Sunday 28 August - Notting Hill

Decide to continue the relatively simple journeys and head off to the Notting Hill Carnival. I haven't been for decades. In the early 80s friends lived on the carnival route and so we could sit in the window and watch the parade go past and look down on the crowds. There are people selling whistles and vuvuzelas.

The carnival seems bigger and more organised now. People used to walk alongside the floats, now they don't. Stewards keep everything and everyone moving constantly. The sound systems are even more powerful and the sensation is less sound than feeling the beat reverberate through every muscle and sinew. Today is the day of the children's parade. The parade at times struggles to get past the photographers who are in front of every costume. There are minders behind each truck, keeping everything moving. A girl who is enjoying having an audience just that little bit too much, is moved on by the minder. She's taking too long, things need to run to time and he encourages her to move on and leave her audience.

Every few streets there are lines of portaloos which seem to be being used as points where people have left their rubbish. There are extraordinary amounts of litter, the detritus of food and drink and it is only just past lunchtime. The longest queues are for cash machines, where dozens snake in line waiting to get some cash. Almost all the shops are boarded up, only a few pubs and coffe shops are open. Paul Smith has at least painted their hoardings and wishes everyone a happy carnival. The others are plain boards, although the graffiti artists have been busy already.

There are thousands of people, in every direction there are people upon people. Police have closed some of the streets, but in between there are masses. Most are young, most are white. The carnival is much bigger than it used to be, but also seems to have become more of a tourist attraction. Everyone wants to take photographs and this holds up the parade. Smoke rises in the streets, meat is being barbecued on every street. Everywhere people are eating and drinking, Red Stripe and jerk chicken, which smells fantastic.

The music is rising, there is more and more dancing in the streets, but then down comes the rain and everyone heads for shelter. The heavens open, the streets are briefly running with water and the doorways fill with people. I am drenched and look like a drowned rat. There are youngsters out with video cameras chatting to people who have come to watch. Around All Saints Road there is a difference in the audience. The posh kids have arrived by tube at Notting Hill and walked north. The local youth have walked south and this is where the two are not really mingling. There is more music and dancing, but also more attitude.

I drift back through Hyde Park, the bass beat echoes in the distance but the Carnival feels like a world away. The park is filled with families feeding the ducks and geese. There are hundreds of adolescent starlings trying to steal bread from everyone and squealing as they go. A brass band are playing show tunes and attracting a small crowd. It's only a mile away but it's another world.

I end up drifting back through the park, followed by a very bold squirrel and walking through Hyde Park Gate - where I lived when I first moved to London in the mid 70s. Then it was possible to live centrally even if you weren't earning much (although you might have to share a room). What used to be cheap rented accommodation has now been fancied up and is evidently a very luxury home. Waiting for a bus home I am tempted into Slightly Foxed, a delightful bookshop where I find a proof copy of J B Priestley's English Journey. It's a tale of his travels around England in 1933. I've been trying to get a copy for months, so this feels like a real find. Home it is, reading about the luxuries of Priestley's motorbus journey to Southampton. He talks of modernity and it's interesting to see that talk of modernity has been around for a long time.

Saturday 28 August - Chelsea

I had planned to travel around the country but my car is sitting in a garage somewhere in south London waiting to see if it can be repaired. So my travels plans have changed. My new plan is to travel around London using my Oyster card.

First step of the journey is a trip to the King's Road to check if shoes are comfortable and whether bag is too heavy (and to buy a waterproof jacket, I have a hunch that autumn is about to arrive).

Battersea Park is full of dog walkers and runners. There is a fair degree of chaos as the dogs want to chase each other and risk tripping up the less aware runners. The runners don't seem to notice much around them; most are wearing headphones and a look of concentration mixed with determination. Like the
runners, the dogs come in all shapes and sizes. A very feisty chihuahua, a more laidback dalmation and the usual share of staffies. There is a lot of barking and rushing around, but no real aggression.

There is a farmer's market on the King's Road - a rather more upmarket farmer's market than most. The usual sausage stalls are replaced with on selling oysters. There are only a couple of places selling vegetables and a lot selling cakes. It's slightly more global than most, there are a few relatively local producers. The Rainforest foods are doing a roaring trade (although in truth they are probably more local than many here).

I wander back over the river and drift my way back to Battersea and wonder why I don't explore the area more often.

At last

I'd been hoping to travel around the country, but my car is broken and so I am travelling around London by public transport. The plan is to head off in a different direction each day ...I seem to be having problems with all forms of technology. Not only is my car not working but I seem to be unable to upload files to my usual 3 wishes blog and so for now will post here

More resolution

is what is needed from me. It still feels like winter, but the days are getting longer and I hope to start travelling around Britain once more. Just back from doing research in York and once more enthused by the people of Britain. New post is first step,trying to work out how to blog from new phone will be next step

Slightly late resolutions

Once more I resolve to be a more diligent blogger but the proof will be in the writing. Am still struggling to find the best way to tell the story of my travels around Britain. There are so many different ways of telling the story, I can't decide which way to do it.

Perhaps I need to get to doing some travelling and that might help to inspire me. I shall try to find a day next week when I can spend some time travelling around London

How can it be so long

since I last wrote anything? The summer seems to have evaporated in my hands (again). I am still watching and wondering but writing little.

Today the news is trying to make out that many parts of Britain are like The Wire. I'm reading The Corner which is about the time the writers spent in Baltimore - it's very good but don't think Britain is quite the same.Drugs are certainly a problem and available everywhere, but haven't seen any open air markets as in The Wire. Drugs are a global business now, and so there might be places but don't think anything is quite that open.Perhaps indoor markets rather than outdoor markets.

But for now back to writing and trying to resist the compelling story of the Corner

beginning and ending

I have been trying to write the conclusions chapter. I know it is slightly too soon because I am still trying to work out the details. But I tried and there is a chapter. When I read it through the beginning feels like the introduction, not the conclusion.

I'm trying to work out whether or not this is a problem. It is because it isn't working, but I may just sleep on it and hope my unconscious mind can work out the answer. And the conclusions.