Notting Hill Carnival

I went to Notting Hill Carnival today in, er, Notting Hill. Today is a bank holiday and is pretty much just the same as Labor Day, so it was an extended weekend. The Notting Hill Carnival is a giant street fair (the largest in Europe!) that has been an annual event for 40 years, celebrating the Caribbean heritage in what used to be a London neighborhood populated by folks from the Caribbean. Whilst now it is inhabited by rich white people, they still host the carnival every year. This year it was expected to attract 2 million people! And I was one of them!

Quick rewind, went up to London yesterday. Had a take out pizza from Basilica, a well-known high class pizza delivery place located approximately 30 seconds from my new front door. We then went to check out the local movie theater at Fulham Broadway. The chairs were very comfy and there was stadium seating. I was pleased. We also took up another car load of items, so the place is starting to resemble something more than an empty shell. The next trip up will be next week and will be the actual move. So until then, I still live in Southampton.

Anyways, today was the second and main day of the carnival. There were goings-on between 12 and 7 and I believe we got there a little before 1. There was a steady flow of people headed in the direction of what we assumed to be the carnival so we just followed. We stumbled across a little parade of what appeared to be outlandishly dressed teenagers. There was a lot of music coming from random locations at unbelievable volumes. Most of the stands randomly scattered about (they were somewhat sparse) were selling fruit, Jamaican jerk chicken and corn on the cob. Sadly, some of us had cheap Tesco sandwiches before going due to cheapness. After wandering around more and hearing intense tunes, we came across another, better parade. It consisted of a bus, some semis blasting loud tunes, and in between the semis were the outlandishly dressed folks dancing along to the music. And by outlandishly dressed I mean, well, there will be a folder on picasa shortly. After a few hours at the carnival, we were a bit finished with it all (most everyone seemed to be walking around drinking beer, we were not) and headed out against the huge tides.

Oh, and I took a few more pictures of the flat and Parsons Green tube station, added to the folder on picasa. Tomorrow I have to go back to doing work. That's no deal.