lizards for lunch.... not as food, but as guests

I had lunch with a lizard.
Well, technically speaking, I had finished eating when the lizard joined me, but nonetheless, he was there.
"Freedom Cafe" is chock FULL of young Israelis, fresh from the army and eager for freedom. I wonder if they will find it at the Freedom Cafe? It seems they think so, because the place is full of them.
And then there is me.
I find a beautiful riverfront spot with a low table and cushions and blankets and pillows on which to sit on the floor. This is a common arrangement. Proper tables do exist in other parts of the restaurant, but I prefer this location. It is more comfortable and the riverside view is next to none. I guess the brown baby lizard thought so too.
His invitation came when the woman sitting at the next table jumped up and shooed him my direction. Thanks lady! and i made sure to thank her, with a laugh so she knew it wasn't malicious.
The lone lizard made straight for my lap. He was maybe only a foot from nose to tip of the tale, and a nice long full tail he did have. They move like darts, those little suckers, and I soon found myself, once again, leaping up with a squeak so as to make my lap less inviting. (There was another occasion.... involving a mouse last week, different restaurant, but that is another story for another time). He then swerved to his left and went up the table cloth and spent the rest of his time sitting there on the table, staring at me with one eye and his head cocked, making me wonder "what is he thinking?". It was like he knew me, the way he was looking at me, the way you watch someone from a distance you think you know but are not sure so you wait and you watch and observe.
Now that I was confident he was aware of me and therefore not considering climbing into my lap, I settled back down on my cushion. We sat like that for a short time, me admiring him and he scrutinizing me. Soon we both grew bored and he continued to look around at other things while I turned back to my book.
So now i've had lunch with a lizard, dinner with a mouse .... that's all i can think of at the moment, for fauna at dinner parties.
The mouse was one evening about a week ago. I might as well tell you now before i forget.
this cafe i go to that has really good homemade bread that i get made into toast.... they also have an area that is like low style japanese tables and just cushions and pillows to sit up against, so you are sitting on the floor. You are outside, right by the ganges river, and a tree grows up inside one corner so you are leaning up against a tree while you eat. So i'm happily eating my toast, and its dark, you know, evening time, except for some dim lights, and i see a movement under the table, i think its a shadow but i look again, hard this time, and its a mouse! he almost ran right into my lap! Now i'm not especially afraid of mice and i'm thinking i'd just shoo him away but he kept coming back so it made me a bit jumpier. I jumped up and continued shooing, clapping (which apparently works on cows but not mice) and hitting my hand on the floor (which DOES work on mice) but it seems he was trying to get past me on his way somewhere and i was simply in the way. Once i jumped up, he quickly ran past me and over the wall and down to the beach. i had screamed by this point. i couldn't help myself. It was all too much. i was the only customer at the time, luckily, and a Nepali called over "do you want something m'am?" .... as if this was my customary way of summoning a waiter. "no, just scaring away a mouse, that's all" i called back, so proud of my bravery .
He shrugged and carried on.
aaaah....India.