Country Fair

Today, Kevin and I ventured South of the Thames for the Lambeth Country Show. It was a long bike ride/walk through the London "projects" but eventually we made it to Brockwell Park and the festival. The park was packed with food stalls selling everything from French Crepes and American candy to Jamaican Jerk Chicken and German Sausages. That "smokey flavor" (Tres) filled the park. I enjoyed a Double Scoop with Flake for the first time in England, and it was delicious and perfect for the hot day. We also got 2 pints of Chucklehead Cider (stronger than we expected, but refreshing as the day went on) and then we went off to explore the stands, where we found some pretty cool things. There was a fitness area with some ergs and smoothie bikes, a sheep show (basically the equivalent of a dog show but with sheep - how does anyone get into sheep judging?), vegetable sculpture, a cake tasting competition, a Punch and Judy puppet show, a bee hive, 9 owls just chillin, and awesome kids' rides that we seriously considered doing even though we were 2x as big as everyone else. After a while we found a seat near the main stage and listened to some Blues Brothers and Jackson 5 (and other mostly American bands) and watched the locals dance. There were all sorts of people there: families, teens like Kevin and I, hippies, reggae guys..., and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. While Kevin managed to spend £20 (of my money) at this "free" festival, while I stuck mostly with the free samples. I found some great banana bread, hog meat, chutney, mango, and boozy ice cream (specifically the white chocolate ice cream with Malibu rum and peach ice cream with peach schnapps) all for free. 

It was another really enjoyable day in the park, and definitely worth the trip down. The trip back was another story. It started pouring buckets right as we left, so we started booking it down the street jumping over puddles and trying to avoid the car splash. We ducked into a Sainsbury Market for a little while, but it didn't seem to be clearing up so we just kept running to the tube, and finally made it, with our clothes soaked through. And just after I said we were so lucky avoiding the rain yesterday. Total jinx.