Vacky and Punky

I consider myself very fortunate to have eaten in some rather wonderful places in my time: Only last month I dined at the Savoy Grill and even Blipped about that experience (you can read that here)

But one must take the rough with the smooth.

After many years of promising a decent dinner and drinks catch up, last night, myself and Jenny, a friend from Bexhill College days, finally made it happen. Our first choice of venue, The Chilli Tree, was unable to provide a table until late in the evening so we settled on a choice of tables at the much more sedate, Shiplu.

Much wine, a lot of laughter and a very funny incident involving a mint yoghurt dip, a hot cleansing towel and a nosey fellow-diner later, we decided that dessert in an Indian restaurant was where the evening needed to go.

Now, I am not one to judge but I think it's completely fair to say that Indian restaurants (as we know them in the UK) are not famed for their dessert making skills and therefore, the offering is normally a little dubious: We weren't disappointed.

We were presented with menus showing various different plastic animals or figures, all of which seemed to contain an ice cream or frozen sweet. More bizarre was that we were given entirely different menus.

After a short deliberation, I opted for Vacky (shown left in the picture) and Jen for Punky.

It almost goes without saying that the sweet wasn't up to the standards of The Savoy but the characters we each received are a lot of fun and accounted for a fair share of the £3.75 charge. When we left, we requested a bag to put them in so they could be transported around town with us post-food and somehow, they both ended up back with me.

Dinner last night was a perfect example of a night out being made by the company you choose to spend it in rather than the food you eat or where you eat it. Obviously the combination of all of those being top notch is wonderful but does it really matter? I really needed that laughter and waking up to Vacky and Punky as well as a couple of pictures ensured that laughter carried on today too.