Notting Hill

I'd had one of the best days of my life until, in an unfortunate turn of luck, my friends and I decided to cut out the crowds by walking up Portobello road to the end and cutting through the estate to Ladbroke Grove up near Sainburys.

The effect was that we bypassed the Police cordon and emerged onto Ladbroke Grove slap band between the Police and the rioters, bottles raining down all around us. One whizzed past my ear and smashed on the ground two feet in front of me.

Oddly, groups of rioters were shouting out post codes at each other. I distinctly heard "W12" and "W2" as I ran, probably literally, for my life towards Sainsburys. I would dearly love to have some video of myself running though, because I was dressed somewhat like Davide Niven in Around the World in 80 Days, top hat 'n' all.

As we passed a row of cops, one of them stopped me and said "Dr Watson I presume". It was quite surreal. In the middle of a riot, a cop is joking with me about my costume!

None of this will stop me from going to Carnival every year of my life until I die though :-)

A/