Two women are walk­ing by on the side­walk, one of them colour­ful­ly dressed in a fluffy flu­o­res­cent green top. A man in a pick­up truck parked near to the out­door ta­ble where I sit calls out in a jovial tone: "You ladies go­ing to the beach?" I don't hear what the woman in green's friend says, but I as­sume it's "No," be­cause the man con­tin­ues: "Oh, be­cause I was just go­ing to tell you it's dan­ger­ous there and I would have to come with you."

The women con­tin­ue walk­ing, he laughs good-na­tured­ly and the truck dri­ves off.

The ta­ble at which I'm sit­ting is a work of re­cy­cling art. Made from wood­en pal­lets and paint­ed sparkling white, with a wrap around bench (al­so made from the pal­lets) it func­tions as an out­door din­ing/lim­ing ta­ble that seats about four peo­ple.

The pole of a can­vas um­brel­la ex­tends from the cen­tre of the ta­ble of­fer­ing me shade as I munch on a healthy, non-oily aloo pie filled with fresh cu­cum­ber chut­ney, fol­lowed by an equal­ly healthy-tast­ing sa­heena split in half and filled with light chut­ney, fol­lowed by a de­li­cious warm corn soup with pro­vi­sions, pump­kin, some noo­dles and sea­son­ing.