Monday 31 August

I wake earlier than necessary unfortunately. I go down and collect our washing and fold it. We pack before a light breakfast. I'm feeling mildly ill. We leave not long after 7am for the train station. It's been such a nice weekend. It's very wet today. We get on the train and it's pretty deserted. Nana and grandad phone me for my birthday which is nice, but the connection is lost when we train through a tunnel. In London we head to Victoria station as it's the only one with lockers and then head to the embassy to collect our passports. There is no one in the office initially although it's open. We talk and walk around and eventually the lady comes down and gives us our passports. She didn't think anyone would come today. It's very wet and we try figure out what to do. We decide to catch the bus and check out notting hill carnival. There are a lot of ppl and as we get closer there is a lot of rubbish piling up. There is one man lying in the road. Some ppl stop and ask him if he's ok. The rain get heavier and the music louder. We see some ppl in costumes. Mostly not very much. It is difficult to know what is happening so we decide to not stay and head into town to the modern art gallery. We buy food on the way and eat while we wait for Kahli and Trevor. The art is mostly weird and when it stops raining we walk along the river. Kahli and Trevor have pizza vouchers and so we get pizza for tea. We enjoy Bakewell tarts and orange chocolate for desert before parting ways. We stop off to get our bags and it's more complicated finding each other in the underground warren than we anticipated. On the train we head to the airport where we can catch the shuttle to our hostel for the night.