The Bank Holiday Weekend

In case you didn’t realise…The August Bank Holiday is coming – whoop whoop!  Traditionally that means  (for me anyway) a long Sunday dinner in a local South London pub followed by lashings and lashings of red wine, then followed by a shocking hang over on the Monday which of course can only be healed by eating lots of Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream.  But this year is going to be different.  I’ve decided to throw caution to the wind and break the habit so instead I’m going to spend both Saturday and Sunday on Clapham Common without so much of a picnic in sight! Yes!  I’m going to the SW4 dance festival, joining 29’999 others and will be dancing my little socks off to the finest dance music in the galaxy provided by Djs such as Paul Oakenfold, Carl Cox, Armand Van Helden and Fatboy Slim to name but a few.  Now I know this might not be everyone’s cup of Darjeeling so I thought I’d give you snippet of the other delights London has in store over the long weekend so you can start planning your weekend!

Notting Hill Carnival is surely the most exotic of carnivals in Europe!  Running on Sunday the 29^th and Monday the 30^th of August.  The carnival floods the streets of west London with steel  bands, reggae music and of course the best West Indian food this side of the Atlantic!  The costumes are simply out of this world and best of all the entire Carnival is free

If that sounds like too much like hard work then why not pop along to the theatre? Until Friday the 3^rd of September there’s a great offer in the West End whereby one child (aged five to sixteen) can go free to a number of shows when accompanied by a full paying adult including ‘Billy Elliot’, ‘The Sound of Music’ and ‘Into the Hoods’.  We’ve got bags of hotels in the West End suiting all budgets from the suitably swanky Hampshire Hotel which carries no less than five stars, to the comfortable Thistle Piccadilly. 

For the cultured amongst you why not head on down to The National Theatre on the South Bank to an exhibition by Miriam Nabarro?  The exhibition features many images of secret spaces back stage in The National Theatre.  It’s unique display of photography and once again it’s free.  The ultra modern Park Plaza Westminster Bridge and Park Plaza County Hall are both a stone’s throw from the exhibition if you’re looking for some where to stay close by.

I hope that’s given you food for thought and have a great bank holiday weekend!

See ya!