It's that time of year again - when my coffee shop is eerily empty, when the Portobello market crowd is overwhelmingly foreign, and when I realize (too late to escape) that the carnage of Notting Hill Carnival is upon us once again.
Luckily I don't live in the thick of it as in my first year in London, but that doesn't make it any easier to watch the neighborhood board itself up for the onslaught.
And wisely so, as last year, Chris Allison (Deputy Assistant Commissioner at the MET) claimed that Carnival "was a draw for people determined to commit crime and cause trouble." But arrests, which totalled 206, were down on 2006's figure of 214, and the number of reported crimes was also down by about 55, to 336.
And only 2 shootings!
But I'm relieved to hear that the local authorities are well prepared this year:
The Met Intelligence Bureau is working to clamp down on criminals by identifying
troublemakers before they get to carnival.
Perhaps I should rethink my weekend attire...
Perhaps Michael Richards will get a cameo and that second chance he's 
