monday august 26th
carnival
sunday me and mai headed up to london for carnival in notting hill; met up with my london friends. a burnt out and unbelievable sky. there are huge ja rule posters all over north london. we weaved through colourful people and clouds of sweet smelling weed, past people selling fresh fruit and grilled chicken and we danced in the street for hours. basement jaxx and drum and bass songs i sorta recognised from dan's deejaying. reggae boomed right by meriel’s house, men calling out for us to dance with them. the ground moved with the bass. i ate sugar cane for the first time.
afterwards at meriel’s house we sat right up on the windowsill, watching the crowds pass us by. the house opposite ours turned their speakers towards the street and span “hot in herre” and “i’m about to explode”. a crowd gathered right below their windows, everyone dancing and singing along. i watched the sun set and thought everything through. i watched everyone dance on the street below me. i watched meriel and tom selling ice cold beer to all the passers by on the doorstep, dancing on the street to the nelly across the road. when the police came and broke it up it was like the entire street was booing.
people started to drop by, some who i haven’t seen in a long time, some never before. the deejays span old soul records as it grew darker. we watched bella’s friends freestyling as they danced around the room to old hip-hop records. vodka, smoke hanging in the summer air, one boy falling asleep on the couch, meriel’s beautiful shoes. the boys hanging right out of the windows. bella leaving for thailand tomorrow.
we laughed with people we'd never met before, danced to destiny's child, ms dynamite and de la soul with new friends. everyone i met was saying, "oh, you're sophie!" all sweetly, i guess they'd heard about me through the year i spent teaching in india with meriel. it was so laid back and jimmer was swaying around the stairs and strange people kept coming in and the boys had to kick them out.
mai, tom and myself left around four in the morning and london was not still. people were gathered around the front door, dancing to the aaliyah record that was spinning as we left. falling asleep at tom’s apartment almost right away.
carnival was even more crowded and crazy this morning. for breakfast we drank frappuchinos and mai climbed up on tom's shoulders to check the parade go by. i took pictures of tom and mai by the riot police. we headed home bleary eyed in the late afternoon.
suds at