Pleasant surprise of the weekend #2

Not sure if I've mentioned this yet, but in December we're going to India for nearly a month. While I am looking forward to this more than I can say, there's also loads to organise.

So while yesterday we spent the day doing household things with S (tip... insurance... tile showroom... trying and failing to agree on a new television given that ours now needs regular thumping... etc), today was Shopping.

I don't like shopping in Oxford at the best of times, and these weren't the best of times. Although better than a Saturday, the pre-Christmas fever is building up already. Boots was hell. There's no one to ask where anything is! And sensible shops that sell 'performance clothing' (ie stuff that packs small and travels well) are shut on Sundays, because all the people who buy stuff there are sensibly hiking up a hill somewhere.

So it wasn't long before we needed some lunch. After some debate, we decided to try the India Garden restaurant on the High Street -- it's tucked away upstairs but had its rather gaudy sandwich board out on the street, and we felt in the mood for something gaudy rather than something stylish but overpriced (one option) or chain-restaurant reheated hell (most of the others).

And what a fine fine choice it was.

We had the vegetarian lunch special: £7.45 for dal, dansak, mixed veg, bombay potatoes, onion bhaji and rice, plus fresh apple juice with lime and fresh ginger and some strange red syrup I couldn't identify. It was all absolutely fantastic.

The interior decor is also splendid -- raspberry pink tablecloths, bright yellow napkins and a mirror-tiled, neon-lit bay window stuffed full of fake flowers. I have been trying to persuade M of the value of kitsch, and this was a very fine example indeed.

Yet we were the only people in there. The manager said it was hit and miss, there was a lot of competition and they were upstairs and while sometimes they are busy people often just don't come up. Which is sad. We walked down Turl Street afterwards and the Beefeater restaurant at the Mitre was *packed*. What are people thinking??

As a final flourish, I have just found their website. While stylistically very different, it somehow manages to give a feel for the place...

joella