August Bank Holiday Weekend

Let me give a bit of definition before I dive in. In the US we have vacation and holidays, however, in the UK we go on holiday (vacation) and get bank holidays (holidays) off from work. Probably fairly obvious but they're called bank holidays because the banks are closed. Done.

This past weekend was the late summer bank holiday which always occurs on the last Monday in August. Why and how this day was chosen I have no idea considering the kids are already out of school on summer break anyway. If any of you Brits want to chime in and answer please comment below, but I digress.

It turned out to be a very busy and fun-filled weekend. It started out Friday night when I went on my very "first date" with Tonya. I refer to it as a first date because she suggested dinner (tapas) and a movie (Bourne Ultimatum) so it sounded very date-like. (Before anyone asks, she was a perfect lady the whole night and didn't try anything on me.) I met Tonya the prior weekend at an American ex-pat meet-up group in central London. I found the meet-up online and a few of their events sounded interesting so I gave it a shot. The meet-up event felt a bit like speed dating (not that I've ever been) where we walked around the room and asked the same requisite questions: 1) how long have you been in London; 2) what brought you to London; 3) do you still enjoy it here; 4) how long do you plan to be here. I was able to meet a few nice ladies, including Tonya, who I'd like to spend time with again though. Tonya's story is quite interesting. She was a lawyer in Washington D.C. for a few years and took a 6-month sabbatical to come study art at Christie's in London. After Tonya completed the course, she discovered that her true passion was art and decided to stay in London to pursue a master's degree at Sotheby's. She's now completing her master's thesis and has been working in the field for a couple months. Tonya is a lovely and intelligent lady so I hope we'll become good friends during my time here. Not that semiconductors aren't fascinating but I hope to find something that I'm as passionate about one day.

Saturday would definitely be the lowlight of my long weekend though. I spent the morning doing some errands and decided to head to a car superstore in the afternoon. Ro bought his car from this place so he recommended it to me as they have a huge selection of over 2,000 cars in one lot and the price you see is the price you get. It turned out to be a horrible idea though, particularly on a bank holiday weekend. The car superstore was packed to the brim and there wasn't a salesperson to be found. The other customers and I sat in the lobby for over an hour in some instances to get a meager ounce of help. In the past I've typically known exactly what car I wanted and how much I was willing to pay. In this case there are so many cars offered in the UK that I've never even heard of before so I needed a bit more help than usual. However, I got snickered at and lied to when I asked to test drive (can you believe it) two whole cars. We all concurred that they just didn't really need our money after all. Yet another gleaming example of British customer service so my car search continues.

The rest of the weekend greatly improved though since my friend Mark was in town for a visit. Mark is in Europe for the next couple weeks on business but squeezed in an extra weekend to come spend time with me. On Sunday we decided to go out and be tourists. After a coffee and pastry in Kensington we headed over to Green Park and Buckingham Palace. I felt a bit like a tour guide all day since Mark apparently knows nothing about London or the royal family but it was fun to pretend like we were on vacation. When we went outside to the palace gardens he kept telling me how amazed he was that the sky was just so blue. See, we don't have the worst weather here. We then headed over to Knightsbridge for some food and shopping. After deciding that we wouldn't be able to find any curry houses in that area, we went to the top of Harvey Nichols for afternoon tea which really hit the spot. Of course we couldn't leave Knightsbridge without a visit to the famous Harrods department store. To end the evening we had dinner at Maze. I have pictures of every course except for the pork belly which I was too busy consuming to stop and take my camera out for. (Maggs, sorry I went back there without you. At least I didn't go to the Hopsital Road restaurant.)

Monday was the craziest day of all as the Notting Hill Carnival is always held on the late summer bank holiday weekend and I basically live on the parade route. The Notting Hill Carnival started in 1965 by local immigrants from the Caribbean islands as a way to preserve their culture and traditions. The Notting Hill Carnival is now considered the largest festival in Europe with over 800,000 people from all over the world attending each year. I can only describe it as crazy, chaotic, and colorful. It did amaze me that after each night of drinking and debauchery, the streets were sparkling clean again by morning.

As always, here are the pictures. I've got plenty more this time but alas only a few with me in them. Better for everyone that way though.

For the next post I hope I'll be able to tell you that I've moved into my new place and finally secured a car. I will also reveal the secret location for my birthday weekend celebration.