Notting Hill Carneval

Monday we went to Notting Hill Carneval to celebrate cultural unity and diversity and all that. Except it is not true. We went there because Brendon wanted to eat caribbean food. Practically after arriving he took the first possible curry goat with some spicy craziness and ate it all. I was more selective, I was wondering around before settling with Ackee and salt fish. Was cool. And the savoury banana too. The rest was a mass of people being loud and drunk and colorfully dressed. And some very fantastic person came up with the grand idea of closing down all tube stations except Holland Park which resulted us walking to Shepherds Bush and went to see the Expendables. Brendon also had a mango cupcake. Or was it me?

Yellow ladies with purple guys

The big silver lady

Blue lady with green lady and an orange lady in the background

Visiting Stonehenge and Glastonbury

This Sunday trip went to Stonehenge first. We even got up early thinking that we could get there before the other million tourists who decided to look at stones on this wonderful long weekend. Brendon wanted big wind and dramatic clouds. I wanted a coffee. So we learnt that if we have no cash, we don't have to pay for the parking and if we want to see Stonehenge alone, we have to go to one of the organized early morning or sunset viewing. But beside the mass of people, souvenir shop and food kiosks where I couldn't buy coffee without cash, Stonehenge is special. Because it is windy and the clouds are dramatic and because those stones look magical for 5000 years now.

Everybody was on the phone

Dramatic clouds

Next station was Glastonbury. I half expected seeing hippies and witches running around throwing peace signs at us, but what has happened, that Brendon was called by nature and we ended up at George and Pilgrims eating mushroom soup and lasagna. My advice: Don't go there.

Then we visited all the trinkets shops. Very disappointing. No voodoo, no magic, no magick or magik, just some indian-tibetian-chinese stuff and crystals. There was only one shop where they sold all sort of herbs to make love potions and teas. Then we went up to the Tor, which Brendon thinks wasn't at all a steep hike, only even the sheep was almost toppling over while standing on all 4. I was also in danger because the wind always wanted to push me off the hill. We once again also had the dramatic clouds and took some nice pictures of the Island of Avalon. And the surrounding fields. And the sheep. And Brendon.

The straight Tor of Glastonbury

Sheep on the steep

Dramatic clouds again

Then down to the Glastonbury Abbey or whats left of it. The kitchen for example. Brendon liked that. He likes big kitchens. And the rest of the ruins and then we went home.

Very nice picture of the ruins of the Abbey

Visiting Petworth

Today we decided to visit the Southern English countryside and try out Brendon's new car and my ability to survive the blue Little Tree air freshener in Bouquet smell. The car is real fast and the smell is sickening, but the countryside finally started to look like as it should. Green. Not brown and yellow and burnt and dry.

So Petworth is a big 17th century manor which belonged to the ... And then I got lost. I think many families was sort of attached to it, but when I read about, it is just a mess of names. There was a duke of Somerset involved. And Percys too. But what is cool, that they have a fantastic art collection. They have a Bosch!!! And 2 William Blake. And a dozen or so Turner and Van Dyck and Gainsborough. It is totally fantastic.

And the park. Huge and old and filled with deer poo. It was like walking on a minefield. But Brendon saw his first real deer with antlers. He has already seen one without them in Germany.

It was totally worth seeing Petworth. It was grey and rainy, as it should be.

Big mansion house in the rain

The fields of poo

The empire of the ducks

The moss and the dogs