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| Hoping by the fish stall |
Jenny comes in to see us. Not without difficulty, as the planned rail strike for today was cancelled but this didn’t seem to result in opening the Thames Ditton station, leaving Doug driving her to Surbiton to start the journey. We meet her at Angel tube station though she’s wisely taken the bus from Waterloo. Then get to show off our new neighbourhood. Lovely little shops along Camden Passage rather upscale latter day hippie - vintage clothing, Japanese prints, old silver, a French épicerie, a barber shop that provides shaves as well as haircuts.
And only metres away our home, Chapel Market Road, with the fruit and vegetable stands in full colour display. Not at all yuppie here - you can buy mobile phone covers and batteries and bin bags - but most of the shoppers seem local and you could have almost everything you need without ever leaving the street.
We’ve chosen to have lunch at Indian Veg and it proves more than suitable for the purpose. It opens in time for lunch but that’s never a busy time and in fact we are the only patrons. So possible to visit at length without interruption.
Have brought a bottle of California Malbec that exceeds our expectations and the restaurant supplies the glasses. Same variety of vegetarian - basically vegan - dishes and enormous posters promoting vegetarianism with evangelical fervour and slightly dubious claims. We do notice some minor changes. Food seems to have less heat, which could please some customers but is a bit of a loss. Plenty of choice but none of the dishes today seem to have coconut milk, I miss it but J definitely doesn’t. J also notes that the two older men we remember are not there, the staff are young. Possibly relatedly, there is a large new poster touting the benefits of vegetarianism for various medical conditions and citing the British Medical Journal and the Lancet. Things change.
As we live next door we repair to ours for tea and biscuits, having - just barely - room to fit three in the flat. So able to play host. Then Jenny off to catch her bus, and goodbye for another six months.
Guy Fawkes Day. Can hear the fireworks in the distance in the evening. Spurs discussion chez nous re the gunpowder plot and revisionist history.