Holiday Weekend

This Monday will be August Bank Holiday. In Harrogate, that means the Stray Fun Fair will be taking place. We live a leisurely five-minute stroll from the Fun Fair grounds, so last night Brad and I checked it out. We found a lively little carnival in the works, complete with many rides (mostly for children), games, cotton candy, gaudy lights and hokey music. On Wednesday there will be fireworks. The fun fair will wrap up on August 30. Fortunately, even though we live so close the the fair grounds, we cannot hear the music from our apartment.

This weekend the Leeds Music Festival will also take place, under much controversy, it seems. Last year violence broke out as hooligans sent fire to a public toilet. Organizers claim they have taken measures to assure no such problems will arise this year. Even so, traffic promises to be a nightmare this weekend, not only here in Yorkshire but all over Great Britain. It seems Network Rail have decided to take advantage of the long weekend to repair many of the rail lines throughout GB. Why on earth they would decide to shut down major rail lines during a holiday weekend is beyond me and perhaps indicative of the sorry state of the British public transportation system. (We were so spoiled in Tokyo!!!)

I guess Brad and I will stay close to home this weekend and try to avoid any of these traveler's nightmares in the works.