It’s been so long since we’ve updated this – apologies, it turns out working/reality can really speed up time and devour it. Updates will continue to come, but as our pace slows down, so will updates.
At the start of September we spent two weeks in Guadalajara. Our lovely friend Sandy vacated her home for us to stay in it – she then became our wonderful tour guide to discover more nooks and crannies of Guadalajara.
It was two weeks of creativity and sourcing – it was very fun to return and scour the shops with a home in mind – our new soon-to-be-ours home in CDMX.
We left Guadalajara after a day and night of revelry for Mexico’s independence day on 15th September. We went to Zapopan zocolo and partook in the traditional “Grito de Independencia” basically a communal war-cry.
Our trip to Guadalajara was our last trip in a while, returning back to CDMX meant time to get serious, time to get to work, time to settle down – we couldn’t wait. We stayed at Guadalupe’s for 2 weeks whilst we tried to finalise the purchasing of the flat and all the intricacies that comes with figuring out how that works in a new country. On top of that – we were busy! Ana started doing some consultancy work part-
time for a company called Tamoa – they import heritage Mexican food products to the USA and Europe, a connection made via Natoora which resulted not only in work but a lovely friendship with the owner, Francisco. Pippa got to work with many design projects – some new furniture designs and some plans for refurbishing our home. In the midst of new working lives, we also started making some new lovely friends – some Mexican, some English, some really good people.
A must do day trip in CDMX is a day on the canals at Xochimilco, in the south of the city. It’s a classic weekend affair for the Mexicans, you load up on food from the market, drinks from the bodega, bring a sound system, hire yourself a trajinera or two (boats) and you are off – cruising down the canals. You stop as you please, there are floating bars and vendors and there are passing mariachi bands – the whole thing could not be more quintessentially Mexican.
And then suddenly boom, the sign came down on our new home and we could move in…..
On Tuesday 1 st October we moved into our new flat – we were so happy. Then the next day all our stuff from the UK turned up! We had piggy-backed off Nick’s shipping container, to split the costs and bring all our stuff in storage in the UK, over here. Something we had agreed to in May, without a full plan of where we would house our possessions when they arrived but after months of logistical planning, a month at sea and then a couple of weeks in storage in CDMX, our stuff arrived, into our new home. It was perfect, surreal and very grounding.
October was a month of real happiness as we settled into our new home of Mexico City and enjoyed revelry with our newly formed friendships. We finally felt like our wanderings had resulted in something special, something we had created together never with a fixed goal in sight – but knowing we would find our path. Mexico had opened its arms to us and has been holding us ever since….
Then November came and we moved out! Obviously we couldn’t be fully happy in a new home until Pippa had done her Pippa design thing…. So out we went and in came the builders. Chaos.
During the period of chaos we had a visitors from home. Firstly the wonderful Alice Merriman swooped in for a long weekend and then the lovely and spunky Vincent. Vincent spent two weeks with us and it was really lovely to share Mexico city and the lives we had carved out for ourselves with him. We hope he returns with his Aurelian soon…..
Then BOOM, Christmas time! I’ll skip the horrendous building stresses in the run up and focus on the festivities – we hosted Christmas Eve, a wonderful Friendmas of waifs and strays of Mexico City. No stress, just fun, piñatas, sparkles and dancing!
Pippa then had four of her chums from the Royal College of Art come out for New Year’s eve, so we took ourselves off to Merida in Yucatan for a week of heat, history, nature and false eyelashes.
Then back to CDMX to settle into the new year – happy we have a home, happy we are not moving from that home (for now), happy that we can sink into a routine and happy to not know what the next year has in store for us, but knowing that so many paths are open to us.
Happy New Year Everyone. We hope 2025 has started well for you all and is one of creativity, adventure and kindness.