one test that I did. So, other than cholesterol problems, we are both very healthy. That is less than it would have cost for me at Mayo even with my health insurance!

I am sure all of you are ready for the election to be over, as are we, although we are not bothered by all the TV advertising since our TV comes from Canada. It will certainly be a close one from what we read.

Well, hasta luego for now, my friends!

The Bumper Thumper

October 17, 2012

Just had to post a picture of the new member of our Ajijic family – our golf cart! We used it for the first time today where we drove it to the local donut shop, I dropped Gene off to visit with our friend, Fred, and Donna and I drove the cart to the tiangis (open market where you can buy everything from every kind of fresh vegetable or fruit to jewelry, clothing, watches, or you name it)  to do some vegetable shopping.  We spent about two hours, counting the time it takes to drive from the donut shop and back, and all four of us had a great time! It is easy to maintain (has six batteries which have to be checked weekly to see if they need water) and gets plugged in every night ready to go in the morning. It is not licensed so we cannot drive it on the carreterra (highway) but we can get almost anywhere we want on the back streets.  I should save us lots of gas and give us two vehicles whenever we need them.

And….I forgot to add this picture of the Brickman siblings at Gene’s 80th birthday party! I hope you can guess which one is me and which one is my sister!

October 15, 2012

It has been quite a while since you have heard from me. No excuses. I seem to spend most of my free time studying Spanish or bridge!

The highlight of the past several weeks was Gene’s 80th birthday party. My family, except Laura, arrived on Friday night so we all went out to dinner together. Saturday we waited for Laura and Robin to arrive before we went to  breakfast. Saturday night was the big party and Gene’s daughter, Susan, did a fabulous job.  Susan’s three daughters and their children were there (I hadn’t seen Susan or her family in at least 10 years!) There were close to 40 people there – most of them friends and relatives of Gene’s, and several made the trip to California all the way from the east coast.  Steven made a wonderful speech. as did my brother, Chuck, and then Gene responded thanking everyone. Our activities while there other than the party were doing some errands Gene and I had to do, thanks to help getting around by both Steven and Stuart, shopping and window shopping, going to the wonderful Santa Monica Sunday morning market,walking along the beach, having some lovely meals together, spending some great time with Stuart and his family, and making a memorable trip to the Getty Villa.  The Getty Museum was closed the whole time we were there but we made up for it with the trip to the Villa which was very interesting. The whole trip was a huge success and was capped off by us being upgraded to first class by United on our trip home!

We finally made what we hope will be a very good decision for our lifestyle. We are buying a used golf cart to drive around Ajijic. Whenever we goto town (every day) we hate driving on the narrow streets and finding it so hard to find a parking spot. Many of the ex-pats uise them to get around and that is what gave us the idea.  We are picking it up either tomorrow or Thursday and are quite excited about it.  I will enclose a picture in my next post!

Chuck’s speech at PartyAt the Getty Villa

September 24, 2012

I’m sorry it has been so long between posts, and I am not sure why other than we really have had nothing new happening lately to write about.

We did, however, just finish having our first house guests.  The Bontempos, Fernando and Mari-Jose from Guadalajara, were here from the 21st to today.  They stayed in the guest room as we still not have a bed in our casita, but they seemed very comfortable.  She is a WONDERFUL cook and introduced us to all kinds of terrific Mexican foods, especially Mexican breakfasts.  They use so many fruits such as papaya, kiwi, hicama, etc., that we never even think of using, and then, this morning we had delicious tamales.  She left me a Mexican cookbook which I doubt will ever be used by us (it is in Spanish) but it does have some beautiful pictures of how a dish SHOULD look after it is done!

At any rate, they are truly a wonderful couple who have become very good friends that we are very grateful to have.  We also introduced them to our good American friends here when we went out to dinner on Saturday night and they seemed to enjoy themselves too.

We did pretty much complete the artwork for our living room; we found two lovely paintings by Zaragoza (a very well-known Mexican artist here in Ajijic) that we loved, and we are waiting for some lights to put over them to emphasize their beauty (We had to order them from a light store here and hope they come in soon).

Other than that we have been doing the usual things – Spanish lessons, bridge lessons and making plans for our trip back to California for Gene’s party. It will be such fun to see family and friends again! So I probably will not post again until we return from that trip on the 2nd of October (hard to believe the year is going by so fast!).