Her name is rio...

Thats right, its August, a bit chilly so that MUST mean its CARNIVAL time!??? The August bank holiday (last weekend in August we get the monday off of work) is the Notting Hill Carnival. Its a huge Carnival event, supposedly the biggest outside of Rio de Janiero. It's also know for a danergous night life. Think AppleChill (in Chapel Hill) but way bigger. Its fun during the day but then all the trouble makers come out.

Carnival is supposed to be a celebration of Caribbean culture but it encompasses all kinds of afro/Caribbean influences - hence huge populations of various African countries present. There are all kinds of floats, groups, music (calypso, reggae, soca) and food (jerk chicken, roti, jerk goat, jerk beef, jerk everything...) and plenty of people. Somewhere in the 100,000s of people actually. There are two days of parades - Sunday the family day and Monday the main day. I went on Monday.

It was hugely crowded. I just ambled around, watched the floats and processions and had a bite to eat. The costumes ranged from "seriously, that's your costume?" to "holy crap THAT'S a costume!" to "don't see much of a costume butt good effort". There was more skin on display than a tattoo artist sees in a week and enough booty walking down the street to bring Blackbeard back from the dead. Not that it was all good or necessary but apparently many of the women in the parade thought that a Rio style parade meant it was necessary to dress on the scandalous side.

It was cool but after a few hours, I to go. A friend of mine from the Egypt tour was passing back through London. While I couldn't catch him at Carnival, I managed to have lunch with him and hear all about his 6 week or so trip through Europe - definitely jealous.

Thursday saw my white collar debut in netball. Yes netball. It's a game that is like basketball but no dribbling, no backboard and no contact. So it has a basket and a ball. and the basket is a bit smaller than a basketball hoop. There are loads of weird rules, but think of it as ultimate frisbee and basketball having a prissy princess of a daughter. And it's a game that is usually played by women. We had a mixed game with people form work for a bit of a social. I actually managed about 3 points 5 assits and only 10 penalties. But at least I wasn't the one who got pulled from the game by the ref! It was fun though and a few pints afterwards are always an entertaining way to end a night.

Otherwise I have decided that I am moving again - it's what I do. I found a guy to take my room so I can transfer the lease over to him but I don't have a place to live yet - and I move out on the 15th of September... but it'll be ok. I'll take my chance, 'cause luck is on my side.