Notting Hill Carnival

Every August people converge on London for the Notting Hill Carnival. It's the biggest carnival in the world, hosting one million visitors over the weekend! It's a Caribbean festival with Reggae music and Afro-Brazilian dance. You go to listen to the musicians and watch the parade and eat the yummy Caribbean food! Heath and I gorged ourselves on jerk chicken, goat curry, black beans, plantains and Red Stripe beer. We were in heaven surrounded by this little slice of Caribbean culture.

Here are a couple of pictures Heath took on his new cell phone

This is for you Kevin!

After Carnival Heath and I headed over the Thames to London Bridge to get drinks at The George. The George is famous for being the watering hole of Shakespeare and Dickens. Hopefully we soaked up some of their genius with our ale!

London Bridge


Tower Bridge

Blackberries!

It's blackberry season here. The roads and paths are covered in brambles laden with wonderful plump blackberries! Sally and I went picking when she was here and then I went again last week. I walked along a little path in Esher that turned out to be absolutely beautiful! Both times I ended up with more than we can ever eat. I took a few pictures of the woods and bushes to share since I can't send the berries.

Me and my loot!

First Week

I know this is about a month in coming but here are some pictures from our first week in London. The school is amazing as you can see. The resources available are incredible but there is a lot of bureaucracy to deal with. Not to mention that Heath has to wear a tie! He's taken to collecting bow ties! It's amazing what you can find in the charity shops. We'll have to do a post with pictures of all his hideously ugly ties! This is his first full week of classes. The kids are lots of fun, but they're tiny!

On our first excursion into the city we met up with Sally and Ryan. We ended up walking along the Thames from Oxford Street through Buckingham Palace to Westminster and Big Ben. From there we headed down past the Tower of London to Tower Bridge. It was a lot farther than we'd anticipated and took almost three hours to complete! We did see a large portion of the city though! Here are a few of the pictures from that day. Enjoy!

Cobham

Out and about in London!